17 Not-So-Fun Facts That Are Actually Pretty Damn Dark

Suggested by: u/fighterpilotace1

According to The Chicago Academy of Sciences, sometimes butterflies — particularly, male butterflies — will feed on sweat and tears, as well as other moist things like puddles or wet gravel. These don't nourish them like nectar does, but they actually do it to collect salt and other useful minerals for female butterflies to assist with the development of eggs. Some butterflies have also been reported to feast on blood, but not in the same way mosquitoes do. They won't bite you to get your blood, but rather are "opportunistic" blood drinkers who'll drink it if it's there, for the sodium and glucose. Fun fact alert: sometimes, they do this with fecal matter, too!

—u/thescrapplekid

—u/AdExcellent8978

Horses have a strong lower esophageal sphincter. Due to this, if a horse were having a fluid backup, its stomach would rupture much more quickly than the horse would be able to throw up. 

—u/BaymaxJr

This condition is called Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. 

—u/somerandomassdude404

When dead whales are left on the beach or floating atop the waves, their carcasses can, in fact, explode due to the build-up of gasses like methane inside their bodies while decomposing. If you're feeling particularly brave, you can watch one of the documented experiences of it happening in Tomales Bay, CA here.

—u/smartshoe

"Her and her mother were killed in July of 1988, and The Land Before Time was released posthumously in November 1988. All of the work leading up to it and the voice acting was done during the height of the abuse and build-up of the murders. Looking at the whole timeline makes a not-so-fun fact an even more terrible not-so-fun fact."

—u/naturallyselected007

You can read more about the tragic case of Judith Barsi here.

—u/SapphicsAndStilettos

While the actual hotline itself didn't come into fruition until nearly two decades later, his "vision began" after that funeral in 1935. 

—u/GotPC

According to Scientific American, the whale, which was originally discovered in 1989 but hasn't ever actually been seen, vocalizes in a frequency that is both too high for other whales and too low for humans to hear naturally. Scientists believe 52 could be a hybrid of two different whale species and may sing at this unique frequency due to a malformation. In a turn of events, though, some believe the whale may not be as "lonely" as we initially thought. Sensors off the coast of California that were quite far from each other picked up similar whale calls to 52 Blue's. This could imply there were multiple whales singing, perhaps meaning 52 Blue has finally found a friend, or that there are a pack of 52 Blue hybrids.  

You can listen to Blue 52's whale song for yourself here.

—u/omguserius

This kind of intercourse is called "traumatic insemination," as the male and female bed bugs have "conflicting goals" when it comes to reproduction. If you have the stomach to learn more about their, uh, rather aggressive mating rituals, you can read about them here.

—u/Upbeat_Map_348

—u/PMmepoop

The female spotted hyena's pseudopenis, which is nearly indistinguishable from that of a male, is where the female hyenas urinate, have sex, and give birth from. As you might expect, the latter two are particularly difficult and painful. Childbirth often causes severe tearing, and there's a especially high female mortality rate during childbirth, particularly for mothers giving birth for the first time. You can read more about it here.

—u/VanessaDoesVanNuys

Oftentimes, buses have these bold, chaotically-designed seat cushions that look like something straight out of a '90s arcade floor. While many may simply consider it a bold design choice or that perhaps someone bought up some cheap old fabric, it's actually intentionally designed so that passengers can't tell just how dirty the seats are and to draw attention away from wear and tear. If there's already a lot going on pattern-wise, and you've only got a couple of seconds to pick a spot before the bus starts moving, odds are you're a lot less likely to notice a suspicious stain or two before you take a seat.

—u/NazunaSimp9

"I read that NASA funded a scientist to study dolphin intelligence or something, and it ended with the scientist having sexual relations with the dolphins."

—u/clueless_robot

In the documentary The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins — which took place in the '60s — Margaret Howe Lovatt participated in said research, which aimed to teach dolphins to communicate with humans. According to The Atlantic, it started with Lovatt "moving in" with an adolescent dolphin named Peter so she could attempt to teach him. Well, she found their lessons to be particularly difficulty when Peter was aroused (which, apparently, happened often). According to her, Peter would alleviate himself against her, and eventually, she "took it upon herself to relieve Peter of his urges" as it was quicker than relocating him to the tanks with female dolphins to do it himself and would consistently interrupt their lessons. You can read more about it here.

—u/CommieKiller304

The Dachau Hypothermia Experiments were "medical experiments" — or, rather, brutal torture — conducted at the Dachau concentration camp with the goal of discovering the most effective treatments for immersion hypothermia. The use of their findings was highly debated, with some arguing that using it would be wholly unethical, and others considering it valid medical data that could save lives and using it in their studies. You can read more about it here.

—u/ContentTask2032

"That literally happened to me yesterday. Woke up with agonising pain, causing me to vomit four times. Had to go to the emergency room and get surgery done. Only just got home a couple of hours ago. I wouldn't wish this on anyone."

—u/Shadow458i

Testicular torsion happens when the testicle rotates several times, thus blocking the blood flow to it through the spermatic cord. According to the Mayo Clinic, it often occurs "several hours after vigorous activity, after a minor injury to the testicles, or while sleeping." 

—u/Cardinal-Lad

—u/mischa_996

According to CNN, the thawing permafrost in places like the Arctic can awaken viruses and bacteria that'd been "lying dormant for tens of thousands of years." Instances of this have happened in the past in places where permafrost has begun melting, like Siberia. For example, in the summer of 2016, there was an anthrax outbreak that was linked to Bacillus anthracis spores from an old burial ground that had been previously frozen under the permafrost. The spores made their way to the surface as the ice melted in the warmer months of the summer. You can read more about it here.