10 common wildlife myths debunked - how well do you know animals?

Our favorite pets' vision is much better than we used to think. Cats and dogs have fewer have color-sensing cells in their eyes, that's why they see colors differently than we do. According to the scientists, your dog's color vision is only about 1/7th as vibrant as yours. Cats distinguish more colors than dogs. In the dark, both species see better than humans, as they have more light-sensing cells.

One of the most popular myths about giraffes turned out to be false. A group of giraffes were monitored by the scientists for 150 days. All of their deep sleeps and naps were counted. Giraffes slept overnight and even took short naps in the afternoon. According to the results of the research, an average giraffe gets 4.5 hours of sleep every day.

Of course, their amazing ability to change colors can save chameleons from danger. But it turned out no to be the main reason! Chameleons change colors to communicate with each other. The color of their skin reflects their mood and help help chameleons to attract mates.

Despite the idiom "as blind as a bat", all bats can see. And some of them can see as well as humans. But where did the phrase come from? The thing is that bats almost don't use their eyes at night, they hunt with the help of echolocation. It means that they produce sounds and use their echoes bouncing off objects to navigate. Still, it doesn't mean that bats can't see.

Since we're talking about sloths, let's dispel the most popular myth about them. In course of time, sloths have become a popular symbol of laziness. In most languages, the word “sloth” translates as a version of “lazy”... but these creatures are not lazy at all! They move slowly for a reason. It helps sloths to save energy and survive. By the way, they also don't spend most time sleeping - an average sloth usually needs 8 hours of sleep a day.

Hippos, rhinos, giraffes, and sloths can't jump too.

You've probably seen the scenes in movies where hungry vultures are circling in the sky above the heads of starving or lost people. In reality, even if a vulture does so, it doesn't mean the scavenging bird is interested in living creatures. Vultures only seek out meat from dead and decaying corpses.

Koalas are often called "Koala bears", but these unique animals have no relation to bears. Koalas are marsupials.

Many people believe that cows lie down when it's about to rain. In reality, cows are not the best weather predictors. They just lie down when they want to.

In fact, all big cats are the representatives of the Panthera genus (lion, tiger, jaguar, and leopard). In their turn, black panthers are big cats which suffer from melanism, a condition which results in excessive black pigmentation. A black panther can be a range of animals. Most black panthers found in South America are jaguars, and the ones from Africa and Asia are leopards.