Updated June 1, 2020 18.1K votes 4.0K voters 265.9K views
Over 4.0K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of 12 Of The Most Bizarre Things Humans Have Ever Found Inside Animal Stomachs
Voting Rules
Vote up what you think are the weirdest things that have been discovered inside an animal.
The contents of an animal’s stomach usually wouldn't pose much of a mystery. In most instances, you would probably expect to find whatever food makes up a particular creature's diet. While that is a sensible position to take, the contents of an animal's stomach are not always clear-cut. Researchers, scientists, and ordinary people have discovered crazy things in animal stomachs over the years, such as items that are completely unexpected and have no reason to be there.
The problem is that animals often don’t have the ability to sort through their food like humans do. Whether it is due to a lack of intelligence or some other physical limitation, a lot of creatures just have to hope for the best when they are munching on their latest meal. With increasing amounts of pollution in the oceans that have even caused strange animal mutations, it should come as no surprise that animals can sometimes swallow things they are not supposed to.
So, if you have ever wondered what the weirdest things found in animal stomachs are, then look no further. This list will guide you through the bizarre objects that people have found inside the creatures that roam the planet. Vote up the most insanely strange things that people have found in the stomachs of animals.
While gutting an 11-pound cod he had caught near his home in Norway, Bjørn Frilund discovered an unusual item buried in its stomach. As well as a partially digested fish, the stomach contained a rather large sex toy. The fishermen conjectured that the fish may have eaten the vibrating dildo by mistake, thinking it was a cephalopod or another fish due to its bright coloring.
"I was astonished," he said in an interview with The Local. "It was totally unexpected. I had never seen anything like this before."
While gutting a three-foot long squid to prepare it for sale, a fisherman in China hit a live bomb with his knife. Thankfully, the bomb didn't go off and the man quickly called emergency services. The squid had apparently swallowed the explosive device, mistaking it for a prawn. The bomb remained inside the squid until it died.
After emergency services was informed, a special police team removed the dead creature and performed a controlled explosion. They later confirmed that the bomb was live and could have detonated at any time.
1,431 votes
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1,326 VOTES
A Tiger Shark Had A Whole Suit Of Armor In Its Stomach
Several tiger sharks that were examined in the '90s contained all manner of surprising objects. The items were on display as part of the "Sharks: Facts and Fantasy" exhibition in 1994 by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. One of the craziest things that have been found in a shark's stomach is a whole suit of armor, complete with a helm.
How a steel suit ended up in the water, and how a shark even ingested it, remain unclear.
In 1992, a fishermen in Wyoming discovered a severed thumb in the stomach of a trout he had caught. The missing digit was eventually traced to Robert Lindsey. He had been involved in a boating accident the year before where two of his fingers and a thumb had been cut off by a propellor. While the fingers were found, the thumb remained missing and thus, couldn't be reattached.
It is hypothesized that the trout ate the thumb after it was severed and loose in the water, and that the thumb had remained undigested in the stomach of the fish for a year.
1,213 votes
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1,027 VOTES
A Turtle Had Nearly A Thousand Coins In Its Stomach
A turtle found in Thailand was discovered to have almost 1,000 coins in its stomach. The creature lived in a pond that was frequently visited by tourists who threw coins into the water for luck. The unwitting turtle had eaten these coins in huge numbers until the collective weight of all the change was so strong that it broke its shell.
A successful surgical procedure was able to remove the coins and fix the broken shell in hopes of saving the turtle. However, the toxic effects of the metal eventually caused an infection due to nickel poisoning, which stopped up the intestines. Nearly two weeks after surgery, the turtle died.
1,027 votes
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738 VOTES
An Ostrich Stomach Contained A Glove And Two Handkerchiefs
When an ostrich died at the ZSL London Zoo in the early 20th century, a post-mortem was carried out to discover how it had died. In the process of emptying the stomach, researchers found a whole host of items. This included two handkerchiefs, a glove, rope, coins, stapes, and a hook.
The giant bird apparently ate the assortment of junk alongside its food after they had been discarded or dropped by visitors to the zoo.
