Amazing Animal Facts
- The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon
water hog that looks like a guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds.
- A cat can run about 20 kilometres per hour (12 miles per hour)
- a cheetah does not roar like a lion - it purrs like a cat (meow).
- The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'!
- The largest frog in the world is called Goliath frog.
- There are more than 50 different kinds of kangaroos.
- No two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike.
- A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.
- A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.
- A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.
- A cheetah can run 76 kilometres per hour (46 miles per hour)
- A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.
- A zebra is white with black stripes.
- Porpoises and dolphins communicate with each other by squeaking, growling,
moaning, and whistling. Porpoises and dolphins are mammals. There are about 40
species or kinds of porpoises and dolphins. Most porpoises and dolphins navigate
by using "echolocation". The largest member of the dolphin family is called an
orca or killer whale.
- The hippopotamus gives birth under water and nurses its young in the river as
well, though the young hippos do come up periodically for air.
- A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime
- The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully
grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons.
- Dolphins sleep with one eye open!
- At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced
by any animal.
- The fastest dog, the greyhound, can reach speeds of upto 41.7 miles per hour.
The breed was known to exist in ancient Egypt 6,000 years ago
- A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum
lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.
- The grizzly bear can run as fast as the average horse!!
- The female lion does more than 90% of the hunting while the male simply
prefers to rest.!!
- A jellyfish is 95 percent water!
- A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or
when it has fought with another cat. This is an attempt by the animal to soothe
its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive.
- At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.
- Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that
paws?!
- A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!
- A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
- The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less
than a penny.
- A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
- All polar bears are left handed.
- Ants don't sleep.
- A cat uses whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through.
The whiskers act as antennae, helping the animal to judge the precise width of
any passage.
- There are only three animals with blue tongues: the black bear, the Chow Chow
dog and the blue-tongued lizard
- Camels have three eye lids
- Flying squirrels don’t really fly, they glide from branch to branch. A
blanket-like furry skin stretches their front and hind legs, and acts as a
parachute, enabling the squirrel to soar like a kite.
- A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds
- A beaver can hold it's breath for 45 minutes.
- Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards.
- The longest recorded life span of a tapeworm was 35 years!
- You're 20 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be bit by a
rattlesnake.
- Polar bears have black skin
- Penguins can jump 6 feet in the air
- Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards
- The smallest bird in the world is the Humming Bird. It weighs less than 1 oz
(or 1g).
- Elephants are the only animal that can't jump
- A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out
- A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
- Tigers have striped skin not just striped fur.
- Reindeer eat moss because it contains a chemical that stops their body from
freezing.
- Snakes can see through their eyelids.
- A Woodpecker can peck 20 times per second.
- The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees.
- Butterflies tast sensors are in their feet. They taste their food by standing
on it.
- Katydids have ears in their front legs.
- The strongest animal in the world is the rhinoceros beetle. It can lift 850
times its own weight.
- Flamingos are pink because shrimp is one of their main sources of food.
- The flying frog uses flaps of skin between its toes to glide.
- The slowest mammal on earth is the tree sloth. It only moves at a speed of 6
feet (1.83 meters) per minute.
- The Chameleon's tongue is as long as its body.
- The Chameleon can focus its eyes seperately to watch two objects at once.
- Flamingos eat with their heads upside down to strain the water out of their
food.
- Many snakes never stop growing. That's one reason they must shed their skin.
- The Artic Tern flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and then back again
to spend summer in each place.
- The black bulldog ant from Australia is the most dangerous ant in the world.
It stings and bites at the same time and has killed humans.
- A hippopotamus can stay under water for up to 30 minutes.
- The Basenji is the only dog which does not bark.
- Armadillos, opossums and sloths spend up to 80 percent of their lives
sleeping.