WolfQuest

The idea that tigers and jaguars, who are excellent swimmers, dislike water simply because domestic cats do.
The myth that Pitbulls can never be good pets; I have firsthand experience that this is not true.
The idea that hyenas are cowardly scavengers.
The myth that the wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone are "giant arctic wolves" is probably the most annoying for me.


In regards to the wild animals as pets myth, I read a book about the zoo that had many misconceptions about wolves. It went something like this: "Captured young enough, wolves can be kept in the space of a backyard, learn to live on cereal-based dog food, and live continually, even loyally, as man's best friend...The fox, coyote and dingo are also dogs, wrongly given different scientific names even though they can interbreed with regular dogs...The idea that killer wolves can be trained to live again in peace reminds us of that..."

I'm sure nearly all of us here would agree that wolves are so much better off with other wolves in the wilderness where they belong. A wolf should never be taken from the wild just so someone can get a "cool" pet.

I hope this hasn't already been said, but...eagles don't make Red-tailed Hawk screes, nor does any other raptor except for said Red-tail. Also, believe it or not (yes, I'm looking at you, western movies) Bald Eagles don't frequent the desert making Red-tail screams.

- Tortoises and turtles are not synonyms. Turtles live in water, tortoises live on land.

- Piranha will rip into anything that falls into the water. They're actually rather harmless.

- Rabbits make easy pets. They are actually very high maintenance animals and need a lot of attention and care.

La Striata wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:40 am

It's possible for feathers to evolve into reptilian scales. That's seriously what people unable to accept that Velociraptor had feathers seem to think. Its predecessors (like Microraptor) were unambiguously feathered, and there is no evidence whatsoever of any feathered organism reverting to reptilian scales.

And then the T. rex scale impressions were found. And also that’s not true because the scales on bird feet are derived from feathers.

- T. rex was not only a scavenger. No flightless terrestrial carnivore can survive only by scavenging, and many healed wounds in the bones of herbivores in the same time and place could only come from T. rex, including a tooth lodged in a hadrosaur vertebra which was healed over.

- Torosaurus and Triceratops are not the same animal. A theory a couple years back of Triceratops being a subadult Torosaurus got some traction, despite Triceratops being larger, and one species living in the northern US while the other lived in the south. The potential remains of a subadult Torosaurus have also been found, further debunking it.

- Spinosaurus was not a quadruped, that we know of. Over nearly 200 million years of evolution, not a single theropod has been known to revert to quadrupedalism, and their arms were not capable of supporting that weight.

the idea that ostriches bury their heads in the sand.

The idea that cow milk is good for cats (it's not, it can actually give them diarrhea).

The idea that bears often eat honey. While bears do eat from beehives, they are actually after the larvae and eggs of the bees and not the honey itself (though they will still eat honey sometimes, it isn't a major part of their diet).

The idea that carrots and other root vegetables are commonly eaten by rabbits. Rabbits actually eat weeds and grasses.

The myth that porcupines are capable of shooting their quills at attackers. They can't.

The phrase "blind as a bat". Bats actually can see, in fact, certain species of fruit-eating bats can actually see just a well if not better than humans. However, some insect eating bats have worse vision, but they definitely aren't fully blind.

DaniBeez wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 9:50 am

I'm sure it's been said before on this thread in other ways, but: iTs AlL iN HoW yOu TrAIN TheM. Inherited aggression is a very real phenomenon.

Also, the frequency of albinism in nature. A picture of a leucistic goose went viral in my city, but the poster mistakenly said it was albino. Then the comments went wild with all the other albino wildlife people have definitely seen . Albinism is actually quite rare in most animal groups, due to its linkage with other disadvantageous traits including vision, hearing, reproductive, and camouflage-related problems.

Yeah, there's a serious misconception regarding just how rare albino animals are. We had an albino deer in our area a few years back, and people were always claiming that they'd seen it. Me and my dad actually got to see it grazing with the rest of the herd once, but it was so far away that we could barely make out the outline of it even with binoculars. Of course, later that fall some young farmer went out and killed it, and almost everyone in my town criticized this guy for not only killing such a rare animal but also for just taking the meat from it and leaving the rest of it to rot out in the sun. Nobody has seen an albino deer in our area ever since, though one local farm owner claimed to have seen a piebald deer in his cornfield last winter. A lot of people, especially those who don't know very much about animals, often seem to think that albino animals are much more common than they really are.

My goodness. I just read through all of these posts and some of these drove me right up the wall. And I see two people (The Chemist and elkhunter123456) pointed out ostriches can't bury their heads. I have had ostriches and NONE of them have buried their heads, though I will admit to having believed it when I was younger.

- Snakes are slimey

Not really. I haven't heard this except from people debunking it, but I can guarantee that if someone says 'they are not slimey' they are very right. I've actually pet one, it was smooth and, for lack of a better word, soft.

YellowstoneWolves1 wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 21, 2019 12:07 pm

My goodness. I just read through all of these posts and some of these drove me right up the wall. And I see two people (The Chemist and elkhunter123456) pointed out ostriches can't bury their heads. I have had ostriches and NONE of them have buried their heads, though I will admit to having believed it when I was younger.

- Snakes are slimey

Not really. I haven't heard this except from people debunking it, but I can guarantee that if someone says 'they are not slimey' they are very right. I've actually pet one, it was smooth and, for lack of a better word, soft.

I've heard several different snake species and can guarantee that none of them are slimy, Me personally never though that snake were sliming even before touching one.

Another misconception that annoys me is that worms can drown. Worms can breath perfectly fine under water.

almost everything about coyotes. they seem to get similar treatment as wolves back then despite being much smaller..
a lot of people seem to believe they hunt in large packs in which they don't. they also don't actively hunt humans, not even children.
when i hear people say these things i'm like :I why

+ They're called killers so that's why they attack!
No reports of orcas harming a human have ever been recorded, except in captivity [for obvious reasons!].
+ They're killer whales. Whale is in their name!
They're not whales, they're actually the largest member of the dolphin family!
Also, their name killer whales is old, forgotten slang.
See here:
"Because of their fierce reputation, orca are sometimes called the Ballena asesina (“assassin whale”) by the Spanish. They were referred to as “whale killers” by sailors who witnessed their attacks on larger cetaceans, and over time this name was changed to “killer whales.”" - marinebio.org

this ends my ted talk thank you :'D

Okay, I could go on and on for days about this subject, but here`s one that really makes me mad: people who call themselves vegetarians eating fish! Fish (yes, I`m aware that its a term that lumps several groups of animals together) are Animals! Vegetarian means not eating animals! End of rant. Oh, here another one: people thinking that by necessity ferrets are smelly and stink up a house. Yes they do have a natural musk, but with good diet, proper care, and clean housing the smell can be kept to a minimum. It does take a bit of work, but there is no such thing as a "beginner`s pet". Caring for another living being is a commitment, regardless.