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TIL: When foxes discovered fairy penguins on a small Australian island, they nearly wiped the colony out. Swampy Marsh, a chicken farmer, began sending Maremma dogs to protect the birds. Over the next 10 years not a single penguin was killed by a fox.

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9Y9pr TIL the black soldier fly larva turns most organic substances into nutrient-rich protein and frass, a valuable organic fertilizer. Significant reductions in E. coli and Salmonella were measured in manure after larvae were introduced in it. They can also purify biomass contaminated with heavy metals.
KYMLw TIL Anvil firing is the practice of exploding an anvil into the air. Anvils are typically fired as a celebration, be it to honor St. Clement's (the Patron Saint of blacksmiths) or in a 21 anvil salut as found in New Westminster, British Columbia.
0wvXj TIL In China, a crayfish detached its own claw over a boiling pot of soup in order to escape being cooked. It sacrificed its limb to save its own life. It was later adopted as a pet by a user of the Chinese social media site Weibo.
Jv9Q TIL in 1810 London came to a standstill from a prank by Theodore Hook who sent out thousands of letters requesting services that included hundreds of coal deliveries, wedding cakes, priests, lawyers, doctors, chimney sweeps, and over a dozen pianos to be delivered to the same address.
ElKP TIL A man who survived 5 concentration camps convinced Hasbro to start producing Transformers, also holds over 100 other patents, the best-known of which gave him the exclusive right in the United States to detect and display hole cards in poker games.