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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about scorpions. You can subscribe to this channel to learn about many kinds of animals. Scorpions were a request by SBs animals, so let’s get learning!

Scorpions are arachnids from the order Scorpiones, and they’ve barely changed since they were first around more than 400 million years ago - y’know expect for the whole not being three plus feet long anymore. Yikes! Scorpions are pretty easy to identify because they have that pokey tail, which isn’t technically a tail at all. A scorpion’s exoskeleton is made up of three parts: the head, the abdomen, and the tail-like structure called the metasoma. The stinger part of a scorpion is called a telson, and their pinchers are actually their pedipalps. On their head, scorpions usually have at least two eyes that are more useful in determining differences in light. They have eight legs plus the pedipalps, and they breathe through structures called book lungs which are named so because they look like a book’s pages bound together, and it has nothing to do with scorpions being bookworms, though I’m sure they would happily eat a bookworm. BAHDUHTSH!

Scorpions eat by pulling apart their food using their chelicerae and slopping digestive juices all over their meal to turn it into liquid. The scorpion then sucks up the liquid and leaves behind any hard bits. It can take a scorpion hours to eat, but some species can go a full twelve months without eating again if the need were to arise - though for the most part they eat every few weeks. They eat other arthropods including other scorpions and can also consume small mammals and reptiles. Scorpions are nocturnal, but not many species actually go out and hunt their food as many are sit-and-wait predators. Their bite has no venom, but their stinger can! Their stinger is dual purposed for catching food and to aid in protection. Scorpions are eaten by other arthropods, foxes, frogs, snakes, owls, rodents, and other animals including meerkats. Meerkats are actually immune to their venom so those foraging scenes in Meerkat Manor may now seem WAY less intense.

Now, scorpions seem to have this big bad reputation because they’re pretty intimidating looking, and they’ve also been showcased in a villainous light in different films, but really most of them are not as terrifying as they seem. There are more than 1,500 species of scorpions and only about 25 of them have venom that could fatally kill a human. In parts of the world where their venomous sting is something to worry about, there are antivenoms available to help those who have been stung. Still, they should be given their space when possible. I’ve actually been stung by a scorpion more than once; I’ve also been stung by a wasp. I’ll be honest with you, given the choice, I’d be stung by a scorpion again. To be fair, that’s just personal opinion, and the scorpions that stung me were likely just southern unstriped scorpions, but the pain I experienced from a wasp sting was far worse than the scorpion stings. A typical scorpion sting can cause pain, swelling, and tingling at the injection site; a sting from one of the 25 baddies can cause rapid breathing, racing heart, and muscle spasms - along with, y’know, death and stuff if you don’t go to a hospital.

Scorpions live on every continent except Antarctica, surprise, surprise, and they inhabit just about every terrestrial environment with the exception of really, really cold places. The tend to take up residence in burrows they either create or find and they’re relatively solitary, though some species have been found in large groups and even emperor scorpions have been seen to maintain family bonds. Family bonds are somewhat unique among arthropods, but in the case of scorpions it kind of makes sense. Scorpions are usually sexually mature around one to two years of age, and they’ll perform a mating dance, usually in late spring to early fall, in which the male grabs the female’s pinches and they twirl around until he finds an appropriate spot to lay his spermatophore. The female will take up his spermatophore, and he’ll leave her alone to ensure he doesn’t become her dinner. The female will be pregnant anywhere from two to eighteen months at which time she will give birth to anywhere from 1 to over 100 live scorpion babies. If it sounds a bit strange, it’s because live birth is an odd occurrence in arthropods. The babies will ride on their mother’s back until their first molt, at which point they will be able to defend themselves and leave to find their own territory - though some species may stay with Mom for more than a year! In their lifetime, scorpions will molt anywhere from around four to nine times, and they’ll stop molting when they reach sexual maturity. Depending on the species and the habitat in which they reside, scorpions can live anywhere from three to more than twenty years.

Although scorpions tend to be feared, some cultured have embraced their uniqueness. The ancient Egyptian goddess Serket wore a crown adorned with a scorpion and represented fertility as seen with the mother scorpion’s protection of her young. Heck, even the Babylonians and Greeks saw fit to include a scorpion in the zodiac! Anybody in the audience a Scorpio?

For more facts on scorpions, check out the links in the description. Have you ever seen a scorpion? Let us know in the comments. Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and we’ll see you next time on Animal Fact Files!