What’s the most incorrect/frustrating nature “fact” you’ve heard?
Ask A Biologist Monday 6/13/22
Answers from Biologists:
Lacewing eggs are a type of flower that only blooms every 1000 years.
Cottonmouths/water moccasins chase people.
You can suck the venom out of a snake bite.
Mother birds will abandon chicks that have been handled because they “smell like humans”.
Any animal that seems smaller than what you’d expect is automatically a “baby”.
Snakes, scorpions, spiders, etc. are poisonous. (They’re actually venomous)
Alpha/beta/omega wolves.
Snakes are aggressive and chase people.
Coyotes interbreed with dogs and the hybrids are particularly dangerous.
House cats are a part of the ecosystem and belong outside.
Bats are blind.
Domestic “outdoor” cats are a great replacement for natural predators.
Armadillos can curl up into a ball and roll away.
Lettuce was being altered to have “strings” (meaning the cellulose and plant vascular system).
Rice isn’t from a plant. It’s made in a factory.
Opossums have rabies and that’s why they act like they do.
Birds abandon their young if you touch them.
Baby animals are abandoned by parents and need our help.
Fish don’t feel pain. People use it as an excuse for poor handling.
Armadillos are bulletproof.
Aya ayas are ugly/freaky looking.
Cottonmouths are aggressive. It’s a common misconception to defensiveness.
Okapis are a mix between a zebra, giraffe, and an antelope.
Moss is a fungi.
Daddy long legs are the most venomous spider but their fangs are too short to bite us.
Seals are just another name for sea lions.
Evolution “chooses” the best outcome for an animal/plant.
That grizzly bear and black bear encounters should be treated differently.
People pointing to golden silk orb weavers and calling them banana spiders.
Penguins are mammals not birds because they can’t fly.
All bats drink blood.
People look at the porcupine taxidermy in the visitor center and say “oh look, a long haired beaver”.
Giraffes got long necks by stretching to reach leaves on trees.
It’s okay to feed ducks/geese bread.
Dolphins are the only other animal that has sex for fun.
Skunks can only spray once.
You should run downhill in a bear encounter so the bear “trips and rolls”.
That all animals and their effects are natural.
Once a garbage bear, always a garbage bear.
Baby snakes are more venomous than the adults.
Bulls get angry when they see the color red.
Bats get caught in people’s hair.
When nurseries call drought tolerant plants a “California native”.
Chemicals are bad.
Coyotes lure dogs into the woods to lay siege.
Ocelots are habitat specialists.
Dolphin’s sonar lets them know we’re animals by our “bones”.
Sea turtles chasing people away from their young.
A crazy myth about big old eagles disappearing to molt their beak.
Pixar showing matriarchal animals as male led.
Axolotls can make you pregnant if you swim in streams with them.
Male skunks become venomous during mating.
Bears are bloodthirsty and will heat seek to kill you.
Climate change doesn’t exist.
Peeing on a jellyfish sting. No. Just no.
Wild game isn’t safe to eat because it hasn’t been “inspected” by a butcher.
Wolves kill cattle for sport.
Gray wolves were introduced to Wisconsin by the DNR.
Pygmy rabbits were being dropped onto private land with drones.
Owls can turn their head all the way around, 360 degrees.
Bottlenose dolphins are blue. They’re only gray in captivity because of chlorine in the water.
Orcas are whales. (they’re a dolphin)
All spiders, ants, pincer bugs are venomous and out to kill.
Turkeys don’t eat insects.
Hunting has no place in conservation and it’s evil.
All venomous snakes have cat eye pupils.
Wasps have no ecological function and we should kill them.
Owls are exclusively nocturnal.
Black squirrels are different from and more aggressive than gray squirrels and are taking over their range.
Raccoons seen during the day are rabid.
