Strange But True

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

• Hey chubby cheeks, don’t squeak with a full mouth. Eastern chipmunks can cram nine acorns in their mouths—four in each cheek and one between their teeth.
• Any American eel found in Missouri is likely female. Baby eels are born in the Atlantic Ocean but swim into rivers to grow. Male eels stay close to coastlines, but females swim far upstream.
• Before unleashing its funky fury, a spotted skunk often does a handstand and walks on its front paws with its tail held high. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
• When an American white pelican wishes for fishes, it plunges its beak underwater like a dip net. In a single scoop, the brawny-beaked bird can gather 3 gallons of water— and several unlucky fish. When a paddlefish goes for a swim, it really goes for a swim.
• A paddlefish marked with an identification tag in South Dakota was found years later near Memphis, Tennessee. It had swum more than 1,200 miles! chimney swifts use saliva to glue twigs together for a nest and keep it stuck tight to the inside of a chimney. Now that’s some sticky spit!
• Who needs a thermometer when you have a cricket around? To tell the temperature, just count how many times a cricket chirps in 15 seconds then add 37. The total will be within a few degrees of the actual temperature.
• Temperature decides whether snapping turtles will be born boys or girls. Turtle eggs kept around 75 degrees hatch as mostly males. Eggs kept below 70 or above 80 hatch as mostly females.