r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Jun 02 '26

Verified Solenostomus snuffleupagus is a newly discovered species of ghost pipefish. It is highly carnivorous and disguises itself as red algae to hunt its prey. Its existence and range were confirmed partly through citizen science apps like iNaturalist.

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1.5k Upvotes
25 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • May 31 '26

Verified Sulcata tortoises are endangered partly due to their popularity as pets. Thousands of them have been taken from the wild and sold at reptile shows. However, people are unprepared for how massive these tortoises get, leading to them being frequently abandoned.

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744 Upvotes
12 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • May 21 '26

Verified After being hunted to extinction 400 years ago, beavers are being reintroduced in the United Kingdom as a solution to flooding due to climate change. The beavers' presence has also brought back other rare and endangered species.

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7.1k Upvotes
101 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • May 17 '26

Verified Researchers recently discovered a new species of sauropod in Thailand. The largest dinosaur ever discovered in southeast Asia, Nagatitan was 90ft (27m) long and weighed more than 30 tons, three times the weight of a T-rex.

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836 Upvotes
9 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • May 09 '26

Verified Siberian Whiskered Bats: these bats can live to be more than 40 years old, which makes this the longest-living bat species in the world

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4.1k Upvotes
22 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • May 08 '26

Verified The Devil's Hole pupfish has one of the smallest habitats of any known vertebrate. It lives in a single pool of water in a cavern in Death Valley, with water temperatures of 93F. Its population is considered to be doing well when there are 200 fish in the pool.

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3.7k Upvotes
26 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 30 '26

Verified Dolomedes minor (or nursery web spider) females will build 15cm nests where they will care for their young for up to two weeks. After two weeks, the baby spiders create a spidersilk "balloon" and drift on the wind to their new homes.

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443 Upvotes
7 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 26 '26

Verified Research has increasingly shown that great apes have a complex theory of mind and are able to play pretend, have complex relationships with others, and change their beliefs when presented with sufficient evidence. Kanzi the bonobo was even able to have pretend tea parties.

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2.3k Upvotes
19 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 23 '26

Verified In the early 1990s, there were fewer than 2000 Indian rhinoceroses left in the wild. However, through careful conservation efforts, that number has more than doubled to the point where they have now become a bit of a pest in some parts of rural Nepal.

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1.2k Upvotes
10 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 22 '26

Verified In 70% of bird species, female birds sing, including alongside males in mating rituals. Males and females sometimes make completely different sounds, making it possible to distinguish between them just by listening. However, despite this, only .03% of archived sounds are labelled as female.

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2.5k Upvotes
46 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 21 '26

Verified Once feared extinct, in 2024, a group of scientists and Ngururrpa rangers used songmeters to discover a group of 50 night parrots living in the Western Australian desert. It is the largest known population of night parrots.

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2.1k Upvotes
16 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • Apr 15 '26

Verified Shell-Nesting Mason Bees: these bees build their nests in empty snail shells, using crushed leaves and soil to form the inner brood chambers and then sealing the entrance with plant pulp, pebbles, and debris

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2.8k Upvotes
18 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 13 '26

Verified Tūī have two voice boxes, allowing them to two different sounds at the same time. They use this to incorporate a range of sounds into their songs, including human speech.

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1.1k Upvotes
8 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 12 '26

Not yet verified Emperor penguins have officially been declared at risk of extinction by the IUCN. This is because the ice they rely on to hatch and raise their chicks is melting, leading to colony collapse.

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6.5k Upvotes
46 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • Apr 10 '26

Not yet verified Velvet Worms: these cute little creatures are actually ferocious predators that capture their prey with a quick-drying adhesive known as the "silly string of death"

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6.5k Upvotes
57 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Apr 05 '26

Verified Shellears are a fish the size of a french fry that are capable of scaling waterfalls. They use tiny hooks on their pectoral fins that help them grip the rock, supported by their pelvic fins. Scientists are unsure of why shellears do this.

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911 Upvotes
19 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Mar 30 '26

Verified Pīwakawakas have a zigzagging, "drunken" flight pattern. This is because they use their fan-shaped tail to change direction quickly while chasing birds. However, Māori belief holds that pīwakawakas fly the way they do because, after laughing at Maui, Maui crushed pīwakawaka in his fist.

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952 Upvotes
12 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Mar 29 '26

Verified When great kiskadees sleep, their vocal muscles twitch in much the same way a dog's paws twitch while they sleep. Scientists believe they may be practicing songs or re-enacting fights over territory.

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759 Upvotes
5 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • Mar 28 '26

Not yet verified Planthopper Parasite Moths: the caterpillars of this family are parasites that attach themselves to the bodies of other insects and then gradually feed on the fluids in the host's abdomen, and they're covered in waxy white filaments that make them look like tiny cottonballs

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289 Upvotes
16 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Mar 25 '26

Not yet verified The Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever is one of four native Canadian dog breeds. They help hunt ducks by playing and fetching sticks at the water's edge while wagging their tails. When the ducks come close to see what's going on, hunters catch the ducks.

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706 Upvotes
15 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Mar 23 '26

Verified Warty frogfish use their fins to "walk" rather than swim like other fish. They also use a lure to lure prey closer to them.

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626 Upvotes
9 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Mar 22 '26

Not yet verified Mosquitofish are a highly destructive invasive species in many parts of the world. However, scientists have discovered that, if you introduce a robot fish into their environment, they get so scared, they can no longer breed, providing a non-destructive way to limit their population.

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1.8k Upvotes
55 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quaternary23 • Mar 21 '26

Verified The Philippine Freshwater Sea Snake (Hydrophis semperi) is a rare species of venomous sea snake endemic to Taal Lake on the island of Luzon (Philippines). It is notable for being a very young species, having only evolved after being isolated from the ocean in the 16th century.

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994 Upvotes
11 comments

r/Awwducational • u/Quouar • Mar 19 '26

Fewer... Verified. There are less than 250 kākāpō left in the wild. However, this year, the kākāpō are having a breeding frenzy due to an abundance of their favourite food - rimu berries

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9.2k Upvotes
62 comments

r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • Mar 17 '26

Verified The Greater Wax Moth: this moth has the most sensitive hearing of any animal in the world, with its tiny ears detecting frequencies of up to 300,000Hz; to put that into perspective, humans can detect frequencies as high as 20,000Hz, while dogs can detect up to 65,000Hz, and bats up to 210,000

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924 Upvotes
20 comments