Happy Wild Out Whiskers Wednesday, Missians!
Hope you enjoyed Saturday's Google Hangouts episode, "Insect Politics: Should Insects Have the Same Rights as Animals?" Sorry I forgot to provide the link to the episode for you guys. I think I got so caught up in giving links to my sources, that I didn't remember doing it for the actual show. So just in case you missed it, here it is:
Forgive the thumbnail. I figured since Missy's stuffed caterpillar, Jerry is a bug, a pic of him would do.
Anyway, on to today's blog post topic. Because I'm weird that way, I've decided to let all the Featured Animals for the month of May be mythical or legendary creatures. Do we know if any of these beasts ever existed, for real? Heck no; but it'll be fun to explore the idea anyway. I know. Yes, I'm weird.
Moving right along, today's mythical creature is the Unicorn. Here's what most of us know about the Unicorn: It looks like a horse and has a long, spiraled horn growing from its forehead. In some traditions, it can also fly, (but that's usually only if a unicorn mates with a Pegasus--which is a flying horse). Some people also believed unicorns to be magical. So other than these "facts", what else is there to know? Let's find out.
1. Both Genghis Khan and Marco Polo allegedly met a unicorn on their travels; however it's believed Marco Polo had actually seen a rhino instead, (he actually gives a very unflattering description of the unicorn he saw, and stated that the beast was ugly).
2. Because of the rumored healing powers contained in the unicorn's horn, (an antidote for poison, making water pure), Narwhals were slaughtered for their horns. People figured if they couldn't have a real unicorn horn, a Narwhal's was close enough--afterall, they are known as Unicorns of the sea. Read more about the Narwhal here:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/n/narwhal/
3. The word unicorn means one horn.
4. The King James version of the Bible actually makes several references regarding unicorns, although most scholars believe it was due to a mistranslation of the word re'em which means wild bull. Check out Psalms 92:10 for an example.
5. Unicorns can only be tamed by a virgin. Which is more mythical nowadays, anyway? Virgins or unicorns? Okay that was bad. Moving on...
6. A Greek dude named Ctesias was the earliest known person to write about unicorns way back in the 5th century.
And for some super hilarious unicorn myths that I'm sure you've never heard of, go here:
http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6625318/unicorn-facts
Hope you guys learned some stuff about unicorns you didn't know before, but just in case you didn't here's one more bonus site of "real" unicorn stuff from "Unicorns Rule!" And you know what, they do rule!
http://www.unicornsrule.com/unicorn-facts/
Hit me up again for another Animal Trivia post this Friday. Will it be a Mythical Beasts edition? With me, you never know...
Until then,
This is your host J,
signing off............................
Hope you enjoyed Saturday's Google Hangouts episode, "Insect Politics: Should Insects Have the Same Rights as Animals?" Sorry I forgot to provide the link to the episode for you guys. I think I got so caught up in giving links to my sources, that I didn't remember doing it for the actual show. So just in case you missed it, here it is:
Anyway, on to today's blog post topic. Because I'm weird that way, I've decided to let all the Featured Animals for the month of May be mythical or legendary creatures. Do we know if any of these beasts ever existed, for real? Heck no; but it'll be fun to explore the idea anyway. I know. Yes, I'm weird.
Moving right along, today's mythical creature is the Unicorn. Here's what most of us know about the Unicorn: It looks like a horse and has a long, spiraled horn growing from its forehead. In some traditions, it can also fly, (but that's usually only if a unicorn mates with a Pegasus--which is a flying horse). Some people also believed unicorns to be magical. So other than these "facts", what else is there to know? Let's find out.
1. Both Genghis Khan and Marco Polo allegedly met a unicorn on their travels; however it's believed Marco Polo had actually seen a rhino instead, (he actually gives a very unflattering description of the unicorn he saw, and stated that the beast was ugly).
2. Because of the rumored healing powers contained in the unicorn's horn, (an antidote for poison, making water pure), Narwhals were slaughtered for their horns. People figured if they couldn't have a real unicorn horn, a Narwhal's was close enough--afterall, they are known as Unicorns of the sea. Read more about the Narwhal here:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/n/narwhal/
3. The word unicorn means one horn.
4. The King James version of the Bible actually makes several references regarding unicorns, although most scholars believe it was due to a mistranslation of the word re'em which means wild bull. Check out Psalms 92:10 for an example.
5. Unicorns can only be tamed by a virgin. Which is more mythical nowadays, anyway? Virgins or unicorns? Okay that was bad. Moving on...
6. A Greek dude named Ctesias was the earliest known person to write about unicorns way back in the 5th century.
And for some super hilarious unicorn myths that I'm sure you've never heard of, go here:
http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6625318/unicorn-facts
Hope you guys learned some stuff about unicorns you didn't know before, but just in case you didn't here's one more bonus site of "real" unicorn stuff from "Unicorns Rule!" And you know what, they do rule!
http://www.unicornsrule.com/unicorn-facts/
Hit me up again for another Animal Trivia post this Friday. Will it be a Mythical Beasts edition? With me, you never know...
Until then,
This is your host J,
signing off............................
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