--- title: 10 Terrifying Zoological Discoveries description: "Animals can be delightful, cute, friendly creatures that give you that heartwarming sensation when you think about the natural world. But away from the National Geographic schmaltz and the often shockingly inaccurate tales we tell our children, there is a much darker side. Look carefully into the zoological world, and you will find stories of horrific violence, mind control, organised warfare, and the kind of sexual depravity that would see humans locked away for decades. The natural world has its beauty, but it always has its savagery. And here are 10 terrifying zoological discoveries that will make you look at animals in a completely different way.\n\n## 1. Social Insects Wage Organised Warfare\n\nFor centuries, warfare was considered one of humanity's defining traits. Large-scale conflict requires organisation, communication, strategy, and sacrifice. It was assumed that creatures with brains smaller than a grain of sand simply weren't capable of such behaviour.\n\nHowever, the reality is quite different. As scientists began studying ant colonies over longer periods, they discovered something remarkable – some ant societies engage in organised warfare on a scale that rivals human conflicts.\n\nNow, I know that's a big statement, but bear with me. You might have always just assumed that an ant is an ant and isn't really capable of highly sophisticated collective behaviour. But that's way too simplistic. Ant colonies function as superorganisms, and individual ants are comparable to cells within a body, while the colony itself is the true organism.\n\nIn that way, ant colonies can resemble rival states competing for territory and resources, some with just a few hundred ants, some with millions, maybe even billions of ants. To really put those numbers in perspective, it's thought that there are roughly 20 quadrillion ants on Earth. And if you don't know what a quadrillion is, don't worry, there's probably a lot who don't, but it's a million billion. So 20 quadrillion is 20, with 15 zeroes behind. Basically, a lot of ants.\n\nAnd just like humans, ants, and ant colonies regularly fall out, often over territory, food sources, nesting sites, and access to aphid herds, essentially ant livestock/slaves. Yes, ants sort of have slaves, and we'll be coming to that later.\n\nMany ant species maintain specialised military castes whose primary purpose is combat and defence. These ants often possess enlarged jaws, thicker armour, or physical adaptations specifically designed for fighting. While workers gather food and care for the colony, soldiers function as permanent defensive forces. In effect, some ant societies maintain standing armies.\n\nWhen there is trouble, the process often begins with reconnaissance. Scout ants venture beyond the nest searching for food, territory, and rival colonies. When they discover an opportunity or a threat, they return and communicate the information through chemical signals known as pheromones, allowing thousands of individuals to respond as a single unit.\n\nWhat follows looks surprisingly similar to an old-fashioned human raid. Some species launch coordinated raids against neighbouring colonies, with soldier ants advancing in organised groups and overwhelming defenders through sheer numbers. In some cases, the attackers specifically target brood chambers where eggs, larvae, and pupae are stored.\n\nAnd this is where things get borderline unbelievable. Some colonies have been seen attacking rival nests and carrying away developing young. Once those larvae mature, they effectively become workers for the colony that captured them. The victims spend their entire lives serving the society that destroyed their original home. Scientists refer to this behaviour as dulosis, but let's be brutally honest, it's slavery.\n\nThe scale of these conflicts can be extraordinary, and just because we don't see a vast battlefield littered with bodies, doesn't mean it's not there. One of the most dramatic examples involves Argentine ants that have been documented forming vast supercolonies stretching across hundreds or even thousands of kilometres. Members of the same supercolony cooperate with one another, but outsiders are treated as enemies, and when these supercolonies collide, the battlefield is vast.\n\nOne of the best-studied battlefronts lies near San Diego, where two Argentine ant supercolonies regularly meet - the so-called Very Large Colony and the smaller Lake Hodges Colony. Researchers observed millions of ants clashing along a shifting front line that stretched for kilometres, creating a near-constant state of warfare between neighbouring colonies.\n\nUnlike human conflicts, these battles show no signs of negotiation or surrender, continuing year after year as each side attempts to expand its territory and secure access to food and nesting sites. The results were astonishing, with around 15 million ants killed during a six-month study period.\n\nFor creatures that most people barely notice beneath their feet, the scale of the conflict is remarkable. Entire armies clash, territories are conquered, young are enslaved, and millions die. What appears to us as a patch of mud can, from an ant's perspective, be a battlefield every bit as savage as those found throughout human history.\n\n## 2. Komodo Dragons Use Multiple Killing Systems\n\nAnything with the word dragon is probably something you need to be wary of. The Komodo Dragon might not be the same fire-wielding beasts seen in Game of Thrones, but they aren't an animal you want to mess around with.\n\nThis is a heavily-built lizard that can grow over 3 metres (10 feet) long and weigh more than 70 kilograms (150 pounds), with beef cake limbs, powerful claws, rough armoured scales, and a long, muscular tail.\n\nIt carries its head quite low to the ground and has a broad snout filled with around 60 serrated, backward-curving teeth designed to tear flesh. The dragon constantly flicks its yellow forked tongue through the air, allowing it to detect the scent of prey from several kilometres away. Large individuals can overpower deer, wild pigs, water buffalo, and occasionally humans, making them one of the most formidable reptilian predators on Earth.\n\nOne of the best-known fatal incidents occurred in 2007 on Komodo Island when an eight-year-old boy was attacked and killed while near the village. In 2009, a fruit picker on Komodo Island fell from a tree and was set upon by several Komodo dragons and later died from massive blood loss and injuries.\n\nThe morale of the story is watch your back. But what happens once they catch you? Well, the dragons don't attack like, say, a crocodile would. They might look like a dinosaur/dragon hybrid that could savage and tear you limb from limb while you were still screaming, but that's not their style.\n\nFor years, the common belief was that its mouth was filled with dangerous bacteria, so once they bit you, the infection would spread, and they would simply wait patiently as you writhed around in pain and finally stopped moving. Then it would eat you slowly. It was a simple explanation, repeated in documentaries, books, and classrooms around the world.\n\nBut over time, that theory was challenged and ultimately disproved. Modern research has revealed a far more sophisticated predator. Komodo dragons do not rely on a single killing method, but rather combine multiple biological weapons into one devastating attack, quite unlike anything else seen in the natural world.\n\nIt begins with a bite. Its serrated teeth are designed not to puncture but to tear. When a dragon bites, it often removes chunks of flesh, leaving deep wounds and severe tissue damage. But that's just the start of its victims' problems.\n\nIn the early 2000s, researchers discovered venom glands in the lower jaws of Komodo dragons. We're not talking the same kind of venom level as a cobra or rattlesnake, and the victim won't stagger away and quickly collapse. Instead, it contains compounds that lower blood pressure, interfere with clotting, and actually promote blood loss.\n\nSo, while it doesn't have the same devastating physical attack as a shark, crocodile or lion, or the same kind of venom as a box jellyfish or the inland taipan, it quietly encourages its victim's body to not bother clotting a gaping wound and to speed up the onset of shock. Even if the victim escapes the initial attack, the damage is often already done.\n\nFor years, scientists believed harmful bacteria were the dragon's secret weapon and while their mouths do contain bacteria, including E-Coli, modern research suggests the real danger is much more to do with catastrophic tissue damage and venom-induced blood loss.\n\nThe bite itself is usually enough, but if you survive the attack, the clock is still ticking. The body begins to fight itself, encouraging it to freak out, and that is the biggest danger. When that happens, and you decide to close your eyes for just a moment, you can bet that the Komodo Dragon is close by, licking its lips and wondering which part of you to start with.\n\n## 3. Sharks Are Far Older Than Trees\n\nHumans tend to work best with decades and centuries. They are time frames that feel manageable, but as we move into thousands and then millions of years, it's difficult for our primitive minds to keep up. When we start talking about hundreds of millions of years, our brains fizzle pathetically and refuse to go any further.\n\nSo let's really scramble the psyche and think about how long certain species have been around. Homo sapiens have been here for roughly 300,000 years; our cousins, the apes, have been roaming the planet for around 25 million years. The elephant and its distant ancestors have been here for 60 million years, give or take, and when we get to 66 million years, we're now talking about the final stages of the dinosaurs.\n\nBut what about flora? Flowering plants first emerged around 140 million years ago, and what you would call trees appeared around 380 million years ago. So let's take that benchmark. What was the world like 380 million years ago?\n\nThis era falls in the late Devonian Period. No dinosaurs, no mammals, no grass, no flowers. A lot of swamps, along with plenty of early insects who were just feeling their way into existence. But there was a lot of water, and in that were sharks that had already been around for roughly 80 million years. By the time trees arrived, sharks were already ancient.\n\nOK, they weren't exactly like you remember from Jaws, but these early sharks were their direct ancestors. They looked very different from modern species, and were typically smaller and heavily armoured. Many lacked the streamlined bodies and replaceable rows of teeth that define modern sharks, giving them a much more primitive and less scary appearance. Some hunted close to the seafloor, while others fed on small marine animals in ecosystems that vanished hundreds of millions of years ago.\n\nOne of the oldest shark-like creatures known is Elegestolepis, which was just 30 cm (12 inches) long. A little further down the road, was the Cladoselache, an early shark that lived around 370 million years ago. Reaching lengths of around 1–2 metres (3–6.5 feet), it had a relatively smooth body with few scales, a blunt snout, and simple teeth designed for grabbing rather than tearing prey. It wasn't quite the monster of the deep back then, but one that would have sent a shiver down the spine was the Xenacanthus.\n\nThis shark actually had an eel-like body, with a long dorsal fin running down much of its back and a sharp spine projecting from the rear of its head that scientists believe could have been venomous. Some species reached over 3 metres (10 feet) in length and likely sat near the top of freshwater food chains. Forget crocodiles and alligators, if you had been enjoying a quiet river swim 320 million years ago, this monster would have dragged you down and had you for breakfast. And because it didn't have the teeth size or power associated with the beast of today, it would not have been a quick process.\n\nBut what truly stands out is their ability to survive. Over hundreds of millions of years, Earth experienced multiple mass extinction events that wiped out huge percentages of life. The worst of them occurred around 252 million years ago during what scientists powerfully call the Great Dying, when roughly 90% of marine species disappeared. But guess who just kept on coming?\n\nSharks are unsettling regardless of their history, but the fact that they are older than pretty much everything we have on Earth today and have survived almost everything Earth has ever thrown at them adds a new angle of fear. Entire groups of animals rose and disappeared, vast forests emerged, and continents split apart. A mass extinction wiped out around 90% of marine life, another erased the dinosaurs, but through all of it, sharks remained and slowly evolved into the formidable apex predators that they are today.\n\n## 4. Chimpanzees Conduct Planned Murders\n\nFrom ancient sharks, to chimpanzee murders. There was once a time when chimpanzees were seen as relatively docile, peaceful creatures – our evolutionary cousins who roamed the forest, swinging through the canopy, munching on whatever could be found. The babies were cute, even the adults had something cuddly about them.\n\nBut that view began to change dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s. At Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park, primatologist Jane Goodall and her colleagues witnessed a conflict that would later become known as the Gombe Chimpanzee War.\n\nFor more than a decade, the Kasakela community in the Gombe Stream National Park appeared relatively stable, but around 1971, tensions emerged within the group. It's difficult to say why, but gradually the group split into two: The Kasakela with eight adult males and several females and offspring, and the Kahama with six adult males and several females and offspring. Then things became deadly.\n\nOn 7th January 1974, researchers witnessed something unprecedented. A Kahama male named Godi was feeding alone in a tree when a group of Kasakela males approached silently, dragged him down, and beat the life out of him.\n\nOver the next four years, the Kasakela males systematically hunted down members of the Kahama community, always attacking males when they were alone. Researchers also witnessed coordinated patrols, silent border raids, and ambush attacks carried out with a bloodlust that shocked human researchers.\n\nOne by one, the Kahama males were murdered, until there were none left standing. The Kahama females either disappeared or were assimilated into the Kasakela community, and peace descended on the Gombe Stream National Park. The Kahama had been effectively exterminated.\n\nAnd this wasn't an isolated incident. There have been similar events in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania and the Kibale National Park in Uganda, and sometimes the stories are enough to make you wince. Victims are commonly beaten, bitten, and mutilated, with fatal attacks recorded against adult males, females, and even infants.\n\nChimpanzees are not exclusively vegetarians, and they regularly hunt animals such as monkeys, bushbabies, and small antelope. And I think you can probably guess where this is going. Researchers have documented cases where chimpanzee victims were partially eaten. It's not common, but these creatures are certainly prone to the odd bit of cannibalism.\n\nAnd this is not just the chest-puffed-out males. There have also been plenty of reports of female-on-female violence, with the most shocking example, again in the Gombe Stream National Park, where a mother-daughter pair repeatedly attacked neighbouring females and killed multiple infants over a period of years.\n\nI suppose considering what humans are capable of, none of this should be much of a surprise, but it still doesn't sit well with our old-fashioned idealistic view of the peaceful chimpanzee – which we now know is completely wrong.\n\n## 5. Fungi Can Turn Animals Into Zombies\n\nThere's something supervillain-esque about controlling the minds of multiple beings. In superhero films, the evildoer has spent years constructing a plan and building the perfect machine, but to some fungi, it just comes naturally.\n\nBehavioural manipulation occurs when one organism alters the behaviour of another in ways that increase its own chances of survival or reproduction. The parasite Toxoplasma gondii needs to reproduce inside cats, but it often spends part of its life inside rodents. To solve this problem, it alters the brains of infected mice and rats, reducing their natural fear of cat scent, leaving them boldly wandering into territory that no sane mouse or rat would dream of doing. And you can probably guess what happens next.\n\nHorsehair worms spend much of their lives growing inside crickets and grasshoppers. When the worm reaches maturity, it somehow manipulates its host into seeking out water, despite these insects normally avoiding it. The cricket often leaps into a pond or stream, where the worm emerges from its body and swims away to reproduce, leaving the host to slowly drown. Charming, but that's nature, I guess.\n\nAnd that brings us to the parasitic fungi known as Ophiocordyceps. These fungi primarily infect insects, especially ants, though related species target spiders, flies, beetles, and other arthropods.\n\nThe infection begins when fungal spores attach to an insect's body and penetrate the exoskeleton. Once inside, the fungus spreads through the host's tissues, feeding on nutrients while keeping the insect alive.\n\nFor a long time, scientists assumed the fungus invaded the brain itself. However, a 2017 study found that fungal cells were concentrated throughout the body while largely avoiding brain tissue, suggesting that the fungus may manipulate behaviour through chemical signalling and interactions with the nervous system rather than direct control of the brain.\n\nThe most famous victim is the so-called zombie ant. When these ants become infected, they suddenly abandon their normal routines and simply wander off and leave the colony.\n\nThen comes what is known as summit disease, where the ant is overcome with a sudden, overpowering urge to climb. It clambers up vegetation to a very specific height – roughly 20–30 centimetres (about 8–12 inches) above the ground – usually on the underside of leaves in places with stable temperatures and very specific humidity levels.\n\nIt then performs what is known as a death grip, where it bites firmly into the underside of a leaf or stem and becomes locked in place. And that is where the story of the ant finishes. Now that it has reached the perfect location, the fungus puts the sorry ant out of its misery, but its grip remains vice-like, and the ant can often stay attached for weeks in the same spot.\n\nYet while the ant might be dead, the fungus continues growing inside the corpse. A stalk eventually erupts from the insect's body, often from the head, releasing spores onto the forest floor below where new ants are likely to pass. And the zombie process can begin all over again.\n\nSo, with such a deadly zombie disease, why don't ant colonies simply collapse in the face of such a devastating foe? Well, because this battle is ancient, and perhaps even goes back millions of years. Because of this, ants have developed a resistance plan. They often groom each other to remove spores and when they detect infested members in the colony, they will actively address them, i.e, kill them and remove the corpses.\n\nIt's not perfect, but it does just enough to keep the balance in this bizarre battle for the soul of the ant.\n\n## 6. Ants Farm Livestock\n\nLet's stay with ants for the time being. If you recall, ants sometimes raid other colonies and carry away the larvae of their enemies, which then develop into young ants who essentially become lifetime slaves. Well, they're also into livestock farming.\n\nIt begins with a small insect called an Aphid. These tiny sap-feeding insects use needle-like mouthparts to pierce plants and drink their nutrients.\n\nAs they feed, aphids produce a sugary liquid called honeydew, which attracts ants, who adore honeydew. When they want some, they simply stroke an aphid with their antennae, and the aphid releases a droplet of honeydew, which the ant drinks. That's fairly odd, but things get weirder.\n\nAnts can be highly protective and actively defend aphids from predators such as ladybirds, lacewings, and parasitic wasps. They transport aphids to better feeding locations and sometimes even move them into sheltered chambers during bad weather. During winter, some ant species carry aphid eggs into their nests for protection, and when spring arrives, the ants return the newly hatched aphids to suitable plants.\n\nThis relationship between ants and aphids is generally considered mutualism because both sides benefit, but it's not always so rosy. Certain ants become extremely possessive and scientists have documented cases where ants prevent aphids from wandering away, physically move them back to feeding sites and even keep them in protected chambers.\n\nThere have also been observed instances where ants have removed aphid wings, forcing them to essentially work for them until they drop dead. And forget there being a logical quota of honeydew that ants can take. When there's a large colony involved, you normally see aphids being harvested at an absurdly high rate.\n\nAphids also reproduce at astonishing speeds, with females often giving birth to live young without needing to mate, a process known as parthenogenesis. This is also in the ant's best interest, because when they do over-harvest, the aphid must up its consumption and workload, which typically results in slower growth and producing fewer offspring. For the ants, it's a numbers game.\n\nThe relationship is often compared to dairy farming, but there are moments when it looks more like an old-fashioned mafia protection racket – pay up, or we'll cut off your wings and force you to work harder anyway.\n\nThe ants do technically provide security and shelter, but the aphids rarely have much say in the arrangement. In some species, the ants' interests and the aphids' interests align closely and the process moves at a healthy rate that benefits all, but in others, it is blind, cruel exploitation, with the aphids becoming little more than living sugar factories.\n\n## 7. Some Birds Weaponise Fire\n\nFire transformed early human existence. It enabled us to cook food, which was a major driver in the evolution of larger human brains. And this happened a lot earlier than you might think.\n\nThe earliest known evidence of controlled fire dates back at least one million years, and possibly as far as 1.5 million years ago. Species such as Homo erectus are widely considered the first humans to regularly use fire, likely collecting it from natural wildfires before learning how to maintain it.\n\nEvidence from sites in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia suggests these early humans used fire for warmth, protection from predators, light, and possibly cooking. Later species, including Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals, became highly skilled fire users, building hearths and using flames to survive harsh Ice Age climates.\n\nBut other animals? That was a step too far. Despite the millions of other species that have inhabited Earth, humans are the only ones who have ever used fire. Well, almost the only species.\n\nThe indigenous people of Australia have long told of birds, particularly firehawks, soaring through the sky with flaming sticks in their beaks. They go even further to state that these birds were the ones that actually introduced fire to humans. The problem was that this sounds so far-fetched that it wasn't hard for the scientific community to completely discount these stories. Of course, birds don't carry flaming torches. Or do they?\n\nIn 2017, a group of scientists published a study examining numerous eyewitness accounts collected from firefighters, Indigenous land managers, park rangers, and local residents across northern Australia, that claimed, unequivocally, that yes, some birds do carry flaming torches. But why? Just for the hell of it? Are we talking pyromaniac birds just seeking out that next level of danger? Not quite.\n\nThe reasons are entirely more practical. The birds involved included species such as the black kite, the whistling kite, and the brown falcon — all intelligent predatory birds commonly seen gathering around bushfires. According to reports, some of which involved hundreds of birds, they would move towards smoke caused by the fires, before swooping down and picking up sticks or small branches that are already alight with their beaks or talons.\n\nAnd the next step is the crafty part. They then soar upwards towards areas not affected by the fires, before dropping them in the hope that they create a new fire. When this happens, whatever wildlife in the area, rabbits, hares, birds, lizards, and insects drop their usually defensive tendencies and evacuate the area as fast as possible.\n\nAnd when this happens, guess who is circling above waiting to pick them off. And this isn't just a few isolated incidents, with cases reported across Australia, sometimes with huge numbers of birds gathering to flush out vast swaths of animals. It's brilliant, it's ingenious, it's borderline evil.\n\nWhen this news broke, it created a huge stir, but for the Aborigines, there was little more than a shrug. Of course, birds can spread fire. We've been talking and singing about it for around 40,000 years.\n\n## 8. Octopuses Can Edit Their Own Genetic Instructions\n\nAnybody who watched the 2020 film, My Octopus Teacher, will tell you that there's something different about these creatures.\n\nBut where do we even start? They've got three hearts, two to pump blood to the gills, while a third pumps blood around the rest of the body. Unlike most, their blood is blue because it contains a copper-rich protein called hemocyanin instead of iron-rich hemoglobin.\n\nTheir brain power isn't really where you think it is. An octopus has about 500 million neurons, and roughly two-thirds are located in its arms rather than its central brain. Each arm can process information and perform complex tasks with a surprising degree of independence.\n\nThey can solve puzzles, they are masters of disguise and can change color in seconds, they don't have any bones, and may well dream in similar ways to how we do, according to research in 2023. In short, they are among the strangest, most unique creatures on planet earth. Yet one of the most bizarre features is something we're still only beginning to understand — RNA editing.\n\nWe'll begin with the basics. Most animals rely on DNA mutations over many generations to adapt to changing environments. A useful genetic mutation appears, survives natural selection, and gradually spreads through a population over tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years.\n\nIt is a painfully slow process, but for most species, that is simply how adaptation works.\n\nBut octopuses are different — of course they are. Scientists discovered that octopuses extensively modify their RNA after it has been copied from DNA. RNA acts as a set of instructions that tells cells which proteins to build and in most animals, those instructions are copied pretty much to a T. Minor editing can occur, but it is generally limited.\n\nIn octopuses, however, researchers found something far more extensive, with large portions of their genetic instructions being routinely rewritten. A major study published in 2015 identified tens of thousands of RNA editing sites throughout octopuses' nervous systems, with many concentrated in genes associated with brain activity and neural communication. Rather than relying entirely on permanent DNA mutations, octopuses appear able to adjust how certain genetic instructions are expressed.\n\nIn evolutionary biological terms, this goes against what basically every other animal does. Evolution generally rewards useful DNA changes that can be passed to future generations, but octopuses seem to place a lot of emphasis on preserving their ability to edit RNA instead.\n\nIn some cases, researchers believe this allows them to respond more quickly to environmental challenges, such as living in colder waters. Scientists found that they edit RNA involved in nerve signalling, helping neural activity continue efficiently despite low temperatures. Instead of waiting countless generations for natural selection to solve the problem, they can alter protein production within their own lifetimes.\n\nWhat unsettled many researchers wasn't simply that octopuses edit their RNA. It was that they appeared to be achieving a level of biological flexibility through a mechanism rarely seen on such a scale anywhere else in the animal kingdom. The more scientists study octopuses, the more they encounter systems that seem to operate according to their own set of biological rules.\n\nSo are octopuses some kind of advanced being? Maybe. They're often described as alien-like, not necessarily because of physical features, but because so many aspects of their biology seem utterly alien-like. But there might be a trade-off. Some researchers argue that maintaining this extensive editing system may actually slow conventional genetic evolution in parts of the genome — meaning octopuses appear to have prioritised flexibility in the present over genetic change in the future. They are the ultimate live-in-the-moment creatures.\n\n## 9. Murdering Dolphins\n\nIt's difficult to find many more lovable creatures than dolphins. For years, we've been told that they are adorable, highly-intelligent creatures who just want to frolic and play. They follow boats, jump serenely through the sky, and provide that once in a lifetime experience when swimming with them.\n\nI'm sorry to burst bubbles today, but they are also murderers, masters of sexual coercion, and violent thugs. Let me explain.\n\nResearchers studying wild bottlenose dolphins discovered behaviours that seemed completely at odds with their reputation. Instead of the peaceful ocean flipper that you would let play with your children, dolphins were found engaging in some pretty horrific activity.\n\nOne of the most shocking discoveries involved the deaths of young dolphins, with the most famous case occurring in 1996 when researchers led by Dr. Richard Connor documented evidence that male bottlenose dolphins were deliberately killing calves. The behaviour appears similar to infanticide seen in lions and certain primates; by eliminating a calf, a male may increase the likelihood that the mother becomes reproductively available again. Female bottlenose dolphins typically nurse calves for three to six years, which usually means she's out of the reproductive game for that amount of time.\n\nAnd how this happens is pretty harrowing. Adult males chase young calves, separate them from their mothers, ram them, toss them, and hold them underwater until, well, you know. In one observed attack, multiple males pursued a mother and her calf for hours. The calf was repeatedly struck and eventually died from its injuries. In some dolphin populations, calf mortality during the first year can exceed 20–30%, although other predators, disease, and environmental factors also contribute.\n\nBut dolphin violence extends outside their own species. Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, beaches across parts of Europe started receiving dead harbour porpoises. At first, researchers assumed it was down to fishing accidents, shark attacks or disease, but post-mortems carried out revealed something disturbing – these porpoises had been beaten senseless. Injuries included broken ribs, internal haemorrhaging, severe blunt-force trauma, and bite marks consistent with, you've guessed it, dolphins.\n\nBy the early 2000s, scientists had recorded hundreds of suspected cases around European coastlines, mostly young porpoises with the same style of injuries, but none showed any sign of being consumed, or partially consumed. Whoever was doing this, wasn't doing it for food. They were basically killing, and then leaving.\n\nAnd, of course, it was dolphins doing it, and it's since been visually documented many times. Why? We're not really sure. Some scientists suggested the behaviour might be practice for conflicts with rival dolphins. Others proposed it could be a form of redirected aggression. As in, that dolphin was having a bad day, and simply didn't like the look of that porpoise swimming past. Sounds ridiculous when you actually say it out loud, but even today, there is no universally accepted explanation.\n\nWe'll round out our evil dolphin trilogy with sexual coercion and assault of females. Male bottlenose dolphins form sophisticated alliances that can last for years or even decades. These groups cooperate during conflicts and compete for access to females, with researchers documenting cases where groups of males work together to isolate females, prevent them from leaving, and aggressively maintain control over them for extended periods. In the human world, that's essentially kidnap and rape.\n\nWhat makes these behaviours particularly horrifying is the level of coordination involved. Dolphins possess some of the largest brains relative to body size in the animal kingdom. They recognise individual animals, maintain long-term social relationships, and communicate using unique signature whistles that function almost like names. In other words, this is not mindless violence. It is very sophisticated violence carried out by one of the most intelligent species on Earth.\n\n## 10. Humanity Nearly Went Extinct\n\nWe're going to round this list out with the fact that you reading this article very nearly didn't exist because Homo sapiens came perilously close to extinction several times throughout history.\n\nModern genetic research has revealed that humans passed through several population bottlenecks during prehistory, which are specific periods when a species' population crashes so severely that only a small number of individuals survive and reproduce.\n\nThe most famous example is linked to the eruption of the supervolcano at Lake Toba around 74,000 years ago. This was a monster of an eruption. To give you a sense of scale, the Mount St. Helens eruption produced around 1 cubic kilometre (0.24 cubic miles) of material, while Krakatoa, the monster of 1883, produced 20 cubic kilometres (4.8 cubic miles). Toba produced approximately 2,800 cubic kilometres (672 cubic miles) and many believe that volcanic winter conditions reduced temperatures worldwide and devastated ecosystems which may have reduced humanity to just 10,000 with only a few thousand breeding-age adults.\n\nMore recently, a 2023 study using genetic modelling proposed an even more dramatic bottleneck between approximately 930,000 and 813,000 years ago. According to the researchers, the breeding population of these human ancestors may have fallen to between 1000 and 1500 individuals for more than 100,000 years.\n\nThis bottleneck coincides with dramatic climate instability during the Early Pleistocene that saw a severe ice age paralyse vast sections of the globe. This led to large-scale food insecurity, or to put it more bluntly, species-wide starvation, with entire groups vanishing during droughts, cold periods, or ecological collapse. These weren't Homo Sapiens yet, but rather members of a very early human lineage somewhere between Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis. And if the study is correct, nearly 99% of the ancestral population disappeared during this point of our history.\n\nSo, let's go back to that figure of between 1000 and 1500 individuals. To put that in perspective, there are some severely endangered species on Earth today with more individuals. There are 14,000 Sumatran Orangutans, 2,000 Iberian Lynxes, and perhaps as many as 6,000 Snow Leopards. The point is, humanity came extraordinarily close to simply never existing as we know it today.\n\nA few deadly disease outbreaks here, a particularly harsh winter there – that was all it would have taken. Today, there are more than 8 billion humans in practically every corner of the globe, but for as long as 100,000 years, the fate of humanity hung by thread, with little more than 1,000 of our early ancestors battling through the most horrendous of conditions.\n\n## Zoology – Not Always What you Think\n\nAnd that's a wrap – 10 terrifying zoological discoveries that make you look at the natural world in a completely different way. Animals we think of as peaceful turn out to be violent. Creatures we dismiss as simple display astonishing complexity. Some species wage war, manipulate behaviour, start fires, or use biological mechanisms we are still struggling to understand. It's a weird world, and while we might be the most powerful, destructive creature on the planet capable of depravity and senseless violence, we're certainly not the only ones.\n\nThanks for watching.\n\nOlivier Guiberteau\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- Ant colonies engage in organized warfare, with specialized military castes and coordinated raids, resembling human conflicts.\n- Komodo dragons use a combination of venom and bacterial infection to kill prey, not just bacteria alone.\n- Sharks have existed for over 400 million years, surviving multiple mass extinctions and evolving into formidable predators.\n- Chimpanzees conduct planned murders and infanticide, challenging the notion of them being peaceful creatures.\n- Some fungi can manipulate the behavior of insects, turning them into zombies to spread spores and ensure survival.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is dulosis in the context of ant behavior?\n\nDulosis is a behavior observed in some ant species where they raid rival nests, carry away developing young, and enslave them. These captured larvae mature and spend their entire lives serving the colony that destroyed their original home.\n\n### How do Komodo dragons kill their prey?\n\nKomodo dragons use a combination of biological weapons to kill their prey. They have serrated teeth that tear flesh, venom that promotes blood loss and interferes with clotting, and bacteria in their mouths that can cause infections. The bite itself is usually enough to kill the prey, but if the prey survives the initial attack, the venom and bacteria ensure that the prey's body fights itself, leading to shock and eventual death.\n\n### How long have sharks been around compared to trees?\n\nSharks have been around for approximately 450 million years, which is significantly longer than trees. Trees appeared around 380 million years ago, so sharks were already ancient by the time trees emerged.\n\n### What is the Gombe Chimpanzee War?\n\nThe Gombe Chimpanzee War was a conflict observed in the 1970s at Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park. The Kasakela community of chimpanzees systematically hunted down and killed members of the Kahama community, effectively exterminating them. This event challenged the previous view of chimpanzees as peaceful creatures.\n\n### How do fungi like Ophiocordyceps manipulate the behavior of ants?\n\nOphiocordyceps fungi infect ants and manipulate their behavior through chemical signalling and interactions with the nervous system. Infected ants abandon their normal routines, climb to a specific height on vegetation, and perform a death grip, where they bite firmly into a leaf or stem. The fungus then grows inside the ant's corpse, eventually releasing spores to infect new ants.\n\n### What is the relationship between ants and aphids?\n\nAnts and aphids have a mutualistic relationship where ants protect aphids from predators and move them to better feeding locations. In return, aphids produce honeydew, a sugary liquid that ants consume. However, this relationship can be exploitative, with ants sometimes removing aphid wings and forcing them to produce more honeydew.\n\n### How do some birds use fire to their advantage?\n\nSome birds, such as black kites, whistling kites, and brown falcons, carry flaming sticks in their beaks or talons to start new fires. This behavior flushes out prey, such as rabbits, hares, birds, lizards, and insects, which the birds then hunt and eat.\n\n### What is unique about octopuses' ability to edit their RNA?\n\nOctopuses extensively modify their RNA after it has been copied from DNA, allowing them to adjust how certain genetic instructions are expressed. This ability enables them to respond more quickly to environmental challenges, such as living in colder waters, without relying solely on slow genetic mutations.\n\n### What are some of the violent behaviors observed in dolphins?\n\nDolphins have been observed engaging in infanticide, where male dolphins deliberately kill young calves to make the mothers reproductively available again. They also attack and kill harbor porpoises, and male dolphins form alliances to isolate and aggressively maintain control over females for extended periods.\n\n### How close did humanity come to extinction?\n\nHumanity passed through several population bottlenecks, including one around 74,000 years ago due to the eruption of the supervolcano at Lake Toba, which may have reduced the human population to just 10,000 individuals. Another study suggested that between 930,000 and 813,000 years ago, the breeding population of early human ancestors may have fallen to between 1,000 and 1,500 individuals.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Side Projects video: 10 Terrifying Zoological Discoveries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm4nyFfhwgQ)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/National_Geographic_at_SM_Mall_of_Asia_%282026-01-18%29.jpg) by Wide Awake! / openverse, by.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://sideprojects.pub/article/10-terrifying-zoological-discoveries.md canonical: https://sideprojects.pub/article/10-terrifying-zoological-discoveries datePublished: 2026-07-02 dateModified: 2026-07-02 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://sideprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Side Projects image: "https://media.sideprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/gm4nyFfhwgQ/hero.jpg" type: Article contentHash: 5e631e07816f2bbc399da5c327673da2cc36836afa5548a63f1171cefe1ee7bf tokens: 10431 summaryUrl: https://sideprojects.pub/article/10-terrifying-zoological-discoveries.md.summary.md --- Animals can be delightful, cute, friendly creatures that give you that heartwarming sensation when you think about the natural world. But away from the National Geographic schmaltz and the often shockingly inaccurate tales we tell our children, there is a much darker side. Look carefully into the zoological world, and you will find stories of horrific violence, mind control, organised warfare, and the kind of sexual depravity that would see humans locked away for decades. The natural world has its beauty, but it always has its savagery. And here are 10 terrifying zoological discoveries that will make you look at animals in a completely different way. ## 1. Social Insects Wage Organised Warfare For centuries, warfare was considered one of humanity's defining traits. Large-scale conflict requires organisation, communication, strategy, and sacrifice. It was assumed that creatures with brains smaller than a grain of sand simply weren't capable of such behaviour. However, the reality is quite different. As scientists began studying ant colonies over longer periods, they discovered something remarkable – some ant societies engage in organised warfare on a scale that rivals human conflicts. Now, I know that's a big statement, but bear with me. You might have always just assumed that an ant is an ant and isn't really capable of highly sophisticated collective behaviour. But that's way too simplistic. Ant colonies function as superorganisms, and individual ants are comparable to cells within a body, while the colony itself is the true organism. In that way, ant colonies can resemble rival states competing for territory and resources, some with just a few hundred ants, some with millions, maybe even billions of ants. To really put those numbers in perspective, it's thought that there are roughly 20 quadrillion ants on Earth. And if you don't know what a quadrillion is, don't worry, there's probably a lot who don't, but it's a million billion. So 20 quadrillion is 20, with 15 zeroes behind. Basically, a lot of ants. And just like humans, ants, and ant colonies regularly fall out, often over territory, food sources, nesting sites, and access to aphid herds, essentially ant livestock/slaves. Yes, ants sort of have slaves, and we'll be coming to that later. Many ant species maintain specialised military castes whose primary purpose is combat and defence. These ants often possess enlarged jaws, thicker armour, or physical adaptations specifically designed for fighting. While workers gather food and care for the colony, soldiers function as permanent defensive forces. In effect, some ant societies maintain standing armies. When there is trouble, the process often begins with reconnaissance. Scout ants venture beyond the nest searching for food, territory, and rival colonies. When they discover an opportunity or a threat, they return and communicate the information through chemical signals known as pheromones, allowing thousands of individuals to respond as a single unit. What follows looks surprisingly similar to an old-fashioned human raid. Some species launch coordinated raids against neighbouring colonies, with soldier ants advancing in organised groups and overwhelming defenders through sheer numbers. In some cases, the attackers specifically target brood chambers where eggs, larvae, and pupae are stored. And this is where things get borderline unbelievable. Some colonies have been seen attacking rival nests and carrying away developing young. Once those larvae mature, they effectively become workers for the colony that captured them. The victims spend their entire lives serving the society that destroyed their original home. Scientists refer to this behaviour as dulosis, but let's be brutally honest, it's slavery. The scale of these conflicts can be extraordinary, and just because we don't see a vast battlefield littered with bodies, doesn't mean it's not there. One of the most dramatic examples involves Argentine ants that have been documented forming vast supercolonies stretching across hundreds or even thousands of kilometres. Members of the same supercolony cooperate with one another, but outsiders are treated as enemies, and when these supercolonies collide, the battlefield is vast. One of the best-studied battlefronts lies near San Diego, where two Argentine ant supercolonies regularly meet - the so-called Very Large Colony and the smaller Lake Hodges Colony. Researchers observed millions of ants clashing along a shifting front line that stretched for kilometres, creating a near-constant state of warfare between neighbouring colonies. Unlike human conflicts, these battles show no signs of negotiation or surrender, continuing year after year as each side attempts to expand its territory and secure access to food and nesting sites. The results were astonishing, with around 15 million ants killed during a six-month study period. For creatures that most people barely notice beneath their feet, the scale of the conflict is remarkable. Entire armies clash, territories are conquered, young are enslaved, and millions die. What appears to us as a patch of mud can, from an ant's perspective, be a battlefield every bit as savage as those found throughout human history. ## 2. Komodo Dragons Use Multiple Killing Systems Anything with the word dragon is probably something you need to be wary of. The Komodo Dragon might not be the same fire-wielding beasts seen in Game of Thrones, but they aren't an animal you want to mess around with. This is a heavily-built lizard that can grow over 3 metres (10 feet) long and weigh more than 70 kilograms (150 pounds), with beef cake limbs, powerful claws, rough armoured scales, and a long, muscular tail. It carries its head quite low to the ground and has a broad snout filled with around 60 serrated, backward-curving teeth designed to tear flesh. The dragon constantly flicks its yellow forked tongue through the air, allowing it to detect the scent of prey from several kilometres away. Large individuals can overpower deer, wild pigs, water buffalo, and occasionally humans, making them one of the most formidable reptilian predators on Earth. One of the best-known fatal incidents occurred in 2007 on Komodo Island when an eight-year-old boy was attacked and killed while near the village. In 2009, a fruit picker on Komodo Island fell from a tree and was set upon by several Komodo dragons and later died from massive blood loss and injuries. The morale of the story is watch your back. But what happens once they catch you? Well, the dragons don't attack like, say, a crocodile would. They might look like a dinosaur/dragon hybrid that could savage and tear you limb from limb while you were still screaming, but that's not their style. For years, the common belief was that its mouth was filled with dangerous bacteria, so once they bit you, the infection would spread, and they would simply wait patiently as you writhed around in pain and finally stopped moving. Then it would eat you slowly. It was a simple explanation, repeated in documentaries, books, and classrooms around the world. But over time, that theory was challenged and ultimately disproved. Modern research has revealed a far more sophisticated predator. Komodo dragons do not rely on a single killing method, but rather combine multiple biological weapons into one devastating attack, quite unlike anything else seen in the natural world. It begins with a bite. Its serrated teeth are designed not to puncture but to tear. When a dragon bites, it often removes chunks of flesh, leaving deep wounds and severe tissue damage. But that's just the start of its victims' problems. In the early 2000s, researchers discovered venom glands in the lower jaws of Komodo dragons. We're not talking the same kind of venom level as a cobra or rattlesnake, and the victim won't stagger away and quickly collapse. Instead, it contains compounds that lower blood pressure, interfere with clotting, and actually promote blood loss. So, while it doesn't have the same devastating physical attack as a shark, crocodile or lion, or the same kind of venom as a box jellyfish or the inland taipan, it quietly encourages its victim's body to not bother clotting a gaping wound and to speed up the onset of shock. Even if the victim escapes the initial attack, the damage is often already done. For years, scientists believed harmful bacteria were the dragon's secret weapon and while their mouths do contain bacteria, including E-Coli, modern research suggests the real danger is much more to do with catastrophic tissue damage and venom-induced blood loss. The bite itself is usually enough, but if you survive the attack, the clock is still ticking. The body begins to fight itself, encouraging it to freak out, and that is the biggest danger. When that happens, and you decide to close your eyes for just a moment, you can bet that the Komodo Dragon is close by, licking its lips and wondering which part of you to start with. ## 3. Sharks Are Far Older Than Trees Humans tend to work best with decades and centuries. They are time frames that feel manageable, but as we move into thousands and then millions of years, it's difficult for our primitive minds to keep up. When we start talking about hundreds of millions of years, our brains fizzle pathetically and refuse to go any further. So let's really scramble the psyche and think about how long certain species have been around. Homo sapiens have been here for roughly 300,000 years; our cousins, the apes, have been roaming the planet for around 25 million years. The elephant and its distant ancestors have been here for 60 million years, give or take, and when we get to 66 million years, we're now talking about the final stages of the dinosaurs. But what about flora? Flowering plants first emerged around 140 million years ago, and what you would call trees appeared around 380 million years ago. So let's take that benchmark. What was the world like 380 million years ago? This era falls in the late Devonian Period. No dinosaurs, no mammals, no grass, no flowers. A lot of swamps, along with plenty of early insects who were just feeling their way into existence. But there was a lot of water, and in that were sharks that had already been around for roughly 80 million years. By the time trees arrived, sharks were already ancient. OK, they weren't exactly like you remember from Jaws, but these early sharks were their direct ancestors. They looked very different from modern species, and were typically smaller and heavily armoured. Many lacked the streamlined bodies and replaceable rows of teeth that define modern sharks, giving them a much more primitive and less scary appearance. Some hunted close to the seafloor, while others fed on small marine animals in ecosystems that vanished hundreds of millions of years ago. One of the oldest shark-like creatures known is Elegestolepis, which was just 30 cm (12 inches) long. A little further down the road, was the Cladoselache, an early shark that lived around 370 million years ago. Reaching lengths of around 1–2 metres (3–6.5 feet), it had a relatively smooth body with few scales, a blunt snout, and simple teeth designed for grabbing rather than tearing prey. It wasn't quite the monster of the deep back then, but one that would have sent a shiver down the spine was the Xenacanthus. This shark actually had an eel-like body, with a long dorsal fin running down much of its back and a sharp spine projecting from the rear of its head that scientists believe could have been venomous. Some species reached over 3 metres (10 feet) in length and likely sat near the top of freshwater food chains. Forget crocodiles and alligators, if you had been enjoying a quiet river swim 320 million years ago, this monster would have dragged you down and had you for breakfast. And because it didn't have the teeth size or power associated with the beast of today, it would not have been a quick process. But what truly stands out is their ability to survive. Over hundreds of millions of years, Earth experienced multiple mass extinction events that wiped out huge percentages of life. The worst of them occurred around 252 million years ago during what scientists powerfully call the Great Dying, when roughly 90% of marine species disappeared. But guess who just kept on coming? Sharks are unsettling regardless of their history, but the fact that they are older than pretty much everything we have on Earth today and have survived almost everything Earth has ever thrown at them adds a new angle of fear. Entire groups of animals rose and disappeared, vast forests emerged, and continents split apart. A mass extinction wiped out around 90% of marine life, another erased the dinosaurs, but through all of it, sharks remained and slowly evolved into the formidable apex predators that they are today. ## 4. Chimpanzees Conduct Planned Murders From ancient sharks, to chimpanzee murders. There was once a time when chimpanzees were seen as relatively docile, peaceful creatures – our evolutionary cousins who roamed the forest, swinging through the canopy, munching on whatever could be found. The babies were cute, even the adults had something cuddly about them. But that view began to change dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s. At Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park, primatologist Jane Goodall and her colleagues witnessed a conflict that would later become known as the Gombe Chimpanzee War. For more than a decade, the Kasakela community in the Gombe Stream National Park appeared relatively stable, but around 1971, tensions emerged within the group. It's difficult to say why, but gradually the group split into two: The Kasakela with eight adult males and several females and offspring, and the Kahama with six adult males and several females and offspring. Then things became deadly. On 7th January 1974, researchers witnessed something unprecedented. A Kahama male named Godi was feeding alone in a tree when a group of Kasakela males approached silently, dragged him down, and beat the life out of him. Over the next four years, the Kasakela males systematically hunted down members of the Kahama community, always attacking males when they were alone. Researchers also witnessed coordinated patrols, silent border raids, and ambush attacks carried out with a bloodlust that shocked human researchers. One by one, the Kahama males were murdered, until there were none left standing. The Kahama females either disappeared or were assimilated into the Kasakela community, and peace descended on the Gombe Stream National Park. The Kahama had been effectively exterminated. And this wasn't an isolated incident. There have been similar events in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania and the Kibale National Park in Uganda, and sometimes the stories are enough to make you wince. Victims are commonly beaten, bitten, and mutilated, with fatal attacks recorded against adult males, females, and even infants. Chimpanzees are not exclusively vegetarians, and they regularly hunt animals such as monkeys, bushbabies, and small antelope. And I think you can probably guess where this is going. Researchers have documented cases where chimpanzee victims were partially eaten. It's not common, but these creatures are certainly prone to the odd bit of cannibalism. And this is not just the chest-puffed-out males. There have also been plenty of reports of female-on-female violence, with the most shocking example, again in the Gombe Stream National Park, where a mother-daughter pair repeatedly attacked neighbouring females and killed multiple infants over a period of years. I suppose considering what humans are capable of, none of this should be much of a surprise, but it still doesn't sit well with our old-fashioned idealistic view of the peaceful chimpanzee – which we now know is completely wrong. ## 5. Fungi Can Turn Animals Into Zombies There's something supervillain-esque about controlling the minds of multiple beings. In superhero films, the evildoer has spent years constructing a plan and building the perfect machine, but to some fungi, it just comes naturally. Behavioural manipulation occurs when one organism alters the behaviour of another in ways that increase its own chances of survival or reproduction. The parasite Toxoplasma gondii needs to reproduce inside cats, but it often spends part of its life inside rodents. To solve this problem, it alters the brains of infected mice and rats, reducing their natural fear of cat scent, leaving them boldly wandering into territory that no sane mouse or rat would dream of doing. And you can probably guess what happens next. Horsehair worms spend much of their lives growing inside crickets and grasshoppers. When the worm reaches maturity, it somehow manipulates its host into seeking out water, despite these insects normally avoiding it. The cricket often leaps into a pond or stream, where the worm emerges from its body and swims away to reproduce, leaving the host to slowly drown. Charming, but that's nature, I guess. And that brings us to the parasitic fungi known as Ophiocordyceps. These fungi primarily infect insects, especially ants, though related species target spiders, flies, beetles, and other arthropods. The infection begins when fungal spores attach to an insect's body and penetrate the exoskeleton. Once inside, the fungus spreads through the host's tissues, feeding on nutrients while keeping the insect alive. For a long time, scientists assumed the fungus invaded the brain itself. However, a 2017 study found that fungal cells were concentrated throughout the body while largely avoiding brain tissue, suggesting that the fungus may manipulate behaviour through chemical signalling and interactions with the nervous system rather than direct control of the brain. The most famous victim is the so-called zombie ant. When these ants become infected, they suddenly abandon their normal routines and simply wander off and leave the colony. Then comes what is known as summit disease, where the ant is overcome with a sudden, overpowering urge to climb. It clambers up vegetation to a very specific height – roughly 20–30 centimetres (about 8–12 inches) above the ground – usually on the underside of leaves in places with stable temperatures and very specific humidity levels. It then performs what is known as a death grip, where it bites firmly into the underside of a leaf or stem and becomes locked in place. And that is where the story of the ant finishes. Now that it has reached the perfect location, the fungus puts the sorry ant out of its misery, but its grip remains vice-like, and the ant can often stay attached for weeks in the same spot. Yet while the ant might be dead, the fungus continues growing inside the corpse. A stalk eventually erupts from the insect's body, often from the head, releasing spores onto the forest floor below where new ants are likely to pass. And the zombie process can begin all over again. So, with such a deadly zombie disease, why don't ant colonies simply collapse in the face of such a devastating foe? Well, because this battle is ancient, and perhaps even goes back millions of years. Because of this, ants have developed a resistance plan. They often groom each other to remove spores and when they detect infested members in the colony, they will actively address them, i.e, kill them and remove the corpses. It's not perfect, but it does just enough to keep the balance in this bizarre battle for the soul of the ant. ## 6. Ants Farm Livestock Let's stay with ants for the time being. If you recall, ants sometimes raid other colonies and carry away the larvae of their enemies, which then develop into young ants who essentially become lifetime slaves. Well, they're also into livestock farming. It begins with a small insect called an Aphid. These tiny sap-feeding insects use needle-like mouthparts to pierce plants and drink their nutrients. As they feed, aphids produce a sugary liquid called honeydew, which attracts ants, who adore honeydew. When they want some, they simply stroke an aphid with their antennae, and the aphid releases a droplet of honeydew, which the ant drinks. That's fairly odd, but things get weirder. Ants can be highly protective and actively defend aphids from predators such as ladybirds, lacewings, and parasitic wasps. They transport aphids to better feeding locations and sometimes even move them into sheltered chambers during bad weather. During winter, some ant species carry aphid eggs into their nests for protection, and when spring arrives, the ants return the newly hatched aphids to suitable plants. This relationship between ants and aphids is generally considered mutualism because both sides benefit, but it's not always so rosy. Certain ants become extremely possessive and scientists have documented cases where ants prevent aphids from wandering away, physically move them back to feeding sites and even keep them in protected chambers. There have also been observed instances where ants have removed aphid wings, forcing them to essentially work for them until they drop dead. And forget there being a logical quota of honeydew that ants can take. When there's a large colony involved, you normally see aphids being harvested at an absurdly high rate. Aphids also reproduce at astonishing speeds, with females often giving birth to live young without needing to mate, a process known as parthenogenesis. This is also in the ant's best interest, because when they do over-harvest, the aphid must up its consumption and workload, which typically results in slower growth and producing fewer offspring. For the ants, it's a numbers game. The relationship is often compared to dairy farming, but there are moments when it looks more like an old-fashioned mafia protection racket – pay up, or we'll cut off your wings and force you to work harder anyway. The ants do technically provide security and shelter, but the aphids rarely have much say in the arrangement. In some species, the ants' interests and the aphids' interests align closely and the process moves at a healthy rate that benefits all, but in others, it is blind, cruel exploitation, with the aphids becoming little more than living sugar factories. ## 7. Some Birds Weaponise Fire Fire transformed early human existence. It enabled us to cook food, which was a major driver in the evolution of larger human brains. And this happened a lot earlier than you might think. The earliest known evidence of controlled fire dates back at least one million years, and possibly as far as 1.5 million years ago. Species such as Homo erectus are widely considered the first humans to regularly use fire, likely collecting it from natural wildfires before learning how to maintain it. Evidence from sites in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia suggests these early humans used fire for warmth, protection from predators, light, and possibly cooking. Later species, including Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals, became highly skilled fire users, building hearths and using flames to survive harsh Ice Age climates. But other animals? That was a step too far. Despite the millions of other species that have inhabited Earth, humans are the only ones who have ever used fire. Well, almost the only species. The indigenous people of Australia have long told of birds, particularly firehawks, soaring through the sky with flaming sticks in their beaks. They go even further to state that these birds were the ones that actually introduced fire to humans. The problem was that this sounds so far-fetched that it wasn't hard for the scientific community to completely discount these stories. Of course, birds don't carry flaming torches. Or do they? In 2017, a group of scientists published a study examining numerous eyewitness accounts collected from firefighters, Indigenous land managers, park rangers, and local residents across northern Australia, that claimed, unequivocally, that yes, some birds do carry flaming torches. But why? Just for the hell of it? Are we talking pyromaniac birds just seeking out that next level of danger? Not quite. The reasons are entirely more practical. The birds involved included species such as the black kite, the whistling kite, and the brown falcon — all intelligent predatory birds commonly seen gathering around bushfires. According to reports, some of which involved hundreds of birds, they would move towards smoke caused by the fires, before swooping down and picking up sticks or small branches that are already alight with their beaks or talons. And the next step is the crafty part. They then soar upwards towards areas not affected by the fires, before dropping them in the hope that they create a new fire. When this happens, whatever wildlife in the area, rabbits, hares, birds, lizards, and insects drop their usually defensive tendencies and evacuate the area as fast as possible. And when this happens, guess who is circling above waiting to pick them off. And this isn't just a few isolated incidents, with cases reported across Australia, sometimes with huge numbers of birds gathering to flush out vast swaths of animals. It's brilliant, it's ingenious, it's borderline evil. When this news broke, it created a huge stir, but for the Aborigines, there was little more than a shrug. Of course, birds can spread fire. We've been talking and singing about it for around 40,000 years. ## 8. Octopuses Can Edit Their Own Genetic Instructions Anybody who watched the 2020 film, My Octopus Teacher, will tell you that there's something different about these creatures. But where do we even start? They've got three hearts, two to pump blood to the gills, while a third pumps blood around the rest of the body. Unlike most, their blood is blue because it contains a copper-rich protein called hemocyanin instead of iron-rich hemoglobin. Their brain power isn't really where you think it is. An octopus has about 500 million neurons, and roughly two-thirds are located in its arms rather than its central brain. Each arm can process information and perform complex tasks with a surprising degree of independence. They can solve puzzles, they are masters of disguise and can change color in seconds, they don't have any bones, and may well dream in similar ways to how we do, according to research in 2023. In short, they are among the strangest, most unique creatures on planet earth. Yet one of the most bizarre features is something we're still only beginning to understand — RNA editing. We'll begin with the basics. Most animals rely on DNA mutations over many generations to adapt to changing environments. A useful genetic mutation appears, survives natural selection, and gradually spreads through a population over tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years. It is a painfully slow process, but for most species, that is simply how adaptation works. But octopuses are different — of course they are. Scientists discovered that octopuses extensively modify their RNA after it has been copied from DNA. RNA acts as a set of instructions that tells cells which proteins to build and in most animals, those instructions are copied pretty much to a T. Minor editing can occur, but it is generally limited. In octopuses, however, researchers found something far more extensive, with large portions of their genetic instructions being routinely rewritten. A major study published in 2015 identified tens of thousands of RNA editing sites throughout octopuses' nervous systems, with many concentrated in genes associated with brain activity and neural communication. Rather than relying entirely on permanent DNA mutations, octopuses appear able to adjust how certain genetic instructions are expressed. In evolutionary biological terms, this goes against what basically every other animal does. Evolution generally rewards useful DNA changes that can be passed to future generations, but octopuses seem to place a lot of emphasis on preserving their ability to edit RNA instead. In some cases, researchers believe this allows them to respond more quickly to environmental challenges, such as living in colder waters. Scientists found that they edit RNA involved in nerve signalling, helping neural activity continue efficiently despite low temperatures. Instead of waiting countless generations for natural selection to solve the problem, they can alter protein production within their own lifetimes. What unsettled many researchers wasn't simply that octopuses edit their RNA. It was that they appeared to be achieving a level of biological flexibility through a mechanism rarely seen on such a scale anywhere else in the animal kingdom. The more scientists study octopuses, the more they encounter systems that seem to operate according to their own set of biological rules. So are octopuses some kind of advanced being? Maybe. They're often described as alien-like, not necessarily because of physical features, but because so many aspects of their biology seem utterly alien-like. But there might be a trade-off. Some researchers argue that maintaining this extensive editing system may actually slow conventional genetic evolution in parts of the genome — meaning octopuses appear to have prioritised flexibility in the present over genetic change in the future. They are the ultimate live-in-the-moment creatures. ## 9. Murdering Dolphins It's difficult to find many more lovable creatures than dolphins. For years, we've been told that they are adorable, highly-intelligent creatures who just want to frolic and play. They follow boats, jump serenely through the sky, and provide that once in a lifetime experience when swimming with them. I'm sorry to burst bubbles today, but they are also murderers, masters of sexual coercion, and violent thugs. Let me explain. Researchers studying wild bottlenose dolphins discovered behaviours that seemed completely at odds with their reputation. Instead of the peaceful ocean flipper that you would let play with your children, dolphins were found engaging in some pretty horrific activity. One of the most shocking discoveries involved the deaths of young dolphins, with the most famous case occurring in 1996 when researchers led by Dr. Richard Connor documented evidence that male bottlenose dolphins were deliberately killing calves. The behaviour appears similar to infanticide seen in lions and certain primates; by eliminating a calf, a male may increase the likelihood that the mother becomes reproductively available again. Female bottlenose dolphins typically nurse calves for three to six years, which usually means she's out of the reproductive game for that amount of time. And how this happens is pretty harrowing. Adult males chase young calves, separate them from their mothers, ram them, toss them, and hold them underwater until, well, you know. In one observed attack, multiple males pursued a mother and her calf for hours. The calf was repeatedly struck and eventually died from its injuries. In some dolphin populations, calf mortality during the first year can exceed 20–30%, although other predators, disease, and environmental factors also contribute. But dolphin violence extends outside their own species. Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, beaches across parts of Europe started receiving dead harbour porpoises. At first, researchers assumed it was down to fishing accidents, shark attacks or disease, but post-mortems carried out revealed something disturbing – these porpoises had been beaten senseless. Injuries included broken ribs, internal haemorrhaging, severe blunt-force trauma, and bite marks consistent with, you've guessed it, dolphins. By the early 2000s, scientists had recorded hundreds of suspected cases around European coastlines, mostly young porpoises with the same style of injuries, but none showed any sign of being consumed, or partially consumed. Whoever was doing this, wasn't doing it for food. They were basically killing, and then leaving. And, of course, it was dolphins doing it, and it's since been visually documented many times. Why? We're not really sure. Some scientists suggested the behaviour might be practice for conflicts with rival dolphins. Others proposed it could be a form of redirected aggression. As in, that dolphin was having a bad day, and simply didn't like the look of that porpoise swimming past. Sounds ridiculous when you actually say it out loud, but even today, there is no universally accepted explanation. We'll round out our evil dolphin trilogy with sexual coercion and assault of females. Male bottlenose dolphins form sophisticated alliances that can last for years or even decades. These groups cooperate during conflicts and compete for access to females, with researchers documenting cases where groups of males work together to isolate females, prevent them from leaving, and aggressively maintain control over them for extended periods. In the human world, that's essentially kidnap and rape. What makes these behaviours particularly horrifying is the level of coordination involved. Dolphins possess some of the largest brains relative to body size in the animal kingdom. They recognise individual animals, maintain long-term social relationships, and communicate using unique signature whistles that function almost like names. In other words, this is not mindless violence. It is very sophisticated violence carried out by one of the most intelligent species on Earth. ## 10. Humanity Nearly Went Extinct We're going to round this list out with the fact that you reading this article very nearly didn't exist because Homo sapiens came perilously close to extinction several times throughout history. Modern genetic research has revealed that humans passed through several population bottlenecks during prehistory, which are specific periods when a species' population crashes so severely that only a small number of individuals survive and reproduce. The most famous example is linked to the eruption of the supervolcano at Lake Toba around 74,000 years ago. This was a monster of an eruption. To give you a sense of scale, the Mount St. Helens eruption produced around 1 cubic kilometre (0.24 cubic miles) of material, while Krakatoa, the monster of 1883, produced 20 cubic kilometres (4.8 cubic miles). Toba produced approximately 2,800 cubic kilometres (672 cubic miles) and many believe that volcanic winter conditions reduced temperatures worldwide and devastated ecosystems which may have reduced humanity to just 10,000 with only a few thousand breeding-age adults. More recently, a 2023 study using genetic modelling proposed an even more dramatic bottleneck between approximately 930,000 and 813,000 years ago. According to the researchers, the breeding population of these human ancestors may have fallen to between 1000 and 1500 individuals for more than 100,000 years. This bottleneck coincides with dramatic climate instability during the Early Pleistocene that saw a severe ice age paralyse vast sections of the globe. This led to large-scale food insecurity, or to put it more bluntly, species-wide starvation, with entire groups vanishing during droughts, cold periods, or ecological collapse. These weren't Homo Sapiens yet, but rather members of a very early human lineage somewhere between Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis. And if the study is correct, nearly 99% of the ancestral population disappeared during this point of our history. So, let's go back to that figure of between 1000 and 1500 individuals. To put that in perspective, there are some severely endangered species on Earth today with more individuals. There are 14,000 Sumatran Orangutans, 2,000 Iberian Lynxes, and perhaps as many as 6,000 Snow Leopards. The point is, humanity came extraordinarily close to simply never existing as we know it today. A few deadly disease outbreaks here, a particularly harsh winter there – that was all it would have taken. Today, there are more than 8 billion humans in practically every corner of the globe, but for as long as 100,000 years, the fate of humanity hung by thread, with little more than 1,000 of our early ancestors battling through the most horrendous of conditions. ## Zoology – Not Always What you Think And that's a wrap – 10 terrifying zoological discoveries that make you look at the natural world in a completely different way. Animals we think of as peaceful turn out to be violent. Creatures we dismiss as simple display astonishing complexity. Some species wage war, manipulate behaviour, start fires, or use biological mechanisms we are still struggling to understand. It's a weird world, and while we might be the most powerful, destructive creature on the planet capable of depravity and senseless violence, we're certainly not the only ones. Thanks for watching. Olivier Guiberteau ## Key Takeaways - Ant colonies engage in organized warfare, with specialized military castes and coordinated raids, resembling human conflicts. - Komodo dragons use a combination of venom and bacterial infection to kill prey, not just bacteria alone. - Sharks have existed for over 400 million years, surviving multiple mass extinctions and evolving into formidable predators. - Chimpanzees conduct planned murders and infanticide, challenging the notion of them being peaceful creatures. - Some fungi can manipulate the behavior of insects, turning them into zombies to spread spores and ensure survival. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is dulosis in the context of ant behavior? Dulosis is a behavior observed in some ant species where they raid rival nests, carry away developing young, and enslave them. These captured larvae mature and spend their entire lives serving the colony that destroyed their original home. ### How do Komodo dragons kill their prey? Komodo dragons use a combination of biological weapons to kill their prey. They have serrated teeth that tear flesh, venom that promotes blood loss and interferes with clotting, and bacteria in their mouths that can cause infections. The bite itself is usually enough to kill the prey, but if the prey survives the initial attack, the venom and bacteria ensure that the prey's body fights itself, leading to shock and eventual death. ### How long have sharks been around compared to trees? Sharks have been around for approximately 450 million years, which is significantly longer than trees. Trees appeared around 380 million years ago, so sharks were already ancient by the time trees emerged. ### What is the Gombe Chimpanzee War? The Gombe Chimpanzee War was a conflict observed in the 1970s at Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park. The Kasakela community of chimpanzees systematically hunted down and killed members of the Kahama community, effectively exterminating them. This event challenged the previous view of chimpanzees as peaceful creatures. ### How do fungi like Ophiocordyceps manipulate the behavior of ants? Ophiocordyceps fungi infect ants and manipulate their behavior through chemical signalling and interactions with the nervous system. Infected ants abandon their normal routines, climb to a specific height on vegetation, and perform a death grip, where they bite firmly into a leaf or stem. The fungus then grows inside the ant's corpse, eventually releasing spores to infect new ants. ### What is the relationship between ants and aphids? Ants and aphids have a mutualistic relationship where ants protect aphids from predators and move them to better feeding locations. In return, aphids produce honeydew, a sugary liquid that ants consume. However, this relationship can be exploitative, with ants sometimes removing aphid wings and forcing them to produce more honeydew. ### How do some birds use fire to their advantage? Some birds, such as black kites, whistling kites, and brown falcons, carry flaming sticks in their beaks or talons to start new fires. This behavior flushes out prey, such as rabbits, hares, birds, lizards, and insects, which the birds then hunt and eat. ### What is unique about octopuses' ability to edit their RNA? Octopuses extensively modify their RNA after it has been copied from DNA, allowing them to adjust how certain genetic instructions are expressed. This ability enables them to respond more quickly to environmental challenges, such as living in colder waters, without relying solely on slow genetic mutations. ### What are some of the violent behaviors observed in dolphins? Dolphins have been observed engaging in infanticide, where male dolphins deliberately kill young calves to make the mothers reproductively available again. They also attack and kill harbor porpoises, and male dolphins form alliances to isolate and aggressively maintain control over females for extended periods. ### How close did humanity come to extinction? Humanity passed through several population bottlenecks, including one around 74,000 years ago due to the eruption of the supervolcano at Lake Toba, which may have reduced the human population to just 10,000 individuals. Another study suggested that between 930,000 and 813,000 years ago, the breeding population of early human ancestors may have fallen to between 1,000 and 1,500 individuals. ## Sources - [Original Side Projects video: 10 Terrifying Zoological Discoveries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm4nyFfhwgQ) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/National_Geographic_at_SM_Mall_of_Asia_%282026-01-18%29.jpg) by Wide Awake! / openverse, by. ## Related Coverage