There are many oddities of nature, perhaps the most fantastic of all, is the female and male species, called human beings. Nature teaches us many wonderful lessons, besides having some rare and wonderful creatures. It is the variety of life that makes it worth living, not its limitations.
Oddities Of Nature include fantastic animal and birds that make them stand out from all the rest. Cows that kill, frogs with 360º vision and pigs in danger of spearing their skull with their own tusk. This blog is a light-hearted look at the things around us.
Killer Cows
Cows, the female of the species, appear to be one of the meekest animals on the planet. Yet, people die from getting kicked or stepped on by a cow. More people are killed annually from interacting with cows, than from shark attacks.
Have you ever seen a paddock of cows all facing the same way? Rather like a group of women who have been startled by something totally unexpected. Cows simultaneously face the same direction while grazing. This is something scientists have been unable to explain. Just as men have great difficulty in understanding women.
Everyone enjoys milk products, without giving much thought to the source. A cow will give 200,000 glasses of milk during its lifetime. A cow is a living milk machine.
Koala’s Fingerprints
No two humans have the same fingerprint. There are so many unique things about women and men, it is astonishing. Women have numerous unique attributes, from being beautiful, nurturing, vivacious, and much more.
The fingerprints of koalas are indistinguishable from human fingerprints, often causing confusion at crime scenes. Imagine chasing down a perpetrator, to end up looking a koala in the face.
Koalas have unique patterns on their nose, which helps researchers to recognize a particular animal. A person’s voice is as unique as their fingerprint. How often do you instantly recognize a person on the phone, before they give their name? Babies recognize their mother’s voice from a very early age. It’s all to do with the bonding process.
Despite their names, koalas are not bears. They are herbivorous marsupials.
Cockroaches Are Oddities Of Nature
Cockroaches are nature’s ultimate survivors. So if a man were to call you a cockroach, take it as a compliment. Women too, were designed to be survivors.
A cockroach can survive decapitation, as its brain is inside its body. A decapitated cockroach will keep on walking around, going about its business. It eventually dies from starvation.
Cockroaches can travel up to 3 miles per hour. The next time you chase them around the house, get your running shoes on. Cockroaches can hold their breath and enjoy sipping alcohol.
Shrimp
The oddities of nature come in many shapes and sizes. A shrimp’s heart is in its head. Perhaps the cockroach and the shrimp should exchange notes. Many say women are ruled by their heart, while men are ruled by their head. Men read the big print, while women look to the fine print, more interested in details.
Shrimps contain selenium, an antioxidant that activate enzymes that fight the growth of cancer-causing free radicals. Its good that many of us enjoy eating shrimps.
Grounded Elephants Are Oddities Of Nature
Millions love elephants for their unique qualities. They are the world’s largest land animal. Is it any wonder they are the only animal that can’t jump?
Elephants are constantly eating. A baby elephant can stand just 20 minutes after being born. Elephants can lift 770 pounds with their trunk. That is quite a feat.
Elephants mourn, exhibiting feelings of grief. They bury their dead and pay tribute to the body and the bones.
Elephants are matriarchal societies, raising the next generation of elephants. Ivana Trump is an example of the human matriarch. Many societies around the world have thrived on being matriarchal societies. Parts of China, Costa Rica, Kenya, Indonesia, Ghana and India, to name a few.
The bull elephant lives a solitary life, occasionally joining in small, unstable groups with other males. But, with no responsibility for the education of their heirs.
Unique Dolphins
Dolphins are much loved mammals. Only half a dolphin’s brain sleeps during a 15 – 20 minute nap. It shuts down one hemisphere of its brain and closes the opposite eye. That lets dolphins monitor what’s going on around them while they sleep and allows them to regulate their breathing. Whales do the same thing.
The nurturing nature of a woman keeps her on her toes, particularly in the first few weeks of a newborn’s life. She feels she will never get a full night’s sleep again. It seems only half her brain is sleeping, while the other half listens for the first whimper from her child.
Dolphins blow bubbles, the aquatic equivalent of blowing smoke rings. They use their fins to manipulate the bubbles into whirlpools, or create rings within rings. The bubbles trap or confuse their prey with bubbles.
A dolphin’s brain develops similar to that of the human brain. They have their own language, can recognize themselves in a mirror, and express empathy. Like elephants, they mourn their dead.
Armadillos Oddities Of Nature
Traditional Andean musicians use the armadillo shell to make their musical instruments. When threatened, the three-banded armadillo protects itself by rolling into a ball.
Armadillos come in all shapes and sizes. Giant armadillos weigh between 45 to 130 pounds. In captivity they have reached 176 pounds. The tiniest armadillo is just 4 to 6 inches and weighs 3.5 ounces. Women, too, come in all shapes, colours and sizes. Yet they are the glue that holds societies together.
Leprosy is a bacterial infection that affects humans. If left untreated, it will cause severe damage to the skin, nerves, extremities and eyes. Eventually, it leads to numbness and secondary infections, resulting in the appendage’s loss. Affected Armadillos can also spread leprosy to humans.
The Golden Poison Dart Frog
The golden poison dart frog is beautifully coloured, but is deadly. There are some women whose ‘plumage’ is beautiful, but she can be deadly. One such powerful and dangerous woman was the Hebrew prophetess, Noadiah. She had murder in her heart and like many women, could choose how she used her voice.
The skin of the frog is coated in a lethal toxin. It causes the nerves and muscles of its victims to go inactive, leading to death. This little frog contains one milligram of poison, which is enough to kill 10-20 humans.
Deadly Platypus
Another of the oddities of nature is the platypus. The male platypus has half-inch poisonous spurs on the inner side of each back ankle. Scientists believe males use these spurs to compete with rivals during the breeding season. That’s a deadly way to take care of your opponent.
A kick from one of these guys is potent enough to kill small animals and cause humans intense pain. Female platypuses have no venom, but they do have stinger spurs in their hind legs.
Humans don’t have poisonous spurs, but the biting tongue of a woman can be just as deadly. We are warned that it is vital to control the tongue.
Upside Down Eating Flamingos
Brightly flamingos standing on one leg in shallow water is a picture of grace and beauty. A beautifully dressed woman is also an image of grace and beauty. One that many women aspire to. While Queen Elizabeth II could not be classed as a great beauty, her entire life has been one of grace and dignity.
In order to eat, flamingos need to put their heads upside down. Flamingos use the bristles at the top of the beak to filter out mud and water, which gets sucked in with its food.
Frogs With 360º Vision
Frogs have excellent night vision. The position of frog’s eyes gives them 360º vison. That means they see everything around them, including what is behind them. As women, don’t you wish you had 360 vision? It’s always the unexpected that trips us up.
There is no way you can creep up on a frog, although their long distance vision is better than close up. They sleep with both their eyes open.
You can hypnotise a frog if you put it on its back and stroke its stomach. If a frog vomits, it will vomit its entire stomach.
Christmas Tree Worm
The spectacular colours and segmented crowns of a Christmas tree worm mimic the boughs of a Christmas tree. These handle the worm’s breathing and eating. The swaying boughs capture microscopic particles of plant life, which is the worm’s diet.
Christmas trees are only for a season, but the memory of the fragrance of the pine tree remains. Women have an influence on those around them, that remains like a lingering fragrance. Sometimes that fragrance is not as sweet as we would like it to be, but their influence remains long after they are gone. Florence Nightingale was one of the women pioneers who changed the world.
Bats Are Oddities Of Nature
Bats are another of the oddities of nature. In warmer climates, you hear them screeching their way through the night. Every time a bat leaves its cave, it turns left. As women, we are not always so predictable, but we can be just as committed as bats are. Women are empowered, not by the limitations of society, but by a belief in themselves.
Bats fly at speeds of 60 miles per hour, or more. They can eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes in an hour. The next time you hear bats screeching in a nearby fruit tree, they might be feasting on mosquitoes. A valuable asset to the ecology.
Chilton Sea Mollusc
The shell of the chilton sea mollusc, is patterned with hundreds of eyes. That makes the shell a large calcified seeing eye. Their eyesight is 1,000 times less refined than the human eye. Rushing water causes a squishy type of protein to turn the human eye into nothingness. But, the chitron is at home in churning tidal pools.
Women are like the chilton sea mollusc, living in a world that is chaotic and constantly swirling. Her ability to make sense out of chaos should never be underestimated. She is not defined by disabilities or the restrictions of her environment, or the limitations of the society she lives in.
Streaked Tenrec
You can only find the streaked tenrec on the Eastern coast of Madagascar. It looks less like a rodent and more like a spiny bumblebee. It uses its spines with lethal force, attacking its enemies with a spiky headbutt.
The spikes are also communicators, through a method known as stridulation. Crickets and grasshoppers use the same method.
A woman’s most powerful tool is her ability to communicate. She doesn’t have to rub body parts together to get sound, but she is a force to be reckoned with in her sphere of influence.
Babirusa Boxing Pigs Are Oddities Of Nature
Babirusa, or deer-pigs, live on islands in Indonesia. The upwards in-curving tusk growing out of the roof of the mouth gives the pigs a prehistorical appearance.
If the Babirusa pig does not grind its tusks, they will eventually pierce its own skull. The females of the species is not so egotistically driven that it grows into something that can kill it.
The female of the human species is naturally nurturing and protective, both of herself and her family. To claim superiority over the females, the boars have a physical boxing match. Male testosterone drives the male in all species to crazy behaviour. It takes the nurturing of the woman to be the calming influence. Take time out to consider Mrs. Noah. If ever a woman deserves sainthood, she does.
Sloth Hotel Is Another Oddity Of Nature
The sloth is another oddity of nature. It’s renowned for its lethargy because of its low metabolic rate. It takes a sloth two weeks to digest its food.
The sloth has two kinds of guests living in its fur. A species of moth, that lives nowhere else in the world, makes its home in the sloth’s fur. The moth spends its days lazing about in the sloth’s fuzzy fur, where it also dies.
The moth lays its eggs in the sloth’s hot turds. After hatching and maturing into moths, they fly up into the tree to find their sloth host. The moth’s death provides protein. Algae thrive on the protein, making the sloth’s fur appear a greenish colour.
Women are natural homemakers and frequently host to unexpected guests. The ability to make others feel comfortable is one her greatest assets.
Dangerous Humans Are Oddities Of Nature
Humans are also oddities of nature and their bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made. Take a look at the population clock and see how quickly it adds more numbers. It’s frightening. It would be interesting to see a ‘death clock.’ Probably just as frightening.
With over 7.96 billion and counting, the human population is putting intense pressure on the planet. The demand for the Earth’s natural resources grows exponentially. Because of our smart devices, lithium and copper are in high demand. The human being is the most dangerous animal known for killing its own species.
There are female Guardians of the Planet. Sixteen women who are giants in the environmental world, starting as far back as 1854.
Each woman has a unique voice in her area of influence. A voice that should be valued and appreciated. We trust you enjoyed this light-hearted look at our weird and wonderful world. Let us know if you have any other suggestions.
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Wendy is an Inspirational Freelance Writer specializing in offering encouragement to women in all walks of life. Contact wendytendysinquiries@gmail.com
