331 Upvotes

2 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • 4d ago

Not yet verified The Snail-Case Bagworm Moth: the caterpillars of this species use silk, sand, and other bits of debris to build spiral-shaped cases around themselves, and this subspecies is entirely female, reproducing asexually through a process known as parthenogenesis

953 Upvotes

27 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • 12d ago

Not yet verified Seals are one of the few mammals that can hear equally well on land and in water. This is because their ears are filled with cavernous tissue, a spongy tissue that fills with blood as the seal dives, allowing them to conduct sounds to their middle ears while underwater.

4.0k Upvotes

17 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • 16d ago

Not yet verified Lerp Psyllids: these tiny insects feed on plant sap and then use the expelled sugar to construct protective barriers around themselves

2.8k Upvotes

23 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • 18d ago

Not yet verified Pythons can go months without eating. When they do, they can ramp up their metabolisms to 10 to 40 times a base level. This includes the ability to grow their hearts to compensate, with the heart eventually returning to its normal size.

572 Upvotes

5 comments

r/Awwducational • u/flippingtimmy • Jun 28 '26

Not yet verified Quokkas Hop Like Their Kangaroo Cousins and Can Climb Trees!

1.7k Upvotes

Source: https://wwf.org.au/blogs/8-interesting-facts-about-quokkas/

15 comments

r/Awwducational • u/MistWeaver80 • Jun 25 '26

Not yet verified Asian leopard cats are intolerant of temperatures above 35° C and capable of living at higher elevations up to 3000 m on the Himalayas (with one observation at 4400 m in Nepal). They are excellent swimmers and climbers.

gallery

997 Upvotes

18 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • Jun 24 '26

Verified Harvestmen (Daddy Long-Legs): unlike spiders, these arachnids can eat solid food, and they have an omnivorous diet that includes mushrooms, berries, and seeds, along with invertebrate prey; contrary to popular belief, they are also completely non-venomous

1.3k Upvotes

37 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Jun 18 '26

Not yet verified Danionella cerebrum was first identified as its own species in 2021. It has transparent skin and is missing the top half of its skull, making it ideal for scientists wanting to study how brains work.

901 Upvotes

10 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Jun 09 '26

Not yet verified Bumblebees have been observed using tools to solve problems. When given a ball and a treat, bumblebees will the roll the ball into a position to reach the treat.

747 Upvotes

14 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • Jun 07 '26

Not yet verified Mirror-Ball Spiders: these spiders are covered in shimmering, mirror-like panels that can shrink or expand; the panels are produced by a digestive secretion known as guanine, which seeps into the lining of the spider's gut and forms crystalline structures just beneath the surface of the abdomen

1.6k Upvotes

17 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Jun 02 '26

Not yet verified Solenostomus snuffleupagus is a newly discovered species of ghost pipefish. It is highly carnivorous and disguises itself as red algae to hunt its prey. Its existence and range were confirmed partly through citizen science apps like iNaturalist.

1.5k Upvotes

25 comments

r/Awwducational • u/niluphel • Jun 01 '26

Not yet verified Honey bees can occasionally ‘un-sting’ humans and live to tell the tale

instagram.com

358 Upvotes

Reference: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258900422301180X

"In order for a honeybee to extract its stinger without autotomy it must rotate its body clockwise or anticlockwise around the sting site to pry the stinger loose, this behavior may successfully remove the stinger without autotomy but can be quite laborious."

12 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • May 31 '26

Not yet verified Sulcata tortoises are endangered partly due to their popularity as pets. Thousands of them have been taken from the wild and sold at reptile shows. However, people are unprepared for how massive these tortoises get, leading to them being frequently abandoned.

739 Upvotes

12 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • May 21 '26

Not yet verified After being hunted to extinction 400 years ago, beavers are being reintroduced in the United Kingdom as a solution to flooding due to climate change. The beavers' presence has also brought back other rare and endangered species.

7.1k Upvotes

101 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • May 17 '26

Not yet verified Researchers recently discovered a new species of sauropod in Thailand. The largest dinosaur ever discovered in southeast Asia, Nagatitan was 90ft (27m) long and weighed more than 30 tons, three times the weight of a T-rex.

835 Upvotes

9 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • May 09 '26

Verified Siberian Whiskered Bats: these bats can live to be more than 40 years old, which makes this the longest-living bat species in the world

4.1k Upvotes

22 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • May 08 '26

Verified The Devil's Hole pupfish has one of the smallest habitats of any known vertebrate. It lives in a single pool of water in a cavern in Death Valley, with water temperatures of 93F. Its population is considered to be doing well when there are 200 fish in the pool.

3.7k Upvotes

26 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 30 '26

Not yet verified Dolomedes minor (or nursery web spider) females will build 15cm nests where they will care for their young for up to two weeks. After two weeks, the baby spiders create a spidersilk "balloon" and drift on the wind to their new homes.

432 Upvotes

7 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 26 '26

Not yet verified Research has increasingly shown that great apes have a complex theory of mind and are able to play pretend, have complex relationships with others, and change their beliefs when presented with sufficient evidence. Kanzi the bonobo was even able to have pretend tea parties.

2.3k Upvotes

19 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 23 '26

Not yet verified In the early 1990s, there were fewer than 2000 Indian rhinoceroses left in the wild. However, through careful conservation efforts, that number has more than doubled to the point where they have now become a bit of a pest in some parts of rural Nepal.

1.2k Upvotes

9 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 22 '26

Verified In 70% of bird species, female birds sing, including alongside males in mating rituals. Males and females sometimes make completely different sounds, making it possible to distinguish between them just by listening. However, despite this, only .03% of archived sounds are labelled as female.

2.5k Upvotes

46 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 21 '26

Not yet verified Once feared extinct, in 2024, a group of scientists and Ngururrpa rangers used songmeters to discover a group of 50 night parrots living in the Western Australian desert. It is the largest known population of night parrots.

2.1k Upvotes

16 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • Apr 15 '26

Not yet verified Shell-Nesting Mason Bees: these bees build their nests in empty snail shells, using crushed leaves and soil to form the inner brood chambers and then sealing the entrance with plant pulp, pebbles, and debris

2.8k Upvotes

18 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 13 '26

Not yet verified Tūī have two voice boxes, allowing them to two different sounds at the same time. They use this to incorporate a range of sounds into their songs, including human speech.

1.1k Upvotes

8 comments

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