Strange But True

Your guide to all the unusual, unique, and unbelievable stuff that goes on in nature.

• American toads inflate their bodies like warty balloons to make it tough for snakes to swallow them. Got a frog in your throat? Nope, a toad.
• Three-toed box turtles are Missouri’s longest-living reptiles. Most reach their 60th birthday, and some live 100 years or longer.
• Only female mosquitoes suck blood. They need the protein in blood to lay eggs. Males sip flower nectar and plant juices.
• Little brown bats are better than bug zappers for keeping insects at bay. In an hour of hunting, a single bat can stuff its belly with 1,000 bugs!
• To lure predators away from their chicks, killdeer moms and pops thrash about and drag their wings pitifully, pretending that their wings are broken.
• Nectar from red columbine contains twice as much sugar as nectar from other colors of columbine. This extra jolt of sweetness helps attract energyguzzling pollinators such as hummingbirds.
• Channel catfish dads guard their nests from egg-eating predators for nearly two weeks until the eggs hatch and the baby catfish grow large enough to swim away.
• When digging just below the surface, eastern moles tunnel about a foot a minute. At that rate, the 6-inch-long mammals can burrow the length of a football field in five hours.