- When a dolphin is sick or injured, its cries of distress summon
immediate aid from other dolphins, who try to support it to the
surface so that it can breathe.
- The Albatross has a wing span of up to 14 feet and only needs
to land once every couple of years to breed. They can travel hundreds
of thousands of miles each flight.
- Certain Chinese and American alligators can survive the winter
by freezing their heads in ice, leaving their nose out to breath
for months on end.
- Sea Otters use so much energy that they need to eat as much
as one-third of their weight each day.
- The biggest bird in the world is the ostrich, which can grow
up to nine feet tall.
- According to hospital figures, dogs bite an average of 1 million
Americans a year.
- The sailfish, the swordfish and the mako shark have all been
clocked at swimming over 50mph.
- Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves
fall off.
- It takes around 10 dump-truck loads of wood to make a proper
funeral pyre for a full-size elephant.
- The notion that cats and dogs are natural enemies (suggested
by the phrase,"fighting like cats and dogs") is overstated, if
not simply false. Generally speaking, cats and dogs get along
better than cats and cats or dogs and dogs.
- The last animal in the dictionary is the Zyzzyva, a tropical
weevil.
- Honeybees have hair on their eyes.
- The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.
- There's a "meow" in the middle of "homeowner."
- According to a survey by the American Animal Hospital Association,
53 percent of pet owners vacation or travel with their pets.
- The Dalmatian breed of dog originates from the Dalmatian Coast
of Croatia.
- Surveys show that 62 percent of dog owners admit that their
dog owns a sweater, wintercoat or raincoat.
- Cats prefer to eat their food at 86º F, which is why they don't
immediately gulp down the half-eaten can of food from the refrigerator.
- In 1987, cats overtook dogs as the number one pet in America.
- A frightened dog puts it's tail between it's legs because it
covers the scent glands in the anal area. Since the anal glands
carry personal scents that identify individual dogs, the tail-between
the-legs behavior is the canine equivalent of insecure humans
hiding their faces.
- Cat's urine glows under a black light.
- The Antpitta avis canis Ridgley is a bird that looks like a
stuffed duck on stilts and barks like a dog. The bird was discovered
by ornithologist Robert S. Ridgley in the Andes in Ecuador in
June 1998. Thirty of these long-legged, black-and-white barking
birds were found. It apparently had gone undetected because it
lives in remote parts and, of course, doesn't sing. The size of
a duck, it is one of the largest birds discovered in the last
50 years.
- Honeybees may collect pollen from as many as 500 flowers, all
of the same species - in a single trip.
- During the 1982 Falklands war British pilots reported that penguins
toppled over backward while gazing at the planes. British navy
pilots were then banned from flying low over penguin colonies.
It led to a UK government study of the penguin-toppling effect.
For seventeen days two helicopters were flown from varying directions
and heights over the penguins. The result? Penguins do not topple
over while gazing at aeroplanes.
- The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car.
|
