Monday, February 14, 2011

3 Things About Animals You Have Always Heard - That Just Ain't True

By Alton Rush


Will Rogers once said about some yahoo, "It's not what he don't know that bothers me. It's what he knows that just ain't so."

The following 3 things you know probably wouldn't have upset ol' Will, but nonetheless, they just ain't so.

Lemmings Commit Mass Suicide

The idea of lemmings committing suicide by running in packs off of cliffs goes back at least 100 years but didn't really enter popular culture until 1958. The interesting thing is who put it there -- our buddies at that money factory known as Disney.

In their supposed "documentary", White Wilderness, Disney had dozens of lemmings shipped to Alberta, Canada, where they have never lived, then herded them off of a cliff. They then passed this off as nonfiction.

Truth is lemming are not suicidal - just dumb. They occasionally do fall off cliffs while running. But so do other animals and people.

When Elephants Die They Go to the Elephant Graveyard

No, sorry. When elephants die they fall down right where they are, just live everything else.

This popular myth stems from the fact that early explorers in Africa never saw an elephant carcass. They could not fathom that such a large beast could just disappear so assumed that they were going to some hidden place to die. What they didn't realize is that the scavengers in sub-Saharan Africa can make very short work of even the largest beast.

Throwing Rice at Weddings Will Cause Birds to Explode

Please. How can anyone believe this? There are many birds whose primary food is uncooked rice. Throw rice at a wedding gives other birds something new and good to eat.

This myth is fairly young. It was spread or maybe even started by Ann Landers in 1988. The USA Rice Federation immediately debunked the story but to little avail.




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