Strange but True

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

• Puff Daddy: Giant puffball mushrooms can grow larger than a beach ball and weigh more than 40 pounds! The humongous funguses grow from May to October in woods, pastures, and backyards throughout Missouri.
• Osprey are excellent anglers. After snagging supper, the talon-ted birds turn their fish missiles to face forward. The fish cut through the wind better this way, which makes it easier for the osprey to fly.
• Yellow and black garden spider silk is tiny but tough. A single strand of silk long enough to circle the Earth would weigh less than two pounds. Ounce for ounce, however, the silk is nearly as strong as steel.
• During mating season, male elk produce an earsplitting squeal that sounds like the elk swallowed a flute and a trumpet and is blowing through both at the same time. The eerie calls, known as bugles, can be heard more than half a mile away.
• To float like a boat, ducks coat their feathers with oil. The oil is produced by a gland at the base of the duck’s tail. Ducks spread the oil with their bills, and in no time, water rolls off their feathers like, well, water off a duck’s back.
• Grass carp often eat their body weight in plants each day. Although they grow quite large — Missouri’s record weighed 71 pounds — the fish aren’t great at turning plants into weight. Half the vegetation a carp eats passes through its body undigested.
• Scents make sense. To attract a mate, female hellbenders release natural perfumes, called pheromones. One whiff of this love potion helps males find the female, even if she’s hidden under a rock.