› added 9 years ago

313

TIL wild young female chimps care for sticks the same way girls play with dolls, something not seen in males. Also, captive male monkeys prefer to play with trucks, and females with dolls, suggesting there is something biological about the sexes that make us prefer toward different toys.

Read more wired.com

via reddit.com

gp94 TIL There is an Electric Eel at the Tennessee Aquarium that is hooked up to a computer which sends Tweets from its account every time the Eel’s discharge reaches the electricity threshold. Most of Miguel Wattson’s tweets are onomatopoetic sounds related to electricity.
VBgXQ TIL while a Cat’s purring mostly remains a mystery; researchers have observed that the tonal frequency of their inhale/exhale patterns are unchanged, & have been observed to be a cat’s attempt to heal itself or another bonded creature
N7wgE TIL baby Sanddollars (like a sea urchin) eat the heaviest bits of sand they can find, to weigh them down so they don't get swept away, like a teeny tiny weight belt
jNv1p TIL of the Republic of Užupis, a suburb of Vilnius, Lithuania which declared itself independent in 1998. Every April fools day Lithuania sets up border posts on the bridges and stamps passports. The Republics Constitution guarentees "A dog has the right to be a dog."
4Vp6 TIL in 1996, a Norwegian man became the first to cross Antarctica, 1,864 miles - coast to coast, alone and completely without support. In 2001, he completed the first solo crossing of the Arctic, from Siberia to Canada via the North Pole, in 82 days.