Bats Are Blind And other common animal misconceptions
The animal misconceptions listed in this zine are some of the most commonly held in the United States and abroad. For more information and sources related to these facts, please visit the websites listed below.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/opossums.html https://pets.webmd.com/features/dogs-hot-nose http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/ostrich https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/camel.html https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2016/07/pee-jellyfish-sting/ https://www.amnh.org/learn/pd/sharks_rays/rfl_myth/myth_page6.html http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t227.e47 https://web.archive.org/web/20080607080055/http://www.collegenews.org/x2682.xml http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-02-19/goldfish-three-second-memory-myth-busted/1046710
Camels large humps store fat, not water, much like the fatty tissue found under human skin. These reservoirs of fat allow camels to survive for days in the desert sun without stopping for food.
Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand to hide from enemies.
Bats are not blind. While about 70 percent of bat species use echolocation to navigate, all bat species are capable of sight, and many bats can see as well as humans.
Adult opossums do not hang from trees by their tails, as sometimes depicted. They do however, use their tails as a brace and a fifth limb when climbing.
The notion that goldfish have a memory span of just a few seconds is false. It is much longer, counted in months.
A dogs nose being warm or dry does not mean it is ill, nor does a cold wet nose indicate that a dog is in good health. A likely origin of this misconception is canine distemper. This deadly virus was once prevelent and caused thickening of the nose and footpads. While this virus still occurs, it is less common due to vaccinations.
Urinating on a jellyfish sting does not ease the pain. In fact, urine can actually aggravate the jellyfish's stingers into releasing more venom.
It's a myth that sharks don't get cancer. Like humans, sharks seem to contract tumors in response to environmental pollutants.
Older elephants that are near death do not leave their herd and instinctively direct themselves toward a specific location, known as an elephants graveyard, to die.
A zine by Sadie Jordan