We all know too well how easily things get dirty. Dust gathers, and stains appear, seemingly out of nowhere. That’s no exception for the Animal Kingdom, either. But for some of these critters, staying clean isn’t just a matter of being comfortable. It’s also a matter of survival.
The question of how animals manage to stay squeaky clean is something that researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology dug into in 2015 — and certainly, there are quite a few inventive evolutionary methods at hand. Cicadas, for example, sport wings with posts so tiny they’re invisible to the naked eye, which puncture and pop incoming bacteria like balloons, while bees, whose hairy bodies have as much surface area as a slice of bread, flick clumped pollen off their hairs like springboards.
Some animals, though, are more known for dirt and grime than others. Here are four animals who may have unfairly nasty reputations that take care to clean themselves up, much like the rest of us.
