Hoax Museum Blog: Animals

Bum-Breathing Turtles — I received an email from Tammy who had an important question for me. "Is it true a turtle can breath out of his butt?" she wants to know. Dear Tammy, yes this is true. At least, I know it's true that some species of turtle, such as the Fitzroy River Turtle, can perform this amazing trick, but I wouldn't stick my neck out to say that every species of turtle can. Those turtles which can are known scientifically as 'bum-breathing turtles.'

Sea Urchins Live Forever — One of the questions in my gullibility test is whether turtles ever die of old age. The answer is that they don't, and here's a BBC article about another species that shares this trait: the sea urchin. Apparently, unless urchins are killed off by predators or diseasey, they'll live forever.

The Great Octopus Mystery — As a joke, a Peoria woman puts a baby octopus in her boyfriend's toilet. Her boyfriend gets home, finds an octopus in his toilet, and assumes it must have crawled there from out of the sewer. He calls the local paper and the city is soon caught up in the 'Great Octopus Mystery' until the girlfriend calls up and sheepishly confesses.

British Giant Rabbits — A visitor named Patricia wrote to ask whether British Giant Rabbits are real, or whether this site devoted to them is just a joke. They're real, Patricia. And very cute!

Marry Your Pet — Do you really, really love your pet? Then why not marry him or her? Go to MarryYourPet.com, and you can make it happen. Of course, the marriage isn't recognized by a court of law, which makes it somewhat of a hoax, but they really will sell you a marriage certificate, an 'I married my pet' T-shirt, or a wall plaque. They're all incredibly overpriced. If they offered the certificate for $5 instead of $20, they probably would do more business. They're trying to sell the wall plaque for $200. Ouch! Who in their right mind would shell out that much for a gag gift?

Primate Programming — From the company's website: "Primate Programming Inc. is dedicated to the advancement and gainful employment of non-human great apes within the United States information technology sector."

Burmese Mountain Dogs — Burmese Mountain Dog: A page (also from the creators of the Mankato, Minnesota page) with some info about a rare breed of dog known as the Burmese Mountain Dog. You can examine this a long time and potentially not realize the joke, which is that the actual breed is the Bernese Mountain Dog (it comes from Berne, Switzerland). I guess a lot of people say Burmese instead of Bernese.

Lake Michigan Whale Watching — Lake Michigan Whale Watching: One of the best guarded secrets of the Great Lakes

Real Hamster — Real Hamster: Hot hamster sex. Maybe not safe for work.

The Penguin Conspiracy — The Penguin Conspiracy: Revealing the shocking truth... that penguins are plotting to take over the world

Yoga Kitty — Yoga Kitty: Instructional yoga videos for you and your cat

Munchkin Hoax — The Sydney Morning Herald has labelled that photo of Munchkin the Monster cat (see below) a hoax (thanks to Steve Wilson for pointing this out to me). Still, I can't see how the hoax was done.

Munchkin, the Monster Cat — Meet Munchkin the Monster Cat, who seems to be related to Snowball. Is Munchkin for real. Honestly, I don't know. I'm looking for answers. (Thanks to Mara, who thinks Munchkin is fake, for sending this image).

Quacks Do Echo — At last we have definitive scientific proof that ducks' quacks DO echo. Now hopefully researchers will press ahead and perform echo tests on the full range of barnyard sounds: moos, oinks, barks, cock-a-doodle-doos, etc.

Crocodile Warning — Croydon residents can rest easy. Signs alerting them to the danger of a crocodile inhabiting a local pond were just a prank.

A Real What Is It? — When I first saw this picture I thought, 'that can't be a real animal, it's got to be a hoax.' But apparently it's real. It's an angora rabbit. What an odd-looking creature. More pictures can be found here. (link via Geisha asobi blog)

Mold Dogs — How do you know if your house has a mold problem? Well, you could hire a mold-sniffing dog to find out. But be warned. Mold Consultants, LLC says the mold-dog industry is a scam.

Of Foxes, Turtles, and Ham — A Japanese newspaper scooped its rivals by revealing a serious environmental problem—that foxes were eating the eggs of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle. It even had pictures of the foxes eating the eggs. Until it turned out that the only reason the foxes were standing there by the eggs was because the cameramen had lured them there with ham.

Walled Cats — A visitor (Joanna) asks: I heard about a historical practice that could possibly be a hoax. I visited the Freakatorium in NYC today, and they had on display a mummified cat that they claim was walled into "A New York City Building" to ensure its stability. Now, they assured me that although they had hoaxes in this museum, the cat thing was certainly real, although they were fuzzy on the dates and the location it was found in. I found some references to this practice in medieval times... However, I can't imagine this happening as late as the 1800's, when this practice supposedly took place in New York. Any thoughts on this?
My Answer: I'm not an expert on this kind of folklore, but a little bit of research seems to confirm that this practice of walling up cats in buildings did occur during medieval times. Apparently the cat was thought to be a kind of good luck charm that would ward off evil spirits by being entombed in the building. As for something like this occurring in New York City during the 1800s, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a short story in 1842 called 'The Black Cat' in which he describes a cat being walled up in a house. This might be where the folks at the Freakatorium got their idea. But otherwise I don't think that an awful lot of 19th-century New Yorkers were busy walling up cats (though, of course, there may have been one or two such individuals).

Antennalopes — If you go to the movies this summer, you just might be lucky enough to see footage of this intriguing tall-tale creature: the Antennalope. These creatures (antelopes with antennae on their heads) are "bred to instantly relay radio signals as they frolic." They constantly roam the country in herds, instinctively migrating to where radio signals are weakest, thus helping to make possible a truly mobile national phone network. The antennalopes are featured in ads for Nextel that play before movies. They appear to be related to the Jackalope.