The latest in true—and truly strange—news from the world of animals.
UP, UP, AND MEOW
In August 2008, a cat in the Chinese city of Chongqing started growing what were described as “bumps” on its sides. They kept growing, and in less than a month they resembled a set of furry wings, each several inches long. (The owner claimed that the cat, a male, grew wings because he was being harassed by too many female cats.) Surprisingly, reports of winged cats have been circulating for at least 150 years. American writer Henry David Thoreau wrote about one that his neighbor had: “This would have been the right kind of cat for me to keep, if I had kept any, for why should not a poet’s cat be winged as well as his horse?” Experts say that the phenomenon might be the result of genetic mutations, or it might have a simpler cause: poor grooming, which can lead to skin diseases and extremely matted fur.
One afternoon in November 2009, tourists at Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World in Auckland, New Zealand, reported that one of the aquarium’s sharks had just bitten another one in the belly—and that baby sharks were swimming out of the resulting gash. Staff quickly isolated the shark—they didn’t even know she was pregnant—and the babies, along with four more that were still in the mother’s womb. According to staff members, the attacking shark had apparently bitten the pregnant shark in order to help her have the babies—a sort of shark cesarean section. “It had to bite a certain part to let the babies out,” said staffer Fiona Davies, “and do it without killing the babies or the mother.” No other “shark cesarean” had ever been reported, she added, and extensive study would be needed. (She also said that the mother and the babies were doing fine.)
The Las Vegas Golden Nugget hotel’s swimming pool encircles an actual shark tank.
Someday when you’re out walking through the alpine mountains on New Zealand’s South Island—with your pet sheep—you’d better watch out: A vicious parrot might rip out out your sheep’s guts while it’s still alive. The region is home to the kea, a species of parrot known as one of the smartest, most inquisitive—and most savage—on the planet. Keas normally eat things that wouldn’t surprise anyone: seeds, leaves, roots, insects, grubs, and the occasional chicks of other birds. But during the winter months, when food is scarce, the kea turns to something else: sheep. Groups of kea will swoop down on a herd of sheep, pick out one unlucky victim, and take turns jumping onto its rump. There they use their curved, strong beaks to tear away the wool, pierce through the skin, and bore into the sheep’s innards. (The bleating sheep is usually running around in terror at this point.) From there, the birds stick their heads inside the sheep and rip out chunks of succulent fat from around its kidneys. Given the chance, they’ll even eat its organs and intestines. Sheep that have been attacked by keas sometimes die during the attack; more often, they die later of infection.
The tongue-eating louse (Cymothoa exigua) is a marine isopod, a type of crustacean related to woodlice that lives in ocean waters and grows to about two inches in length. Why is it called a “tongue-eating louse”? Because it crawls into the gills of a rose snapper fish, makes its way to the base of the fish’s tongue, sticks its claws into the tongue, and sucks the fluid out of it. The tongue eventually withers away completely, and the louse then attaches itself to the nub that’s left. Surprisingly, the fish is not harmed by this process. More surprisingly, the louse actually becomes the fish’s substitute tongue—the fish can even move it around using the muscles in the old tongue’s nub. Open the mouth of a fish infested by Cymothoa exigua, and you’ll see something you’d expect to see in a science-fiction film: a whitish creature with beady little black eyes looking out at you, wiggling its clawed legs. They’re normally found only in the waters of the Gulf of California, but one was recently spotted in the mouth of a snapper…in London, England.
Barbie dolls sold in Japan have their lips closed, with no teeth showing.