The Fabulous Animal Kingdom

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The eyes of a conch.

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Leaf sheep are one of the strangest kinds of animals on the planet.

They look like a farm animal, act like a plant, and live in the sea!

The little sea slugs are technically animals, but like plants, they get most of their energy from the sun.

When leaf sheep eat algae, they suck out the chloroplasts and incorporate them into their own bodies in a process called kleptoplasty.

“This process, which otherwise can only be performed by single-celled organisms, essentially makes them solar-powered slugs!” Bored Panda notes.

The funny little creatures have the face of a cow or sheep, but a back that looks like a house plant.

They’re only about 5 mm long and can be found in shallow marine waters in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

[JessiCapri]

Preparing a woodpecker for winter.

First he finds a dead tree and starts making holes for the acorns.  Each hole is made very thoughtfully, because if the hole is large, other birds can easily steal the acorn.  If the hole is narrow, the nut can break and deteriorate.  By the end of summer, the woodpecker's “jewelry” work ends, by this time the acorns ripen and take their places in the tree.  The trunk of a large tree can hold about 50,000 acorns, allowing the bird a satisfying winter.

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Owl eyes are shaped like tubes and therefore cannot move & that's why their heads have such range of motion.

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Lit completely by Glow Worms.

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[Soniaslut]

Five female animals you probably didn't know are queer

Aside from humans, the only species recorded to have lifelong same-sex partnerships is male domestic sheep. Although many species display bisexual behavior, the following five species engage in same-sex female relationships.

1 : Japanese Macaques
Because female macaques exhibit more sexual positions than males, it's believed lesbian macaques simply seek more sexual stimulation.

2 : Laysan Albatross
The Laysan Albatross population on Oahu, Hawaii contain 31% female couples as pairing parents. Female albatross mate with other females for the survival of their offspring; an endeavor that takes two parents to raise one chick per season. “They rear chicks, fathered by males that are already in a committed pair but which sneak matings with one or both of the females”  And because Albatross have a tendency towards monogamy, once lesbian albatross mate, it's for life.

3 ; Bonobos
Bonobos, like macaques, seem to enjoy same-sex female stimulation. In a 1995 Scietific American paper by Frans de Waal, he describes female bonobos rubbing their genitals together, “emitting grins and squeals that probably reflect orgasmic experiences”. Can't say I blame them.

4 : Bottlenose Dolphins
Sex is something animals use to their advantage, and it seems bottlenose dolphins aren't any different from humans. Both females and males display bisexual behaviour to help them create strong social bonds within their pods.

5 : Spotted Hyenas
As matriarchs, female spotted hyenas dominate the male hyenas in the family structure, being larger in stature and physically more aggressive (Kay E. Holekamp Lab) which also seems to result in female spotted hyenas mounting other females as dominant sexual acts.

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The Cobra

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Pretty Hare

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Photographer Tobias Baumgaertner captured this image of two widowed fairy penguins looking over the Melbourne skyline. It has won an award in Oceanographic magazine’s Ocean Photography Awards 2020.
The backstory is so heartwarming. The lighter penguin is an elderly female whose partner died this year. The darker one is a younger male who lost his partner two years ago. Biologists have followed them as they meet every night to comfort each other. They stand for hours together watching the city lights.

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