10 Adorable Pictures Of Animals In Love For Valentine's Day

Animal lovers know that animals experience feelings and emotions just like us humans do, including the emotion of the day: LOVE. To celebrate Valentine's Day, we give you this photo gallery of animals in love!

Picture Of The Week - Small But Mighty

Not only does this picture prove the power of teamwork, it's also a testament to the amazing strength of ants! According to The Telegraph, a photograph snapped this shot of three ants carrying a dead dragonfly away after it fell out of a spider's web.

We've written before about how incredibly strong ants are, able to carry more than 50 times their weight, but it's always awesome to see it in action!

Could Ants Take Over The World?

Did you know... that for every human in the world, there are one million ants? That means there's between 1 and 10 quadrillion ants on our planet! Imagine how scary it would be if they decided to form an uprising!

Those ants come from an estimated 22,000 different types of species, of which only 12,000 have been identified.

Picture Of The Week - That Stings!

We have to admit we get a little squirmy when we look at this picture (and apologies if it makes you feel a bit squeamish too) but we had to share because it's such a unique picture. In fact, it's the only picture of its kind.

This picture shows a honeybee flying away after stinging a man, with its stinger lodged in the man's arm and abdominal tissue trailing from its body. Honeybees have barbed stingers that tear loose when stuck in a victim's skin, which results in their death minutes later.

The photo was taken by Kathy Garvey, who works with the UC Davis Department of Entomology. She estimates she's taken 1 million photos of bees over her lifetime, but as far as she knows this is the only documented picture of a bee sting like this to exist.

Read more how she got the photo here.

You Are What You Eat

Did you know that ants have clear stomachs? We didn't either until we saw these amazing pictures.

They were taken by Dr. Mohamed Babu of the United Kingdom, after his wife noticed that the ants who had drink some spilt milk in their backyard had turned white. Dr. Babu decided to experiment and created a mixture of sugar and parrafin, colored with food coloring, and photogrgraphed the ants eating.

According to Dr. Babu, "The ants preferred light colours, yellow and green...The darker green and blue drops had no takers, till there was no space around the preferred yellow and green drops."

To read more about how Dr. Babu set up these awesome shots, click here.

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Friday Funny - The Turtle & The Snail

What did the snail say when the turtle gave him a ride on his back?

Animal Fact: Inebriated Bees

Did you know that there's a certain type of orchid that can actually get bees drunk? The bucket orchid of South America produces a potent intoxicating nectar to get the bee drunk. As the bee falls into the slippery slope of the blossom's petals, it’s only way out is through a small opening in the base of the flower. As it squeezes through this channel, it picks up pollen, which it drunkenly drops off when it stumbles into the next flowers stigma.

Careful boys, don't drink too much!

Source

The Mighty Ant

Ants might be some of the smallest insects out there, but they are also some of the strongest! Did you know an ant can lift more than 50 times its own weight?!

To put this feat of strength into perspective, the average adult male weighs 191 pounds. Fifty times his weight would be 9,550 pounds; that's roughly the equivalent of lifting two mid-sized cars! Think you could do that?

Want to see an ant in action? That watch this short video we found of an art hauling off a large crumb he found on the sidewalk - and check out how fast he moves with it!

Not All Bugs Are Nasty

When most people think of bugs and insects, it's usually not very pleasant. They think of creepy, crawly and all-around-icky things that deserve to be squashed. But not all bugs are created equal, and not all bugs are ugly.

A photo roundup from PetsLady.com showed us that some bugs are just as cute, if not cuter, than puppies and kittens! Sound hard to believe? Take a look for yourself...

The Big-Eyed Caterpillar

These eyes are used to deter predators. When the caterpillar feels threatened, it can contract its head segments, which makes the eyes appear bigger and the caterpillar look more dangerous.

The Pink Lady Katydid

This bug gets it bright hue from a genetic condition that makes them bright pink instead of the normal green. They're very pretty and very rare to spot.

The Human-Face Beetle

The face-like designs on this bug's back help it evade predators. While they ponder whether it's a meal or an enemy, the beetle has time to get away.

To see the full list of cute bugs, click here. And PS, TheJungleStore.com is home to some pretty cute bugs and insects too...

The Luck of Ladybugs

Now, I want to discuss my favorite summertime bug: the ladybug. Ladybugs belong to the beetle family and are very beneficial to our agricultural systems. They feed on amphids and tiny insects, which often destroy plants. The ladybug is even said to bring good luck. In fact, the name ‘Ladybug’ comes from Mother Mary, also known as ‘Our Lady’. Contrary to popular belief, a ladybug’s spots fade as they get older.

Bonus Fact: A female ladybug lays more than 100 eggs throughout her life.

Stay Bug-Bite Free This Summer

Moving right along with my summertime bug theme, I wanted to share some of these facts about mosquitoes to help you avoid bug bites this season. As many know, mosquitoes feed on blood; however, only female mosquitoes do. This is why women are more prone to mosquito bites; in fact, mosquitoes find the smell of estrogen and sweat to be appealing. They are also attracted to dark colors, especially the color blue. Other studies show that if you eat bananas, you can set off an appealing scent. However, garlic juice can be lethal for these tiny pests, and can be used as a repellent. Remember these simple facts, and you’ll be well on your way to a bug-bite-free summer!

Quick Animal Fact: Mosquito

The next time you go camping or spend a long day outside, remember not to wear the color blue, or you might get eaten alive! Mosquitos are attracted most to the color blue.

The Ladybug

Many people are fond of ladybugs because of their colorful, spotted appearance. But farmers love them for their appetite. Most ladybugs voraciously consume plant-eating insects, such as aphids, and in doing so they help to protect crops.

Ladybugs lay hundreds of eggs in the colonies of aphids and other plant-eating pests. When they hatch, the ladybug larvae immediately begin to feed. By the end of its three-to-six-week life, a ladybug may eat some 5,000 aphids.Ladybugs are also called lady beetles or, in Europe, ladybird beetles.

There are about 5,000 different species of these insects, and not all of them have the same appetites. A few ladybugs prey not on plant-eaters but on plants. The Mexican bean beetle and the squash beetle are destructive pests that prey upon the crops mentioned in their names.

Ladybugs appear as half-spheres, tiny, spotted, round or oval-shaped domes. They have short legs and antennae.Their distinctive spots and attractive colors are meant to make them unappealing to predators. Ladybugs can secrete a fluid from joints in their legs which gives them a foul taste. Their coloring is likely a reminder to any animals that have tried to eat their kind before: "I taste awful." A threatened ladybug may both play dead and secrete the unappetizing substance to protect itself.

From National Geographic

Shop online for ladybug-themed items at The Jungle Store.

If Animals Competed In The Summer Olympics: High Jump

The cat flea is smaller than a match head but it can jump 33cm in a single leap. This is equivalent to a high jumper soaring some 400 meters (approximately 1300 feet) into the air! The flea has a unique catapult system, in which a trigger mechanism extends the hind legs in less than a millisecond.