It is said that truth is stranger than fiction and if you’ve ever read some truly unbelievable facts, you might understand why. There's just some stuff in the world that can leaves you thinking “it can’t be true”. But a quick fact-check reveals that is (f)actually is.
Not Common Facts has clocked up an impressive following of over 6.1 million people. The Instagram page shares “facts, breaking news and viral content”. Some you might never have known. Others you might battle to believe. Keep scrolling for our personal favorites from the page, and don’t forget to upvote yours.
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Bored Panda was so intrigued by some of the facts on the Insta page, that we just could not help doing a deep dive down the rabbit hole to find out more information. One of the sadder facts on the page focuses on the “king of the jungle”. And states that "there are more lion statues in the world than there are real lions in the wild."
While we don’t necessarily find that hard to believe, we would prefer for it not to be true. “Only an estimated 24,000 wild lions remain,” revealed the big cat conservationist, Panthera. “Recent research from Panthera’s Lion Director and Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit estimates the global lion population was as large as 200,000 in 1900 and that it decreased to 90,000 in 1970.”
Some of the reasons for the decrease include illegal wildlife trade targeting lion meat and other body parts, habitat loss, and human-cat conflict, which Panthera says is due to "the real or perceived threat that lions pose to livestock."
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It would be difficult to count the exact number of statues throughout the world. And we couldn’t find concrete stats. But to put things into perspective, London alone has 10,000 lion statues. That's according to a photographer who once tried to capture all of them.
While the number of live lions is going down, new lion statues are being made. As Marbleism reports, “Large Lion statues have been created for centuries, dating back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Some of the most famous lion statues in the world include the Guardian lions of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Lion of Lucerne in Switzerland, and the Trafalgar Square Lions in London.” And just a few months ago, a New Orleans man made headlines for putting a giant lion statue on his roof.
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Another post that caught our attention was this one: The “dead” man who came back to life after the ambulance he was traveling in hit a pothole. While the story seems bizarre, it turns out that it’s been widely reported by several news outlets. And not on April Fools.
The reports go something like this: An 80-year-old man’s relatives started preparing for his memorial, soon after he was declared dead by doctors in January this year. Darshan Singh Brar’s body was being transported from the hospital in Patiala, India to his home near a place called Karnal. NDTV reported that “mourning relatives had gathered, food had been laid out and wood had been collected for his funeral, when the ambulance hit a pothole.”
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The man’s grandson was with him in the back of the ambulance and noticed his hand moving, after the sudden pothole jolt. Upon noticing a heartbeat, the paramedics headed straight to the nearest hospital. The man was admitted in a “critical” condition. NDTV even posted a photo of him in his hospital bed, after the incident.
"We cannot say that the patient had died. When he was brought to us, he was breathing and had blood pressure as well as a pulse. We don't know what happened at the other hospital, whether it was a technical error or something else," said a doctor at the hospital, where the patient was being treated.
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If you love the ocean, you’ll be spoilt for choice should you visit (or live in) Australia. Many of us are lucky if we have a beach or two nearby. But according to this post, Australians are blessed with over 11,000 beaches. And you could visit a new one everyday for the next 32 years. Sounds like bliss to us, so we dove a little deeper.
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As an island continent, Australia is completely surrounded by water. It has over 16,000 miles of coastline, and naturally more than its fair share of beaches. According to this government report, 87% of Australia’s population live within a 31 mile radius of the coast.
“It is not surprising that coastal tourism dominates the Australian tourism market,” reads the report. “Australian coastal locations (particularly beaches and the Great Barrier Reef) have been identified as the most attractive destinations, with aquatic and coastal experiences among the greatest drivers.”
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Even though 16,000 miles of coastline sounds like a lot, there are several countries beating the Aussies when it comes to length. Canada claims the top spot, with a whopping 151,600 miles of coastal bliss. And Canadians can choose from three different oceans surrounding them: the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Pacific Ocean on the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north.
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