Amazing Facts About Animals

No matter what age one is, the world of animals tends to attract a lot curiosity. And all the more what interests people are the facts about animals – strange, amazing, funny, sad, interesting… it is all about the facts one can find… 


There are presently over a million animal species upon planet earth.

The reptiles have 6,000 species crawling in their habitats; and more are discovered each year.

There are over 70,000 types of spiders spinning their webs in the world.

Well, there are 3,000 kinds of lice. Yes, it is the lice we are prone to get due to lack of hair hygiene.

This is a mind-boggling fact – for each of the 600 million people there is about 200 million insects crawling, flying...

Mammals are the only creatures that have flaps around their ears.

The world has approximately one billion cattle, of which about 200 million belong to India.

The life of a housefly is only 14 days.

A dog was the first animal to up in space.

A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first animals to fly in a hot air balloon. The oldest breed of a dog known to mankind is the ‘Saluki’.

An ostrich is the fastest bird and can run up to 70 km/h.

Never get a camel angry, for he or she will spit at you.

There are crabs that are the size of a pea. There are known as ‘Pea Crabs’.

The lifespan of 75 percent of wild birds is 6 months.

Denmark has twice as many pigs as there are people.

You do not need cotton buds to clean a giraffe ears. It can do so with its own 50cm-tongue.

Want to known the appetite of a South American Giant Anteater? Well it eats over 30,000 ants, per day.

The sailfish can swim at the speed of 109 km/h, making it the fastest swimmer.

The Sea Horse is the slowest fish, drifting at approximately 0.016 km/h.

The small car on the road is probably the size of the heart of a blue whale.

The length of an elephant is the same as the tongue of a blue whale.

The crocodile's tongue is unmovable, as it is attached to the roof of its mouth. 



1. Facts About Endangered Animals......

The saddest fact is that human activities are bringing an ever-increasing decline in the number of animal species. While numerable species have gone into extinction and belong to the museums of the world, there are still many that are endangered as of today. They are slowly moving towards being extinct. There are animal activists around the world, who are making every attempt to save these species.
Here are some interesting facts about endangered animals…
  
Presently there are 38 known species of mammals that are extinct. However, of them there are some that are kept in captivity with scientists trying to save them from going extinct.

With global warming becoming a major issue, the fact is the existing 28,270 animal species of mammals are threatened by the harms done to the planet.

6,524 vertebrate-species were listed as threatened, in the year 2006. In the same year – 2006 – 2,101 invertebrate-species were listed to be threatened.

In 2006, 253 fish-species were listed as critically endangered.

In 2006, 442 amphibian-species were listed as critically endangered.

81 species of animals are considered extinct or critically endangered, as well as endangered or vulnerable.

The number of animal listed in the U.S.A., is 935.

There are over 1,000 animal species that are endangered at varied levels, across the world.

The endangered animal species are classified into the following for categories:

The vulnerable species :
They are not a threatened species, but are at risk because of their natural declining numbers.

The threatened species :
This is that category of species that are adequate in numbers, but are facing high-risk in their natural surroundings that can lead to the probability of extinction. Examples of such species are eastern indigo snake and the red kangaroo.

The endangered species :
This category includes species that are in the immediate probability of becoming extinct. These species require protection to exist. Examples of such species are the Siberian tiger, the southern sea otter, the snow leopard, etc.

The extinct species :
This category of animal-species includes those that are not in existence at all. Examples include the passenger pigeon, dodo, Stegosaurus, etc.


2. WildAnimals Facts..........

In school one has been taught about the general classification of animals being – domestic and wild animals. The former being those that are domesticated and kept in households; the latter belonging to their own wild natural habitat.

Wild animals have always aroused a lot of curiosity amongst people of all ages, especially children who are told fascinating stories about the animals of the jungles.

Well, to add to the ever-existing interest, here are some fascinating wild animal facts…

Each species of grasshopper has its own song. This is important, as the varied species cannot breed with each other. The female needs to be aware that she is listening to a male from her own species.

Compass termites of Northern Australia build tall nests that are wedge-shaped. They measure up to 3.5 m in length.

Flying frogs change color in the day. They are greenish-blue in sunlight and green in the evening. At night there are black.

Boas, as well as many other snakes have special heat-sensitive organs that are called pits. These pits are on their heads. They can detect the heat given by a warm-blooded animal standing close to them.

The king Cobra can grow to the length of 5.5 m, and is regarded as the largest poisonous snake in the world. A tiny amount of its poison can kill up to 30 people.

Anteaters protect their long claws by walking on their knuckles. This makes them look as if they are limping.

Bats eat all types of food. There is no restriction where their diet is concerned.

The hippopotamus’s eyes, ears and nostrils are on the top of its head. This enables it to stand or sit, almost completely covered by water with as little as possible showing above the surface.

The hippopotamus’s skin is protected by its own pink oily secretion known as ‘Pink sweat’.


3. Animal Fun Facts ..........
 
Infotainment is the latest buzzword. And what does this mean – well getting information through entertainment. As the knowledge guru insist, these days: “Who says education has to be boring?” True! This is the reason why educators are making every effort to make information delivery interesting and fun. Take for instance, the animal fun facts.

Well, with a couple of laughs, one can learn various aspects of the innumerable animal species…

Most cats in Halifax (Nova Scotia) have six toes.

There is no sideways movement for a cat's jaws.

You thought that only you need sunscreen? Well pigs, walruses and light-colored horses are prone to get sunburned.

Armadillos have four babies of the same sex, at a time. They are perfect identical quadruplets.

Armadillos sleep for an average of 18.5 hours, a day.

Can you walk underwater? Well, here is one animal that can – the Armadillos.

Which animals can get leprosy? None expect for Armadillos.

Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language; commonly German but more recently Hungarian or some other Slavic tongue.

How many muscles does a cat have in each ear? No point counting, here’s the answer - 32.

Which fruit does a reindeer like most? Bananas! And you thought it was the favorite fruit of monkeys and humans.

How many teeth does a bear have? 42 teeth.

How many rows of whiskers does a cat have? Interesting! Four rows.

Never anger a Tazmanian devil… Its ear turns into a pinkish-red shade.

Put a porcupine in water and watch it float.

There are no vocal chords in a giraffe.

How many vocal chords do cats have? Go ahead and count… 100.

A goat's eyes have got rectangular pupils.

Its been 4,000 years and no new animal-species has been domesticated.

You will never hear of a camel's milk curdling.

4. Extinct Animal Facts .........

While there are over a million animal-species in existence today, the fact is that hundreds have gone into extinction. We will only know them through creative creations, but would never be able to see them. In spite of their extinction one is always interested in learning about them. No wonder books and movies are made on dinosaurs, or then some extinct species become characters of comic books.

Here are some extinct animal facts, followed by an exhaustive list of animals that have gone into extinction over the eras of earth’s evolution… 

The Tyrannosaurus Rex went extinct 65 million years ago. It was one of the largest animals. It measured up to 43.3 feet in length and 16.6 feet in height. It weighed approximately 7 tons.

The Quagga, which was half-zebra-half-horse animal species went into extinction in the year 1883. This is was one of the most famous animals of Africa. This animal had the zebra stripes only on the front part of the body, which would fade and become wider in the middle of the body, and the hindquarter was brown (no stripes). It was the cruel animal activities that led this animal to extinction. It was on 12th August 12, 1883, that the last of the Quaggas died at the Artis Magistra Zoo (Amsterdam).

The Tasmanian Tiger went into extinct in the year 1936. This animal is regarded to be the largest carnivorous marsupial in modern day and age. It was a native wildlife animal of Australia and New Guinea. Man and his evil ways led this animal to extinction.

Steller's Sea Cow was also known as the defenseless beast. It went into extinction in 1768. This creature’s natural habitat was on the Asiatic coast of the Bering Sea. It got its name because it was discovered by a naturalist, Georg Stellar, in 1741. He was traveling with Vitus Bering, a renowned explorer. The animal was large weighing upto three tons. Though it looked almost like a seal, it had two forelimbs that were stout, as well as tail that was whale-like.

Irish Deer is the largest deer to have ever existed. It went into extinction approximately 7,700 years ago. It was a native animal of Eurasia, grazing the land stretching from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal. It was large sized, with extra large antlers measuring upto 3.65 meters (12 feet from tip-to-tip). The antlers weighed about 90 pounds.

The Caspian Tiger was the third largest tiger species. The last of this tiger was seen in 1970, after which it has been declared amongst the extinct animal species. This tiger was found on the lands of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Aurochs was a large-sized cattle-species. It is recorded to have gone into extinction in 1627. It is said that this cattle evolved from India, migrating to the Middle-East, reaching Europe.

Here is an exhaustive list of other extinct animal species :
 
Antillean cave rat
Arabian gazelle
Barbados raccoon
Barbados rice rat
Basalt plains mouse
Bavarian pine vole
Big-eared hopping mouse
Blue buck
Canary mouse
Cayman Brac hutia
Cayman Brac nesophont
Cayman hutia
Central hare-wallaby
Central rock rat
Corsican shrew
Cuban spider monkey
Curio's giant rat
Dark flying fox
Desert rat-kangaroo
Dusky flying fox
Falkland Islands dog
Giant deer mouse
Goliath white-toothed shrew
Atlantic gray whale
Guam flying fox
Gull Island vole
Hairy-eared dwarf lemur
Imposter hutia
Jamaican monkey
Jamaican pallid flower bat
Large Corsican field vole
Large funnel-eared bat
Large ghost faced bat
Large Palau flying fox
Large sloth lemur
Large-eared tenrec
Long-tailed hopping mouse
Madagascan pygmy hippopotamus; common Malagasy hippo
Malagasy dwarf hippopotamus
Marcano's solenodon
Marianas flying fox
Negros naked-backed fruit bat
New Guinea big-eared bat
Omilteme cottontail
Pemberton's deer mouse
Przewalski's horse
Queen of Sheba's gazelle
Red gazelle
Sardinian pika
Saudi gazelle
Schaumburg’s deer
Sea mink
Short-horned water buffalo
Southeastern pocket gopher
Standing's hippo
Sturdee's Bonin pipistrelle
Swan Island hutia
Tanzania woolly bat
Tasmanian bettong
Tretretretre
Vietnam warty pig
West Indian porcupine
Western palm squirrel
White-footed rabbit-rat


5. Amazing Animal Facts ...........

The wonderful world of animals catches the attention of nearly every human being, no matter what age. While some would venture into the wild to sight the animals in actions, others would rather watch wildlife at its best on television, or then skim through the hordes of literature on them. Animals never cease to amaze the human psyche.

What follows here are some amazing animal facts…
  

A horse weighing approximately 1,200-pounds, eats approximately seven times it's own weight, in a year. That amounts to almost 8,400-pounds of food. Wow! What an appetite!

Apart from human’s even chimpanzees can learn to recognize their own image in a mirror.

A cow can give far more milk than a human can consume their lifetime. Any guesses? Almost 200,000 glasses full of milk!

While there are so many cows grazing in the world, no two cows will ever be found with identical pattern of spots.

A probable identity crisis we have here! Though named polecat, this creature is not a cat but a nocturnal weasel-species in Europe.

Is a zebra black with white stripes, or white with black stripes? Any guesses? Well, it’s white with black stripes.

Talk about noise pollution in the jungles! A lion’s roar is so loud that it can heard upto a distance of five miles.

Cheetahs maybe large and fast, but when they roar they chirp. This sounds more like a bird or a yelping dog. Beware, it is loud enough to be heard upto a mile away.

The tusks of elephants grow through their life. The tusks weigh over 200 pounds.

Only the male Asian elephants have tusks.

The male and female African elephants have tusks.

The largest ever lobster to be found weighed 19 kg. It was found in 1934.

The largest recorded jellyfish measured 2,3 m across its bell. Its tentacles measured 36 m (120 feet) in length.

The largest giant squid ever found weighed 4 tons. It was traced in the in the North Atlantic in the year 1878.


6. Interesting Animal Facts .........

The animal kingdom is one interesting zone of study. While there are a number of experts studying fossils and putting together the past animal story; there are many more tracing interesting animal facts in order ot understand varied aspects of the innumerable species…
A single cow lets out the amount of harmful methane gas, which can fill about 400-liter bottles; that too in a single day. Pollution!

Roar, roar! I am the king of the jungle! But did you know the lion would be defeated by a polar bear in a battle between the two?

Humans daydream with their eyes open, and dolphins actually sleep with their eyes wide open.

Bulls are known to be colorblind. It’s a black-and-white life for them!

The sweat glands of a cow are in its nose.

This is really interesting! You will not believe this one! A mosquito has 47 teeth.

The Poison Arrow frog has enough poison stored in it that it can harm 2,200 people at one go.

A ‘blessing’ is a herd of unicorns.

A ‘mob’ is not just a group of unruly people; but also a group of kangaroos – well behaved or not!

A ‘parliament’ is not just made up of our dear politicians, but is also a group of owls.

Hang a chicken upside down and give it something to eat. The result! It will not be able to swallow its food.

Brainpower! A garden caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.

The memory span of goldfish is just about 3 seconds.

While a donkey will sink in quicksand, a mule will not.

According to records there are 50 million monkeys. That is quite an over population!

An angry horned-toad squirts blood from its eyes. Bloodshot eyes!

My blue-eyed boy! A scallop has 35 eyes that are blue in color.

Before a spotted skunk is about to spray it will first do a couple of handstands.


7. Funny Animal Facts ............

Just for the sake of fun and laughter! Well, that is what this is about… Getting to know animals better through the funny animal facts listed here. Like they say learning can be an entertaining process…
Have you heard of a sheep with blue wool? Well, a couple of animal breeders from Russia had claimed sometime ago that they bred sheep with natural blue wool.

“Moo, moo,” says the cow everywhere in the world; and a pig says “Moo, moo” in Japan.

The eyesight of dogs are better than that of human beings.

Animal accents! The accent of a cow’s mooing depends on the region it belongs to.

On an average a hen lays 19 dozen eggs in a year.

The small intestine of an ostrich measures upto 46-feet in length.

Your pet cat can scare a black bear. The big fellow will run up a tree to save itself from the little domestic creature. Meow, meow!

Sleeping beauties! Gorillas sleep upto fourteen hours, a day.

While the male lion rests in its den, it is the females that have go out and get the food.

Simon says Jump! No point an elephant simply cannot jump to even save its life.

No right turn! The bats do not need any boards, for its always the left turn for them when exiting a cave.

Sharks are the only known species to never suffer from cancer.

Heavyweights! The tongue of a blue whale could weigh more than a full-grown adult elephant.

Oysters change from male to female gender several times during their lifespan.

Every shrimp is actually born a male and then become females as they mature.

An elephant can smell water from a distance of three miles.

A storage bin! The duckbill platypus is known to store upto six hundred worms in its cheek pouches.

Music lovers! Make a cow listen to music and there will be more milk in the bucket!


8. Strange Animal Facts .........

Life is about strange facts, and yet most of them true. Leaving aside philosophy of life, animal experts, who have studied animals very closely have come across some very strange animal facts.

Some of the most interesting findings have been listed here…
  

A headless cockroach can survive for a couple of weeks. Its life would finally end due to starvation!

No dentist for this creature! Crocodiles, through their life grow new teeth that replace the old set!

A crocodile can never stick its tongue out of its mouth.

Gaggle is a group of geese waddling on the ground. And the same group up in the air would be renamed skein.

On an average, a hedgehog's heart beats 300 times, per minute.

A standing 4-foot child can fit into the open of a hippopotamus.

A coin is heavier than a hummingbird!

It would take just one night for a mole to dig a tunnel measuring 300 feet in length.

The longest slumber ever! A snail can sleep for three years, at a stretch.

Recycling! A housefly regurgitates the food it eats and then eats it again!

Here is some news for the left-handed people – they are not the only ones, as all polar bears are left-handed.

An ostrich’s brain is smaller than its eye.

The taste buds of a butterfly are in its feet.

Place a black light over a cat’s urine and watch it glow!

Dogs and cats are either right or left-pawed!

While human fingerprints are a means of their identification; the nose prints are a means of identifying dogs.

A chicken can fly for more than 13 seconds at a stretch.

The butterfly was originally known as the ‘flutterby’.

The donkey’s eye placement helps it see all its four feet at a time.

All the termites of the world outweigh the human beings of the world. The ratio is 10:1!

The chow is the only dog that does not have a pink tongue.


9. Animal Facts For Kids ...........

Well, kids here are some interesting information about animals. And they are all true! No, made up stories. Why not surprise your friends with all the animal knowledge you gather from here. Maybe you can quiz them and show them how smart you are.

So, here we go with some cool animal facts for kids…
  

The blood pressure of a giraffe is the highest in comparison to every animal species.

Flash the color orange in front of a zebra and it will not be able to see it. So, be careful not to paint a wall orange where zebras wander!

In one square foot or forest space you will find more insects than you can find human beings in that much space in Manhattan.

You can lead a cow up the stairs, but not down the stairs.

The dumbest dog is the Afghan hound.

The smartest breeds of dogs are the Jack Russell Terrier and Scottish Border collie.

A rat can survive longer than a camel without water.

A giant squid’s eyes are the largest amongst animal species measuring upto 40 cm (16 inches) in diameter.

Sharks are very healthy, as they are immune to all known diseases.

How many types of pure breed dogs are there in the world? 701

According to records, there are more dogs in Paris than there are people.

Some bird species (mainly the flightless birds) only have a lower eyelid.

Insects and fish have no eyelids. Hardened lens protect their eyes.

The spine-tailed swift is the fastest bird, flying at the speed of 170 km/h.

The Frigate is the second fastest bird, flying at a maximum speed of 150 km/h.

Squirrels accidentally plant millions of trees, as they bury their nuts and forget where they are.

Australia has a population of 17 million people and 150 million sheep.

The population of New Zealand is 4 million people and 70 million sheep.
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