Wild Facts

Photograph by George Grall

Welcome to Wild Facts!  If this is your first time stumbling upon our crazy little place to learn all about animal facts than please feel free to snoop around.  As well you can leave a comment or send me an e-mail if you have any questions or would like some additional information about an animal.  If you happen to be one of the regular readers than welcome back and thanks for all of your support so far.  All of you reading this are in for a shocking post today.  No I mean it will literally be electrifying since we are going to look at the always interesting Electric Eel.  What can possibly be cooler than a fish that can give you a huge electrical shock? Well, I guess it would be pretty groovy if we had sharks with laser beams but let’s not get ridiculous (Bonus Wild Fact point if you caught the movie reference in that last line).

The first thing you need to know about the Electric Eel is they are not eels.  Yes they have the same “snake-like” appearance as our eel friends but they are actually more closely related to other fish such as carp and catfish.  As we all know the Electric Eel is able to produce an electric charge which they use to stun their prey or to defend against predators. Just how powerful is their electric charge? Good question and I had a hunch that you would ask this so I came prepared.  The Electric Eel actually has about 6000 specialized cells, called electrocytes, which store power like little batteries.  These cells are able to produce a charge of about 600 volts.  For the record a standard plug-in is only about 120 volts (in North America) so the Electric Eel can generate 5 times the power of a plug-in.  If you want to know what this feels like than stick a fork in the socket and multiply that by 5.  I AM KIDDING!  Where are you going? Geez, don’t actually stick a fork in the socket! Are you nuts? Luckily human deaths from an electric eel are very rare but repeatedly getting shocked could cause heart failure.  As well, some people have drowned after being stunned by these shocking eel-like fish. I recommend you try not to get shocked by an Electric Eel but I will let you decide what you want to do.

Electric Eel Fast Fact – The Electric Eel has relatively poor eyesight but is capable of producing a low level electric charge that helps paint a picture of their surroundings.  And we thought bats that used sonar were cool.  Eat your heart out Little Brown Bat!

Thanks for stopping by Wild Facts and I look forward to seeing you around.  Have a great day!

Photo by Detlef Buettner

I spent the last 3 days in a little town called Inuvik which is almost on the Arctic Ocean.  Actually, I was able to do a little fishing on the “Delta” which is formed when the McKenzie River enters the Arctic Ocean. Although we were technically fishing for northern pike I was hoping to land the infamous Inconnu.  For those of you that aren’t too sure what an Inconnu is then I suggest you keep reading.  You know what, even if you do know what they are I still suggest you continue reading!

The Inconnu is the largest member of the Whitefish family and in North America will typically grow to about 1 meter long (3′). The Inconnu found in Siberia are much larger and can weigh up to 45 kg (100 lbs).  You may know these fish by their other names including Coney, Sheefish or even Connie.  So what do these large Coney’s look like? Well they are bright silvery fish with green to pale brown backs.  They tend to have a long tapering body and a wide head with a lower jaw that sticks out further than their upper jaw.  This lower jaw contains tiny, densely packed teeth which actually feels like velvet to touch.  How cool would it be to have velvet teeth? They use these teeth to feed on other fish such as whitefish (eating their own family members….ewww), sticklebacks, burbot and of course insects and shrimp.

Inconnu will generally become mature between 7 and 10 years of age which is older than most fish species.  Some populations of Coney will make long migrations to over-wintering and feeding areas.  Incredibly they have been known to migrate up to 1600 km (994 miles).  That is one long road trip, in fact it is almost equivalent to driving from Toronto, Ontario to Halifax, Nova Scotia. This will put their migration distances into perspective for my Canadian readers.

Although I didn’t manage to catch an Inconnu this weekend I had fun trying and it gave me an idea for a Wild Fact so I think it was a successful fishing trip.

Have a great day!

Guppy - Photo from Wikicommons

Yesterday we looked at the piranha which we learned can be vicious, as if we didn’t know that already?!? We also learned that they like to hang out in the rivers of South America.  Today we are going to look at another popular fish that can be found throughout the freshwater rivers of South America.  Don’t worry though, the Guppy isn’t nearly as dangerous as the piranha. In fact, I bet  a lot of you had a pet guppy at one time or another. Let’s see if we can learn something new about them, shall we?

There are about 300 species of guppy and as you know they make a great pet since they are beautifully coloured and are fairly easy to take care of.  In captivity they will often live for 3 to 5 years.  Unfortunately the wild isn’t as easy so their life spans are a little shorter when they aren’t living in a bowl.  Guppies are omnivores and will usually feed on algae, brine shrimp and whatever other particles they find floating in the water column.  Yesterday we learned that even the piranha has predators so I would say it is safe to assume that the guppy also has some natural predators.  In fact, they have quite a few but birds and other fish are their biggest threats. For the record, I would not recommend keeping your pet guppy in the same tank as your pet piranha.

Photo from Wikicommons

Generally, fish will mate and the female will then deposit 1000′s of eggs somewhere in the water.  If this isn’t true then the caviar industry has a lot of explaining to do.  The guppy though likes to be different and will actually give birth to live young.  This just means that their eggs hatch inside of them and eventually (about a month later) the female will give birth to about 100 cute, little guppies.  Luckily these babies are able to swim, feed and sense danger immediately.  This is obviously a great survival tactic for a little fish.  Okay, I guess we have time for one more interesting fact.  Did you know that the female guppy is able to get pregnant several times from just one mating session.  Could you imagine how surprised you would be if you just gave birth to a 100 kids and a few hours later you are pregnant again.

Thanks for reading!  I will see you all again tomorrow for another cool Wild Fact!

Photo by Alexdi (Wikimedia)

The exciting Wild Fact for today will be about one of the more popular fish species known to man. The reputation as baddest fish in the river has to go to the Piranha.  Just the name of this little fish will strike fear into even the most brave people.  Let’s take a minute and find out a bit more about the deadly piranha.

The piranha can be found in virtually every country in South America and lately as a result of irresponsible pet owners, they have been found in the Southern USA.  For the record, it is illegal to own Piranha’s in the majority of the US States so check the laws if you have one as a pet.  As well, please don’t dump them into the natural environment as they have the potential to destroy our natural ecosystems.

So what is it about the piranha that makes them so feared? Well, it might be their single row of razor sharp teeth or perhaps their thirst for blood.  We have all seen the movies where a school of piranha’s will feast in an erratic frenzy.  The movies may exaggerate this feeding behaviour but they really do feed in a frenzy.  Despite their reputation the piranha is actually an omnivore.  That’s right, they don’t feed solely on fish, mammals and birds. They also like to feed on insects, aquatic plants and snails.  Yummy, escargot!  You might also be surprised that these feared fish actually have a few predators including river dolphins, crocodiles, turtles, birds and larger fish.  I guess this just goes to prove that no matter how fierce you seem, there is always something higher up on the food chain.

When it comes to parenting the piranha’s know what their doing.  Generally the female will lay about 5000 eggs and since the male and female do such a great job guarding the nest, about 90% of these eggs will hatch in a few days.  Don’t worry folks, I will do the math for you.  That is 4500 baby piranha’s being born from a single mated pair. Imagine how high your babysitting bill would be if you wanted to go on a date night with your significant other.  Let’s see, at $10 per child, it would cost you $45 000 for that quality time away from the kids.  Yikes!

I hope you enjoyed today’s fact.

Photo: Channel Catfish - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Digital Library System

Since it is Friday, I figured it would be fun to head down to our favourite lake for a little bit of fishing.  Don’t worry, I wanted to keep the Cat and Dog theme going into the weekend so we are going to try our luck with the Channel Catfish. The lake may be busy since Channel Catfish are the most fished of all the catfish species.  I can’t wait for summer so I can do a little bit of angling.  This snow is starting to frustrate me although I guess spring is rapidly approaching.

So we now know that lots of people like to fish for channel cats.  This reminds me of those videos of people fishing for catfish using their arms. For the record, that is definitely not my type of fishing and not recommended. What else do you want to know about channel catfish? How about this interesting little tidbit! Channel catfish actually have taste buds all over their body with numerous taste buds located on their four barbels (whiskers). This area around the mouth has 25 taste buds per millimeter! That is a whole lot of taste! The channel catfish also has an incredible sense of smell due to very sensitive odour sensing organs located in their nostrils. I wonder if they are able to detect how bad they actually smell? Although, I suppose a “fishy” smell to a fish wouldn’t be a bad smell.  Perhaps it is humans that smell bad to the catfish? I will stop rambling long enough to let you know that the catfish requires the super sense of taste and smell in order to detect prey species located in the dark, murky water.

We can’t talk about catfish and not address their defense mechanism which is a sharp spine that is often associated with a poison gland. These spines are located on the dorsal fin (back) and pectoral fins (side).  It may sting if you get stung with the spine of the channel catfish, however, it is not deadly and their is no need to worry.  Although, some species of catfish do have a deadly venom that can cause serious injury or death, obviously or else I wouldn’t have said “deadly venom”.  Many people may think it is the whiskers that cause the painful sting but trust me when I tell you it is the dorsal or pectoral spine.  If you want to find out more about poisonous catfish then I recommend you check out this article.  Recent studies have shown that many more catfish than originally thought contain a poison. Check it out here:

Killer Catfish? Venomous Species Surprisingly Common, Study Finds

Well, I guess you guys have read enough for this beautiful Friday.  I know it is beautiful since it is Friday!!  Have a great weekend!

Every now and again you have a week where it just makes blogging so incredibly rewarding.  Earlier this week, Larissa over at Reef Botanicals presented Wild Facts with the Sunshine Award.  Just after that our beloved Animal Facts Blog was featured on Daily Planet.  Now, I find out that my favourite cat, Sparkle over at http://www.sparklecat.com has presented Wild Facts with the Superior Scribbler Award. I wanted to thank Sparkle the furry feline (and her human, Janiss) for being so kind and nominating Wild Facts for this prestigious award. As well, I recommend all of you to go and check out Sparkle’s website and see how a cat really thinks!

I had so much fun writing about the Pelican Eel yesterday that I thought I would keep the fish theme going.  We are ending the week with a very invasive but interesting fish called the Snakehead Fish! The Snakehead is native to Africa and Asia, however, populations of this deadly fish have been introduced into North America where they are causing Government Agencies to be concerned.  In fact, these fish are so deadly that they were referred to as “Fishzilla” in a recent documentary on National Geographic.

All right, what is so deadly about these ugly looking fish? Well, it is a top level predator which means it has no natural enemies, which probably has to do with the shark-like teeth, aggressive behaviour and the ability to survive anywhere.  The introduction of these fish into North American lakes are causing major concerns for fisherman and regulators alike since they have the ability to decimate local fish populations.  These fish will stop at nothing!  They are like locusts of the fish world feeding on other fish, crustaceans, plants, basically anything they can get their teeth on.  What makes these fish even more difficult to manage is the fact that when they are finished with a lake or if the lake dries up, they just move to a new lake.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that these pesky fish are able to “walk” on land.  Yeah, you read that right!  I will wait while you take that in……………All right, now that you have tossed that thought around in your head, I will continue to explain.  You see, the Snakehead is capable of breathing atmospheric oxygen which allows it to survive out of the water for about 4 days.  This adaptation obviously gives them an edge and allows them to wriggle across land to a brand new, productive, home.  They have evolved this feature as a result of the natural habitat in China.  It is a regular occurrence for their beloved watery homes to dry up so they needed to adapt in order to survive.  You can see why American and Canadian officials are worried about this little fish setting up shop in North America.  If this issue is not addressed than our fisheries could be in jeopardy.

If you would like to read more then I recommend checking out this article on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans website.

Not Welcomed in Canada: Preventing a Northern Snakehead Invasion

I always thought we would have to worry about space aliens invading Canada but I think this fish might be more deadly than some cute, green, martian.

I apologize to everyone for the disturbing picture above but I can’t help it if that is what a Viperfish looks like. Doesn’t this fish look like something straight out of a horror movie.  I figured I would end our Deep Sea Adventure on an interesting but frightening note.  It is probably a good time for us to get out of the water with fish like this swimming around.  Don’t worry, next week we will be on land, but is that safe?

As I mentioned, the final fact of the week will be on the Viperfish which is also known as the Fangfish.  I wonder how it got that alternative name? The viperfish is usually a dark silvery blue colour and only about 30 cm (12 inches) long.  Don’t let the small size of this fish fool you though as it was designed to be a predator. In fact, the fangfish is one of the most fierce predators of the deep sea. So what do I mean when I say it was designed to be a predator? Well, I mean evolution built this fish to eat other fish.  For starters, we will look at their teeth.  The viperfish has a large mouth with very large and very sharp teeth.  In fact, their teeth are so big that they don’t actually fit in their mouth. These fangs curve back and extend close to their eye. The viperfish will use these teeth by swimming at full speed towards their prey and simply impaling them with their fangs.  The first vertebrae of this fish is designed to absorb the force it sustains from swimming into their prey at high speeds.  I told you that evolution hand picked the traits to make the viperfish an effective killer.  As if this wasn’t bad enough, the fangfish uses bio-luminescence to attract their prey to them. Similar to the Anglerfish, these guys have a light attached to an extended fin ray which they can flicker off and on.  As well, they have tiny photophores on the sides of their body.  These lights basically invite the other fish in the area to come and see what is happening.  I promise you they will regret that decision.

Well this seems like a really good time to get our feet out of the water.  Let’s take a break and head for the land on Monday.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Photo by Garry McCarthy

While I am enjoying myself on my much needed vacation (at least I hope I am enjoying myself) we are going to learn another interesting fact about a crazy ocean fish.  If you are anything like me then you may be familiar with the freshwater sunfish, which is a small fish that have provided children hours and hours of entertainment.  If this is your idea of a sunfish then today’s fact should impress you.  The Ocean Sunfish isn’t related to the freshwater kind.

By looking at the picture you will see one of the biggest differences between these two species of fish.  The freshwater sunfish that I am use to seeing in Ontario are about 9 inches long and weigh less than a pound.  On the other side of the proverbial coin is the Ocean Sunfish (also known as the Mola mola) which can be as long as 14 feet and weigh about 5000 pounds. Imagine your kids face when they are sitting on the dock at your cottage and they pull up a 5000 pound sunfish! Just to put that into perspective, that is about the weight of a small pickup truck.

As you can understand, the ocean sunfish is the largest bony fish on the planet.  Fish such as sharks and rays are cartilaginous fish so they don’t count.  Interestingly enough the Mola mola can be as tall as they are long which gives them a rather circular appearance.  This gigantic fish feed mainly on jellyfish but will also feed on small fish and microscopic plant matter floating around in the water.  Unfortunately, the ocean sunfish has a small mouth, which is odd considering the size of the animal.  In order to feed with this beak-like mouth the Mola mola will actually suck the food in and then it spit out over and over again.  This allows the large sunfish to tear apart its food so it can easily eat the smaller pieces.  That might be gross but you have to admit, that is pretty clever.  Just for fun, the next time you are on a date, I want you to try this feeding technique.  Let me know how long the date lasts!

Ocean Sunfish Fast Fact: When this sunfish first hatches it is about one-tenth of an inch long.  Now I want you to think about this for a second. This is a fish that can end up being 14 feet long and starts out smaller than an inch.  Impressive!  Even more impressive is the fact that the Mola mola will weigh 60 million times more as an adult then it did when it was born.  Just so you know, most of us don’t even weigh 30 times more than we did when we were born! If I were a Ocean Sunfish I would weigh about 540 million pounds right now. Don’t you just hate that extra holiday weight! Well I am off to call Weight Watchers so have a good one!

This is the start of my 2 week vacation so these posts have been prepared ahead of time.  You know I just can’t abandon my loyal readers just because I am on holidays.  As usual, when I am away, I like to think of themes for Wild Facts! A buddy of mine just returned from Hawaii and mentioned that he had seen all kinds of interesting fish.  This got me thinking that I should make a week of Wild Facts dedicated to the unique fish that reside in the ocean.  I am sure I could make 1000 Wild Facts but we will limit it to five…. for now. I would love to tell you the theme for the second week but I haven’t thought of it yet. So onto the fish!

The first fish is called a Blobfish for obvious reasons. This unique fish lives off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania at depths between 600 – 1200 metres (1968 – 3937 feet).  As you can imagine, life at these great depths would be very difficult.  The pressure would be about 80 times greater at these depths compared to at sea-level. This intense pressure makes gas-chambered, swim bladders completely ineffective since the gases that help normal fish control their buoyancy are too condensed at this level.

For the reasons mentioned above the blobfish doesn’t have a swim bladder and doesn’t have any muscles.  What they do have though is a jelly-like flesh that has a lower density than water. This allows them to float just above the ocean floor.  Without any muscles the blobfish is not a very active fish.  Instead it just sits there swallowing any food matter that floats by. This method works well for the blobfish as it expends very little energy.  I guess it is the equivalent of us relaxing on the couch watching football while you are served nachos, pizza and beer. Aaaah, the good life!

Well that is all for today but make sure you come back tomorrow for another unusual fish fact.

I hope you are all enjoying the start of your week.  Yesterday, I went a little more domestic with Wild Facts by talking about dogs.  I had a lot of fun with that post and had a lot of interesting questions. As much fun as it was, I have decided to make today’s post about an animal that is a little more wild. Today we are going to talk about a deep sea creature so you know it will be interesting.

The coffinfish is in the same family as the Anglerfish.  Remember this is the fish that uses a glowing lure to attract its prey. You don’t remember? Really because we talked about it.  Okay, I will post the link to that Wild Fact here.  You can go and refresh your memory but you have to promise to come back to today’s Fact.

Welcome back! There is not a lot of information out on the coffinfish since it spends the majority of its time sitting on the ocean floor.  Although, they are common, we don’t spend much time on the ocean floor. Occasionally they will get caught in nets and brought to the surface.  When this happens the coffinfish will be a big round ball.  Why you ask? The coffinfish shares a trait similar to the pufferfish.  They are able to take in water and blow up their body as a self-defense mechanism.  This method protects them as it is more difficult for other predators to eat a swollen fish. Heck, I have a hard time eating sushi if the piece is too big.  Although, I blame the chopsticks for that!

Although their defense mechanism is awesome, the coolest thing about the coffinfish is the fact that they can walk along the ocean floor.  You read that right!  This is a fish that is able to walk. For some reason, I keep picturing that old evolution cartoon with the fish walking out of the water and eventually turning into a man. Obviously the coffinfish doesn’t have legs like we do but they do have tiny leg-like fins that are capable of walking. How weird would it be if you caught a coffinfish and it managed to walk off the boat.  I know that would surprise the heck out of me!

Well, that is all for today’s fact!  I hope you enjoyed learning about another unique deep sea creature.  Enjoy the rest of your day!