Weird habits

[sexy_bef69]

Do any animals have any weird habits? That isnt the word i mean but i cant think of it - something like someone said can pigs see the sky? anything else like that?

[dj_ajax]

Isnt it right that sheep can't get up after they have fallen over? i heard that somewhere because thats how you can tell if a fox has been in the field

[coffeeaddict]

cows know when its going to rain..they lie down in the field

[Anim8]

if you pick a Guinea pig up by its tail, its eyes will drop out.

[andy hughes]

All of these are urban myths - cows lie down when they feel like it, not because they are sensitive to the weather. Sheep are perfectly capable of getting up anytime they fall, and guinea pigs eyes don't drop out under any circumstances - it's a story put about to stop children mishandling them. Oh, and while we're here, there never was a 'penguin patrol' to pick up penguins in the Falkands who had fallen over watching planes flying overhead - that's a myth as well!

[Mrs_Pegasus]

Cows will lie down together where there is an incoming thunderstorm, I know I have tried to call 300 of them in at milking time and they take some moving!!! A ducks quack doesnt echo and no-one knows why! An ostrich eye is bigger than its egg! A cheetah does not retract its claws Bats always turn left when exiting a cave Elephants cant jump and are the only mammal with 4 knees Mrs P

[New Forester]

Rural myths, surely? Each in turn: My cattle don't lie down when it's going to rain. They lie down at night, or when they feel like it. Don't know about other people's cattle. A very large, fat or pregnant sheep can have a lot of trouble turning right way up. Others can get up fine. Guinea pigs & penguins -- myths, though it's a shame about the penguin one... Duck's quack: never tried it, but don't believe it! An ostrich's eye is very much bigger than a human's, perhaps bigger than any other land animal's, and probably a good bit bigger than a hen's egg. But it's nowhere near as big as its own enormous egg! It couldn't lift its head with one, let alone two! (A peregrine falcon, weighing perhaps 1 kg, has eyes as large as a human's, and each as large as its own brain). I believe cheetahs can retract their claws a little, but not fully as other cats do. Bats turn either way, or up. Elephants can't jump, as their legs can only just take their weight even without a shock. They walk or run with no more than two legs off the ground at once. They don't have four real knees. Their bones and joints are the same as any other four-legged animal. In a horse or dog (which both walk on their toe-tips), the front "knees" are actually the wrists. The true knee on the rear leg (called the stifle) is high up near the groin, so isn't obvious. The joint on the rear leg which looks like a backward knee is called the hock and is actually the same bones as our ankle (or a bird's "knee"). Bears and badgers and some others have their hocks and wrists on the ground. However, elephants have their joints further down their legs than other animals (because they don't gallop), so their stifle does look more like a knee. Their hock is low down and is straightish, so it isn't obvious.