"In Switzerland, it's illegal to own 1 guinea pig. They consider them social animals and require companionship, so you have to have at least two!"
"Magnolia trees are so old that they predate bees by about 40 million years, and as a result are pollinated by beetles.
They are considered the first flowering plant on earth."
"Birds have been observed intentionally lining their nests with cigarette butts. While the nicotine in them is toxic to the birds, it's a low enough dose that it's not a significant risk to them in the short term (they don't live long enough for the long term effects to be a problem), and it k*lls parasites that may try to hide in the nest and infect the chicks.
Smaller bird species have been sighted stealing the anti-bird spikes that we put on buildings and lining their nests with them, like little palisade walls against other birds and predators. A small species like a songbird can navigate the spikes easily, but it makes it more difficult for a predator like a hawk or a rat to get to the nest.
Crows have also been observed stealing lit cigarettes from ashtrays and wafting the smoke through their feathers to k*ll parasites."
"During the great depression, FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps for young men. They planted over 2 BILLION! trees in their 7 years of existence. They also built a lot of the buildings and lodges at the national parks."
"The sea produces more oxygen than trees."
"Pistachio ice cream is about 2000 years older than Chocolate or Vanilla ice cream. Persians were making ice cream as early as 500BC, often flavored with Pistachio. Chocolate and Vanilla, on the other hand, are native to the New World and wouldn't make it there for another two thousand years."
"A group of pandas is called an embarrassment."
"How old the Appalachian Mountains really are:
They are older than trees, bones (including all dinosaurs), and the splitting of Pangaea -- so part of the mountain range is in Scotland.
The layering on the mountains looks "wrong" at some points because the tops of the mountains have eroded down & "new" geological forces have caused parts that weren't the top to rise above that...so the valleys of the current mountains may actually be the top of the original Appalachian Mountains."
"A million seconds is about 11.5 days.
A billion seconds is over 31 **YEARS**.
Think about that when you consider the wealth of a millionaire vs a billionaire."
"80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn’t survive WWII."
"Cows have best friends!! you know how wee see them group all the time but they still has this their very best of friends for them. if they would sperate they'll get stressed about it. they really have this strong bond."
"The last execution by guillotine in France was the same year Star Wars hit theaters, 1977."
"Italy didn’t have widespread use of the tomato until the 1700s and the pasta sauces we think of being a core of their cuisine didn’t exist until the 19th century."
"There are bears in super rural parts of Russia that are addicted to huffing fuel meant for the power generators, and there's nothing the locals can do about it, because when the locals try and take away the fuel from the bears it doesn't go well."
"Every glass of water you drink is almost 100% guaranteed to have at least one water molecule that was also drank by dinosaurs."
"Chloroplasts are the organelles responsible for photosynthesis.
A sea slug called the emerald elysia, which has a transparent body, steals chloroplasts from algae and packs them into its own cells.
The chloroplasts continue to photosynthesize, providing the slug with ~80% of the total calories it will consume over its life."
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