Mind Soup

You’ve heard jokes like these all your life:  What do you get if you cross an octopus with a cow? An animal that can milk itself.  I didn’t find such an animal, but the world has plenty of strange species that at first glance appear to be hybrids of unrelated species because they have attributes that surprise us. However, we are only surprised because our personal experiences don’t encompass all that nature offers. 1. Turtle + Hedgehog = Armadillo Rudyard Kipling wrote the story  The Beginning of the Armadillos , in which the animal came from a tortoise and a hedgehog. They didn’t join to give birth to armadillos; instead, they taught each other their talents. The hedgehog helped the tortoise learn to curl into a ball, and the tortoise taught the hedgehog to swim, which toughened up his spines into armor. Before they knew it, both had turned into armadillos. Here in the real world,  armadillos  are related to both sloths and anteaters and are native to Latin ...

This lion cub has clearly bitten off more than he can chew after annoying his dad once too often. The adult male finally lost patience with his attention-seeking son after the fun-loving cub spent hours tugging on his mane and chewing his fur. The young lion scrambled all over the adult male, trying to entice him to play as he lay sleepily on a car roof. Pride: The grumpy father lion bites his cub on the head after it was tugging and chewing on his mane Eventually he snapped, whipping his head around with teeth bared before sinking his fangs into the cub's head. But far from being subdued by his father's show of discipline, the cub looked up at him adoringly before running off to play. The incredible moment was captured on camera by amateur photographer Karl Drilling at San Diego Wild Animal Park. Mr Drilling, 46, from California, said: 'The lions were relaxing on top of the car, which they absolutely love to do. 'The cub had been annoying his dad for ages, ...

Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska is investigating the mysterious birth of a shark to a virgin mother shark. Three female sharks live in a tank at the zoo and neither have ever been close to a male bonnethead shark since they arrived as pups. DNA test are being completed to find out which one of the sharks is the mother and possibly an answer to who the father is.