We are back! This time with more amazing, more interesting, and more lively fun facts that can turn your boring day into a day of wonderment. Then, let’s jump to the list of 10 random fun facts to kill your boredom. In case you have missed our previous articles on random fun facts then click here: Part 1, Part 2
1 A leaf-cutter ant’s chopping blades eventually get dull, so they switch jobs and carry leaves instead.
Leaf-cutter ants have razor sharp jaws called mandibles in the beginning of their life. It is used to cut the leaves, which is then harvested for its sap. As they grow old, the sharpness of their jaws wears out. Eventually, this reduces their efficiency. The older members then retire and switch their job to carrying leaves cut by the younger ones.(source)
When famous children’s book author Roald Dahl was surrounded by his family during his final hours, he told them “You know, I’m not frightened. It’s just that I’ll miss you all so much”. After saying this he seemed to have lost consciousness. Hence, the nurse decided to inject him with a lethal dose of morphine to ease his passing. After she injected it, Dahl suddenly said “Ow, fu*k!” and it became his final words before passing away.(source)
3 Young elephants suck their trunks just like young children suck their thumbs.
Just like the human newborn babies, elephant calves are born with a strong sucking reflex. This helps them to know instinctively what to do when they are near their mother’s breast. When they are not near their mother they suck their trunk just like a human baby sucks a pacifier.
Sucking the trunk also helps an elephant calf to learn how to control and manipulate the 50,000 individual muscles in the trunk. For elephants, sucking the trunk is also an advanced method of smelling. They touch their trunks to urine or feces and then pop the trunk in their mouths to get a closer whiff. This helps them in tasting the pheromones of other elephants.(source)
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4 Lion tamers use chairs because lions can only focus on one thing at the same time. Consequently, the four prongs of chair confuse the lion and break its concentration rendering the ‘king of jungle’ harmless.
Lions are single minded. Therefore, they are wired mentally to focus on one thing and attack it. The entertainment business has used this single-mindedness of cats and had intimidated and subdued the ‘king of the jungle’ using just a chair. When lion tamers wave a chair, lion becomes confused watching the four prongs of the chair coming at it. It flips out losing its train of thought and freezes instead of harming its trainer.(source)
5 Box turtles can freeze completely for an entire winter and thaw out during the spring, after which it is completely fine.
The yellow brown spotted shelled box turtle is native to North America. In summer, they are either busy in finding food, mate, or laying eggs. But as the winter approaches, they dig holes in the ground and hibernate. While hibernating they can endure even subzero temperature by freezing alive!
As the chill increases, box turtle’s liver releases lots of glucose into the bloodstream. This sugar is stored in various organs such as liver, heart, brain, eyes, and blood serum. The water from cells moves out and flows into the body cavity where it freezes. Surprisingly, when the temperature gets frigid, even the heart of box turtle can stop beating. As the winter recedes, and weather becomes warm, the turtles start to thaw out and gradually comes back to life.(source)
