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Animal facts 3: Interesting facts you never knew

Some scientists think that 10% of the animal biomass of the world is ants.
Scientists in Brazil have reported the emergence of a species of superflea; they are bigger than cockroaches and can jump 20 feet.
The viper's venom is harmless as long as it does not mingle with the blood. Courageous experimenters have tasted, swallowed it, and yet afterward were no worse off than before.
Squirrels are immune to rabies.
A snail only mates once.
Flamingos are not naturally pink. They get their color from their food -- tiny green algae that turn pink during digestion.
Scorpions can withstand 200 times more nuclear radiation than humans can.
Entomologists Dr. Yao and Dr. Yuan of China studied more than 378,046 common house flies and estimated that each carried no less than 1,941,000 bacteria on their bodies. Another source estimates that 33 million microorganisms may flourish in a single fly's gut.
Only humans and horses have hymens.
Flies have 4000 lenses in each eye.
USDA sources reveal that flies contaminate or destroy 10 billion dollars of agricultural products each year.
"J'embrasse mon chat sur la bouche" is French for, "I kiss my cat on the lips".
Folklore has it that the tabby cat got the M on the forehead as a gesture of thanks from Mary, the mother of Jesus. She gave this to the kitties to show her appreciation for the kitties purring the baby to sleep.
Houseflies watch each other constantly and follow each other to food sources. That's why there are always so many enjoying the same food.
There are 6,500+ species of fly living in Britain alone. (There are over 16,000+ in North America)
The weight of insects eaten by spiders every year is greater than the total weight of the entire human population.
Experiments show that softly talking to kittens as soon as they are born results in their growing up to be more confident and independent adults.
A crocodile can't move its tongue and cannot chew. Its digestive juices are so strong that it can digest a steel nail.
Laika became the world's first space traveler. Russian scientists sent the small dog aloft in an artificial earth satellite in 1957.
Cats can successfully navigate through mazes in complete darkness, but lose that ability if their whiskers are cut off (they wander aimlessly).
After being petted, sometimes you will see a cat cleaning himself. He is trying to get the "person" smell off.
Non-pedigree cats have an higher incidence of tabby markings than pedigree cats. Non-pedigree cats are also more often more robust than highly bred cats.
A cat's brain is more similar to a human's brain than that of a dog.
Female chickens, or hens, need about 24 to 26 hours to produce one egg. Thirty minutes later they start the process all over again. In addition to the half-hour rests, some hens rest every three to five days and others rest every 10 days.
Dogs' eyes have large pupils and a wide field of vision, making them really good at following moving objects. Dogs also see well in fairly low light.
Black cat superstitions originated in America. In Asia and England, a black cat is considered lucky.
Who first thought of using dogs to guide blind people? At the end of World War I, the German government trained the first guide dogs to assist blind war veterans.
The material to build the Taj Mahal was brought in from various parts of India by a fleet of 1,000 elephants.
A fifteen year old cat has probably spent ten years of its life sleeping.
A cat will almost never meow at another cat. Cats use this sound for humans.
A cat in a hurry can sprint at about thirty-one miles per hour.
An estimated 1 million dogs in the United States have been named the primary beneficiary in their owner's will.
According to a recent survey, the most popular name for a dog is Max. Other popular names include Molly, Sam, Zach, and Maggie.
Increased water consumption in animals is sometimes a sign of illness.
Pets like the sound of laughter, and most know when you're in pain.
Amazon ants (red ants found in the western U.S.) steal the larvae of other ants to keep as slaves. The slave ants build homes for and feed the Amazon ants, who cannot do anything but fight. They depend completely on their slaves for survival.
Having your pet altered will not change its personality, but pets that have been spayed or neutered are less apt to fight or wander off.
Brazoria County in Southeast Texas is the only county in the United States and Canada to have every kind of poisonous snake found in those two countries.
Green plants - what biologists call autotrophs - are the basis for all life on our planet, at the beginning of nearly all food chains.
Scandinavian lemmings are famous for moving in huge numbers over the countryside and jumping into the ocean. This is not an act of suicide; the lemming just sees rivers, lakes, cliffs, and oceans as something to cross in its search for food.
Of all known forms of animal life ever to inhabit the Earth, only about 10 percent still exist today.
Spider monkeys like banana daquiries.
The calories burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race average 10,000. The 1,149-mile race commemorates the 1925 "Race for Life" when 20 volunteer mushers relayed medicine from Anchorage to Nome to battle a children's diphtheria epidemic.
The viscera of Japanese abalone can harbor a poisonous substance which causes a burning, stinging, prickling and itching over the entire body. It does not manifest itsef until exposure to sunlight - if eaten outdoors in sunlight, symptoms occur quickly and suddenly.
Lovebirds are small parakeets who live in pairs. Male and female lovebirds look alike, but most other male birds have brighter colors than the females.
If attacked by a person or coyote, its main enemies, the badger acts quickly. The badger digs itself quickly into a hole in a few minutes, throwing dirt and dust into its attacker's face.
A large porcupine can have over 30,000 quills covering its body.
There are more species of rodent than of any other animal group in the world.
Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of the water. They frequently rise to the surface for air.
An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mph.
Woodchucks use a whistling sound to warn one another of danger, so in some places the woodchuck is called the whistling pig.
A female swine, or a sow, will always have a even number of teats or nipples, usually twelve.
In parts of Northern Ontario, at their peak in numbers, there can be 3,500 snowshoe hares per square hectare.
The pygmy shrew is the smallest mammal in North America and the second smallest mammal in the world. At 2.2 g, it weighs less than a dime and is only 7.8 to 9.8 cm long.
The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes.
A penguin only has sex twice a year.
Cats can hear ultrasound.
Shrimp can only swim backwards.
Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two.
If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.
Polar bears camouflage themselves more completely during a hunt by covering their black noses with their paws.
Octopi have gardens.
A whale's penis is called a dork.
The female ferret is referred to as a `jill'.
Female orcas live twice as long as male orcas. The larger numbers of female orcas in a pod are because of the female's longer lifespan, not because the males have collected a harem.
Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life! What about milk, you say? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and grass is living!
Crows have the largest cerebral hemispheres, relative to body size, of any avian family.
Most armadillos seen dead on the road did not get hit by the wheels. When an armidillo is frightened it jumps straight into the air.
Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra.
Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language; commonly German but more recently Hungarian or some other Slavic tongue.
Reindeer like to eat bananas.
A type of jellyfish found off the coast of England is the longest animal in the world.
Armadillos can walk underwater.
The Pug dog is thought to have gotten it's name from looking like the pug monkey.
Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes.
The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs.
It is a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly -- so says City Ordinance No. 352 in Pacific Grove, California.
When angered, the ears of Tazmanian devils turn a pinkish-red.
Only one in one thousand animals born in the sea survives to maturity.
Elephants and camels both have four knees.
The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.
An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
Hamsters love to eat crickets.
The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild.
Big Ben was slowed five minutes one day when a passing group of starlings decided to take a rest on the minute hand of the clock.
A pig's skin is thickest at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.
The word rodent comes from the Latin word `rodere' meaning to gnaw.
The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design located on their apron (belly). The male blue crab has the Washington Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol.
Most snakes have either only one lung, or in some cases, two, with one much reduced in size. This apparently serves to make room for other organs in the highly-elongated bodies of snakes.
Animals attend church services on St. Anthony's Day in Mexico. This popular saint, who is regarded as a healer of people and animals, is asked to protect pets, who are decorated with flowers and ribbons for the occasion. In rural areas, peasants also bring bags of insects and worms to be blessed in church, in the hope that this will prevent these creatures from damaging crops.
Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- anantelope-like, Asian forest creature.
The English Romantic poet Lord Byron was so devastated upon the death of his beloved Newfoundland, whose name was Boatswain, that he had inscribed upon the dog's gravestone the following: "Beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices."
The calories burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race average 10,000.
The elephant, as a symbol of the US Republican Party, was originated by cartoonist Thomas Nast and first presented in 1874.
According to tests made at the Institute for the Study of Animal Problems in Washington. Dogs and cats, like people are either right or left handed - that is, they favor either their right or left paws.
A cat's arching back is part of a complex body language system, usually associated with feeling threatened. The arch is able to get so high because the cat's spine contains nearly 60 vertebrae which fit loosely together. Humans have only 34 vertebrae.
The average adult male Polar Bear weighs between 850 and 900 pounds, but one was killed in 1960 that weighed 2,210 pounds. That is the weight of a small family car!
Scientists have managed to mix a goat with a spider to create a goat that produces spider's silk in its milk. The goats look completely normal, and they are in fact only 1/70,000th spider. By inserting just one spider gene into a goat's egg, the adult goat produces milk that can be processed to create an incredibly strong spider's silk fabric. The 'Biosteel' fabric is estimated to be five times as strong as steel, and about the same weight as cotton.
The small Darwin's frog, which lives in Chile's cool forest streams, nurtures its young in an unusual manner. After the female lays 30 or so eggs, the male guards them for two weeks and then swallows the surviving ones. In the male's vocal pouch, the offspring develop until they're able to survive on their own and hop out.
The name 'raccoon' comes from the Algonquin Indians word Arakun, which is translated as "he scratches with his hands".
Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
If you have a tape worm, and you put your head over a pot of coffee with your mouth open the tape worm will crawl out of your mouth and extend toward the coffee, therefore you can just grab it and pull it out.
Armadillos have four babies at a time, and they are always the same sex.
You can hypnotise a frog by placing it on it's back and gently stroking it's stomach.
A snail’s genitals are on its head.
Marie Antoinette's dog was a spaniel named Thisbe.
A dog was killed by a meteor at Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911. The unlucky canine is the only creature known to have been killed by a meteor.
A well-fed polar bear's blood has 10 times more omega-3 fatty acid-- than in a fasting bear. Studies with human volunteers have shown that omega-3 fatty acids in the diet reduce cholesterol in the blood stream.
Blood taken from Polar Bears during the seal-free season showed levels of cholesterol nearly 25 percent higher than blood taken while the bears had plenty of seal blubber to eat.
You are more likely to be struck by lightning than to be eaten by a shark.
Crowded together, 200 to a cubic-foot cage, male houseflies die after about 16 days. With 100 flies in the same cage, they are less agitated by their cagemates, fly about less and live 20 days. Put into a vial by themselves, the solitary (and probably bored) flies last 50 days.
Hibernating ground squirrels' blood has four times the amount of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) than their blood contains when they are not hibernating.
Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history.
During the nineteenth century, mammoth finds were frequent enough in Siberia that some persons became professional mammoth ivory hunters.
The last member of the famous Bonaparte family, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, died in 1945, of injuries sustained from tripping over his dog's leash.
The Chinese, during the reign of Kublai Khan, used lions on hunting expeditions. They trained the big cats to pursue and drag down massive animals - from wild bulls to bears - and to stay with the kill until the hunter arrived.
Cat scratch disease, a benign but sometimes painful disease of short duration, is caused by a bacillus. Despite its name, the disease can be transmitted by many kinds of scratches besides those of cats.
If a normal mouse is forced to overeat, it becomes obese. When the force feeding stops, the mouse won't eat as much as normal until it loses the excess weight it gained.
The top knot that quails have is called a hmuh.
Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have a very high probability of having six toes.
Lions are the only truly social cat species, and usually every female in a pride, ranging from 5 to 30 individuals, is closely related.
Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a parade.
The male Californian sea-otter grips the nose of the female with his teeth during mating.
The ice worm, less than an inch long, lives on the pollens, insects, minerals and bacteria blown onto the surface of glaciers by the wind.
The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th Century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression.
The only way to stop the pain of the sting of the flathead fish is by rubbing the slime of the belly of the same fish that you were stung by on the wound that it inflicted upon you.
Giraffes were at one time referred to by Europeans as "cameleopards," believing giraffes were the offspring of camels and leopards.
The smallest fish in the world is the Trimattum Nanus of the Chagos Archipelago. It measures 0.33 inches.
There is a species of cat smaller than the average housecat. It is native to Africa and it is the Black-footed cat (Felis nigripes). Its top weight is 5.5 pounds.
Back in the late 1940s in Buenos Aires, a black female cat climbed a 40 foot tree where she resided for six years. Her name was Mincha and she wasn't lonely for companionship. She had three litters while living in the tree. The local Argentinians fed her by putting her food on poles.
There are 18 species of Piranha, and 4 of those species are dangerous to man.
George Washington's favorite horse was named Lexington. Napoleon's favorite was Marengo. U.S. Grant had three favorite horses: Egypt, Cincinnati, and Jeff Davis.
Just .016 mg of the toxin produced by the Poison Frog can kill a 180-pound man.
The blowfish or fugu is a highly sought after and expensive delicacy in Japan, but it can also be lethal. Its liver is deadly poisonous; it is the gourmet equivalent of Russian roulette. Chefs have to be highly trained and licensed to serve the fish, yet despite this precaution at least a hundred people die each year, most from ingesting unseen traces of liver tissue.
Many animals seem to be able to detect the Earth's magnetism. The Arctic Tern's migratory route follows the Earth's lines of magnetic force. Many other animals such as caribou, sea turtles, whales, birds and fish may also use the Earth's magnetism to find their way.
Peru has the greatest bio-diversity and density of birds with 1780 species representing 18.5% of all bird species on Earth.
According to ancient Greek literature, when Odysseus arrived home after an absence of 20 years, disguised as a beggar, the only one to recognize him was his aged dog Argos, who wagged his tail at his master, and then died.
The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in 1866.
The expression "three dog night" originated with the Eskimos and means a very cold night - so cold that you have to bed down with three dogs to keep warm.
The "caduceus" the classical medical symbol of two serpents wrapped around a staff - comes from an ancient Greek legend in which snakes revealed the practice of medicine to human beings.
A pioneering technique using dogs to detect prostate cancer is being developed in Cambridgeshire.
In 2002, a peasant in China (where alcoholic drinks containing preserved snakes are quite popular) uncorked a liquor bottle - and was bitten by the snake (which had been trapped for a year). The porous stopper had allowed enough air into the bottle for the snake's continued survival.
A Bloodhound can distinguish and identify several scents at the same time.
Bulldogs were originally bred to bait and fight bulls and bears.
Smartest dogs: 1) border collie; 2) poodle; 3) golden retriever. Least smart: afghan
The earliest fossil finds of dogs date back to 10,000 BC.
The "Dingo" is the wild dog of Australia.
The smallest of the recognized dog breeds, the Chihuahua, is also the one that usually lives the longest. Named for the region of Mexico where they were first discovered in the mid-19th century, the Chihuahua can live anywhere between 11-18 years.
Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small game as hares.
A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat. This is believed to be an attempt by the animal to soothe its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive.
Korea's poshintang - dog meat soup - is a popular item on summertime menus, despite outcry from other nations. The soup is believed to cure summer heat ailments, improve male virility, and improve women's complexions.
Flattened out, the rat cortex would be the size of a postage stamp, that of the chimp would be the size of a piece of standard typing paper, while the human brain would be four times greater still!
In Norfolk, Virginia, it is unlawful for chickens to lay eggs before 8AM and after 4PM.
The peacock is the national bird of India.
Methane gas can often be seen bubbling up from the bottom of ponds. It is produced by the decomposition of dead plants and animals in the mud.
Dogs only see shades of grey and most of them are short-sighted.
At present even the most powerful PCs cannot process as many instructions as the .1gm of a goldfish brain.
Young giraffes can grow an inch a month.
60-65 million years ago dolphins and humans shared a common ancestor - the Mesonycid.
The saddleback tortoise has evolved a long neck and an arched shell in order to reach leaves a staggering 5 feet above the ground.
Cleopatra used a mixture of horse teeth, bear grease, burnt mice and deer marrow in her attempt to cure Julius Caesar's baldness (it didn't work). Hedgehog urine was also thought to be beneficial.
The fox, the coyote, and the hawk often follow badgers in order to catch animals that it has discovered.
The Ancient Egyptian word for cat was mau, which means "to see".
The normal temperature of a hibernating opossum falls from 95 degrees Fahrenheit to 50.9 degrees.
Spider silk is a protein that is formed as a liquid by silk glands and squeezed out of spinnerets like toothpaste from a tube. The liquid thread hardens as it leaves the spinneret and some types of such thread become stronger than a steel thread of the same diameter.
Spiders are believed to have existed for more than 300 million years.
Never give your cat aspirin, unless advised to do so by your vet. Aspirin can cause hemorrhaging in the gastorintestinal tract. It can also depress bone marrow activity, which makes red blood cells and may also damage the kidneys.
A group of cats is called a clowder; a group of kittens is called a kendle.
Cats lose almost as much fluid in the saliva while grooming themselves as they do through urination.
Cats roll on their backs to show affection. They expose their bellies like this only when they feel totally secure.
Cats with long, lean bodies are more likely to be outgoing personalities than their stockier cousins. They are also more protective of their home and more vocal and demonstrative.
There are an estimated 2,500 collisions between birds and planes each year in the US.
Tree crickets are called the poor man's thermometer because temperature directly affects their rate of activity. Count the number of chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds, then add 37. The sum will be very close to the outside temperature!
If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
Spiders have noses on their feet that can pick up the odours of possible prey, predators, or mates.
The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.
Wolves may howl messages to each other from a mile or two apart.
Reptiles were responsible for such body part innovations as fur, feathers, claws, differentiated teeth, water impervious skin, water impervious eggs, and the penis.
Spot, Data's cat on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was played by six different cats.
The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.
A typical hen lays 19 dozen eggs a year.
The left leg of a chicken in more tender than the right one.
Crocodiles and alligators are surprisingly fast on land. Although they are rapid, they are not agile. So if you ever find yourself chased by one, run in a zigzag line. You'll lose him or her every time.
Pigs can cover a mile in 7.5 minutes when running at top speed.
Many hamsters blink one eye at a time.
The average human will eat 8 spiders while asleep in their lifetime.
Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
Mosquito repellents don't repel - they hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
Livestock excrete 130 times as much waste as people.
African elephants are the largest mammals living on solid ground. They reach lengths up to 7.5 m and weights up to 7500 kg.
A mole can dig 60 feet of tunnel or more per day. This is equivalent to a five-foot woman burrowing the length of two football fields, while pushing two-ton objects out of her way.
The dinosaurs became extinct before the Rockies or the Alps were formed.
More types of fish swim in Brazil's Amazon River than in the entire Atlantic Ocean.
The owl can catch a mouse in utter darkness, guided only by tiny sounds made by its prey.
The Golden mole is one of the strongest animals by size of body weight. A captive Golden mole was able to exert a force equal to 150 times it's own weight.
The camel first evolved in North America. It died out in the ice ages, but some had emigrated and survived in South America, Eurasia, and North Africa.
Dogs cannot see as well as humans and are considered color blind. A dog sees objects first by their movement, second by their brightness, and third by their shape.
The sperm of a mouse is longer than the sperm of an elephant.
The East Alligator River in Australia's Northern Territory was misnamed. It contains crocodiles not alligators.
The largest recorded flea is the North American Hystrichopsylla schefferi, measuring 12mm in length - almost 1/2-inch!
If left to her own devices, a female cat may have three to seven kittens every four months. This is why population control using neutering and spaying is so important.
Squids can commit suicide by eating their own tentacles.
The typical housefly cruises at 8 km/hr.
Kittens are born with both eyes and ears closed. When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change colour over a period of months to the final eye colour.
Recent studies have shown that interacting with companion animals may speed recovery from illness, reduce stress, and promote family bonding.
Cats are pure carnivores. They need a high level of protein in their diets - around 30% - and lack the digestive equipment to do well on a diet of grains, fruits or vegetables. Hence although dogs do just fine on a vegetarian diet, cats do not.
A young male gorilla (about 8 to 10 years old) is called a black jack. He’s almost as big as a Silver Back, but his hair has not turned silvery yet, and he still has a lot to learn.
Ants are said to never cross a chalk line. So if you've got ants, draw a line on the floor with chalk or wherever the ants are coming in and see for yourself! They won't cross the line. Baking soda works, too!
Coral reefs are massive limestone structures that provide shelter for over 25 percent of all marine life.
The most popular marine aquarium saltwater fish is the clown fish. Other popular saltwater aquarium fish include angelfish, royal gamma, hamlets, spotfin, yellowtail damsels, and blue tangs.
Siamese kittens are born white because of the heat inside the mother's uterus before birth. This heat keeps the kittens' hair from darkening on the points.
All dogs are probably descended from an animal called Tomarctus. This animal lived approximately 15 million years ago.
To purr, cats use extra tissue in the larynx (voice box). This tissue vibrates when they purr.

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