One Misconception About 64 Different Animals

Despite every cartoon of ostriches you’ve ever seen, they don’t bury their heads to avoid danger. If they sense trouble and can’t run to safety, ostriches actually hit the ground and stay motionless. So, where did the myth come from? Ostriches dig holes into the sand for their nests, and when they lower their heads to turn the eggs in the nest, it appears as if they’re hiding their noggins. 

Below, we debunk one myth about dozens of animals—from the idea that cows have four stomachs to a lemming myth that got an assist from some highly unethical filmmaking—based on an episode of Misconceptions on YouTube.

1. Misconception: Toads give you warts. 

Toads may look like they need a good dermatologist, but there’s no need to worry: They can’t pass any skin conditions to you. Warts are caused by the human papillomavirus—the key word being, human. A wart’s lumpy appearance is due to epidermal cells multiplying due to the virus. Warts can spread based on skin-to-skin contact, but not toad skin. While we’re at it, let’s debunk another one: Frog or toad urine can’t give you warts, either.

2. Misconception: Bulls can’t see red. 

Call this one a meta-misconception. Many websites will tell you that cattle are colorblind, and therefore—despite the common belief that red enrages bulls—the choice of color for a matador’s cape is actually arbitrary. We can’t speak to a bull’s interior emotional state or the exact reasoning behind that toreador tradition, but we can tell you that part of this would-be misconception gets the facts wrong.

As Scientific American puts it, “Perceptual measurements indicate that cattle can discriminate red from green and blue but not green and blue from each other.” And though bulls were, indeed, shown to charge at all sorts of moving objects in one study, they did so more forcefully when the object in question was a warm color. The idea that bullfighters choose crimson-colored capes to better hide bloodstains is, unfortunately, entirely plausible. But that doesn’t mean that a red and blue cape would be equivalent in the eyes of a bull.   

3. Misconception: Armadillos curl up into balls and roll away from predators. 

Only two species of armadillo, the Brazilian and southern three-banded armadillos, can roll up into balls at all. And they don’t do it to escape predators; they do it so their armor protects their bodies. Their armor can even act as a trap to snap closed on predators’ paws. Ironically, as a paper in the Journal of Mammalogy put it, the rolling into a ball “facilitates its capture by humans and increases the vulnerability of both species to hunting.”

4. Misconception: Lemmings engage in mass suicide. 

Disney may be known for its heartwarming animal movies, but in 1958, Disney filmmakers were quite heartless to lemmings. While shooting a documentary called White Wilderness, filmmakers captured scenes of the tiny rodents leaping into the sea to their deaths. It was supposedly a harrowing look at a phenomenon known as mass lemming suicide. But that phenomenon didn’t actually exist. The crew brought lemmings into a non-native habitat, then threw them off a cliff into a river—not the ocean—to capture the scenes. The truth is that lemmings do sometimes move as a herd to find more food, and when they cross bodies of water, some don’t make it. But this dramatic tale—which Disney didn’t invent but certainly helped solidify with its unethical filmmaking—is not an accurate representation of the adorable animals.

5. Misconception: Porcupines can shoot their quills. 

If you happen across a porcupine, don’t freak out; it’s not going to impale you with razor-like quills from 10 feet away. Though it was once believed that the rodents could shoot out prickly projectiles, we now know otherwise. The quills easily detach when porcupines are threatened—which is why dogs and other predators sometimes come away with a snout full of needles after a close encounter—but they don’t go launching through the air.

6. Misconception: Dogs age seven years for every human year. 

According to the AKC, this “formula” has been around since the 1950s, but it’s not accurate. Some speculate that the rough estimate was created to help educate people on their pets’ lifespans. People at the time realized that dogs generally made it to around 10 years old while humans lived to about 70, and then they overgeneralized. These days, there are better ways to calculate “dog years,” but all of it depends on the size of the dog. For example, the first year of a medium-sized dog’s life equals about 15 human years. Year two equals about nine years. And every year after that is roughly five years.

7. Misconception: Sloths are lazy. 

Sloths are notoriously slow but don’t mistake their sluggishness for laziness. Their speed is due to a low metabolic rate, which means they need to conserve energy for survival—not for kicks.

8. Misconception: Elephants are scared of mice. 

Research and experiments have consistently failed to show that elephants specifically find mice threatening. There’s no big reaction when the gentle giants come nose-to-nose with a mouse. It’s true that, just like humans, they don’t particularly love it when little things come scurrying out and take them by surprise. But if you’re looking for a little critter that sets elephants off, you might want to set your sights on ants. Elephants seem to react genuinely negatively to the insects, perhaps because they don’t want to get them up their trunks. 

9. Misconception: Cows have four stomachs. 

You’ve probably heard the myth that cows have four stomachs, but it’s not quite true. Four chambers in a cow’s stomach—the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, and the abomasum—help it digest mass amounts of grass and greens. Why the extra chambers? Mostly, it’s because it is really hard for mammals to get nutrients from grass. Each part plays its own role in extracting sufficient nutrition from the not-particularly nourishing diet. But while the process is very different from how the human stomach works, it does take place in a single stomach, with some cud chewing along the way.

10. Misconception: Pigs sweat a lot. 

You might want to rethink the phrase sweat like a pig before you say it again because pigs don’t sweat much. It’s part of the reason they roll around in the mud, as they don’t have the cooling properties of perspiration.

11. Misconception: Turtles don’t feel their shells. 

It should go without saying, but humans shouldn’t be carving or painting turtles’ tough exteriors. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation, turtles turn up with spray-painted shells on a fairly regular basis. The paint can prevent them from getting the vitamins they need and even lead to chemicals seeping into their bloodstream.

The top layer of most turtle shells is made of keratin, like our fingernails. And just as we experience pain when something happens to our fingernails, so do turtles feel pain in their shells. In fact, because their shells are fused to their spines and rib cages, turtles experience even more sensation via the shell. 

12. Misconception: Most moths eat clothes. 

Out of all of the moth species, only a handful eats fabric. Most of the time the culprit is either the casemaking clothes moth or the webbing clothes moth. And even then, it’s not actually a case of adult moths fluttering in to snack on your sweaters; it’s their larvae. Moth babies love snacking on clothes made from animal products, such as wool and leather. 

13. Misconception: Birds abandon their babies if you touch them. 

Birds are better parents than the myth gives them credit for. They won’t leave their young if a human touches the nest. If you happen to find a baby bird—specifically a nestling—that has fallen, the best thing you can do is place it back in the nest or, if you can’t find the nest, in a safe, shaded spot.

14. Misconception: Goats eat tin cans. 

The myth that goats will eat anything, even tin cans, probably started because goats are such curious creatures. In a way, they’re like toddlers: they get into everything, stick random objects in their mouths, and climb on things they probably shouldn’t. But when it comes to food, they’re actually rather picky eaters who seek out certain types of nutrition—and that doesn’t include metal.

15. Misconception: Flamingos are born pink. 

These long-legged birds are instantly recognizable by their distinctive pink feathers, but they aren’t born that way. When flamingos are very young, they look like little gray balls of fluff. And they would stay storm cloud-colored if it wasn’t for their diet high in beta-carotene. The brine shrimp, algae, and brine fly larvae that make up a flamingo’s diet are chock-full of the compound, known for giving an orange-y pigment to plants. In the flamingo’s case, it turns their feathers various shades of pink and orange, although some adults will never achieve the dazzling colors displayed by their lawn ornament counterparts.

16. Misconception: We swallow eight spiders in our sleep every year. 

This horrifying factoid has made the rounds for years, but we’re happy—really happy—to debunk it for you. Spiders, especially the ones that tend to live in houses, are solitary creatures. They don’t seek out humans, but if they did, they wouldn’t stick around while we were sleeping: The vibrations we make while breathing and snoring would likely scare them off. There is a very strong likelihood that we swallow exactly zero spiders in our sleep. 

17. Misconception: Each lion pride has a king. 

Despite what the movie tells you, lions don’t really have a king. Prides tend to be led by females, and it’s never a single “queen.” Instead, lionesses form a sort of sisterhood. They have babies around the same time and raise them together.

18. Misconception: Hyenas love to laugh. 

When hyenas make a noise that sounds like laughter to us, it’s not because they find something funny. The high-pitched vocalizations are actually just the opposite—hyenas generally make them when they feel threatened or even frustrated. Of the three species of hyena, only the spotted hyena makes the giggling sound. Another misconception is that hyenas are only scavengers, making their meals from prey killed by bigger animals, like lions. In reality, hyenas are very capable hunters and kill most of their own prey.

19. Misconception: Dodos were white and plump. 

Unfortunately, we have almost no concrete knowledge of dodos because there is very little left to study. Dodos are estimated to have gone extinct sometime in the late 1600s, and today, only one complete skeleton has survived. Even that was collected as a fossil. As Professor Leon Claessens told The Atlantic, “The dodo remains that were collected while the bird was still alive would fit in a shoebox.”

We do know that they were probably black, gray, or dark brown in color because we have first-hand accounts from sailors’ journals. But at some point in the 17th century, a number of Dutch painters decided to represent them as white, and that image stuck. Dodos probably weren’t as stocky as they’re usually depicted, either. Modern-day scientists believe the birds that were illustrated were probably captive dodos that were overfed and not very physically active or, in the case of taxidermied examples, overstuffed. And one more way we’ve misjudged dodos for centuries: They probably weren’t dumb. In recent years, 3D modeling has shown that dodo brains were appropriately sized for their skull and probably had intelligence similar to that of a pigeon.

20. Misconception: Pigeons are stupid. 

Very few birds embody the idea of “bird-brained,” in the popular imagination, more than a pigeon. But that’s not fair or accurate. According to New Scientist, pigeons can remember over a hundred images and remember them two years later, can think abstractly, distinguish paintings, and, according to one report, have better self-cognition than some 3-year-old humans. So we really should start picking on a different animal.

21. Misconception: Horses only sleep standing up.

Horses are good at catching some ZZZs while standing, thanks to the fact that they’re able to lock their limbs, which prevents them from falling over. But while horses may take light naps on all fours, they aren’t actually entering their REM sleep. Horses are prey animals, so being able to nap while standing allows them to take off if something attacks quickly. They’ll lie down when it’s time for a deeper rest. They don't need to stay on the ground long: They only need to lie down and sleep for anywhere from one to three hours each day, with at least 30 minutes spent in a fully recumbent position. Horses spend between five to seven hours each day resting, but they’ll typically only lie down for a deep sleep when they’re able to relax in a comfortable, safe environment.

22. Misconception: Ponies are baby horses.

Like horses, ponies are also part of the species Equus caballus. But though they’re small, ponies are not baby horses. As a general rule, any member of Equus caballus that is below 14.2 hands (or 58 inches, for non-horse people) is a pony, no matter how old it is. There are exceptions: mini-horses are not really referred to as ponies, even though they’re small enough to qualify. According to Horse Illustrated, this is because miniature horses look like full-sized horses that have been simply shrunk down in scale, while ponies have different proportions and other physical features. It’s an inexact classification system, but there is general agreement in the world of equine experts. The word for both a baby horse and a baby pony is foal.

23. Misconception: Owls are wise.

We aren’t saying owls are stupid. But they aren’t necessarily wise. They’re great hunters but not the best problem solvers. One 2013 study found that great gray owls repeatedly bombed what should have been a simple cognitive test that required pulling a string to receive a treat. It’s also hard to determine how “wise” an animal is based on human standards—they are good hunters, which you could certainly say is a form of intelligence—but it’d be incorrect to think of them as some kind of avian intelligence outlier. It’s believed we view owls as wise because they were often associated with Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom.

24. Misconception: Wolves kill for sport. 

Wolves have a reputation for being big bad hunters who kill for fun. But all their “surplus kills” aren’t really surplus. During particularly brutal winters, they do kill more animals than they can eat right away. But they typically will return later to finish eating their prey. Basically, these so-called surplus kills are the wolf equivalent of ordering a big meal with the intention of taking home some leftovers later. 

That’s not the only misconception about them. Despite the popular saying, there’s no such thing as an alpha wolf who fights his way into power. Instead, most packs are just families, with the parents being the top dogs of the group. The so-called “alpha male” is simply the dad.

25. Misconception: Foxes hunt cats.

Foxes have a reputation for being sneaky. But don’t worry, they aren’t sneaking around your yard with the hopes of snatching a cat to snack on. A full-grown cat is nearly as big as a fox. An adult fox usually weighs between seven to 15 pounds [PDF] and the average housecat weighs 10 pounds—so the canids wouldn’t likely attempt to make a meal out of your pet. Now, things might be different for kittens or elderly cats, but in general, if a healthy adult cat and a fox got into a scuffle, your furry friend might very well be able to defend itself. 

26. Misconception: Cats don’t really care about their people.

The common myth that cats don’t like people simply isn’t true. Pet cats have a bad reputation for being aloof and uncaring. Sure, your cat may not greet you at the door with their tongue lolling and tail wagging, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t care about you. Cats actually do get attached to their owners and even view their humans as part of their family. If your cat headbutts you or starts kneading their paws on you before curling up in your lap, rest assured it means you’re loved. 

27. Misconception: Snakes drink milk. 

Back in the day, farmers often saw snakes lurking around their dairy barns and concluded that the reptiles were stealing milk from their cows. This seems like a bit of a leap, but we’re not here to judge. The fact is, snakes can’t digest milk—the only thing they're interested in drinking is water. The snakes were hanging around barns because they were hunting for rodents, not fresh milk. 

28. Misconception: Polar bears rest in winter.

Whether bears truly hibernate or enter torpor is a subject too controversial for us to get into here. Still, we can definitively say that polar bears, in particular, are active year-round. Food availability doesn’t vary as widely throughout the year for these big boys and girls, so they don’t have to preserve energy in fallow periods quite like their brown bear cousins. They actually do reduce their energy expenditure in summer, when food supplies are harder to come by, but it’s a phenomenon that’s been tellingly labeled “walking hibernation.” Females dig maternity dens to hunker down when they’re pregnant, but other than that, you won’t find polar bears holing up for months at a time.

29. Misconception: Squirrels are herbivores.

You’ve probably seen squirrels stashing acorns or snacking on birdseed. But those aren’t the only things the rodents like to eat. Squirrels are omnivores—yes, they eat a lot of seeds, nuts, and fungi. But they also eat meat. Squirrels are incredibly opportunistic. They’ll raid bird nests for eggs and baby birds, scavenge bits of roadkill, and eat insects and even small snakes if they can catch them.

30. Misconception: Hamsters only eat plants.

You shouldn’t feed your hamster an entirely plant-based diet. For optimal health, they actually need to eat some non-vegetarian items, too. Hamsters can—and should—eat insects such as crickets and mealworms and can have small bits of chicken every now and then. If you ever forget that hamsters like meat, just remember that some hamster moms will even devour their own babies.

31. Misconception: Skunk spray can be deodorized by tomato juice. 

A skunk can spray a target that’s about 10 feet away, so make sure you give these animals plenty of distance. The spray contains sulfur compounds, which is why it smells so terrible. The stink is so strong that skunk spray can be smelled from about a half-mile away. If you find yourself on the wrong end of a skunk’s spray, don’t fill your bathtub with tomato juice and hop in. 

People often tout tomato juice as a remedy for getting rid of skunk stench. But it doesn’t affect the odor other than masking it. So once you no longer smell like a bowl of marinara, you’ll start to notice the skunk stink again. To actually neutralize the skunk smell, use a mix of diluted hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap. 

32. Misconception: Scottish wild cats never ventured out of Scotland.

Scottish wildcats once had a larger range than just the country that gives them their name—in fact, they once roamed throughout present-day Great Britain. But due to human interference, they’ve gone extinct in all places except Scotland. Today, only a small, critically endangered population of the elusive wildcats remains in Scotland.

33. Misconception: Bats are blind.

Yes, most bats use echolocation. They aren’t blind, though. Some bat species can even see better than people. Echolocation helps them navigate in super dark conditions, like in caves or out in the open air at night. It aids—rather than replaces—their vision. According to one study, “Vision was given more weight when deciding where to fly, while echolocation was more dominant when approaching an obstacle.”

34. Misconception: Black panthers are a distinct cat species.

Black panthers obviously exist—they’re just not a  distinct species. They’re actually a leopard or jaguar with a mutation in their genes related to pigmentation. (For the leopard, it’s a recessive gene, and for the jaguar, it’s a dominant gene.) Like the other big cats, including tigers and lions, leopards and jaguars are part of the genus Panthera. 

35. Misconception: Cougars are universally considered big cats.

Admittedly, their classification varies depending on the source. Though they’re bigger than some big cats, cougars are sometimes considered the largest of the small cats. That distinction is often made because they’re not a member of Panthera. 

36. Misconception: Raccoons only come out during the day when they’re sick.

Raccoons are most active at night, it’s true. But that doesn’t mean you should panic if you see one out during the day. It’s a common misconception that a raccoon out on a daytime stroll must have rabies. Instead, it could simply be just adjusting its behavior to take advantage of a food source. If you, for example, put out food every morning for an outdoor cat, a clever raccoon will adjust its schedule to take advantage of the easy meal. Female raccoons are also known to appear in broad daylight in search of extra food for their young. If you do, however, see a raccoon that’s exhibiting signs of rabies-like foaming at the mouth, making whimpering noises, staggering around, or otherwise acting erratically, make sure you stay away and contact the appropriate authorities.

37. Misconception: Possums and opossums are the same thing.

The gray-bodied, pink-nosed, bald-tailed marsupials Americans are familiar with are technically called opossums—strictly, Virginia opossums—though many people drop the o and simply refer to them as “possums.” But possum refers to an entirely different animal that was, itself, named after the American critter. True possums are also marsupials. They’re indigenous to Australia and a few nearby islands. Unlike Virginia opossums, they generally have fluffy tails. Some smaller species of possum actually face the risk of being eaten by giant spiders—something North American opossums don’t really have to worry about.

38. Misconception: Wild orcas are known to attack and kill people.

So-called “killer whales” have a pretty intense reputation. Orcas are keen killers—they’re great at hunting prey like fish, sharks, seals, and even other whales. People are generally not on their radar, though. There aren’t any definitive records of an orca killing a person out in the ocean, and the one somewhat attested case of that happening involved a unique situation with trapped orcas that were likely on the brink of starvation. The only orcas known to have killed people were kept in captivity.

39. Misconception: A monarch butterfly that starts the migration from Mexico is the same one that finishes it. 

Monarchs do have one of the longest migrations in the insect world. But a single monarch isn’t making the long journey from Mexico to Canada and the northern United States. That long-haul trip is a multi-generational effort. The butterflies have several stopping points along the trip. Those who arrive at each stopping point breed and lay eggs; those offspring then continue to other stopping points and continue the pattern. For eastern monarchs, for example, a butterfly that starts its springtime journey in Mexico may only make it to the southern states before passing the torch to its offspring. That second generation will then head farther north to breed. Their offspring will then breed in the summer, and that third generation’s descendants will be the ones who begin the journey south to Mexico toward the end of summer. Oddly enough, many of those butterflies will complete the journey to Mexico, but that’s a story for another time. 

40. Misconception: Penguins live at the South Pole.

Some penguin species do live in Antarctica, but not actually at the South Pole. The geographic South Pole is a specific place on the Antarctic continent. It’s the planet’s southernmost point and has a latitude of exactly 90 degrees south latitude. The geographic South Pole is more than 800 miles from Antarctica’s nearest coast. That’s far too inland for the penguins, who feed on fish and, therefore, need access to the ocean. The birds don’t live at the North Pole, either. In fact, they don’t live anywhere near the Arctic, so all those cute wintery images of penguins and polar bears hanging out together are entirely inaccurate. 

41. Misconception: Honey badgers want to fight you.

Yes, honey badgers are tough. And if you’ve seen that viral YouTube video from 2011, then you know they also don’t give a damn. But they’re unlikely to actually fight you. When threatened, honey badgers typically take a page from skunks’ books and use smell as a defense. Rather than emit a smelly spray, they drop a “stink bomb” from a gland near their tail that stores a foul-smelling liquid.

42. Misconception: Beavers live in dams.

Beavers build dams, but they don’t live in them. The dams—and the pond-like bodies of water they create—are meant to be defensive deterrents that keep predators from where they actually live: lodges built within the dammed-off site. 

43. Misconception: Narwhal tusks are horns.

Hundreds of years ago, European royals used narwhal tusks as protection against poison, thinking they were unicorn horns. Obviously, the tusks weren’t from unicorns. In fact, they weren’t even horns. A narwhal’s tusk is actually a giant tooth. The tusks are highly sensitive and can grow up to 9 feet long.

44. Misconception: Coral is a plant or a rock.

Coral may look like a plant, but it’s actually an animal. Sure, they root to the ground like plants and appear to be as still as a rock. In truth, they’re invertebrates made of thousands of little polyps that eat by filtering zooplankton out of the water. Algae within the coral turn sunlight into energy and nourish its host, but the coral is Team Animal.

45. Misconception: Crane flies are giant mosquitoes.

Crane flies look like the mother of all mosquitoes. They have the same overall shape as the blood-suckers, just at a much larger scale. The two insects are entirely different species, though. In fact, crane fly refers to any insect that’s part of the taxonomic superfamily Tipuloidea, while mosquitoes belong to the superfamily Culicoidea. Don’t worry—unlike mosquitoes, crane flies don’t suck people’s blood.

46. Misconception: Daddy longlegs refers to one deadly spider species. 

There are two glaring errors with this common misconception about daddy longlegs. First, daddy longlegs aren’t always spiders. People commonly refer to three species as daddy longlegs: harvestmen, crane flies, and cellar spiders—and only cellar spiders are true spiders. Which of the three you picture when you hear daddy longlegs depends on a bunch of factors, including where you grew up.  

Second, despite an odd rumor that daddy longlegs are the most venomous spider species in the world, no type of daddy longlegs is venomous enough to kill a person. Harvestmen don’t even have any sort of toxic substances to inject anyone with—or any fangs to do the injecting. Cellar spiders have both venom and fangs, but experts haven’t found proof that their toxins are lethal enough to kill a person.  

47. Misconception: All bees are busy.

If you’re someone who works hard or keeps a full schedule, chances are you’ve been called a “busy bee” at some point. It’s true that some bees, like honey bees and bumblebees, are indeed busy. But not all species are. Many male bees get to take it pretty easy while in the nest.

According to a 2014 study that literally glued RFID tags onto bees, “Approximately 20 percent of the foraging workforce accounted for 50 percent of the total flight activity.” When researchers removed those busy bees from the population, the remaining subjects seemed to compensate for their absence by becoming more productive. A lesson, perhaps, for anyone who’s used to doing all of the work on a group project. 

Cuckoo bees hardly work at all: They lay their eggs in the nests of other bee species, forcing them to feed their young. We call that working smarter, not harder.

48. Misconception: Goldfish have three-second memories.

Goldfish can remember things that happened more than a few seconds ago. Studies from the 1950s and ‘60s demonstrated it, yet the myth that they only have three-second memories persists. We don’t know exactly how long their memories last, but it’s thought to be months for certain types of information. People have conducted several studies involving food, such as feeding the fish on one side of their tanks, having them perform certain behaviors to receive food, and having the fish navigate obstacles such as mazes. In all the tests, goldfish were shown to remember what they needed to do to get fed.

49. Misconception: Oatmeal kills ants. 

According to some old DIY remedies, oatmeal is a good way to get rid of ants. It was thought that when ants ate the oatmeal, the food would expand as it became wet in their stomachs and eventually kill them. But even a single piece of oatmeal is too big for an ant to eat, and many adult ants don’t eat solid food at all.

50. Misconception: Horseshoe crabs are crabs.

We can chalk this one up to a confusing name. Horseshoe crabs are not crabs or even crustaceans. They’re more closely related to arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions. True crabs have antennae and jaws; horseshoe crabs have neither. Their reputation as “living fossils,” on the other hand, is fairly accurate: Horseshoe crabs have been around for at least 445 million years, which means they were roaming the planet long before dinosaurs arrived on the scene around 230 million years ago. But just because the species is super old doesn’t mean horseshoe crabs don’t live it up—in fact, the creatures even engage in group sex.

51. Misconception: Pillbugs are bugs.

Here’s another misconception that comes from a misleading name. Pillbugs—also known as roly polies and potato bugs—are not bugs. What constitutes a bug is a matter of debate among biologists, but this particular case isn't particularly controversial. They aren’t even insects. Pillbugs are really crustaceans. They’re actually fairly closely related to the giant isopods that live in the ocean.

52. Misconception: Sharks can smell a drop of blood from a mile away.

If you somehow cut yourself and start bleeding while you’re in the ocean, it won’t act like a beacon to all the sharks within a few miles. The fish do have excellent senses of smell. Just how good their smell is depends on the specific species. In general, though, it’s thought sharks can smell blood from only around a quarter of a mile away. And besides, sharks don’t need to sniff blood to find their next meal: Thanks to their highly sensitive electro-sensory organs, they can detect their prey’s heartbeat. It is worth saying, though: sharks likely have little interest in you, unless you’re a seal.

53. Misconception: A carrot-only diet is good for rabbits.

This one’s bad news for Bugs Bunny. Rabbits shouldn’t eat a lot of carrots. Think of the root veg as rabbit candy: They can have them in moderation, as a treat. In the wild, rabbits wouldn’t ordinarily eat carrots, and carrots have far too much sugar to be a healthy meal. It’s best for bunnies to stick with hay and grass, leafy greens, and dedicated rabbit pellets as their primary food source.

54. Misconception: Cockroaches are indestructible.

Sure, cockroaches are freakishly good at staying alive. They can even regrow lost limbs! But they aren’t truly indestructible. An average person can indeed kill a cockroach—no exterminator is required. You’ll need to make sure you’re using a strong enough insecticide or crushing it with enough force, but still, the job can be done. In fact, the average roach lives for only about 20 to 30 weeks.

55. Misconception: Bonobos never fight.

Bonobos have been informally dubbed “the hippie apes” owing to their “free-loving” ways. They’re known to engage in different permutations of sexual activity, including same-sex genital rubbing and group sex. 

All this sex might very well play a role in group cohesion and cooperation, which has led to a bit of a one-sided view of the primates as some sort of pacifistic ideal in the animal kingdom. Instead of fighting, this line of thinking goes, two otherwise tense bonobos will simply get it on and avoid further conflict. 

In fact, bonobos have been known to fight one another. Like chimpanzees, they sometimes even form coalitions to engage in group attacks. Interestingly, the most common groups observed in one study were made up of all females. Those groups had an incredibly high rate of success against males, for the record. So, while studying bonobos may still reveal unique insights into primate behavior, the idea that they exist in a perpetual state of sex-induced tranquility is a myth.

56. Misconception: Chimpanzees are monkeys.

Neither bonobos nor chimpanzees are monkeys; they’re both considered apes and there are a number of differences between the two types of primates. Apes are generally bigger and smarter, and only monkeys have tails. As seems to always be the case with biology, there are tricky edge cases: Barbary macaques are monkeys, but they either have no tail at all or a vestigial tail. 

57. Misconception: Bald eagles are named for a lack of hair.

Bald eagles obviously have feathers on their heads (the Andean condor, for our money, looks balder). Still, you could imagine the United States’ national bird earning its name because the white feathers up top look “bald” compared to the darker feathers found below the neck. Etymologically, though, that’s not quite right. 

The best guess seems to be that their name is related to a different bald, effectively meaning white or marked with white, like piebald. So the name probably comes from their white heads and not from any resemblance to Vin Diesel.

58. Misconception: White rhinos are white.

Similar to bald eagles, the name white rhino is a bit misleading. Just look at them: they're clearly gray. Some sources say the name derives from a Dutch or Afrikaans word for “wide,” but that explanation is dubious, according to experts. Black rhinos, incidentally, aren’t black. They’re gray, too.

59. Misconception: Rays are a particularly dangerous type of fish.

The stingray accident that took Steve Irwin’s life might have you believe rays are particularly lethal creatures. This probably isn’t the case, though. First of all, most of the hundreds of ray species aren’t stingrays at all. The spiny butterfly ray, for example, is considered harmless to humans. If you step on it and it feels the need to defend itself, the resulting injury might hurt, but it probably won’t be fatal. 

And even the types of ray that can be dangerous don’t seem to account for a large number of human casualties. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but a textbook from several decades ago pegged the number of recorded deaths attributable to stingrays at only 17. That number has gone up in recent years, but compared to more common killers like bee stings and dog attacks, stingrays aren’t exactly mother nature’s assassins.

Of course, it’s still best to proceed with caution if you end up anywhere near a stingray and to follow best practices for dealing with wild animals: look (from a distance), but definitely don’t touch.

60. Misconception: Giant pandas are endangered.

Pandas are still considered “vulnerable,” but that represents an upgrade from their longtime status as endangered. Their worldwide population has actually grown around 17 percent over the past decade, according to the World Wildlife Fund. 

Of course, the fact that the adorable bears are so closely associated with endangered animals, in general, has a lot to do with the WWF. They’ve used pandas as a sort of mascot for the organization’s efforts for decades, and they should be applauded for their success. 

There is a risk of this “single-species conservation” strategy, though, as Benji Jones outlined in a story for Vox. While photogenic animals like pandas, gorillas, and tigers might be well-served by this approach, it risks neglecting other species that are just as important for global biodiversity. In the same time period that pandas began their comeback, many bird and fish species were depleted. Mussels and corals are at risk; though they’re vital to ecosystems, they don’t have adorable faces that make for good promotional materials. 

We can be happy that pandas are, hopefully, on the road to recovery, but still acknowledge that future conservation efforts may be better served by taking a holistic approach.

61. Misconception: Bread makes good duck food.

Eaten in moderation, a little bit of bread isn’t super-harmful for ducks. It may provide empty calories, but it’s not toxic. But if you’re in a well-trafficked public park, it’s unlikely the ducks being fed bread and other human food are able to practice moderation. This can lead to malnutrition if the birds are filling up on bread.

Bread that isn’t eaten right away can mold, with potentially negative consequences if it’s eaten later on. It can also attract critters like rats, which can be a problem in its own right. 

People feeding ducks bread also can lead to overcrowding and increased defecation, which can promote excess algae growth and the spread of diseases. 

If you really want to feed your local ducks, there are duck pellets available that will generally be more nutritious. Oats, barley, and thawed frozen peas are probably also better choices, but really you should avoid feeding them. Experts generally agree: any wild animal relying on humans for food is not ideal.

62. Misconception: Salmon jump to loosen their eggs.

Apparently, this myth has been floated as an explanation for why the fish jump. The idea is that the movement helps free the eggs from a membrane, which would then be helpful around mating time. Since male salmon have also been shown to jump, though, this explanation doesn’t seem very plausible. 

We don’t really know for sure why salmon engage in this unusual behavior. Jumping frequency increases as feeding activity goes down, so it doesn’t seem like they’re hopping up for insects. 

One study suggested they might be trying to dislodge sea lice. Though there is some evidence for the claim, it apparently took “an average of 56 leaps to dislodge a single sea louse,” which seems like a questionable return on investment for an activity that expends energy and puts the fish at greater risk from predatory birds. Further research is likely needed.

63. Misconception: Sheep are mindless.

You don’t have to travel very far on social media to find someone accusing a human being of being a sheep; the implication is that they’re unthinking and overly obedient. In reality, these adorable animals can recognize peers and familiar humans. Studies have shown that ovines can remember “the distribution of different foods across a pasture” well. 

They’ve been found to have distinct personalities. One study, for example, showed individuals falling at different places on the spectrum of “shyness to boldness” [PDF], exhibiting different appetites for risk-taking behavior and exploration. 

Images of large flocks of sheep moving more or less in unison may have given rise to our figurative language around the animals, but assuming this means they’re dumb is incorrect. In fact, on an individual level, that flocking behavior makes perfect sense. By congregating together, vulnerable sheep reduce their risk of being picked off by predators. 

64. Misconception: Komodo dragons have lethally dirty mouths.

This myth dates back to a 1981 book by biologist Walter Auffenberg, as science journalist Ed Yong broke down in a story for National Geographic. The idea is that while the giant lizards aren’t venomous, per se, their mouths are teeming with bacteria that indirectly take down anything unlucky enough to get bit by a Komodo dragon. 

The actual explanation is much simpler: Komodo dragons do have venom glands. When they bite another animal, the toxins released by the glands are contributing to those early deaths—not poor oral hygiene. When a team led by Ellie Goldstein from UCLA’s School of Medicine swabbed Komodo dragon mouths, they found normal microbial life—nothing that would support Auffenberg’s original claim.

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