Nature has designed some incredible survival mechanisms for the animal kingdom. While most creatures have familiar abilities like flight, speed, or camouflage, there are some truly bizarre and fascinating hidden talents in the natural world. From frogs that literally freeze solid to squirting blood out of their eyes, let’s explore 5 of the most unusual animal abilities out there.

1. Frogs That Play Dead…By Freezing Solid

You’ve probably heard of animals playing dead to avoid predators, but leave it to frogs to take this survival technique to the extreme. When temperatures drop, wood frogs have the remarkable ability to freeze nearly 70% of the water in their bodies, allowing them to appear completely lifeless.

Their vital organs cease functioning and their hearts even stop beating. But how do they survive? Here’s the trick – they pump high concentrations of glucose into their cells to act as a natural antifreeze. This prevents fatal cell damage while the frog patiently waits for warmer weather, completely immobilized in a block of ice.

Some Alaskan wood frogs have even stayed frozen for over 6 months before thawing and hopping away unharmed! While playing dead is clever, being able to medically induce suspended animation is a superpower. wood frogs have mastered one of the most dramatic adaptations in the animal kingdom.

2. Turtles With Buns of Steel

When it comes to unusual abilities, look no further than our friend the turtle. Most famously known for their protective shells, it turns out their backsides also have a special skill – breathing through their butts!

Many aquatic turtles have an ability called cloacal respiration, allowing them to extract oxygen from water using an organ in their posterior known as the cloaca. Up to half of their oxygen intake can happen through their rumps!

The cloaca’s thin walls are packed with blood vessels, making an ideal structure for gas exchange. This allows turtles to stay submerged for hours without surfacing for air. Talk about a great adaptation for an aquatic lifestyle. Who needs gills when you can breathe through your rear? It’s the ultimate bodyhack.

3. Horned Lizards That Squirt Blood from Their Eyes

If you ever encounter a horned lizard, you’re in for a surprise. When threatened, this critter shoots an aimed stream of blood from its eyes up to 5 feet towards predators! A bloodshot eye is one thing, but voluntarily squirting crimson streams is next level.

The horned lizard’s defense tactic aims to confuse and disorient threats. The blood spray comes from tiny ruptures in blood vessels around the eyelids which are voluntarily constricted to build blood pressure. When released, the result is a tiny horror scene.

Although morbid sounding, a horned lizard’s blood squirt is just diluted enough not to permanently damage their eyesight. It’s a small price to pay for warding off hungry coyotes and wolves. Firing a red liquid fountain out of your eyeballs? You have to admit, that’s an effective and metal survival adaptation.

4. Jumping Worms That Thrash and Flip

If you see an earthworm violently thrashing above ground, run – you may have encountered the invasive jumping worm! These horrors wiggle so vigorously they can propel themselves into the air.

Native to East Asia, these slithering jumpers were likely introduced to North America through the horticulture trade. They earned their name from the berserk flipping technique they use to move faster than other worms. These invasive invertebrates have even been seen falling out of trees like nightmare spaghetti!

While their outrageous wiggling may seem silly, these worms can damage soil composition and devastate native ecosystems. So take those flipping worms seriously – their invasion is no joke. If you see one, report it to local conservation authorities immediately…before it leaps away.

5. Sea Otters That Use Tools

Tool use is exceptionally rare in the animal kingdom, observed in only a handful of creatures like chimps and crows. But as it turns out, sea otters are actually prolific tool users as well!

These clever semi-aquatic mammals use rocks to crack open shellfish while floating on their backs. They’ll find a suitable stone, float on their backs, and smash open crabs, urchins and clams between the rock and their chests. Some otters even use custom rocks stored in their armpits!

This remarkable use of tools allows sea otters to capitalize on calorie-rich shellfish, supporting their exceptionally high metabolism. While many animals use found objects as weapons, fashioning custom tools for food processing is a sophisticated cognitive feat – especially while floating at sea! Those handy otters are smarter than your average marine mammal.

The Takeaway

From frozen frogs to bloody-eyed lizards, nature has cooked up some truly unbelievable survival abilities. These wacky adaptations give animals an edge in an eat or be eaten world, allowing them to capitalize on unique resources. So appreciate the next wood frog or sea otter you encounter – they have some of the strangest special skills in the animal kingdom!

The world is full of beasts with bizarre talents we’ve yet to discover. But the next time you see an animal doing something strange, look closer – it may be an unusual ability that gives it an evolutionary advantage. With ingenious adaptations like these, sometimes fact really is stranger than fiction.