Animal Facts

Penguins can jump 6 feet in the air. A group of Kangaroos is called a mob. A young Kangaroo is called a Joey. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards. Beavers can hold their breathe for 45 minutes under water. The smallest bird in the world is the Humming Bird. It weighs less than 1 oz (or 1g). A bear can run at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). Elephants are the only animal that can't jump. Polar bears are left handed. 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. The coyote's scientific name (Canis Latrans) means 'barking dog'. Snakes can see through their eyelids. A Woodpecker can peck 20 times per second. Woodpeckers don't get headaches from all that pecking. Their skulls have air pockets to cushion the brain. 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. ? The Kangaroo's ancestors lived in trees. Today there are eight different kinds of tree kangaroos. ? 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. A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off - it dies from starvation! A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth! A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein! A hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average! A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside! A hummingbird weighs less than a penny! A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night! A snail can sleep for three years. After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again! All polar bears are left handed. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. Bulls are colour blind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow! Butterflies taste with their feet. Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand!

Cat urine glows under a black-light! Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, but dogs only have about ten. Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?! Elephants are the only animals that can't jump. Most lipstick contains fish scales! Nose prints are used to identify dogs, just like humans use fingerprints! On average, people fear spiders more than they do death. Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows! Porcupines float in water! The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds! The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'! The placement of a donkey's eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all times! ! The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people! The sloth (a mammal) moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on its fur! The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows! The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1! You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider. Blue whale babies weigh up to 7 tonnes at birth. A female cod can lay up to 9 million eggs. Snakes can see through their eyelids. Elephants spend 23 hours a day eating. Vultures sometimes eat so much they can't take off again. The Amazon 'Jesus Christ lizard' can run across water. The biggest Antartic inland animal is a wingless fly measuring about 60 mm long. Fleas can jump up to 30 cm, twenty times their own body length. Bluebottle flies can smell meat from distances 7 km away. Many birds migrate, but the Arctic tern travels furthest. It flies from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and back again, a trip of 32,000 kilometers. Some animals can regrow parts of their bodies if damaged. Starfish can grow new 'arms.' Slowworms can regrow broken-off tails. Lizards can grow new tails. One golden poison-dart frog could kill up to 1500 people with its poison. The giant squid has the largest eyes of any animal. They can be 39 cm across, which is 16 times wider than a human eye. The peregrine falcon can spot its prey from more than 8 km away. The sleepiest mammals are armadillos, sloths and opossums. They spend 80 per cent of their lives sleeping or dozing. A mayfly only lives one day, but a tortoise can expect to live 100 years. Stegosaurus was one of the most famous of the dinosaurs and was an impressive 9 metres long.

But its brain was the size of a walnut. 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.

Butterflies taste with their feet. A snail can sleep for three years. An octopus will eat its own arms if it gets really hungry. Moose have very poor vision. Some have even tried to mate with cars. The world smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. In his book, The Insects, naturalist Url N. Lanham reports that the aphid reproductive cycle is so rapid that females are born pregnant. Most lipstick contains fish scales. All porcupines float in water. When a frog swallows a meal, his bulgy eyeballs will close and go down into his head. This is because the eyeballs apply pressure and actually push a frog's meal down his throat! An ostrich's eye is bigger that its brain. The pudu, a native of Chile's temperate rainforest, stands just 18 inches high, making it the world's smallest deer. Pigs are the only animal that will drink hard liquor voluntarily, A whale's penis is called a dork. Mike The Headless Chicken - click here for official website! Mike was a rooster that lived in the 1940's, and he lived even after his head was chopped off...for 18 more months! Farmer Olsen was planning on making fried chicken for his mother-in-law, and her favorite part was the neck. When he went to slaughter the chicken, he tried to leave as much of the neck in tact as he could. After he chopped off the head, the chicken got up and started resuming normal chicken behavior with the other animals, even though its head was totally missing! Olsen figured it might be an interesting curiosity, and after the chicken was still alive and well after a week, he took it into the local university to have scientists study Mike. Scientists determined that he survived because the ax had missed his jugular vein, and a clot had prevented him from bleeding to death. They also discovered that Mike had enough brain stem left to carry on his normal rooster functions. Olsen had to feed him with an eyedropper,

carefully dropping food into his exposed esophagus. Mike became quite famous, and lived for one and a half years with no head. When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food. Frogs and mosquitos have teeth. The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. Crocodiles never outgrow the pools in which they live. That means that if you put a baby croc in an aquarium, it would be little for the rest of its life. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason. When frogs eat something that is poisonous or otherwise bad for them, they can throw up their entire stomach. That is, the stomach actually protrudes through their mouth and they wipe it with their right front leg.Why the right front leg? The stomach of frogs is slightly towards their left side. When the stomach is ejected, it pulls to the right (since the membranes holding the stomach in place are shorter on that side). Since the right front leg can reach the stomach (and the left can't), frogs use their right leg to wipe the stomach and get rid of whatever nasty material is disturbing them. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten. Cat's urine glows under a blacklight. When opossums are playing "possum", they are not playing. They actually pass out from sheer terror. Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants. Most cows give more milk when they listen to music. Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air. The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people. Frogs may be hypnotised by placing them on their back and gently stroking their stomach. Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks. Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas. Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can’t find any food. Dolphins sleep with one eye open. There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones. Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue. A jellyfish is 95 percent water.

The starfish is one of the only animals that can turn its stomach inside out. A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds. A mule won't sink in quicksand but a donkey will. More people are killed annually by donkeys than in airplane crashes. Penguins are the only birds that can leap into the air like porpoises. By some unknown means, an iguana can end its own life. Pigs can cover a mile in 7.5 minutes when running at top speed. When a horned toad is angry, it squirts blood from its eyes. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. A scallop has 35 blue eyes. The left leg of a chicken in more tender than the right one. The only dog that doesn't have a pink tongue is the chow. The giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal. Zebras can't see the color orange. There are more insects in ten square feet of a rain forest than there are people in Manhattan. The smartest dogs are the Jack Russell Terrier and Scottish Border collie. Dumbest: Afghan hound. A rat can go without water longer than a camel can. Spider-Goat - 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. A cow produces 200 times more gas a day than a person. The oldest domestic cat (with reliable documentation) was a female tabby named "Ma" that lived to be 34 years old. In ancient Egypt, killing a cat was a crime punishable by death. The biggest frog in the world, the Goliath frog, is also the best high-jumper. It can leap 3 metres into the air. A giraffe can clean its ear with its 21-inch tongue. The opening to a cave where a bear hibernates is always on the north slope.

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. Elephant ears can weigh over 100 pounds and be 6 feet across. They use them to fan and cool themselves. When an elephant family member dies, they bury them with twigs and leaves and "cry" for several hours. Certain frogs can be frozen solid, then thawed, and survive. (note from Becky: PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS!) Carmine bee-eaters (a type of bird) begin their nest holes by flying head-first into the dirt to make a dent. They line their nest holes with the remains of insects they eat and then throw up - the smell keeps the rodents away. Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean. If you keep a goldfish in a dark room, it will eventually turn white. Cats do not have a collarbone, so they can fit through any opening the size of their head. Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die. A dragonfly's penis is shovel-shaped at the end, to scoop a rival male's sperm out of the female it's impregnating. Leatherback turtles' throats have spines that keep slippery prey like jellyfish from sliding out and escaping. Amazon ants raid the nests of other ants to steal the other ants' larvae to hatch in their own nest. Then they use the hatched ants to do all their work for them. Amazon ants are so adapted to fighting that they can't take care of themselves or their nest - that's why they steal and raise other ants as slaves. Dolphins can swim and sleep at the same time. In 7 years, one female cat and her babies can theoretically be the source of 420,000 cats. Male anglerfish physically attach themselves to females early in life. The females continue to grow but the males don't. The males are parasites. Over time, they lose most of their inner organs and depend on the female's bodies to survive. Two males may live off one female. Armadillos have four babies at a time, and they are always the same sex. A large majority of white cats with blue eyes are deaf. White cats with only one blue eye are deaf only in the ear closest to the blue eye. White cats with orange eyes do not have this disability. Animals that lay eggs don’t have bellybuttons. Slugs have 4 noses. Elephants sleep for only 2 hours a day. Fish cough.

A snail breathes through its foot. Shrimp can only swim backward. Male satin bower birds build "bowers," or shelters, out of sticks and leaves. The birds decorate the bowers with brightly coloured objects they find, like buttons, bottle caps, cloth, clothes pins, paper clips, string, and gum wrappers. Using charcoal softened with saliva to make black paint and chewed berries to make red, bower birds paint the inside of their bowers. Oysters can change from one gender to another and back again. Fish can drown. Lizards communicate by doing push-ups. Squid can have eyes the size of volleyballs. The bullfrog is the only animal that never sleeps. Elephants go through six sets of teeth in their lifetime. When their last set wears down, they cannot eat anymore and die. African elephants take at least 3 baths a day. Elephants trunks can be up to 7 feet long and weigh up to 300 pounds. Anteaters walk on their knuckles. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs-it will let you go instantly. Reindeer like to eat bananas. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it. A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death. A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair. A shrimp's heart is in their head. In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over 1 million descendants. * A bear can run at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). * Beavers can hold their breathe for 45 minutes under water. * A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. * 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. * Polar bears are left handed.

* 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. * Woodpeckers don't get headaches from all that pecking. Their skulls have air pockets to cushion the brain. * The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees. An average dairy cow produces four times its body weight in manure each year. -Kiwis are the only bird that hunts by smell. -A birds eye keeps everything in focus at all times. -Elvis had a pet monkey named Scatter. -A sheep trained to turn the lights on and off will leave them them on 82% of the time. -A blind chameleon will still change color to match its surroundings. -All dogs except the Chow have a pink tongue, the Chow's tongue is bluish black. -Nine out of ten extinct species were birds. -Lions sleep 17 hours per day. -Most wild birds live only 10% of their normal life span. -Mouse sex only lasts five seconds. -Florida officals recieve 8,000 complaints each year about alligators. -Pigeons have three sets of eyelids. -Male monkeys go bald just as men do. -Giraffes have no vocal cords, the communicate with their tails. -About one third of all species of snakes are venomous. -The stomach of a hippo can be up to 10 feet long and hold up to 400 pounds of food. -An Elephant's tusks never stop growing as long as it lives. -If left alone, a dog will spend up to 3 hours a day remarking its scent posts. -The horseshoe crab has sky-blue blood. -A snapping turtle can only swollow when its head is under water. -When given unlimited access to mice, cats will kill about 15 before stopping. -Lobsters and jellyfish never stop growing. -The seahorse is the only fish that swims upright.

-Cat milk is 10% protein where cow milk is only 3%. -Crocodiles can't move their tongues. -The pouch on a pelican's beak can hold up to 2 gallons of water. -A homing pigeon will not be able to find its way home if a magnet it attached to their neck. -The speckles on a bird's egg are as individual as a fingerprint. -The upstroke of a bird's wing moves it forward, the downstroke only keeps it airborn. -A giraffe can run faster than a horse and go longer without water than a camel. -A freshly hatched crocodile is three times longer than the egg it came from. -Polar bears are left-handed. -Elephants are not afraid of mice. Updated 3/14/05 -A snail can sleep for three years. -Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows. -All polar bears are left handed. -The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1. -You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider. -A blue whales testicles are the size of a family car. -Robins eat three miles of earth worms in a year. -An oyster changes sex several times during its life. -Male monkeys loose their hair the same way men do. -Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they cannot find food. Updated 2/24/05 -Ostriches can run faster than horses and the males can roar like lions. -Skunks can accurately spray their fluid up to ten feet. -A group of twelve or more cows is called a flink. -Sheep can survive up to two weeks buried in show drifts. -A slug has four noses. -A turtle can breath through its butt. -An ant can detect movement through five centimeters of earth.

-A hippo can open it's mouth wide enouth to fit a four foot child inside. -Bats always exit a cave to the left. -A crocodile can't move it's tongue. Old Ones -When mating, a hummingbird's wings beat 200 times a second. -Two dogs were hanged for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. -Jackrabbits got their name because their ears look like a donkey's (Jackass). -Rabbits and horses cannot vomit. -If birds could sweat they wouldn't be able to fly. -Sloths sneeze slowly. They also give birth upside down.... slowly. -Goldfish have a memory span of 3 seconds. -A whales heart beats about once every 6 and a half seconds. -The average American Bald Eagle weighs about 9 pounds. -A chicken's top speed is 9 mph. -A bat can eat up to 1,000 insects per hour. -Argentina's falabella horses are only 16 inches tall fully grown and are the smallest horses on Earth. -The giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal. -Lobsters like to eat lobster. -To maintain a chimpanzee in captivity for 60 years it would cost an estimated $300,000. -Crocodiles can't move their tongues. -Wolves could bark like dogs, they don't because they don't want to. -An adult crocodile can go two years without eating. -A roadrunner purrs when it is content. -A cow has four stomachs. -The decapitated jaws of a snapping turtle can keep snapping for about a day. -Toto the dog was paid $125 a week for his work in The Wizzard of Oz. -The average cow produces about 70,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime. -A study has concluded that if a woodchuck could chuck wood it could chuck about 700 pounds.

-A mother shark can give birth to as many as 70 baby sharks per litter. -Both gorillaz and housecats purr. -A hibernating bear can go as long as 6 months without a bathroom break. -The only time a turkey whistles is when it is panicking. -Whales and Buffalos both stampede. -The top speed of a pigeon in flight is 90 mph. -Squirrels cannot see the color red. -Chimpanzees will hunt ducks if given the opportunity. -Sheep snore. -A group of jellyfish is called a "smack." -One humped camels run faster than two humped camels. -Camel hair brushes are made from squirrel hair. -Emus cannot walk backwards. -Camel's milk does not curdle. -Armadillos can catch malaria. -The last animal in the dictionary is the zyzzyva, a tropical American weevil. -Black sheep have a better sense of smell then white sheep. -The English Sparrow is not a sparrow and it comes from Africa, not England. -Baboons cannot throw overhand. -Lions are the only cats that live in packs. -To get a gallon of milk, it takes about 345 squirts from a cow's utter. -A warthog has only 4 warts, all of which are on its head. -The penalty for stealing a rabbit in 19th-century england was seven years in prison. -Even bloodhounds cannot smell the difference between two identical twins. -Cows and cats both get hairballs. -Camels are born without humps. -Anteaters can flick their tongues 160 times a minute.