Pelican necks and other creepy animal facts

When I saw this challenge and this new community I knew I wanted to join in and also keep it in my wheelhouse. Therefore, I'm going to lay out some lesser-known animal facts but only creepy ones. I have four for you today but I'll be back when I find more. Also, there will be a photo of a tarantula later in this story, you have been warned!

1. Pelican necks

First up, let's look at the pelican. I was drawn in by a meme last week showing what seemed to be pelicans lifting their spines out of their mouths to cool down. I'm not sharing it here because I don't know who owns the copyright but you can find it on the 'Nerds with Vaginas' social media accounts. A quick Google search proved it to be false but the truth is still strange. They have those signature huge beaks which contain a large pouch and they will drag them through the water and fill the pouch with water that contains fish rather than catch fish individually. They also yawn a lot, which could be to stretch their beaks, and when they do the fleshy pouch folds down over their neck showing the vertebrae which makes it look like their spine is being pushed up out of their mouths.

2. Crow memories

There's probably a lot of creepy facts about crows but I'm going to focus on their memories. Did you know that crows remember faces? The University of Washington conducted a study where they put on a caveman mask to capture, attach bands to their legs, and release crows. When they went back in the caveman mask the crows would flap and squawk whereas they had no notable response to a control mask. The crows who had witnessed the capture also had the angry reaction. Wait though, it gets creepier! When they went back again after five years, 40% more crows had the angry reaction to the caveman mask. This means that the crows had taught others who to fear, which is no doubt a valuable survival technique. They say elephants never forget, it seems like crows never forgive.

Avert your eyes now if you hate spiders and/or bugs.

3. The very existence of the tarantula hawk

I can't remember the name of the documentary, let's assume it was a David Attenborough one, but years ago one scarred me for life. It introduced me to the tarantula hawk, a spider wasp that has the strength in her tiny body to sting a tarantula to paralyse it then drag it back into its nest. She will lay a single egg in the tarantula's body and then cover over the entrance to its nest. You can probably guess that this doesn't end well for the tarantula. When the egg hatches, the larva feeds on the tarantula for around three weeks before the tarantula dies and the new tarantula hawk emerges. Nature is a horror movie! The existence of this bug unsettled me so much that when on of my medications changed to be blue and orange instead of yellow it genuinely made me uncomfortable to take it, thank goodness it changed back to yellow quickly.

4. Lizards' various escape tactics

I think most people know that some lizards can remove their tails to escape a predator and it simply grows back. The gecko goes further than this and its tail keeps moving after it falls off, this leads the predator to think it's something else to attack and the gecko escapes while it attacks the tail. Horned lizards make tail removal seem like a completely calm response though. First of all, the short-horned lizard has a crest of spines round its throat and further spines down the back. This means it's a painful meal which puts off many predators. Even more extreme though, there are at least eight species of horned lizard that can squirt blood through their eyes to confuse predators. They do this by restricting blood flow to their head which causes rising pressure until the vessels in their eyelids pop. That's one way to deal with an attack I suppose!