Strange but True

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

Short-eared owls are found nearly worldwide. As you might expect from such a far-reaching raptor, the big-eyed birds wander widely. One wayward shortie stopped to rest on a ship in the Pacific Ocean that was 676 miles from land!

A paddlefish’s spoon-shaped snout detects electrical signals put out by living creatures. This helps the funky-looking fish find its favorite food: drifting clouds of itty-bitty insects and crustaceans called plankton.

Missouri’s largest moth, the cecropia moth, spends the majority of its yearlong life hidden away in a cozy cocoon. The finger-sized caterpillars spin silk-lined cocoons in late summer and don’t emerge as adult moths until the following spring.

How sweet it isn’t. Like all members of the cat family, a bobcat lacks the receptors on its tongue that allow it to taste sweet flavors. No wonder cats are finicky. If you tasted only sour, salty, and bitter, you’d be a picky eater too!

Baby dragonflies, which live underwater, have an … um … interesting way to move around. By sucking water into their hind ends and forcefully squirting it out, they can jet forward at speeds up to 4 inches per second.

Bald eagles, like many raptors, sometimes “stoop” to get food. When an eagle spots prey, it folds its wings and dives straight down. Whoosh! In this streamlined pose, the bullet-shaped birds can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour.

The next time your tummy growls, think of a white-tailed deer. When a whitetail gets hungry, it doesn’t have just one stomach to fill. It has four! The extra chambers help a deer get as many nutrients as possible from tough-to-digest plants.