Strange But True

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

• A Rattlesnake adds a new section to its rattle each time it sheds its skin. The rattle is made of keratin (careuh- tin), the same stuff human fingernails are made of.
• Katydids have ears on their legs, just below their knees. The insects, which are related to grasshoppers and crickets, pinpoint sounds by raising one leg and then the other.
• The Spiders living in a patch of woods the size of a football field eat more than 80 pounds of insects a year. That many bugs would weigh as much as 320 quarterpound hamburger patties.
• Niangua darters are homebodies. The only place on the planet you’ll find these colorful, minnowsized fish is in a handful of streams in south-central Missouri.
• Nature’s knitters: Baltimore orioles weave hanging, sock-like nests in the outermost branches of trees. Orioles dangle their nests from skinny branches to protect their eggs from chubby raccoons and snakes.
• Although they’re not much bigger than a Polish sausage, pound for pound, Least Weasels bite harder than any North American mammal. The pint-sized predators need big bites to take down prey twice their size, such as chipmunks.
• Eastern red bats can fly 40 miles per hour. The mouse-size mammals have to fly fast to feed their furry faces. They eat half their weight in insects every night!
• Eastern Kingbirds rule. To protect their nests, the robin-sized birds dive-bomb squirrels, hawks, and people. They’ve even been known to knock blue jays out of trees.