Because nature is so good for us

There aren’t many things that I don’t enjoy about running our businesses, but I do admit to finding the financial routines a little tedious. Thankfully, our super brilliant Business Manager, Timia, took the initiative to add a dose of enjoyment to the process by accompanying each of her monthly financial reports with a fun, nature-based fact. They’re too good to keep to ourselves, so here’s a selection of my favourites:

• In an ‘aquatic traffic jam’ (if you can imagine such a thing), alligators will give manatees right of way.
• Baby elephants suck their trunks for comfort, the same way that human babies suck their thumbs.
• Female bats give birth hanging upside-down, catching the baby in their wings as it drops.
• Galapagos tortoises sleep for 16 hours a day and can go a year without food or water.
• Manatees control their buoyancy through an endless cycle of farting. Females also have one nipple beneath their flippers, meaning they nurse their young in their armpits.
• Owing to its specific frequency, a wolf’s howl doesn’t echo even when the animal howls while standing right in the middle of a valley. It’s a natural adaptation, which plays a crucial role in their communication and hunting.
• A species of amoeba called Pelomyxa Palustris can grow up to 5 millimetres! Sometimes many amoebas will join together in a big blob called a “slime mould”
• Humpback dolphins are known to rip large toxic sea sponges off the ocean floor and bring them to the surface where they play with them to impress females. If the females are not impressed by tossing and catching skills, the male dolphins sometimes throws it at her. They even occasionally wear the sponges on their foreheads like hats, because that is universally fly.
• To hypnotise a frog, turn it over onto its back and gently stroke its belly. This is known as ‘The Alligator Method’ as it is used on alligators. It also works on lizards and hammer head sharks!
• Snake Island is bonkers. It’s an Island off the coast of Brazil “Ilha da Queimada Grande”. It used to have a human population, but they fled or died. Because there’s at least 1-5 snakes per square METRE. It’s the only place you can find the Golden Lancehead viper which is one of the worlds deadliest snakes – even if you get a dose of anti-venom immediately after a bite, you will probably still die.
• Cows have strong social bonds and show physical signs of stress when separated from their best friends. They also produce (on average) up to 1.5 pints more milk when listening to slow music according to researchers at the University of Leicester school of psychology.

We all know that connections to nature are good for our wellbeing and productivity, so keep an eye on our Twitter account where we’ll be sharing Timia’s monthly fun-filled nature facts in future! And if you’ve got a great one too, do send it in to us – timia@hillbreak.com.