November 1,2007

November 2007

Animal Facts

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.
About 10% of the world's population is left-handed.
A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.
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.
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.
The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
How the wind blows. As the sun warms the earth’s surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder. Warm air, which weighs less than cool air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow.
Dolphins sleep with one eye open!
At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced by any animal.
A flute made of bone is the oldest playable musical instrument in the world. It’s a flute carved from a bird’s wing bone more than 9,000 years ago. The flute was discovered with other flutes at an ancient burial site in China.
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
Glue dates back to prehistoric times. Artists once mixed colorings with raw eggs, dried blood, and plant juices to make sticky paints for cave murals. Later, ancient Egyptians and other people learned to make stronger glues by boiling animal bones and hides. Today companies make glues using synthetic substances.
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.
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.
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.
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!
At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.
Of all the words in the English language, the word ' set ' has the most definitions!
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.
A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
All polar bears are left handed.
Ants don't sleep.