Animals Are A Lot More Like Us Humans Than We Want To Think

Photoshop can do some pretty horrifying things. It can drop giant spiders onto the sides of buildings. It can put creepy shadow people in the dark corners of ordinary houses. And it can put human faces, human arms, and human torsos on animals. Sometimes, Photoshop artists are so good at doing this that people are fooled into thinking these human-looking animals are actually real. Most of the time, they're not. But there are some animals in the world that, through some strange twist of evolutionary fate, ended up with creepily human characteristics, no Adobe Creative Cloud subscription required.

We haven't quite gotten as far as horses who pen their own biographies, rabbits who can see the future, or mercenary trash-pandas. When animals start holding funerals and hiring hit men, though, it becomes a lot more difficult to pretend that we're really all that different from our furry, flippered, and feathered counterparts. Animals (even ones that aren't famous) can do some pretty human-like things, and no matter how hard scientists try to avoid anthropomorphizing, the rest of us can't really help ourselves.

All animals — regardless of shape or size — are awesome. But as the legendary author George Orwell might have said, some animals are more awesome than others. Sure, maybe your typical pet dog can do a few tricks, and some parrots can imitate speech. That's all well and good, but we're talking about pets and service creatures so exceptional that they've put people to shame with their amazing achievements.

Same-sex coupling has been observed in every class of the animal kingdom. Greenpeace UK reports that nearly 1,000 animals display homosexual behavior, and Canadian biologist Bruce Bagemihl detailed 450 examples in his book "Biological Exuberance: Animal Sexuality and Natural Diversity" (via The Advocate). Besides sheer numbers, the range of sexual behaviors among animals is diverse and fascinating. Let's have a look at just a few examples.

Every time a town declares a dog or cat as its new mayor, the media never fails to feature it, and with good reason. No matter how many times the public hears about it, the notion of an animal holding any sort of public office will always sound novel enough to be newsworthy.