{"id":4094,"date":"2022-04-27T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=4094"},"modified":"2022-04-12T08:05:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T08:05:45","slug":"the-spider-that-looks-like-bird-poo-and-other-amazing-and-gross-tricks-animals-deploy-to-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/the-spider-that-looks-like-bird-poo-and-other-amazing-and-gross-tricks-animals-deploy-to-survive\/","title":{"rendered":"The spider that looks like bird poo \u2013 and other amazing (and gross) tricks animals deploy to survive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n \n Flickr<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nRomane H. Cristescu<\/a>, University of the Sunshine Coast<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Animals do all sorts of disgusting things. While these gross behaviours might turn our stomachs, they\u2019re often crucial to an animal\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n\n

I and my colleague Nic Gill have done the dirty work, and collected a bunch of unexpected facts about how these behaviours help animals live their best lives: \nmaking a home, finding mates and food, and surviving predators. <\/p>\n\n

Our new<\/a> book \u2013 titled Poo, Spew and other Gross Things Animals Do<\/em> \u2013 is aimed at kids, but much of it will be news to adults, too.<\/p>\n\n

So what does it take to survive and thrive in the wild? It\u2019s not always about being the biggest and fiercest. Many animals have evolved much more entertaining \u2013 if not impolite \u2013 strategies for evolutionary success. <\/p>\n\n

Grossness in love (and self-defence)<\/h2>\n\n

For wild animals, finding a mate is no laughing matter. But the lengths to which some animals will go to obtain one can be. <\/p>\n\n

Female lobsters wee on their potential mates\u2019 face for an invitation into their lairs. Even stranger, a lobster\u2019s bladder sits below their brain \u2013 so the wee squirts from<\/a> their face.<\/p>\n\n

Hippopotamuses, meanwhile, have become YouTube sensations for their rather unpleasant \u201cdung showering\u201d behaviour. Hippos spin their stumpy tails to propel a mixture of wee and poo up to ten metres \u2013 using the technique to mark their territory<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Hippos have also been observed flinging poo directly into their love interests\u2019 face during courtship.<\/p>\n\n

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