They say that only two things are guaranteed in life: death and taxes. If you're not human, that means only one is guaranteed. And even though we all die someday, we certainly won't all go out the same way.
The animal kingdom can be a brutal place, with deaths occurring from predators, lack of habitat, lack of resources, and dozens of other causes. But some species have unique and bizarre threats that only they face. Let's take a look at ten of the most unusual.
10. The suicide palm blooms until death
With a name like the suicide palm, it's clear that this particular plant has an unusual history. It grows in Madagascar and was discovered only in 2006 Although it has the less sinister name Tahina, the morbid name "suicide plan" comes from the tree's remarkably unusual life cycle.
Over the course of decades, the tree will grow to a height of 18 meters, or nearly 60 feet. Then it blooms for the first and only time. Nectar-filled flowers cover millions trees . Eventually they will turn into fruit. Producing flowers and fruit takes all of a tree's resources, and it cannot survive the process. The tree dies, and the fruit litters the ground around its dead parent.
The fruit could obviously give rise to a new generation of trees if the seeds took root and were able to germinate, but if all else failed, the plant would simply die out in that location due to the all-or-nothing reproductive plan.
9. Australian jewel beetles loved beer bottles to death
Insects get a lot of credit for their seemingly remarkable abilities to organize and get things done, but in reality, that's mostly reserved for bees and ants. The rest of the insect kingdom tends to get overlooked, and perhaps for good reason, at least when it comes to something like the Australian jewel beetle. These poor little creatures do have one claim to fame, and it's not their intricate hive organization or their industrious nature. It's that they'll kill themselves trying to mate with beer bottles.
A few years ago researchers accidentally discovered a habit of Australian beetles . In the field, the two scientists were studying something completely different when they accidentally noticed that these beetles were making every effort to devour discarded beer bottles.
The numerous beetles and the numerous bottles indicated that this was not just a fluke. These beetles were trying to keep themselves busy, and there was no mistake. Scientifically, they could see that the beetles were definitely trying to mate. They even installed new bottles and noticed that they attracted more males because they clung to them and had to be forcibly removed to stop them. One even continued even when ants were biting his genitals.
The researchers noted that female beetles were almost the same shade of brown as the particular brand of bottle the beetles had chosen. And like the bottles, the females had dimpled shells. So the males were simply confused. But they were so dedicated to their cause that they continued to live until death in the sun or were torn off and eaten by predators.
But the story has a happy ending. After the scientists published their findings, the company that made the tempting bottles changed the design to remove the confusing dimples. Then the beetles lost interest.
8. The long-horned cow poisons itself
If you are into saltwater aquariums, you may already know about the longhorn cowfish. They are popular among exotic fish enthusiasts due to their bright yellow color and extremely unusual appearance. But keeping them in an aquarium presents a unique danger in the form of their natural self-defense abilities.
Most animals have a way to protect themselves, and the cow does this with ostracitoxin, which she can highlight . So it's a poisonous fish. But then again, that's not all that unusual. Lots of creatures are poisonous or venomous to some degree. The problem with the longhorn cowfish is that it's not immune to its own toxins. So if the fish gets too excited or feels threatened, the toxin will flood the tank and not only kill all the other fish, it will kill myself .
The toxin can be removed from a tank with activated carbon, but if you need to do that, everything is probably already dead.
7. Babirusa tusks can pierce their own skulls
The babirusa looks like a wild boar that someone tried to draw from memory after seeing it only once in passing. They are sometimes called deer pigs and are found in some parts of Indonesia . The most notable feature of male babirusas are their amazingly long, curved tusks. Unlike a wild boar, they have two sets of two, rather than one. While they have the expected set that you would expect to see protruding from their lower jaw, they also have a pair of upward-curving canines on their upper jaw. These tusks do not extend beyond their mouths, instead, they actually pierce the flesh of the animal’s face. As far as we know, this is the only animal in the world whose teeth grow vertically like this.
It is this pair of tusks that can become a fatal complication for the animal. As they grow, they curve inwards, extending upward and over its eyes.
The babirusa must find a way to wear down these tusks, whether it be trees or rocks. If this does not happen, the tusks can become curved and pierce the skull , killing him.
6. Army Ant Mills
Ants can live in colonies of up to 1000 to 100,000 individuals . Although these colonies can be huge, they work because all the members work together. But sometimes they work too well together. Or too poorly, depending on the circumstances. When individual members lack autonomy, one ant may follow another ant to certain death. This is what is at the core ant mill , a phenomenon that occurs from time to time in army ant colonies.
Army ants have some unique features that set them apart from other species. First, they don’t have permanent nests like many other ant species, so they’re always looking for new food sources. Second, they’re blind. And that works for them because they use their other senses to find food.
When everything goes according to plan, the lead ant will lead the others, leaving pheromone trail The other ants follow the scent to their destination. But if something goes wrong, and for example the lead ant turns back, the other ants will follow in its wake, and the lead ant may also be caught in its own wake. This results in the ants going in circles along trails that lead nowhere. And since they are not intended for anything else, the ants will continue to move in this spiral until they all die of exhaustion.
5. Demodex mites eat until they die
Right now, you have an entire ecosystem on your face that you've never seen before. Microscopic demodex mites , most likely live in your hair follicles and pores, feeding on your secretions and oils. Skin conditions, such as rosacea, are caused by too many of these little critters taking up residence in your skin. The method of how and why this happens is truly bizarre and more than a little off-putting.
The older you are, the more likely you are to have mites, and they seem to be spread through direct contact. They like oily skin the most, and are most likely to be found on your face. And while they may live a happy life on your face, feeding on the cells around your hair follicles and the sebum you produce, they can't actually get rid of everything they eat because they don't have anus .
Unable to remove their waste, the mites grow larger and larger as they eat, until they finally die, leaving their filthy corpses embedded in your flesh.
4. Dolphins sometimes commit suicide
Dolphins are considered to be one of the smartest animals in the world, second only to humans and smarter than primates. They are capable of problem solving, abstract thinking, and, it seems, a great deal of emotional distress. So much so that dolphins can even commit suicide.
Knowing that a dolphin can think about the world in much the same way as a human would changes how something like a dolphin show at an aquarium works. Imagine if someone forced you to swim and do tricks for a crowd every day. Or perform on camera, as Katie, one of the dolphins who played Flipper on the show, did.
Trainer Richard O'Barry said he was at the aquarium the day Katie killed herself. He claimed she sank to the bottom and stopped breathing. Dolphins have to consciously control their breathing, so if one was so inclined to just choke, it could probably do so fairly easily.
In the 1960s, NASA tried to train a dolphin named Peter to speak English. In a strange twist of fate, Peter fell in love with his trainer, Margate Howe Lovatt, with whom he trained six days a week. You may have heard the bizarre details of this story when it hit the news a few years ago, as the media was quite fascinated by the specifics of how physical this human-dolphin relationship had become.
In addition, the experiments suddenly ended and Lovatt was fired. Peter was transferred to a new tank and left alone. He Also voluntarily stopped breathing , sank to the bottom and died, just like Katie.
3. Shrews must eat their own weight in food every day.
Shrew is often used as a derogatory term for someone who is a nag. In reality, it should be a term for someone who eats like the devil. The metabolism of a shrew is hard to imagine. Their hearts can beat from 800 to 1000 times per minute. One type breaks even 1500 times per minute.
They can move 12 times a second, and if they don't eat their body weight every day, they die. The short-tailed shrew needs to eat three times its weight If they don't eat for even a few hours, it can be fatal.
2. Female ferrets must mate or die.
Like shrews, ferrets are subject to a biological imperative that can be deadly. Female ferrets go into heat, or estrus, like many other mammals. But the difference with ferrets is that unless they mate, they will not survive the process.
Domestic ferrets should be spayed or neutered. First of all, it reduces their somewhat unpleasant odor. But it also saves the lives of females, because those who do not mate die from aplastic anemia . This is due to unbalanced hormone levels caused by the ferret going into heat but failing to mate. Hormones affect blood production , and soon fatal anemia sets in.
1. Australian Antechinus mates until death
Moving from a creature that will die if it doesn't mate to one that will die because it does mate, we have the Australian antechinus These little mouse-like marsupials experience either the greatest or worst end to any life, depending on your point of view and/or sense of humor.
Each year, the males of this species are killed as they try to continue their genetic line. For over 14 hours at a time, for weeks on end, they mate with females or fight off other males. This continues until they die.
The testosterone that fills their small bodies affects levels of various stress hormones This, in turn, completely destroys their immune system, causing them to collapse and die.
As strange as this may sound from an evolutionary perspective, it actually helps the species. When the male population is wiped out, pregnant females have less competition for food, and can eat and provide for their young.
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