Collection
Animals Everyone Gets Wrong
Some animals are famous for something they do not actually do. The mongoose is not immune to snake venom, moths are not drawn to light but disoriented by it, and raccoons are not washing their food when they dip it in water. Every animal in this collection carries a popular belief that turns out to be wrong, and the real explanation is usually stranger than the myth.
All 62 animals in this collection, from the affenpinscher to the zorse. Most of them live in Asia and Africa.
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Affenpinscher
Canis familiaris
Not a lap dog. It was bred to kill rats in German kitchens, and the attitude never left.
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Alligator
Alligator mississippiensis and Alligator sinensis
Its jaws close with enormous force but open so weakly a person can hold them shut.
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Anaconda
Eunectes murinus
No constrictor crushes anything. They cut off blood flow, and the famous 30-foot sizes have never been verified.
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Betta Fish
Betta splendens
It does not eat plant roots and does not live in puddles. The vase product is built on a falsehood.
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Bull
Bos taurus
Not angered by red. Cattle are red-green colorblind, and what provokes a charge is movement.
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Camel
Camelus dromedarius, Camelus bactrianus and Camelus ferus
The hump stores fat, not water.
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Cat
Felis catus
It cannot taste sweetness at all, and adult cats barely meow at each other. Meowing is aimed at us.
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Chameleon
Chamaeleonidae (family, about 200 species)
It does not change color to match its background. That is a myth, and the color is not even pigment.
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Clownfish
Amphiprion ocellaris and relatives
Every clownfish is born male. After Nemo's mother died, Marlin would have become female.
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Cow
Bos taurus
She gives milk only after having a calf, exactly like any other mammal.
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Donkey
Equus asinus
Not stubborn. A donkey freezes to assess danger where a horse would bolt.
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Duck
Anatidae: Anas platyrhynchos and about 120 other species
A duck's quack does echo. The claim that it does not has been tested and is false.
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Flamingo
Phoenicopteridae (family, six species)
Not born pink. Chicks hatch gray, and the color comes entirely from what they eat.
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Fox
Vulpes and related genera (about 37 species)
It has vertical slit pupils like a cat. Most dogs have round ones.
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Frilled Lizard
Chlamydosaurus kingii
The whole display is bluff. No venom, no dangerous bite, and it weighs about as much as a can of drink.
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Gharial
Gavialis gangeticus
There is no reliable record of a gharial ever killing a person. Fishermen work alongside them.
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Goat
Capra hircus
Goats do not eat tin cans, and fainting goats do not faint. They stiffen and topple over wide awake.
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Goldfish
Carassius auratus
The three-second memory is a myth. One lived to 43.
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Hen
Gallus gallus domesticus
She lays eggs with no rooster anywhere near. He only decides whether one could hatch.
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Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus amphibius
Hippos cannot swim. They are too dense to float, so they walk along the riverbed.
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Horse
Equus caballus
There are no truly wild horses left. Mustangs and brumbies are feral domestic horses.
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House Lizard
Hemidactylus frenatus
It does not use suction or glue. Millions of microscopic hairs hold it up by molecular attraction.
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Ibis
Threskiornithidae (family, 29 ibis species); figures from the African sacred ibis
Written off as a bin raider, the Australian white ibis is a native bird that moved into town when its inland wetlands dried up.
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Iguana
Iguanidae (family); figures from the green iguana, Iguana iguana
A big lizard that lives on leaves. Hatchlings even eat adult droppings to pick up the gut bacteria they need to digest them.
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Kangaroo
Macropodidae: Osphranter and Macropus (four species)
A kangaroo cannot walk. Its hind legs only move together, except when it swims.
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Kingfisher
Alcedinidae, Halcyonidae and Cerylidae (common kingfisher: Alcedo atthis)
Most kingfishers do not fish. The majority of the family hunts in forests.
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Komodo Dragon
Varanus komodoensis
Its bite was blamed on dirty bacteria for fifty years. It is venom.
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Ladybug
Coccinellidae (seven-spot: Coccinella septempunctata)
The spots do not show its age. They show which species it is.
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Lion
Panthera leo
Not a jungle animal, and the males do hunt. King of the jungle comes from an older meaning of the word.
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Mongoose
Herpestidae (Indian gray mongoose: Urva edwardsii)
Not immune to cobra venom, only partly resistant — and fast enough to avoid the bite.
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Moth
Lepidoptera, excluding butterflies (about 160,000 species)
Not attracted to light. It steers by the moon, and a bulb scrambles that.
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Narwhal
Monodon monoceros
The tusk is a tooth, not a horn: a canine grown out through the lip.
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Nightjar
Caprimulgidae (family); figures from Caprimulgus europaeus
It never milked a goat. It was eating the insects around the herd.
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Ostrich
Struthio camelus
Never buries its head in sand. It lowers it to turn the eggs in its nest.
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Peacock
Pavo cristatus (Indian peafowl); also Pavo muticus and Afropavo congensis
The fan is not his tail, the blue is not pigment, and peacock means the male only.
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Penguin
Spheniscidae (emperor penguin: Aptenodytes forsteri)
No wild penguin has ever met a polar bear. They live at opposite ends of the planet.
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Pig
Sus domesticus
Pigs roll in mud because they cannot sweat, not because they are dirty. Given space they keep a toilet corner.
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Polar Bear
Ursus maritimus
Not white. Each hair is hollow and clear, and the skin underneath is black.
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Quetzal
Pharomachrus mocinno
It does survive in captivity. The early deaths came from iron in the diet.
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Quokka
Setonix brachyurus
Not smiling. The upturned mouth is its skull shape, and it never changes.
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Raccoon
Procyon lotor
Not washing its food. Wetting the paws sharpens the nerve endings in them.
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Rhinoceros
Rhinocerotidae (family, five living species)
A rhino horn is keratin, the same stuff as your fingernails. It is not bone, and it is not medicine.
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Rooster
Gallus gallus domesticus
He does not only crow at dawn. He crows all day, and keeps time by an internal clock.
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Seahorse
Hippocampus (genus, about 45 species)
The male carries a true pregnancy, not just eggs. And a seahorse is a fish, gills and all.
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Shark
Selachimorpha (superorder, over 500 species)
Most of the 500-plus species are under 3 feet and harmless. Sharks kill about 5 people a year; we kill tens of millions of them.
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Sheep
Ovis aries
Not stupid. Nervous prey animals whose instinct to follow the flock looks mindless from outside.
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Swan
Cygnus (mute swan: Cygnus olor)
A swan cannot break your arm, and the mute swan is not mute.
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Tiger
Panthera tigris
The stripes are on its skin, not just its fur. And a tiger cannot purr.
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Tortoise
Testudinidae (Galapagos giants: Chelonoidis)
You cannot take a tortoise out of its shell. The shell is its skeleton, and it bleeds when cracked.
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Turkey
Meleagris gallopavo
Turkeys can fly. The wild ones do it every evening, up into the trees to sleep. Only the farm bird is grounded.
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Turtle
Testudines (order, about 360 species)
A turtle cannot leave its shell. The carapace is its own ribs and backbone, fused.
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Upland Sandpiper
Bartramia longicauda
A sandpiper that avoids the shore, breeding in dry prairie hundreds of miles inland.
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Uromastyx
Uromastyx (genus, about 15 species)
Almost every lizard is a hunter. This one eats leaves and never drinks at all.
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Vampire Bat
Desmodus rotundus
It laps a spoonful and leaves. Nothing is drained, and the host usually sleeps through it.
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Wolf
Canis lupus
There is no alpha wolf. A wild pack is a family, and the parents lead it.
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Woodpecker
Picidae (family, about 240 species)
No shock absorbers in its skull. The head works as a stiff hammer by design.
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Xenopus
Xenopus laevis
A frog with no tongue at all. It shovels food in with its front feet.
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Xoloitzcuintli
Canis lupus familiaris
Hairless is not hypoallergenic. The triggers sit in saliva and skin, not hair.
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Yorkshire Terrier
Canis lupus familiaris
Bred to kill rats in the textile mills of Yorkshire, not to sit on a cushion. The lap dog came later.
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Zebra
Equus quagga, Equus zebra and Equus grevyi (three species)
A zebra is black with white stripes, and the stripes are for repelling flies, not hiding from lions.
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Zonkey
Equus quagga x Equus asinus
Different species cannot interbreed, we are told. A zebra and a donkey can. What they cannot make is a third generation.
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Zorse
Equus quagga x Equus caballus
Its striped foals convinced Darwin that a mother's earlier mate could mark her later young. It cannot, and the zorse is how that was proved.
No animals match those filters.