Dumbest Animals

There are both dumb and smart species in the animal kingdom. It is not that the dumbest animals on the planet lack intelligence or smarts. The lack of common logic in their behavior and actions labels them stupid. While some of them are too lazy even to catch prey, others don’t make use of their adaptations or don’t take defensive measures against their predators.

List of Top 20 Dumbest Animals

1. Giant Panda

Despite being carnivores, this rarest bear species prefers eating plants and not animals. They are also the least romantic creatures in the world. They have a poor record of raising and caring for their young, something that could make them extinct in the near future. In fact, females can go to the extent of killing their babies when they are fed up with them! This makes it the dumbest animal in the world.

2. Turkey

Turkeys can’t help but stare uncontrollably at the sky, even when it’s raining, sometimes causing their death. This behavior can be attributed to their preference for drinking rainwater, and some of them suffering from a genetic disorder, tetanic torticollar spasms.

3. Jerboa

In order to avoid predators, jerboas skip, jump and run using bipedal locomotion, all of which are characterized by unpredictable changes in direction and speed.  Their weird movements usually put off their predators. However, they are not adept at hiding from their enemies. Nor can they sift efficiently through garbage in search of food.

4. Ostrich

As ostriches cannot fly, they run at high speed to avoid their predators. If they cannot outrun their enemy, they use their strong legs to kick at them. If all this fails, they flop to the ground with their heads and necks outstretched in front of them. The neck and head color blends with the ground creating an illusion that they are stuck. But the largest, flightless bird on earth thinks that it is invisible to its predator and hence makes it to this list.

5. Sloth

Sloths move very slowly, even if faced by predators. They spend most of their time sleeping in the nearby trees but never defecate there. Every week, they descend to the ground to excrete and again climb up. Mistaking their own limbs for tree branches often causes them to fall to their deaths. All these contribute to them being labeled dumb.

6. Koala

The koala mainly feeds on low-nutrient eucalyptus leaves that are difficult to digest, even with its four stomachs! Having no sense of hygiene makes it a carrier of diseases, mainly, Chlamydia. They may even starve to death if they are unable to find their preferred food.

7. Kakapo

The kakapo, or forest owl, freezes in fear as soon as it spots its predator.  It doesn’t try to flee, waiting to be a meal. Plus, it is a poor breeder. The male emits a mating call so disturbing that it leaves the female confused and dazed. No one seems to have any idea of what’s going on or what to do. Not surprisingly, there are less than 200 kakapos on the earth as of 2020.

8. Cane Toad

The diet of the world’s largest toad includes both living and dead matter. And this character goes beyond its food. The aggressive toads can be found openly engaging in physical relations with almost anything, living or dead. It humps on lizards, snakes, salamanders, rats, or anything else that moves, without any hesitation, as it loves physical intimacy. The highly fertile females lay as many as 30,000 eggs at a time!

9. Slow Loris

The slow loris, as the name suggests, is very slow in its movements. When it tries to defend or hide from its predators, its pace rarely disturbs foliage, and within a matter of seconds, it stops moving. The fully motionless state continues after that. On being approached, too, it freezes and hides its face. Plus, it is stupid enough to walk up to a human without considering the risks involved. It is relaxed about taking safety precautions as it has a venomous bite, enough to kill a human without prompt attention.

10. Flamingo

The beautiful bird has a pair of legs but uses only one of them to stand and rest most of the time. Another sign of their foolishness is that they try to catch fish with their beaks flipped upside down in the water, which makes it a pretty tricky job.

11. Goblin Shark

The goblin shark is a poor swimmer, has poor eyesight, and is generally sluggish. It is so lazy that it doesn’t hunt for its food. Its teeth are held in by bands of elastic skin tissue so that when its prey swims by, it simply traps it with the tissue without spending any energy.  It is also an easy prey itself, allowing predators to come right up to it and take it away.

12. Norwegian Lemming

The Norwegian lemming makes itself to this list as it fights animals much larger than itself (like cats, bullmastiffs, and birds of prey) if necessary. Its primary defense organ, the powerful teeth, needs it to get close enough to its predator to bite. So, you can imagine the risk involved.

13. Japanese Land Snail

Most snails hide in their shells to evade danger. It is not so with the Japanese snail, as it leaves its shell to throw it to its predator as an act of defense. But can you imagine what happens if it misses its target?

14. Northern Fulmar Chick

The northern fulmar chick looks quite stupid as it just sits in its nest perched high on rocky ledges while having no ability to fly. Whenever a predator approaches it, it vomits a deadly oil to render its attacker immobile.

15. Secretary Bird

The four feet tall predatory bird refuses to use its wings despite being able to fly just fine. Instead, it prefers to walk to catch its prey that is mostly snakes. So, it is common for them to be attacked by venomous snakes as the birds kill their prey by stomping on them. Plus, their feet can’t grasp their food firmly. That means anything they kill needs to be consumed right away, carried in their beak for a short distance or just left behind.

16. Horned Lizard

The horned lizard, looking unusual with its short, blunt snout and squat flattened shape, is very lazy. It waits for its prey to wander up to it and then snatches the food. Otherwise, it spends its day lazing in its habitat. Also, its friendly nature towards humans makes it throw caution to the wind as it is captured for the pet trade or by people wanting to domesticate it without knowing that it seldom survives out of its natural habitat.

17. Komodo Dragon

The Komodo dragon has the dirtiest mouth among all animals. With a single bite, the creature can deliver enough E. coli and other bacteria to kill much larger animals in a day or two. It follows the bitten victim around, waiting for its death.

Also, it can eat almost 80% of its weight in a single meal. It doesn’t know when to stop eating, gaining extra weight that can slow it down tremendously. In such a situation, it may throw up if a predator approaches it, thereby losing weight for swift movement. Then the attacker eats the partially digested meal instead of the Komodo dragon!

18. Killdeer

The stupid bird rushes around, screaming its call, attracting the attention of its predators. When approached by its enemy, instead of running away, it stands still and bobs up and down, as if having hiccups. The killdeer also builds its nest on the ground, making itself easy prey.

19. Giraffe

The tallest mammals on the earth have long necks to help them eat the leaves of tall trees.  But its natural habitat, east Africa, has a limited number of trees. Imagine how inconvenient it is to eat the smaller shrubs and grass with such long necks!

20. Lilac-breasted Roller

The beautiful lilac-breasted roller is one of the dumbest animals on the earth due to its inclination towards tall perches, even in places that are not its nesting sites. It doesn’t try to escape or flee even when someone comes very close to it, making it easily available to poachers.

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