1001 Gruesome Facts

6.99

Secretly fascinated by all things grotesque? Like to know the most

disgusting things about the world around you?Then this fact-packed book of grossness is just thething. With inconceivably ghoulish facts about the

human body, animals, science and history, our host ofcartoon characters leave no stone unturned in their

quest for foul facts. Ready to read on? Hold on to your stomachs

1001GF PBK Foul Price:1001 GF 6/7/07 08:30 Page 1

1001GF 001-008 Intro.qxd 11/6/07 5:03 pm Page 1

Helen Otway

The gross, the ghoulish and the ghastly


Arcturus Publishing Limited26/27 Bickels Yard 151153 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3HA

Published in association withfoulshamW. Foulsham & Co. Ltd, The Publishing House, Bennetts Close, Cippenham, Slough, Berkshire SL1 5AP, England

ISBN: 978-0-572-03395-8

This edition printed in 2007Copyright 2007 Arcturus Publishing Limited

All rights reserved

The Copyright Act prohibits (subject to certain very limitedexceptions) the making of copies of any copyright work or of asubstantial part of such a work, including the making of copies byphotocopying or similar process. Written permission to make a copy or copies must therefore normally be obtained from the publisher inadvance. It is advisable also to consult the publisher if in any doubt as to the legality of any copying which is to be undertaken.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Editors: Kate Overy and Fiona Tulloch

Printed in China


Gruesome Body Facts . . . . . . . . . .9

Gruesome Food Facts . . . . . . . . . .39

Gruesome Animal Facts . . . . . . . .69

Gruesome History Facts . . . . . . . .99

Gruesome Science Facts . . . . . . .129

Gruesome World Record Facts . . .159

Gruesome Random Facts . . . . . . .183

Your 1001st Gruesome Fact . . . . .208


1001GruesomeFacts

Are you ready?Are you really ready to plumb the depths of gruesomenessand beyond? If little things like mucus and blood gross you out,then read no further.As well as cups of mucus and oodles ofblood, youll come across a whole host of things you didntknow about.Whod have thought that our bodies and the foodwe eat could be so disgusting? But animals and the world welive in are even worse!

Some of us are born gruesome, and others have gruesomenessthrust upon them. People have been doing the most horriblethings to others since time began; the further back in history yougo, the more gruesome everyday life gets.A popular way for theRomans to entertain themselves, for example, was to watch menkilling each other.They would pop along to the local death-fest theway you would go to the cinemaand they didnt even have topay to get in!


Gruesome Gladiators(Free extras, not part of your 1001 facts!) If you lived in Roman times, gruesome events you might haveseen in your free time included:

Public executions, where you could settle down, get comfy with a snackand watch a few people being killed in imaginative ways by the state.

Chariot races, with the highlight being a chariot pile-up that killedthe drivers and the horses! (The life expectancy of a charioteerwas very low.)

Gladiatorial combat with special guests wild animals! Stick a youngman in an arena with a hungry lion or tiger and see what happens.Excellent fun.

Over to youIf you make it to the endof this book without keeling over, well done!Reward yourself by writing down your own gruesomefact to reach the 1001 target. It could be somethingthat happened to you, like seeing your brothereat his earwax, or something that was on TV,like the man who had a snake living in hisgut for years without realising why healways felt so hungry.

Are you sure youre ready?Then dive right in


Dont even think about it!Okay, so you might want to eat beetroot to see ifyour urine really does go pink.You might even betempted to try pigs organ soup next time youre

in Singapore its good enough for the locals,after all.What you absolutely shouldnt do is try

to recreate any of the gruesome stuff in thisbook yourself. Leave the unpleasant tricks like

eating stinging nettles and bathing in cockroachesto the people who have practised their gruesomefeats for years and understand the dangers.Take

pleasure in knowing that it isnt you


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Florida woman Gayle Grinds was soobese that after spending six years onher couch, her skin became fused tothe upholstery.

Nose mucus is normally clear. Butif you have a bacterial infection itturns yellow, or even green!

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There are 250,000 sweat glands in your feet, all workingaway to make sure your socks smell really cheesy!

Even though your gastric juices are highlyacidic, they cannot digest chewing gum. A

small piece of gum will pass right through thedigestive system, but larger amounts can cause

a serious blockage.

Your appendixlooks like a worm

dangling from yourintestine and youdont even need it

for anything!


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If an astronaut burps, it is a sick burp;the lack of gravity means any foodis floating about at the top of the stomach!

Your nose produces a cup ofmucus each day.Would youlike a biscuit with that?

Early x-rays caused nasty side

effects such as skin burns, swelling and

hair loss.

Spanish artist Salvador Dal used to study his stools and make notes on their colour and consistency.

The skin you can see on your

body is dead! New cells are growing

underneath to give you a new layer

of skin every 30 days.


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Quinsy, a complication of tonsillitis, is a putrid abscess in the throat.The sufferer will drool rather than endure the agony of swallowingtheir saliva.

Australian Graham Barker has beencollecting his own belly button fluffevery day since 1984 and keeps it instorage jars.

Women of the Himalayan Apatani tribeused to enlarge their nostrils withcircular, 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) widenose plugs.

When you crack your knuckles, the noisecomes from gas bubbles popping in the

liquid around your joints.

The condition of excessive body hair is

called hypertrichosis,or WerewolfSyndrome.

A carbuncle is a large abscess on the skin thatoozes pus from one or two holes.


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Native American man Dennis Avner,otherwise known as Stalking Cat, has

gone to great lengths to be tigrine: hehas stripes tattooed on his body, hisears have been surgically elongatedand he inserts synthetic whiskersinto facial piercings.

Each year, 6,500 people are taken toBritish hospitals after being injured by a

lawnmower. Injuries include the slicing offof a toe or even a finger!

Indian man Vijayakanth can pass athread through his tear ductand out through his mouth injust 60 seconds.

Blood whizzesthrough the main

artery in the body, theaorta, at 30 centimetres

(12 inches) a second.If the aorta is cut,

imagine how fast theblood spurts out!

DevotedHindus attending

the MalaysianThaipusam festival

stick skewers throughtheir skin as part of

the celebrations.


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The first time you get a cold sore, the virus that causes it lurks inyour body for the rest of your life.

Youve got jelly in your bones! It is called bone marrow and it makesyour blood cells.

Dutch artist Joanneke Meester had a section of skin surgicallyremoved from her abdomen and used it to make a replica pistol

as a comment on rising violence.

The body uses 16 different chemicalsto create a scab.

Whilst playing for Swiss team Servette,Portuguese football player Paulo Diogotried to jump over a metal barrier duringa goal celebration. His wedding ring gotcaught and he lost the top half of hisfinger. He even got a yellow card forwasting time!

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A person struck by lightning may havered, snaky patterns on their skinafterwards.These are known asLichtenberg figures or lightningflowers and are caused by rupturedblood capillaries.

After being removed from thebody, the lungs can survive longerthan any other organ.

The cornea(the surface of your

eye) is the only part ofyour body that has noblood supply. It is still

not a good idea to cut it, though.

You have bones in your body that are notattached to any other bone. These floatingbones are your triangular kneecaps and the

horseshoe-shaped hyoid in your neck.

Bits of dried earwax come loose and fall outwhen you chew, yawn or swallow!


90 per cent of the hairs on your head aregrowing at any point during the day.Theother 10 per cent are just having a rest!

The sound of a burp is caused by thevibration of the cardia (where yourstomach and oesophagus meet) when gasfrom your stomach whizzes through it. Moregas means a louder burp.

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Emetophobiais a fear

of vomiting.

The heart pumps blood around yourbody with enough pressure to squirt it 9

metres (30 feet) away.

Black hairy tongue is a dark fungalinfection that makes the taste budsswell and give the tongue a furry

appearance. Its colour can also begreen or brown.

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American surgeon William Beaumont researched humandigestion by putting pieces of food on string and pokingthem through an old gunshot wound in an ex-patientsstomach. He pulled out the food at intervals to see the

effects of digestion on it.

Maggots have been used for thousands of years to help clean andheal wounds, as they munch away at dead flesh. Some really

greedy maggots eat the other maggots too.

Pellagra is a vitamin deficiency disease caused by lack of protein andvitamin B. In severe cases, it is characterised by the four ds:diarrhoea, dermatitis, dementia and death.

Malaria is caused by parasites in the salivaof mosquitoes that get into the humanbloodstream.The parasites multiply in theliver and red blood cells.

The temperature of your farts is around37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degreesFahrenheit), the same as your body.Theymight feel hotter if youve eatensomething spicy.


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Depending on the infection, pus can bewhite, yellow, brown or blue.Yes, blue!

A Mexican man made a protestagainst the discrimination of peoplewith tattoos and piercings byputting hooks through his back andarms, using them to dangle himselffrom a tree.

Short-sightedpeople have

bigger eyeballs thanthose who are long-sighted.

Wealthy Texan recluse Howard Hughes was so obsessedwith protecting his body from germs that he could not use aspoon unless his staff had first covered the handle in layers

of tissue paper and cellophane.

You can hear the blood flowing

through your ears ifyou find a quiet place and cover

them tightly.

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Members of the Native AmericanMandan tribe used to keep the skulls oftheir dead and place them in a circleformation near their village.

American multi-millionairess Hetty Greenwas so stingy that she would not pay

for her son to have his broken legtreated. He then got gangrene andhad to have the limb amputated.

Stick your tongue out! Thosebumps on it are called papillae and

they contain your taste buds.Youwere born with 10,000 taste buds but

they die with age, so your grandparentsmay have only 5,000.

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Someone withcutaneous anthrax

will have large, blackulcers on their skin.

The skin is the bodys largestorgan. If you lay it out and smooth

out the wrinkles, it can cover anarea of up to 2 square metres

(7 square feet).


British man Richard Ross inhaled a nail that hewas holding between his lips whilst doing DIYin his home. His ribs had tobe broken for thesubsequent lungsurgery to removeit and he spentthree weeks in hospital.

Bowel obstruction (a blocked bowel) can lead to faecal vomiting, inwhich faeces are expelled back into the stomach from the colonand up through the mouth.

Keraunoparalysis is the temporary paralysis of the legs suffered afterbeing struck by lightning.

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Nail files cancarry nail

fungus, bacteria and viruses.

In 2004, Uruguayan artist Carlos Capeln exhibitedcollages made from toenail clippings.

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18th-century footmen, who had towalk closely behind their masters ormistresses, were known colloquially as fart-catchers.

One of the first stages of embalming a deadbody is called setting the features, which includesstitching or gluing the lips together to keep the mouth shut.

The reclusive Collyer brothers Harlemhouse was so full of junk that after

Homer Collyer died, police andworkmen cleared rubbish for twoweeks before they found the bodyof his brother, Langley.

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If the body isfighting an infection,the lymph nodes can

swell to the size of an orange.We call them swollen

glands.

When gasescapes from a

dead body, it soundslike the corpse

is farting.


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An old remedy for warts used tobe to rub a piece of raw meaton them and then bury themeat. It was thought that asthe meat rotted away, thewarts would disappear.

Tinea cruris is a fungalinfection of the groin area.Sufferers are oftensportspeople, so its commonlyknown as jock itch!

Obstipation is severe constipation. If it lasts fordays, it can cause bloating, distention and

terrible pain.

The deadly poison strychnine has adramatic effect on the body allthe muscles go into spasm, causingconvulsions until the back arches

and breathing stops. Rigor mortis(stiffening) sets in immediately, with the

eyes remaining wide open.

Verrucas that grow in clusters are known as mosaic warts.

Queen Elizabeth Ihad black teeth. Like

most Elizabethans, shewas fond of sugary foods

but toothbrushes andtoothpaste hadnt yet

been invented.


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Clubbing is a condition that causes the hands to swell up and makes the fingers

look like fat sausages. It is caused byliver malfunction.

If your breath is a bit stinky in themorning, its because your salivaglands have slowed down whileyou were asleep, making your

mouth dry. It doesnt take long forthem to get back into action again.

Argentinian artist Nicola Constantino has made 100 soaps and twosculptures from her own fat! The fat was removed from her bodyusing liposuction.

A teratoma, meaning monstertumour, is a rare growthinside the body that can havehair and teeth.

After scoring the winning goal

against Ecuador in a2006 World Cup match,England captain David

Beckham vomitedon the pitch.


A stool that floats and wont flush away is full of gas.

Scurvy used to be a common condition causedby vitamin C deficiency. It would causespongy gums, loose teeth, purpleblotches on the skin and, in extremecases, death.Anyone for an orange?

Eating lots of beetroot will makeyour urine pink.

If you ever jump as if youre beingelectrocuted when drifting off to sleep, youreexperiencing a hypnic jerk.The brain mistakes pre-sleep relaxationfor falling and stiffens the limbs to get the body upright again.

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During a severe nosebleed,

blood can travel upthe sinuses and come

out through the eyes.


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American surfer Bethany Hamilton had her left arm bitten off by atiger shark but went back to surfing just ten weeks later.

First World War soldiers often suffered from trench mouth, inwhich the gums would swell up and bleed, becoming covered

in ulcers. Left untreated,it spread to the cheeks and lips.

Amongst the 103 tonnes of junk removedfrom the Collyer brothers house in

Harlem were human organs pickled injars and a horses jawbone.

Your teeth are soft in the middle! The outside is made of enamel,which is the hardest substance in your body. Inside is squidgy stuffcalled pulp, made of nerves, blood vessels and tissue.

Stale urine used to be an ingredient in gunpowder.


A liver with cirrhosis is an orangey yellow colour and lumpy.

The deadly Ebola virus makes sufferers throw up thick,black vomit.

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Guinea worm disease is caught from drinking infectedwater in tropical countries. Between one and two

years after infection, a spaghetti-like worm up to 100centimetres (40 inches) long will pop out of a blister in

the foot or leg.

A person who has had an eye removed can sufferfrom phantom eye syndrome; they experiencesensations, pain and hallucinations in the missing eye.

Eating potentfoods such aschillies and

garlic will makeyour sweat

smell stronger.

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Tooth decay has been around forthousands of years and in ancienttimes was believed to havebeen caused by a tooth worm.

Major aphthous ulcerations aremouth ulcers that are morethan a centimetre (half aninch) wide. Ouch!

Not all dead bodies decompose afterburial. If conditions are right, the skindevelops a soapy coating called adipocere and the bodybecomes naturally mummified.

One days worth of your farts is enough to blowup a small balloon.

Squatting is the best position for the body to bein when passing a stool.

The part ofyour brain that

controls body stufflike vomiting and

salivating is called themedulla.


If you eat ice cream too quickly, the bloodvessels in your head swell up and give

you a brain freeze headache.Yournerves send messages to the brainthat youre in a cold environment,so the blood vessels swell towarm you up.

Blood is made up of92 per cent water.

American mountaineer Aron Ralstonhad to take drastic action when aboulder fell on his arm and pinnedhim to the ground in Blue JohnCanyon, Utah.After five days,desperation drove him to amputatethe arm with a penknife.

Queen Elizabeth I was so afraid ofhaving one of her rotten teethextracted that a loyal Archbishop hadto have one of his teeth out first toreassure her.

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Spanishartist Francisco

de Goya got leadpoisoning from

the paints he usedand became

completely deaf.

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A 19th-century cure for toothache was to hammera nail into the tooth and then stick the nail in a treeto transfer the pain.

Going up a mountain too quickly will makeyou vomit! At heights over 2,500

metres (8,000 feet) above sea level,a change in pressure means thebody does not get as muchoxygen and needs time toacclimatize. If not, altitudesickness will occur.

Just like your fingerprints, yourtongue print is unique its just a

bit sloppier!

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If you have acut in your skin, ittakes less than 10

seconds for your bloodto start clotting to

form a scab.

When Polish man Hubert Hoffman criticized the countryspresident Lech Kaczynski during a routine police check, hewas asked to show more respect. He replied with a loud

fart and was promptly arrested!


19th-century English footballer Joe Powell broke hisarm so badly during a match that he got tetanus andblood poisoning as a result. His arm was amputatedin an attempt to save him, but he died a week later.

Cauliflower ear is caused by blood clotsforming on the ear after being hit orby skin being torn from the earscartilage, making ugly lumps andbumps. Boxers often suffer fromthis, but its probably best not topoint it out if you meet one!

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InventorsMichael Zanakis

and Philip Femanopatented a

fart-powered toyrocket in 2005.

The worlds most pierced woman, Elaine Davidson, canput her little finger through the hole in her tongue.

Eating asparagus produces a chemical called methanethiolthat makes urine smell of rotten cabbage.

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Characteristics of tetanus are muscle spasms in thejaw and difficulty swallowing, which is why thedisease is also known as lockjaw.

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NASA aeroplanes used for training astronauts have thenickname Vomit Comets, as the weightlessness thatpassengers experience often makes them throw up.

Hair cannot turn white with fright, butshock can make pigmented hair

suddenly fall out.An older personwhose hair is a mixture of colourand grey would then be left withonly grey hairs, appearing to turnwhite overnight.

The rare but fatal brain disease kuruis also known as laughing sickness, as

its victims go through a stage of burstinginto laughter, before they develop

ulcerations and eventually die.

If your skin didnot secrete its

naturally antibacterialsubstances, you would

go mouldy!


Indian man Dharmendra Singh canmake cigarette smoke come out ofhis ears. He can whistle throughhis nose too!

By the time of her death,Queen Elizabeth Is coronationring had become embedded inher flesh.The ring had to besawn off so that it could bepassed to the heir to the throne,James VI of Scotland.

Brain diseases known as spongiformencephalopathies cause the brain to become riddled with holes.

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The blood vessels in the conjunctiva (eye membrane) are very fragile. If ruptured,a bright red haemorrhage will spread across

the white of the eye.

Sufferers ofblackwater feverpass black urine,hence the name.

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Italian artist Piero Manzoni filled 90small tins with his own faeces for

a 1961 exhibition. Some of themlater exploded!

Tendons attach your muscles to your bones and look like rubber bands.Like rubber bands, they

can also snap.

After a car accident in Nottinghamshire, England, aback seat passenger was impaled by a snookercue that had been in the cars boot. It missedher vital organs and she was released fromhospital after only three days.

Turkish construction worker Ilker Yilmaz cansnort milk up his nose and squirt it more than2.5 metres (9 feet) from his eye!

Indian painterShihan Hussaini used

over a litre of his bloodto paint 56 portraits ofpolitician Jayalalitha for

her 56th birthday.


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St. Louis barber Bill Black used the hairclippings swept from his floor to makevests, shirts, ties and even a bikini!

When Canadian man Jim Sulkers diedin his bed, his body was notdiscovered until two years later.Thecorpse had not decomposed but hadbecome mummified in the hot, dryconditions at the time of his death.

Helmintophobiais a fear of being

infested withworms.Whowouldnt be

scared?

Three million of your red blood cells die eachsecond! Luckily, your body is replacing themjust as quickly one drop of your bloodcontains five million red blood cells.

American man Matt Gone was so unhappy withhis birthmarks that he has had 94 per cent of his

body covered in a checkerboard tattoo.

A blister contains lymph and other body fluids.This is what makes them squidgy and tempting to pop!

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Sylvester the Cowboy Mummy is displayed at Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe in Seattle. Completewith gunshot wounds, he is preserved in arsenic,commonly used in the 19th century to preserve corpses.

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There are more than 200 species of bacteria living on your skin at any one time. Some are good bacteria

that are making themselves useful!

Breckenridge carpenter PatrickLawler suffered eye swellingand toothache after his nailgun backfired and a nailstruck his face.When hehad an x-ray six days later, itshowed a second 10

centimetre (4 inch)nail embedded

in his skull!

Joseph Merrick,known as The

Elephant Man, sufferedfrom a rare condition

called Proteus syndrome,which causes disfiguring

skin and bone growths.

Some contortionists dislocate their hip orshoulder joints during their displays.


In 2004, Dutch eye surgeons invented eyeball jewellery; the eyemembrane is sliced and a decorative shape is inserted. UK and USeye specialists have criticized the practice, since it could causeinfection and scarring.

The black dot in the middle of a verruca is its blood supply.

A person who has been struck by lightning may have perforatedeardrums, cataracts, burns or permanent brain damage as a result.

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Intestinal myiasis is a condition where maggots are in a personsstomach. The maggots can be swallowed in infected food and

cause cramps, but are eventually digested by gastric juices.

American politician Stan Jones suffered froma condition called argyria after taking

medicine that contained silver. His skinbecame permanently grey!

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You had more than 300 boneswhen you were born, but bythe time youre an adult youllhave only 206! Dont worry,you wont lose them some ofyour bones will justfuse together.

When British footballer Darius Vassell had ablood blister under his toenail,he tried to get rid of it by drilling ahole in the nail himself! His DIYsurgery led to an infection and the lossof half his toenail.

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The African tumbu fly lays its eggs in clothes.When the clothes areworn, the eggs hatch and the larvae burrow into the skin,creating boil-like sores for themaggots to grow in.

A nasal polyp is a fleshy

growth in the nostrilthat can be as big

as a grape.

An averageappendix is 10

centimetres (3.94inches) long.

The longest appendix everremoved came from aman in Pakistan: it was

23.5 centimetres (9inches) long!


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British performance artistMark McGowan spent twoweeks sitting on a Londonstreet with his raised armstrapped to a lamppost,draining the blood fromhis arm and possiblycausing muscle damage. He

called this anti-war protestThe Withered Arm.

All your bodily functionsstop when you sneeze even

your heartbeat!

Catgut, used for stitching cuts, is made fromsheep or goat intestines.

Fijian rugby player Jone Tawake decided tohave his right ring finger amputated whena dislocated joint became infected.

Entropionis a condition inwhich the eyelid

turns inwards againstthe eyeball.The skin rubsagainst the surface of the

eyeball and can causesight loss.

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Animal fat from cooking meat is acommon cause of sewer blockages.Thames Water flushers in centralLondon once had to clear a solidlump of fat blocking 45 metres (150 feet) of sewer.

Napoleons starving troops weretold to eat the flesh of horsesthat had died on the battlefield.They used a sprinkling ofgunpowder as seasoning!

A ripe jackfruit smells ofrotten onions.

Two Scottish artists used their ownblood to make black pudding (blood

sausage). As if animal blood isntdisgusting enough?

Entomophagyis the habit of

eating insects over1,200 species of

insects are gobbleddown all over

the world.


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Cows milk that has not been pasteurised cancontain nasty bacteria, such as tuberculosis,salmonella, E. coli and diphtheria.

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African delicacy mopani worms areemperor moth caterpillars.They are

prepared for frying by nipping offthe ends and squeezing out thegreen guts just like toothpastefrom a tube!

Talcum powder is sometimes usedin foods to prevent caking.

Giblets are theheart, liver and

gizzard (stomach) of a bird.You can

eat them all if you want to!

The French dish oreilles de Christ (Christs ears) is made withpieces of deep-fried bacon fat. No ears in ere!


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Brendan Brockbank won the WorldPie-Eating Contest in Wigan, England, bywolfing down a humungous pie in just37 seconds!

You can get Paralytic ShellfishPoisoning (PSP) from eatingshellfish that have fed on toxicalgae. Muscular and respiratoryparalysis (which is death,basically) can occur withinhours of digestion.

The edible white larvae of theNew Zealand Huhu beetle canbe up to 7 centimetres (3 inches)long.They taste like buttered chicken.

Butter and yogurt made fromcamels milk are

light green.

Livermush is a popular product in the southern United States,made from pigs liver, pigs head and cornmeal.


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The fatass ant guess what it looks like has been a traditionalColumbian food for hundreds of years and is often given as awedding gift. Only the queen ants are edible and harvesting them isa painful business.

Used chewing gum was auctioned online in 2004. Pieces chompedby Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Eminem and Jessica Simpsonwere available to interested bidders.

Black moss or hair moss is a freshwater algae used in Chinesecooking. In its dried form, it looks like black human hair.

The Burnt Food Museum inArlington, Massachusetts,

showcases black, charred food.The museum had to close down

temporarily due to fire damage!

Apple pips contain a small amount of toxic cyanide,which causes vomiting, seizures and cardiac arrest. Dont panic if you swallow one youd need large

amounts to be poisoned.


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Lead tastes sweet! Wine was sweetenedwith toxic lead sugar until the 17th century, giving those who drank itgradual lead poisoning.

Tiny, fiery hot chillies used in Thai cooking are known as phrik khiinuu mouse-dropping chillies.

Charles Darwin was president of The Glutton Club at CambridgeUniversity. He and his friends would meet to taste strange flesh,including hawk, bittern and owl.

Pocari Sweat is the name of a Japanese soft drink that is grey incolour. Mmmm, tempting!

The French cheese poisses de Bourgogne is so stinky that it isbanned from being taken on public transport in France.

British pensioner Margaret Hastekeeps a hot cross bun as a reminderof her aunt, who died in 1899. The

108-year-old heirloom is keptwrapped in tissue inside a box.

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Kumis is a Central Asian drink, made from horsesmilk that is fermented in horse skin containersuntil slightly alcoholic.

British performance artist MarkMcGowan turned himself into an

English breakfast for two weeks in2003. He sat in a bath of bakedbeans with two chips up his nose and 48 sausages strappedto his head.

US researchers ran trials on adrink containing pig whipworm

eggs.They found that the hatchedworms eased symptoms of bowel

disorders in people taking part.

Donkey meat waseaten in Britain until the 1930s.

Fancy a slice of pigs blood sausage, studded withchunks of pickled pigs tongue? Just ask forzungenwurst next time youre in Germany!


A young Wisconsin factory worker became trapped in achocolate vat for two hours after he waded into it up tohis waist to pull out the plug. Nearly death by chocolate!

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The fingered citron or Buddhas hand is a giant citrus fruit so

scary-looking that it has alsobeen named goblin fingers.Mould can grow between theyellow fingers but whenfresh, the fragrant fruit isused for its zest.

Koreanfermented soya

bean paste (doenjang) smells

of rotten fish.

Singaporean pigs organ soup is a mixture of pig intestine,stomach, blood cubes and pork slices. There are vegetables in it

too, but you probably wouldnt notice those.

Raw red kidney beans contain a toxic enzyme calledphytohaemagglutinin, which causes severe vomiting

and diarrhoea. The beans are made safe to eat byhours of soaking and boiling. Tinned ones are fine!


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Mad honey intoxication is caused byeating honey made fromrhododendron nectar. Symptomsinclude vomiting, excessive salivatingand sweating, and tingling around the mouth.

A British chef was bitten by a highlyvenomous Brazilian wandering spider

that had been hiding in bananas in hiskitchen. He was quick-thinking enoughto photograph the spider on hisphone so that he could get the right treatment.

Fuqi feipian is a Chinese dish thattranslates as married couples lung slices

and is made of thin slices of spiced cows lung,served cold.

Anticuchosare South

American goatheart or cow heart

kebabs.A heartymeal on a stick.

If you refrigerate bananas, youll give them chill injury! As tropical fruits, they react badly to cold temperatures

by going black and squishy.


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An outbreak of the disease salmonella in Britain duringthe summer of 2005 was traced to lettuces importedfrom drought-hit southern Spain. Desperate farmershad used their household sewage to water crops.

Eye protection is recommended for thosesampling the maggot-ridden Sardiniandelicacy casu marzu cheese.The larvae init can jump as high as 15 centimetres (6 inches) when disturbed!

The first bubble gum was developed in1906 and was a failure. Called Blibber-Blubber,it had a Play-Doh consistency and producedsticky, wet bubbles.

Filipinochocolate

pudding is in fact,a dark brown stewof pigs organs in a

spicy pigs blood gravy.

The red food colouring carmine (E120) is made from crushed cochineal insects.


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Dead insects go off quickly so should be eatenalive or immediately after being killed.Hopping insects need to be chilled orfrozen before cooking so theydont jump out of the pan!

Japanese basashi vanilla icecream is made with chunks ofraw horseflesh. If you dontfancy that, theres always yagi noaisu: goats milk and goats meatice cream.

Comedy actor Steve-O vomited aftersnorting super-hot Japanese wasabi in a stunt forJackass:The Movie.

Oiseaux sans ttes(headless birds)

is a Belgian dish ofsausage meat wrapped in veal slices.

A bag of flour may be infested with tinybeetles called weevils that can spread the

deadly E. Coli bacteria. They also like hidingin packets of cereal. You have been warned!

British woman Jo Carter ate 10.3 metres(34 feet) of raw stinging nettles to win the WorldStinging Nettle-Eating Championship in 2006.


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British farmer Giles Peare is quite happy tosnack on the slugs he finds on his farm. Hethinks fried worms are tasty too.

Rhubarb leaves contain a poisoncalled oxalic acid that irritates the gut and causes kidneydamage. Luckily, they tastepretty foul so its unlikelyanyone would eat enough topoison themselves.

Californian Olivia Chanes feltsomething metallic in the hot dogshe was eating.An x-ray showedthat she had swallowed a 9 millimetre(one-third of an inch) bullet.

Pickled turkeygizzard is a

traditional dish in some parts of the

midwestern United States.

The strong smell of popular Chinese dishstinky tofu comes from it being fermentedfor as long as six months. It is sometimes

black even more appetizing!


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British celebrity chef James Martin tried tomake Brussels sprouts more appealing in 2004by creating recipes for sprout ice cream, asprout smoothie and a sproutini cocktail.

In the year 2000, food manufacturerHeinz produced tomato ketchupsthat were green, blue and purple.Everyone was quite happy withred, thank you, and the impostorsauces were discontinued.

Some traditional cheese-makingprocedures involve regular cleaning

of the cheeses surface to rinse awaythe tiny cheese mites that feast on it.

11th-centuryEgyptians resorted

to cannibalism whenthe Nile failed to

flood for eight yearsin a row, causing

a famine.

In the Philippines, the eyes are considered the tastiest part of a steamed fish. Suck out the gloop

and spit out the hard cornea.

Ever heard of a vegetable injury? The cardoon is a type of artichoke witha stalk that is covered in spines that can

become lodged in the skin.


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The edible part of a jackfruit issurrounded with sticky, white latex goo that clings to the fingers.Those in the know oil their hands before preparing one!

Severed heads, amputated limbs andinternal organs went on display in a Thaibakery.The realistic-looking macabreitems were made out of bread by artstudent Kittiwat Unarrom.

In traditional Italian cooking, a piece ofsharpened horses leg bone called a spintois used to test whether a ham is cooked.

Cows milkcontains tiny

amounts of pus andblood cells. If yourelucky, you might get

some traces ofantibiotics too.

The death cap is one of the worlds most toxic mushrooms.Because it looks similar to edible mushrooms, it accounts

for 50 per cent of all mushroom-poisoning cases.Symptoms include coma, jaundice and even death.


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In 1951, the townspeople of French townPont-Saint-Esprit were made ill by painmaudit (cursed bread) that made many ofthem psychotic.The grain used to makethe flour was affected by ergot, a

hallucinogenic fungus.

Japanese soldiers killed and ate eight Americansoldiers in 1945.They were later hanged fordoing so.

Indian delicacy Bombay duck is, in fact, driedlizardfish. Its also known as bummalo and isso pongy that it has to be transported inairtight containers!

The Cambodian town of Skuon isknown as Spiderville, famous for its

dish of fried tarantula. The huge Thaizebra spiders are specially bred for

food in holes in the ground.

Orangesimported into

Europe from Israelin 1978 had been

purposelycontaminated with

mercury byterrorists.


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Red whelks can sometimes be mistaken for edible whelks, but their saliva is highlytoxic. If eaten, they will cause blurred vision and paralysis.

Around 50,000 horses are slaughtered each year in the US to be exported for meat.

Popular British bar snack pork scratchings are bits of deep fried pigskin some with hair still attached.

Gelatine (also known as E441) is made by boiling up animal skin,cartilage and bone for hours on end. It is added to a range of foodssuch as gummy sweets and jelly.

New York Times journalist William Buehler Seabrook obtained achunk of fresh human meat from a hospital so that he could cook

and eat it for research. He said it tasted like veal.

Pets-de-nonne (nuns farts) are delicate Canadiancinnamon rolls. Nuns dont fart, surely?


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Death Row prisoner Kenny Richey wrote his own cookbook basedon his prison experiences. His Death Row Recipes book includes afish toastie that is warmed up on a radiator.

At least 16,000 children die around the world each day fromhunger-related causes.

British man Les Lailey celebrated his Golden Wedding anniversarywith wife Beryl by opening a 50-year-old can of chicken! Thewhole jellied chicken had been in their wedding day hamper.

Mould on decayingfood can be white,

green, brown, black,red or pink.

Camel meat has been eaten in some parts of the world for centuries the hump is

apparently the best part.


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North-eastern Thai dish yum khai moddaeng is red ant egg salad.You can haveextra ants if you ask nicely.

Police seized 30 tonnes (66,138 pounds)of rotten meat from a rat-infestedLondon warehouse in 2003.The illegalmeat that was allegedly destined forhuman consumption includeddecomposing lambs brains, goatcarcasses, gizzards and cows feet.

Can you guess what honey ants tastelike? For a tasty bush tucker snack, justtrack down a nest, take an ant by the head andmunch its sweet body.

The PapuanKorowai tribe

practisedcannibalism until

around 1990.

Chakna is a spicy Indian stew made withgoat stomach and a sprinkling of other

tasty animal parts.


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A British farmer added carrots to hiscows diet, but their milk turned pink!He solved the problem by importingwhite carrots from France.

A 330-year-old cookery book found stored in a trunk in Derby,England, contained a section entitled A la mode ways of dressing the head of any beast. It also gave recipes for marinated conger

eel and hare mince pies.

Chocolate is toxic to dogs, cats, horsesand parrots, because their bodiescannot break down the chemicaltheobromine that comes from cocoabeans. If they eat too much, they cansuffer from vomiting, diarrhoea and

muscle spasms.

Filipinofermented fishbagoong terongsmells like raw

sewage!

Toxic mushrooms such as the pure white DestroyingAngel contain poison that destroys the liver and kidneys.


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The main ingredient in pepper spray iscapsaicin, which comes from fiery chillipeppers. The spray causes tears, pain,

coughing and temporary blindness.

Natural sausage casings are made fromanimal intestines.

The bacteria used for fermentingLimburger cheese are the same asthe bacteria found on humanskin that cause body odour.Themonks who originally created thecheese used to pound it withtheir bare feet!

A Florida jogger survived for four days onswamp water and leaves when he was trappedwaist-deep in mud after taking a shortcut while out running.

Britains first ever crocodile farm was set upin Cambridgeshire, England, where crocodilesare bred for food.The farmer helpfully saysthat the meat tastes like crocodile.

A family in Virginia opened their box of fried

chicken to find a wholebattered chickens

head inside!


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Caffeine is a plant substance thatparalyzes and kills insects. It is foundin chocolate, cola, tea and coffee andis a central nervous systemstimulant. Large amounts of caffeinecan cause an irregular heartbeat,insomnia and muscle twitching.

Beef tripe is from the first three of acows four stomachs: the rumen makes smoothtripe, the reticulum gives honeycomb tripe and book tripe comesfrom the omasum.

Elephant ears are a popular snack in theUnited States. Fortunately, they are notanimal parts but pieces of fried dough

sprinkled with sugar.

Shaws Bistro and International Tapas Bar wasthe first restaurant in Scotland to serverattlesnake, crickets and locusts.

65 millionguinea pigs areeaten in Peru

each year!


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A traditional way to make African amasi (soured milk) was to leaveunpasteurized milk out in the sun to fester for a couple of days!

Fried-brain sandwiches are a popular snack in some parts of the US.

An Edinburgh woman stopped eating her McDonalds cheeseburgerwhen she noticed a huge spider in the box.When she looked insidethe burger, there was another one in there too! The company issuedan apology for the incident.

Darkgreen-brown

grass jelly is usedin desserts and

drinks in China andSoutheast Asia. Itreally is jelly with

grass in it.

Asafoetida is a stinky spice that comes from plant sap and isalso known as devils dung or devils dirt. It smells revolting

as a powder but tastes delicious when cooked.


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Rennet is an enzyme taken from slaughteredcalves stomachs that is used in sometraditionally- made cheeses to makethem solid.

Dozens of London residents were struck down by diarrhetic shellfishpoisoning in 1998 after eating mussels from two of the capitalsrestaurants. It was the first case of the poisoning for 30 years.

Stinging nettles are a nutritious food and a little steaming gets rid ofthe sting. Nettle soup, anyone?

A robber was pelted with chicken drumsticks by staff whenhe tried to hold up a take-away at gunpoint in Sussex,

England. He fled empty-handed.

Tests on 2000-year-old faecesdiscovered in Roman militarytoilets unearthed in Scotland,

showed that soldiers hadenjoyed a meal made with

eggs.


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A 2003 investigation by theBritish Coffee Association foundthat some coffees sold in Britainwere contaminated with coffee

bean mould, stones, twigs andfloor sweepings.

In medieval times, cow and deer innardswere known as umbles. Umble pie wasa popular dish among the lowerclasses and its thought that this iswhere the phrase to eat humble piecame from.

Large amounts of liquorice can causeliver damage. It can increase the amountsof the hormone cortisol in the liver, whichraise blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Swedish KingEric XIV was

fatally poisoned bya bowl of arsenic-

laced pea soupwhilst in prison.

Sipunculid worm jelly is a delicacyin Xiamen, China. The marineworm burrows in sand and is

known for its tentacled mouth.


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Devon colic was a type of lead poisoning suffered by people in Devon, England, after drinking the localcider in the 17th century.The cider presseswere made of lead and lead shot wasused to clean them.

Japanese fermented soya beans nattoucome in a tacky goo that formswebby strings when pulled apart.They stink of blue cheese too!

The natural colour of margarine is grey, soyellow colouring is added to make it look moreappetizing. It is illegal to sell margarine with colouring in Quebec.

Slturis an Icelandicdish made byfilling sheep

stomachs withblood and fat.

Low quality cod liver oil

smells of rotten fishand rancid oil. It

tastes pretty yucky too!


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Pokeweed leaves retain some of their poisonoustoxins after being boiled. Despite this, poke

salad remains a popular dish in the southernUnited States.

Black corn fungus, known as huitlacoche, isa delicacy in Mexico.The mould grows indamp corn after rain and makes thekernels swell up into big, deformed blobs.

The black stone in the sapodilla fruit has ahook at one end and can stick to the

throat if swallowed.

Antarctic explorers Douglas Mawson andXavier Mertz got severe vitamin Apoisoning from eating husky liver afterthey lost their food supplies in a crevasse.

Lard is pig fat. Much of the lard sold insupermarkets is treated with bleaching

and deodorising agents.

Grilledchicken

gizzards are apopular street foodin many Southeast

Asian countries.


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The thorny durian fruit from SoutheastAsia has such a pungent odour (likenedto stale vomit and rotten eggs) that it isbanned from being taken into hotels andon public transport!

British man Brian Duffield can eat awhole raw onion in 1 minute 29 seconds.

Baltic herring is fermented for months tomake a Swedish dish calledsurstrmming.The fermentation processcontinues after canning, so the tinexplodes on opening! It also releasesa pungent liquid that surrounds therotten fish.

Tripas is apopular taco andburrito filling in

Mexico. Its not tripe,but fried beef

intestines.

Peanuts can be contaminated with a toxic mouldcalled aspergillus flavus.


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The rennet used in the Brazilian cheesequeijo coalho comes from guinea pigstomach linings.

After tasting his own 16 MillionReserve super-hot chilli powder,Blair Lazars tongue was swollenand painful for several days. HisNew Jersey company ExtremeFoods makes fiery sauces withnames like Mega Death.

Boiled animal gunk gelatine is usedby some synchronized swimmers tokeep their hair in place as it does notdissolve in cold water.

Jumiles are bitter-tasting stinkbugsthat are used in

Mexican sauces andtaco fillings.

Green tripe is usually brown or grey and refersto unwashed tripe. Tripe needs to be

meticulously cleaned before you can eat itif you really want to, that is.


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Menudo and mondongo are South American stews made with slow-cooked diced tripe, sometimes with trotters added. Nicaraguanfolklore says the stew has healing powers.

Microbial rennet is used incheesemaking as an alternative toanimal rennet and is made fromfermented mould. Mmm, much tastier.

Mexican delicacy chapulines are fried grasshoppers. Thegrasshoppers must be thoroughly cooked as they often

carry worms that can also infest humans.

Anisakis is a worm that lives in fish.It is destroyed by extremetemperatures but a person whoeats raw, salted or pickled fishthat is infected will contractanisakiasis: severe stomach pain

and vomiting will follow andlarvae may be coughed up.

Hog maw is aPennsylvanian

German dish of pigsstomach stuffed withsausage and potatoes,traditionally eaten on

New Years Day.


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Shkembe chorba is a Bulgarian soup made withbeef tripe and milk.

Popular South American soft drinkInca Kola looks like urine and tasteslike bubble gum.

An Ohio woman felt something gristly inher mouthful of salad at a restaurantand was horrified to discover that itwas a human fingertip, completewith nail! The chef had sliced itoff whilst chopping the salad andhad rushed off to hospitalwithout it.

Yellow food colourings tartrazine andSunset Yellow FCF are derived from coal

tar, which is the sludge left over when coalis made into coke. Both are banned inNorway but widely used elsewhere.

Makchang is aKorean dish of

grilled pigs large intestine.


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The fearsome coconut crab can crackcoconuts with its mighty pincers andhas a leg span of up to 1 metre(3 feet).The land crab is alsonicknamed the robber crab, as ithas been known to steal shinyobjects from houses and tents.

A dung beetlecan move a ball of

manure that ishundreds of times

heavier than its own weight.

A hippopotamus will spin its tailwhile defecating to mark as much

territory as possible with its faeces.

Blister beetles secrete a poison that leavesa painful blister on the skin.

A woman tried on a pair of jeans in an Okinawashop, only to be stung in the leg by a scorpion that was

hiding inside them! Although the sting was not fatal, the woman washospitalized for several days.

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The star-nosed mole in North Americalooks like its nose just exploded! It

has 22 wriggly pink tentacles on the end of its snout, which it usesto detect and eat prey in a matterof milliseconds.

Forty kamikaze birds crashed intowindows and broke their necks in

Vienna after becoming drunk onfermented berries.

Only femalemidges bite youand will slurp up

your blood for up to

four minutes.

Some cockroaches can run atover 5 kilometres (3 miles) perhour, travelling 50 times theirbody length each second. If youcould do that, you could runfaster than a racing car!

The fangs of the Australasian funnel-web spider are sosharp that they have been known to penetrate fingernails

and soft shoes.

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A bear shot by a hunter in Canada in 2006 was found to be agrizzly-polar bear hybrid, the first ever documented. Suggestednames in the media for the unusual bear have been a pizzly or agrolar bear.The hunter kept the bears carcass as a trophy.

A pond in Hamburg was dubbed thepond of death after hundreds of itstoads mysteriously exploded,scattering entrails more than 3 metres (10 feet) away.

The slow worm is a legless lizard thatcan shed its tail if attacked.

A zoonosis is any infectious disease that can be transferredbetween animals and people.

Some birds swallow stones or grit to help break up the food intheir stomachs and then regurgitate them later.

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Baboons have rough, nerveless callouses on their bottoms so thatthey can sit anywhere in comfort!

The deaths head hawkmoth has a skull-shaped pattern on its back.It is believed in many cultures that it brings bad luck

if it flies into a house.

Vixenslet out a long,eerie wail that

sounds like a cryingbaby during thebreeding season.

Animal manure produces heat as it decomposes. It has beenknown for large piles of manure to burst into flames.

Authorities in Iowa investigating complaints by neighboursdiscovered that a house contained 350 snakes and 500 assortedrodents. Only six illegal snakes were removed, as the animals werewell looked-after.

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Some spiders spit special sticky goo at their prey so that its literallyglued to the spot.

A golden retriever in California gave birth to a puppy with green fur.Its owner named the puppy Wasabi, which is a green Japanesecondiment made with horseradish.

If agitated, the fierce Tasmanian devil (the worlds largestcarnivorous marsupial) releases a foul odour.

A pinecone shortage in eastern Russia drovea gang of ravenous squirrels to attack andeat a stray dog.

Hollywoodkangaroo Feznik

had plastic surgeryto reconstruct his

lip after he wasattacked by

a wolf.

A sausage fly is actually a maledriver ant with a bloated, sausage-

shaped abdomen.

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Some fish in Antarctica have white blood! Thisis because their blood has very low

levels of the chemical that makesblood red (haemoglobin) and

contains natural antifreeze to stopthem freezing in the icy waters.

A naturist in Australia receivedburns to 18 per cent of his body

when he poured petrol down ahole and set fire to it in an

attempt to get rid of a deadly funnel-web spider.

Birds do not urinate.Their urine and faeces are all mixed together to make one sloppy dropping.

The spiny Australian lizard thorny devil will put its head between its front legs ifthreatened.A second, false head then popsup for the predator to munch on instead.

The bite of a hyena is sopowerful that

it can crush bone.

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Lurking beneath the cute-lookingfluffy puss caterpillars soft hairsare poisonous spines.Whentouched, the spines break off andget lodged in the skin, causingintense pain, numbness, blistersand a rash.

A Kenyan elephant that slipped

into a septic tank whilsttrying to eat bananas on a farm was then

killed and eaten by villagers.

Bored monkeys will throw their faeces at anyonewho happens to be passing!

The wheel bug has a cog shape on its backand its bite causes agonizing pain that canlast for up to six hours.

Dogs love a bit of fresh tripe, even if thecows stomach still has the remains of

the cows last meal stuck to it.

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The eyes of the golden mole are coveredwith skin and fur.The mole lives in the

desert and only comes out at night,so it has no need for eyes anyway. Itlooks like a golden hairball with legs!

The male duck-billed platypus has asharp poisonous spur on its hind foot

that can inflict severe pain on humans.

Scotsman David Evans was sentenced to sixmonths imprisonment for using a wet fish as an offensive weapon.He had slapped a passer-by round the face with it.

Camels have three eyelids.

They need them asprotection against

sun and sand.

Green muscardine disease is a fungus that kills insects. The spores enter the insect and grow inside it, eventually

covering the insects outer body with green mould.

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Many fly maggots eat dead flesh, but thoseof the screw-worm fly eat healthy flesh. Ifthey infest an animal or human wound,they burrow in and destroy thehealthy tissue around it, making thewound far worse.

A man was fined 25,000 Australiandollars (10,409) after hiding sixrare birds eggs in his underwearand trying to smuggle them out ofSydney airport.

If a newt loses a leg, it just grows anew one!

British sunbather Sally Brown was almostkilled when a calf fell from the cliff-side field

15 metres (50 feet) above and landed on thebeach beside her.

A German shepherd dog was

successfully trained to sniff out sheep

droppings that wereinfected with worms

on an Australian sheep farm.

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Locust swarms cause traffic accidentsin hot countries when cars skid onall the squashed ones!

The Saharan desert ant cansurvive in temperatures of over50 degrees Celsius (122 degreesFahrenheit) and feeds on otherinsects that have frazzled in the heat.

A woman found a plastic lunch box in an Edinburgh street andopened it to find it was full of baby boa constrictors. Snakesandwich, anyone?

A pair of pigs in northern Italy became so enormous that they could not be moved and had tobe taken from their sty in pieces.The pigs weighed 200 kilograms(440 pounds) each.

Fire ants are so called because abite from one feels like a nastyburn on your skin.

A kangaroo candisembowel an

attacking dog with its hind legs as it

grips with its forepaws.

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British artist Damien Hirst pickled ashark measuring 4.3 metres (14 feet) in more than 900 litres(200 gallons) of formaldehyde.He called his work The PhysicalImpossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.

Eastern European peasants used tomake wound dressings out of spiderswebs. In fact, spider silk has antisepticproperties, so it wasnt such a bad idea.

Lizardfishhave sharp

teeth on theirtongues. Ouch!

Click beetles are so called because they leap highinto the air with a loud click sound. Some of them

glow in the dark, too.

Royal Bengal tigers have the longestcanine teeth of all big cats,measuring an average of 10centimetres (4 inches).The tigersfrequently attack and eat peoplein the Sundarbans region of India

and Bangladesh.

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Cow dung sets hard in hot, drycountries and also contains a naturalmosquito repellent, so is sometimesused to line rustic floors and walls.Caked cow dung is also used as afuel when cooking.

The female golden silk orb-weaverspider is at least five times biggerthan the male. Shes definitely the boss!

Chinese genetic scientists havedeveloped pigs that glow in the dark.Thespooky porkers were created usinginjections of fluorescent green proteininto the pig embryos.

US researchers discovered that cottonmouth snake venom wasextremely effective at removing blood stains from white clothes.

The olivebaboon has olive

green skin.

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Christmas Island is plagued with yellowcrazy ants.These are aggressive ants thatnest anywhere, form supercolonies withseveral queens and eat anything thatmoves, including birds, reptiles and even crabs!

Stargazer fish have two large poisonousspines on their backs and can also deliverelectric shocks.

The Amazonian giant centipede can grow to more than 30centimetres (1 foot) long and has claws that secrete toxic venom.

The Peruvianbooby bird uses

its own droppings to make its nest.

Children at a nursery in Weston-super-Mare, England, were alarmed to see a

three-headed, six-legged mutant frog creepout of their pond. They were told off for

fibbing when they got home. (Only kidding!)

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A Labrador dog was badly injured when it tried to lick up biscuitcrumbs that had fallen into a home paper shredder in Scotland.Theshredder was activated, trapping the poor poochs tongue.

Garra rufa fish are used in some healthspas to treat skin disorders. People sit inpools full of the doctor fish and waitfor their dead skin and scabby bits tobe nibbled away.

A hunter from the Basque village ofEpelette was shot in the hip when one of

his dogs stood on a loaded gun in the backof his car.

Elephantshave been

known to staystanding up afterthey have died!

The Barents Sea is teeming with monsterKamchatka crabs. The gigantic crustaceans

can measure more than 1 metre (3 feet) fromclaw to claw and can weigh up to 12 kilograms

(25 pounds).

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The African zorilla could be thesmelliest creature on the planet.The pong secreted from its analglands can be detected onekilometre (half a mile) away.

A vet was hospitalized withhydrogen sulphide poisoningafter entering a cottage that had20 cats locked inside.The toxicfumes were from the cats faeces.

Kangaroo manure has been used to make environmentally friendlypaper in Tasmania.

When a male lion takes over

another lions pride, hewill kill any cubs so that

he can later replacethem with his own.

Not very good step-parents!

The carrion beetle loves a tasty snail as a snack. It squirtsdigestive juices over the shell and then sucks out the snails

body. Delicious!

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The jewel wasp lays its egg inside a cockroach, using a paralyzingsting to keep it still.The hatched larva then munches on thecockroachs internal organs until it becomes a wasp and bursts out.

A giant catfish in a park lake in Germany became known as Kunothe killer after it jumped out and ate a Dachshund puppy whole!

Some stinkbugs can spit their smelly goo as far as 30 centimetres (1 foot).

The New Zealand huhu beetle is otherwiseknown as a haircutter. It has sharp hooks onits long legs and antennae, so if one lands in

your hair and gets entangled you need ahaircut to get it out!

British man Michael Fitzgerald needed plastic surgery onhis legs and arm after he was attacked by a badger at his

home in Evesham, England. The badger attacked fourmore people before it was caught.

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The Australian navy boarded an Indonesian ship that was drifting offthe northwest coast and found that there was no crew but 3 tonnes(6,614 pounds) of rotting mackerel and tuna onboard.

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Since the mid 1990s, many Tasmanian devils have died from devilsfacial tumour disease, a mysterious illness in which large tumoursaround and inside the mouth prevent feeding, causing the animals todie of starvation.

A cow called Punch urinated on British celebrity Bill Oddie whilehe was doing a live broadcast from a farm in Scotland.

Glassfishare transparentso you can peerin and see their

bones and internal organs!

A strange-smelling suitcase abandoned atAmsterdam airport was found to contain 2,000baboons noses. Its believed the animal parts,

en route from Nigeria to the United States,would have been used in traditional medicine.

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Hyenas have extremely acidic digestive juices.This means they candigest every bit of their prey, including teeth,

hooves and horns.

An iguanas teeth are almost

transparent.

Cone snails or cone shells kill their prey by firing apoisonous harpoon from their mouths. Their venom ishighly toxic to humans, who unknowingly pick up thepretty shells. The harpoon is so sharp that it has been

known to penetrate wetsuits.

Wild boar hair was used to make toothbrushes before more hygienic,synthetic bristles were invented.

Cow parts caused traffic chaos when a meat lorry crashed near SanFrancisco and scattered its cargo across the freeway.

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South African man Abel Manamelatook revenge on the bank thatrepossessed his car by releasingdeadly adders into the building.As a cleaner was bitten by oneof the snakes, he was chargedwith attempted murder.

The polar bears in Singapore Zooturned green in 2004.Their change incolour was due to a type of algaegrowing in their hollow hair shafts.

A scatologistis a person whostudies animal

faeces.

Honeybees will surround any intruder in theircolony, such as a hornet, and vibrate theirbodies. This creates so much heat that the

invader is cooked to death!

British anti-litter campaigners have warned thatjunk food litter is creating monstrous super-pigeons that rely on waste to survive.

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A sparrow was shot dead in ahall in Leeuwarden, Holland,after sending more than 23,000dominoes tumbling over.Thedominoes had been set up fora world record attempt and the

organizers were a little annoyed.

Rats urine often carries Weilsdisease, a serious and sometimes fatal

infection that causes jaundice and kidneydamage. It is usually contracted after contact with infected water.

A two-headed turtle hatched at a turtle refuge inCosta Rica. It was believed that the deformitywas caused by ocean pollution.

Bad-tempered hippos kill more people inAfrica than any other big-game safarianimal, including crocodiles.They usuallycharge and trample victims, but have alsobeen known to bite a mans head off!

Cows produce 200 times more

saliva than humans.What a lotof dribble!

Agiraffes blue-

black tongue isprehensile, meaningit can grasp things.It can be as long as

60 centimetres (2 feet)!

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The venom of recluse spiders isnecrotic, which means a bite willresult in a large, open sore that willtake months to heal and mayrequire skin grafts.

The word bonfire comes from bonefire, since ritual fires usually involvedthe burning of animal bones to ward offevil spirits.

Slugsproduce two

sorts of mucus:one is thin and

watery, the otheris thick and

sticky.

British artist Chris Ofili is known for using anunusual ingredient in his paintings: elephant dung!

The fat-tailed scorpion is responsible formost human deaths from scorpion stings.Although its venom is less toxic than thatof the deathstalker scorpion, it injectsmore into its victim.

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The violet gland is a tail gland in foxes and badgers used for scentmarking.The glands secretion is fluorescent in ultraviolet light andalthough it contains the same substance as violet flowers, it is farmore concentrated and smells really nasty.

South African woman Elsie van Tonder had her nose bitten off by aseal when she tried to help it back into the sea.Theres gratitude for you.

Stampeding wild pigs killed Indonesian footballer Mistar during a1995 training session.

Bombardier beetles protect themselves from a predator by blasting an explosive fart of boiling hot poisonous

gas in its direction.

A common cause of pet ferret deaths is thereclining chair.The ferret snuggles up underthe chair when it is reclined and then getssquished when its unknowing owner putsthe seat back in position.

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Bee sting therapy is sometimes used totreat conditions such as multiplesclerosis and arthritis. Bee venomcontains a substance called melittin,which is anti-inflammatory (reducesswelling). Bees are pressed on to thepatient and allowed to sting.

The Mexican mountain village of Atascaderos was plagued by rats that had learnt to avoid poison. It was estimated that there were 250,000 ratsroaming the village.

The hairy-handed crab has hairy padson its nippers where food particlescollect. When its hungry, the crab

nibbles on its hairy claws!

British performance artist Paul Hurley wrapped himself inclingfilm and wriggled about in a soggy field nibbling soil fornine days. He called his performance Becoming Earthworm.

Animaldandruff is

called dander.

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Pilobolus is a fungus that grows onherbivore dung and breaks it

down.Although less than 1 centimetre (1/4 inch) tall, itcan launch its sporangium(spores) up to 2 metres (6 feet) away.The herbivoreeats it with the grass and thecycle begins again.

The skin and feathers of pitohuibirds are poisonous.Touching them

will cause numbness and tingling.

The tiny blackand white minutepirate bug bites by

sticking its beak-likesnout into the skin.

When animal control officers in Virginia investigatedcomplaints of a foul smell coming from the house ofpensioner Ruth Kneuven, they found over 300 cats,

more than 80 of which were dead.

A snow scorpion is used to such lowtemperatures that one would die from heatexhaustion if you held it in your hand.As if youd want to!

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The number of cane toads inAustralia reached a record 200 million in 2006.The armywas called in to help controlthe plague of poisonousamphibians.

Rats cannot burp or vomit but they can spread disease.

Three Peruvian fishermen who werelost at sea for 59 days survived by eatingturtle meat and drinking turtle blood.

Research by scientists Dr Ben Wilson and Dr Bob Batty revealed that herrings fartfrequently but only at night!

Kangaroos coverthemselves with

saliva to keep cool inthe scorching

Australian sun.

A skunk can squirt its sulphurous spray up to3 metres (10 feet) away, leaving its victim

with stinging eyes and gasping for air.

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When Romanian Gyenge Lajoscomplained to the authoritiesabout a gas-like smell, investigatorssoon discovered the cause: a deadcow in the mans apartment. Ithad been a gift from a friend andthe man was cutting pieces from

it as he needed them.

The Chow is the only breed of dog thathas a purple-black tongue.

South American silk moth caterpillars are extremely venomous.Theyare covered with hairs that release anticoagulant venom on contact,so that an affected person can bleed to death.

Porcupineslooking for salt

have been known toeat tool handles andclothes because ofthe salty humansweat on them.

The largest known jellyfish is the Arcticlions mane jellyfish. The biggest ever

found was washed up in MassachusettsBay; its body was a huge 2.3 metres

(7 feet 6 inches) wide and its tentacleswere 36.5 metres (120 feet) long.

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Customs officials at Melbourne airport were suspicious when theyheard splashing sounds coming from a womans skirt. Furtherinvestigations revealed that she was smuggling 51 live tropical fish ina water-filled apron.

A monstrous wild hog dubbedHogzilla was shot in the state ofGeorgia in 2004. It was 2.4 metres(8 feet) long with 23 centimetres (9 inch) tusks.

The colossal squid is even scarier than the giantsquid; its suckers are full of swivelling hooks.

The male funnel-web spider is

extremely aggressive.It will actively attack aperson by lunging andwill bite repeatedly.

The giant squid has hundreds of suckers andinside each one is a ring of sharp teeth, so itcan suck on to its prey and perforate it at thesame time.

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A decomposing sperm whale exploded inTaiwan as it was being transported for apost mortem, showering nearby shopsand cars with blood and blubber.A natural build-up of gas inside thebeached whale was to blame.

The red blood sweat that ahippopotamus secretes contains

sunscreen and antibacterial agents.The secretion starts off clear and changes

colour to red, then brown.

A giraffes heartis 60 centimetres (2 feet) long andweighs around 11 kilograms (25 pounds).

The Australian fierce snake has the most toxicsnake venom in the world. A single bite contains

enough venom to kill up to 100 adult humans.

Once a year, the roads and paths ofChristmas Island are covered with redcrabs that are scuttling from their burrowstowards the sea to lay their eggs.There areso many that cars just have to drive over themif theyre going to get anywhere.

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The cassowary birds dagger-likemiddle claw is 12 centimetres (5 inches) long and razor sharp,enabling the bird to disembowel anenemy with a single kick.

Whales vomit every 710 days to get ridof any indigestible items they may have

swallowed. Its not known if they warn any nearby sea creatures whats coming.

Hard ticks (ticks that have shells) thatburrow in to peoples skin can spreadRocky Mountain spotted fever, originallyknown as black measles. It causes fever,muscle pain, headache and a rash.If untreated, it can be fatal.

Jokers who let a rat loose in a BritishMcDonalds branch were taken aback when

the restaurant manager beat it to deathwith a broom in front of customers.

Whena kodiak bear

kills a deer, it willeat the internal

organs first.

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Queen Victorias coronation ring was made forher little finger, but the Archbishop insistedon forcing it on to her ring finger to followtradition.The Queen was in agony duringthe ceremony and it took two hours toget the ring off afterwards.

Roman gladiators in training were fedspoonfuls of ash by their trainers, in the

belief that it built up thebody. So dont moan again

about eating your greens

Scottish aristocrat Alexander Hamilton, thetenth Duke of Hamilton, wanted to bemummified after his death and so boughtan ancient Egyptian sarcophagus.Whenhe died in 1852, his legs had to beshortened to fit his body inside it!

KingGeorge II died

of a heart attackwhile he was on

the toilet.

Charles VI of France suffered from a mentalillness that made him believe his body wasmade of glass. He even put metal rods in

his clothes so he wouldnt shatter.

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French watchmaker RobertHubert was hanged for starting

the Great Fire of London, butit was later discovered that he arrived in the city twodays after it broke out. Heconfessed to the crime,so was either tortured or

a bit mad.

Criminals inancient times

would be sewn inside arotting animal skin and

then tied to a tree,where they would be

eaten alive by vultures.

16th-century combs were often madefrom elephants tusks (ivory).

When he was badly injured in the First World War, Ernest Hemingway stemmed the flow of blood with cigarette ends.

Poor Victorians used to mix flour with water for baby food. Unsurprisingly, babies were often sick in those days.

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Mircea, the brother of Vlad (when hewas just Vlad and hadnt yetstarted impaling) was blindedwith hot stakes and buried aliveby his enemies.

Early candles weremade from cow fator whale blubber.

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During the 18th century, fur used for hats was soaked in a solutioncontaining high levels of mercury. The toxic vapours caused

mercury poisoning, a symptom of which was dementia thatswhere the phrase as mad as a hatter came from.

English King Edward the Martyr

was killed by hisstepmother in 979 AD.She offered him a drink

and then stabbed him in the back as he

sat and drank it.

Scottish writer Sir Thomas Urquhartliterally died laughing! This cause of

death is known as fatal hilarity.

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The guillotine is associated with the French Revolution, but a similardevice called the Maiden was used in Scotland long before that. Itwas introduced by Regent James Douglas, fourth Earl of Morton,who ended up being executed by it himself for treason.

Glue used thousands of years ago was made by boiling upanimal hooves and leaving the goo to set. You had to break the

hooves up into chunks first.

Viking funerals often involved putting thecorpse in a boat and setting fire to it.

Many men and horses died duringthe chariot races popular with theancient Greeks and Romans.Death was all part of the fun inthose days!

Old shipwrecks are oftenriddled with shipworms, snakymolluscs that burrow into thewood and chomp away at it.

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In 212 BC, 460 Chinese intellectuals whorefused to burn their books during the

Qin dynasty were buried alive fortheir defiance.

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The Tower of Londons famous ravensall died of shock during the SecondWorld War bombings of London.Anew lot were put in place before theTower reopened.

Russian writers Alexander Pushkin andMikhail Lermontov both died from

gunshot wounds after fighting in duels.

An unusual duel to the death was fought in Paris in 1808: twoFrenchmen shot at each other from hot air balloons until oneballoon was shot down!

It was believed in the Middle Ages that if you hadsome of your enemys hair, you had control overhim (or probably just his head lice).

Mostmedieval

manuscripts werewritten on bits ofstretched out calf-

skin, knownas vellum.

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Animal blood was believed to have specialpowers and was often sprinkled on the

statues of Norse gods. People takingpart in these rituals would oftenshower themselves with the blood too!

When Viking warlord RagnarLodbrok was defeated during a

battle in England in 865, he wasthrown into a pit of venomous snakes

and bitten to death.

The first bonechina was made with

crushed ox bones.

The deteriorating mummy of pharaoh Ramesses II was sent toParis to be treated for a fungal infection (mould) in 1974.

It was issued with a passport for transportation on which theoccupation was stated as King (deceased).

English mathematician Alan Turingcommitted suicide by painting an apple with cyanide and eating it.

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1001 Gruesome Facts