Strange but True

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

Bolas spiders spin a long silk line with a drop of sticky “glue” at the end. When a moth flutters nearby, the spider flings out the line like a lasso, wrapping it around the moth to snare it for supper.

Ahhhhh-CHOOO! A single giant ragweed plant can produce up to a billion grains of pollen. Because it’s nearly weightless, the pollen can be carried by the wind up to 400 miles away.

As white-tailed deer grow older, their antlers get bigger. Male fawns, called “button bucks,” have little nubs on their heads. By the following fall, most bucks sport spikes. On average, a buck’s antlers become as big as they will be by their seventh autumn.

Many owls have shockingly long legs. A great horned owl’s legs, for example, can account for half its body length. We typically don’t notice the legs because they’re usually hidden by the bird’s fluffy body feathers.

Red-headed woodpeckers store snacks, like acorns and other seeds, in cracks and crevices. They even stuff grasshoppers into snack storage, wedged in tight enough that the hapless insects can’t escape.

Bats make high-pitched squeaks that echo off objects. This helps them find prey and navigate in the dark. But silver-haired bats squeak for an additional reason: to sing. Biologists think the songs might be used to attract mates.

Least darters, as their name suggests, are Missouri’s smallest fish. Adults rarely grow longer than 1.5 inches. The little fish are underwater acrobats, clambering around aquatic plants to slurp insects off leaves.