Snakes are masters of disguise, skilled hunters, and champion eaters. Here are eight awesome things you may not have known about these carnivorous reptiles.

1. They can smell with their tongues

A snake uses its tongue to help it smell. It flicks its long, forked tongue to pick up chemical molecules from the air, ground, or water. The tongue carries the smelly molecules back to two small openings in the roof of the snake’s mouth where they’re analyzed. Mmmm, lunch!

2. They can “see” heat

Some snakes—such as pythons, rattlesnakes, and copperheads—can’t see well and use other senses to find prey. These creatures have openings called pit holes in front of their eyes. These pits sense the heat given off by warm-blooded prey. The snakes’ heat vision allows the vipers to track prey day or night.

3. Their venom can kill and cure

By sinking two hollow, pointy fangs into their prey, many snakes inject venom to paralyze or kill victims before devouring them. But scientists have also discovered that the same poison that causes awful symptoms—and even death—in people who have been bitten by a venomous snake can be turned into medicines.

4. Some species can fly

Flying snakes flatten their ribs into a concave C shape to trap air under their bodies as they fall. By undulating back and forth in an S-shape, they can actually glide through the air.

5. They can change their skin

Snakes literally grow out of their skin. Every few months, most start rubbing against the ground or tree branches. Starting at the mouth, a snake slithers out of its too-tight skin. Like a sock, the skin comes off inside out.  Voilà—the snake has a fresh, shiny look. Nice makeover.

6. They “hear” with their jaw

Snakes don’t have external ears to hear sound waves in the air. Instead, bones in their lower jaw pick up vibrations in the ground or water. The vibes trigger signals in the snakes’ brains, which are received as messages. “Juicy mouse coming closer!”

7. There a lot to love

More than 2,500 species of snakes slither around the world.

8. They are speedy

The black mamba snake slithers up to 11 kilometers per hour (7 miles per hour)!

In 1251, Henry III was given a polar bear by the King of Norway. He kept it in the Tower of London, on a long chain so that it could swim and wash itself in the Thames River.

For more information about what went on in the Tower of London check out:

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Did you dress up as a giant panda this Halloween? Well, panda keepers in China take it a step further by sprinkling themselves with panda poop and pee!

“That’s to mask the human smell,” says Andrea Muller of Pandas International. By wearing panda suits when handling the cubs, caregivers minimize the animals’ stress and human attachment, Muller says.

At the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin, staff dress like ghosts—wearing white to hide their bodies—and use a bird-shaped hand puppet to interact with baby whooping cranes hatched at the foundation.

“We try to replicate what actual parents do,” says Kim Boardman, the assistant curator of birds. “The puppet offers natural food, catches grasshoppers, and teaches chicks to forage.”

Biologist Tom Reimchen and his students at the University of Victoria in British Columbia wanted to see how salmon reacted to spirit bears—black bears with a genetic variation that gives them white fur—compared to more common black bears with black fur. So, Reimchen and his students wore either white or black fabric and waded in a fishing hole.

The salmon were less spooked by students wearing white, suggesting that spirit bears may be more successful at catching fish, possibly because the fish don’t recognize the rare bears as predators.

To see how moose around Yellowstone National Park would react to the smell of wolves that were making a comeback in the area, biologist Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conservation Society and his colleagues wore a moose suit. The suit allowed them to get close and drop wolf poop near the moose.

The scientists discovered that the moose had forgotten to run when they smelled a wolf, but the moose quickly learned to avoid the wolves when they returned to the area!

Sometimes, scientists resort to dressing up their technology rather than themselves.

To get close to emperor penguins in Antarctica, scientists camouflaged remote-controlled rovers to look like a penguin adult and chick. Many penguins tried to communicate with them. Studies also showed that the penguins were less stressed out by these robotic penguins than they were by humans.

In Kenya, researchers faced danger from hippos while trying to collect river water samples, but they knew that hippos and crocs ignore each other. So Amanda Subalusky, a graduate student at Yale University, and her colleagues decided to construct a remote-controlled boat disguised with a lifelike crocodile head and outfitted it with scientific instruments. The students were able to steer the boat through hippo swimming holes and collect the data they needed.

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Animals do some pretty strange things. Giraffes clean their eyes and ears with their tongues. Snakes see through their eyelids. Some snails can hibernate for three years. But other weird animal tales are hogwash. National Geographic Kids finds out how some of these myths started—and why they’re not true.

Myth

Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they’re scared or threatened.

How It Started

It’s an optical illusion! Ostriches are the largest living birds, but their heads are pretty small. “If you see them picking at the ground from a distance, it may look like their heads are buried in the ground,” says Glinda Cunningham of the American Ostrich Association.

Why It’s Not True

Ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand—they wouldn’t be able to breathe! But they do dig holes in the dirt to use as nests for their eggs. Several times a day, a bird puts her head in the hole and turns the eggs. So it really does look like the birds are burying their heads in the sand!

Myth

Opossums hang by their tails.

How It Started

Opossums use their tails to grasp branches as they climb trees. So it’s not surprising that people believe they also hang from branches.

Why It’s Not True

A baby opossum can hang from its tail for a few seconds, but an adult is too heavy. Besides, says Paula Arms of the National Opossum Society, that wouldn’t help them survive. “Why would they just hang around? That skill isn’t useful—there’s no point.”

Myth

Touching a frog or toad will give you warts.

How It Started

Many frogs and toads have bumps on their skin that look like warts. Some people think the bumps are contagious.

Why It’s Not True

“Warts are caused by a human virus, not frogs or toads,” says dermatologist Jerry Litt. But the wartlike bumps behind a toad’s ears can be dangerous. These parotoid glands contain a nasty poison that irritates the mouths of some predators and often the skin of humans. So toads may not cause warts, but they can cause other nasties. It’s best not to handle these critters—warts and all!

Myth

Mother birds will reject their babies if they’ve been touched by humans.

How It Started

Well-meaning humans who find a chick on the ground may want to return the baby bird to the nest. But the bird is probably learning to fly and shouldn’t be disturbed. The tale may have been invented to keep people from handling young birds.

Why It’s Not True

“Most birds have a poorly developed sense of smell,” says Michael Mace, bird curator at San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. “They won’t notice a human scent.” One exception: vultures, who sniff out dead animals for dinner. But you wouldn’t want to mess with a vulture anyway!

Myth

Penguins fall backward when they look up at airplanes.

How It Started

Legend has it that British pilots buzzing around islands off South America saw penguins toppling over like dominoes when the birds looked skyward.

Why It’s Not True

An experiment testing the story found that penguins are perfectly capable of maintaining their footing, even if they’re watching airplanes. “But the reality isn’t funny,” says John Shears, who worked on the survey. “Low-flying aircraft can cause penguins to panic and leave their nests.”

Myth

Bats are blind.

How It Started

Often associated with darkness, witches and black magic, bats have a lot of mythology and are very misunderstood, making them seem like scary creatures of the night. Because of this, people often think bats are blind due to their hunting only at night.

Why It’s Not True

The fact is that all species of bats can see, although their vision is very poor. Instead, they have excellent senses of smell and hearing, and are able to use echo-location and sonar abilities to navigate and hunt at night. Their sonar abilities are so exceptional that they’re often better than military sonar, which is amazing for such small animals.

Myth

Owls are the wisest among birds.

How It Started

Perhaps the earliest known link between owls and wisdom is their association with Athena, as the Greek goddess of wisdom is often depicted holding an owl. With their overly large eyes and the constant serious, almost thoughtful look on their faces, owls give off the impression of wisdom, of being a cut above the rest. From legends, folklore, children’s tales to Hollywood, owls have always been the night watchmen – sometimes sinister, always smart.

Why It’s Not True

Unfortunately owls are actually placed on the lower-end of intelligent birds, with the common crow considered the wisest among birds.

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