▲While penguins have often served as the poster children for monogamy, this isn't entirely true.

▲Scientists following a herd of giraffes for over five months found that they sleep, on average, 4.6 hours every day, even taking naps in the afternoons.

▲Humans and chimpanzees shared a common ancestor between six and eight million years ago, but both have since evolved into separate branches of the ape family tree.

▲Eighty-five percent of emperor penguins actually mate with a different partner from one season to the next. Adélie penguins have also been known to exchange sex for goods.

▲Many people are aware of a secretion called castoreum, which is extracted from beavers, and is added to flavorings and perfumes.

▲Not only is this false, it is also unrealistic as they wouldn't be able to breathe nor would they actually be hiding themselves. Ostriches will often play dead or run to escape danger.

▲Most color changes are actually in response to mood.

▲We share about 98.8% of our DNA with chimpanzees but we did not actually evolve from the modern chimp.

▲You can sleep soundly tonight knowing that you cannot, in fact, get warts from contact with a frog or toad.

▲However, scientists have found that animals do see colors, but in a different and less-vibrant way.

▲Bats rely heavily on echolocation, but they are capable of sight.

▲Being "blind as a bat" is not reflective of reality.

▲However, there are various cases of tumors found in sharks.

▲However, the equivalent distance would be roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool and not measurable in miles.

▲

Fish are actually quite capable of memory and learning. They can retain information and act on it after extended periods of time.

See also: The secret life of bats

▲It has been a long-perpetuated myth that dogs and cats see in black and white.

▲Most people think that sloths spend their entire day sleeping or lounging in trees.

▲However, it's very unlikely to find companies that use castoreum in their products, as it is very expensive and is often banned by government health agencies.

▲This popular myth has been debunked by scientists all over the world.

▲Chameleons change color based on factors such as mood, temperature, health, communication, and light.

▲Sloths actually just have a very slow digestive system and low-calorie diet, meaning their slow and sluggish nature is a survival instinct. When need be, they can engage in fast movement.

▲Sharks have an amazing sense of smell and can detect as little as one part blood per 10 billion parts water.

▲Giraffes actually have consistent and fairly typical sleeping habits.

▲This myth has been tracked back to the 1958 Disney nature film 'White Wilderness,' in which humans deliberately faked this lemming behavior by pushing them off cliffs and filming it.

▲Many believe that instinct drives lemmings to jump off cliffs in large groups as a way to control large population size. However, lemmings do not actually commit mass suicide.

▲Ostriches have been thought to bury their heads in the sand when they feel threatened.

▲This myth is thought to have been started by claims that shark cartilage has antiangiogenic properties, preventing them from getting cancer.

▲

The virus that causes warts, human papillomavirus, is unique to humans and can only be transferred through direct contact.

▲

A wealth of misconceptions revolve around the animal kingdom, where "fact" quickly becomes fiction. So, what's true and what's false? Browse the gallery and find out why popular myths surrounding some animals are just that... myths!

Popular animal myths that you probably still believe

Myths about animals debunked!

06/11/24 por StarsInsider

LIFESTYLE Animal kingdom

A wealth of misconceptions revolve around the animal kingdom, where "fact" quickly becomes fiction. So, what's true and what's false? Browse the gallery and find out why popular myths surrounding some animals are just that... myths!

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