Pre-schoolers are usually animal-lovers. My 3-year old Sid is
no exception. And, these curious growing minds do ask some valid questions. I
was just browsing answers for some of his questions when I stumbled upon some
really cool facts about animals that I never knew. It is always good to
increase our knowledge (and share some). I am not going to overload all this
information on to Sid all at once; perhaps next time my Sid is fond of an
animal, I have something interesting to tell him about it.
Elephants - How can I not start with my baby’s fondest animal!
- Elephants come third in the list of world’s smartest animals list. The list goes like this: chimpanzees, dolphins, elephants, cephalopods and crows. Can you imagine? Crow?
- Elephants can’t survive for more than 24 hours without drinking water. So they always stay close to some water-source. They can smell water from a distance of 4.5 km.
- Elephants cannot jump. It seems they are the only animals who can’t jump.
Giraffes
- It has the highest BP of all the animals.
- A giraffe can feed for up to 16 hours in a day. And it can eat up to 60 kg of leaves daily. And they are still so slim.
- They are the only animals born with horns. Those are not exactly horn but knoby bones on their forehead.
- They need to drink water only once in a few days. Most of the water comes from the food they eat. Such a contrast to the elephants.
- Mommy giraffes deliver their babies while standing (like most of the animals). But imagine the baby falling down from such a great height. Baby giraffes can stand within half an hour and after only 10 hours can actually run alongside their family.
- Giraffes have black tongue. A giraffe's tongue is so long that it can clean its ears with it. (Yuck!) It is normally 21-inch long!
- It is one of the quietest animal. A giraffe does not have any vocal chord to make any kind of sound! That’s why, a horse neighs, a donkey brays, but a giraffe only chews food. ;). Woodpeckers too don’t have vocal chords. So, it’s their beaks hitting the wood that makes the tick-tick-tick-tick sound.
Like it? Some more interesting stuff:
- Male sea-horses get pregnant. Awesome!
- An octopus has 3 hearts. And an earthworm has 5 hearts. So, ideally they must be very very romantic, right? ;)
- Sharks have no bones. A shark's skeleton is made up of cartilage (a tough elastic tissue). No wonder we can chew those too. :P They are the healthiest of the creatures as they are immune to almost all the known diseases.
- A blue whale's tongue weighs more than an elephant.
- A rhino's horn is not attached to its skull. It is compacted mass of hairs that continues to grow throughout the animal's lifetime! Quite a mass of hair, I must say.
- A tarantula spider can survive without food for more than two years!
- Honeybees never sleep. No wonder, the saying goes, as busy as a bee.
- Ostrich, the biggest living bird on earth, which lays the biggest egg --- its eye is bigger than its brain. And, it has two toes in each feet. Quite a runner it is.
- Mosquitoes love to bite people who have just eaten banana or have smelly feet. Phew. They are most attracted to the color blue. It is the female mosquitoes who bite us. Also, mosquito-repellants do not actually repel mosquitoes. They just block the mosquito’s sensor so they don’t know a human is ready nearby to be sucked. And guess what, it has 47 teeth.
- Ants stretch and yawn when they wake up in the morning. That’ll be so cute to watch.
- House-flies do not grow. They are born full size. I want to see their eggs. But, it lives only for 14 days.
- Fish don't feel pain! Even if they are hooked or fought on. I wonder if it’s true.
- Bulls are color-blind. What the hell, where’s the red-myth gone?
- Dogs always have a wet nose that helps them smell like a detective. Its nose-prints are as unique as our finger-prints. So, we now know how to get a dog’s signature.
- Cats spend 30% of their waking hours grooming themselves. And you blame girls? Huh!
- Tigers can see very well in the dark. Tigers' legs are very powerful that they can stand still even after they die. They are excellent swimmers too. Not after death, though.
- A group of frogs is called an army. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of crows is called a murder. A group of owls is called a parliament. Ha ha ha.
- A humming bird is the lightest and smallest bird. A coin is heavier than a humming bird. I wonder which coin.
- A snail can sleep for three years, at a stretch. The today’s kumbhkaran.
- A butterfly was originally called a flutterby. They smell with their feet.
- A rat can survive longer than a camel without water.
- Squirrels accidentally plant millions of trees, as they bury their nuts and forget where they are. That’s so cute.
- A star fish doesn’t have a brain.
- Spiders have transparent blood.
- Owls cannot swivel their eyes. Instead they move their heads completely around to see straight behind them. And chameleons can move their eyes in different directions simultaneously.
Turned out
to be a lengthy list, but I didn’t want to miss any of them. Hope you are feeling
enlightened. Hehe. Go ahead, startle your kids.
Source: http://www.makemegenius.com/cool-facts/animals-birds-zoology--interesting-facts
