10 Animals With Abilities That Put Your Superpowers to Shame

6. Wood frogs can freeze their own blood

When the cold weather arrives, the bears, squirrels and, um, wood frogs all go into hibernation. In order to survive the intense cold, wood frogs freeze their blood by burrowing into the frozen tundra of North America. Admittedly, while this animal superpower is better than anything we humans can do, it’s not as badass as the ability to freeze other animals’ blood.

7. Salmon can sense the Earth’s magnetic field to guide them

Quick, how do you find your way when you get lost? You click your Google Maps app and in no time you’ll figure out exactly where you are, give or take a few hundred miles in all directions. But salmon have no use for our silly GPS technology. They use their innate ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field and use it like a compass. Then once they reach the river they call home, they use their sense of smell to pinpoint the exact location of their particular stream and enjoy some of Fish Mom’s home cooking.

8. Alpine ibex mountain goats think their Spiderman

The Ibex goats who call Gran Paradiso National Park in northern Italy home can climb the nearly-vertical walls of a dam. Why do they take the risk? To lick the salt off the stones. So a delicious reward totally worth dying for. It’s also believed they climb up to get away from potential predators. They’re sucky runners, it turns out. But how do they defy gravity? They can thank the sole pads of their hooves, which have elastic and rubbery properties. While females and younger males can accomplish the feat, it turns out that adult males are too heavy to pull it off. So never grow up, guys.

9. The sea cucumber can liquify itself

Remember that scene in Terminator 2 when the evil Terminator is standing in front of the metal jail bars and we were all thinking, “Ha! There’s no way he’s going to be able to enter the cell” and then he completely blows our minds by walking through them ‘cause it turns out he’s made of liquid metal? Sea cucumbers can totally do that too. It allows them to slip through cracks and such. We can also assume it makes it easy for them to escape from sea cucumber mental institutions without being noticed.

10. Swifts fly nonstop for months at a time

You know what’s the rots? Non-direct flights. Having to fly from New York City to Philadelphia via Anchorage is never any fun, but it’s just one of those things we’ve got to deal with. That goes for hedgehogs, turtles, giraffes and dolphins. But not swifts. This species of aerial birds native to every continent except Antarctica has been known to fly non-stop for as long as 200 days because they reckon the ground is for losers. And so is sleep, apparently?

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