Animal Trivia:

The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light.
Emus have double-plumed feathers, and they lay emerald/forest green eggs.
The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.
Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.
The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.
The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times.
Dogs and humans are the only animals with prostates.
A group of geese on the ground is gaggle, a group of geese in the air is skein.
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract it's claws.
A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away. Source: Hilary Smith
Brazoria County in Southeast Texas is the only county in the United States and Canada to have every kind of poisonous snake found in those two countries.
Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
It takes forty minutes to hard boil an ostrich egg.
Rhinos are in the same family as horses, and are thought to have inspired the myth of the unicorn.
It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cows' knees can't bend properly to walk back down.
The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.
Stag beetles have stronger mandibles than humans. Source: Lauren
When opossums are playing opossum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
The Mola Mola, or Ocean Sunfish, lays up to 5,000,000 eggs at one time.
A fullgrown bear can run as fast as a horse.
All elephants walk on tip-toe, because the back portion of their foot is made up of all fat and no bone. Source: Kara Fitzgerald
The closest relative to the manatee is the elephant. Scientists think the elephant crawled back into the sea to become a manatee. Source: Joshua Allen
Kiwi birds are blind, they hunt by smell.
The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes.
A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks.
A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate. Source: MangoPete
The distance between an alligator's eyes, in inches, is directly proportional to the length of the alligator, in feet. Source: Jay Littman
Cats can hear ultrasound. Source: Brian Nelson
You should not eat a crawfish with a straight tail. It was dead before it was cooked. Source: Sara Hyde
The Dalmatian is the only dog that gets gout. Source: Senie Blake
The only commercial fishing vessels in the United States still powered by sail are the Maryland "skipjacks," sailboats that dredge for oysters. A state law requires sailpower a certain distance from shore. Source: Deb Mahler
The province of Alberta in Canada has been completely free of rats since 1905. Source: Jason
Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats. Source: Tyler Roe
The Honey Badger can withstand hundreds of African bee stings that would kill any other animal. Source: Todd Keech
More than 99.9% of all the animal species that have ever lived on earth were extinct before the coming of man. Source: "2201 Fascinating Facts"
Animals attend church services on St. Anthony's Day in Mexico. This popular saint, who is regarded as a healer of people and animals, is asked to protect pets, who are decorated with flowers and ribbons for the occasion. In rural areas, peasants also bring bags of insects and worms to be blessed in church, in the hope that this will prevent these creatures from damaging crops. Source: "Reader's Digest Book of Facts"
The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers. Source: "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"
Camel hair brushes are made from squirrel hair. Source: "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"
To protect woolens from moths, people for generations have stored them in cedar chests or have built closets lined with cedar. There is no evidence that a cedar chest or closet repels moths. Source: "Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts"
Fleas have changed history. More human deaths have been attributed to fleas than all the wars ever fought. As carriers of the bubonic plague, fleas were responsible for killing one-third of the population of Europe in the 14th century. Source: "Associated Press" fact contributed by Natalka Baczynskyj
Dolphins are the only other animals besides humans that get pleasure out of sex. They are also the only other animals that have sex for reasons other than reproduction. Source: Kathyrn
A female swine, or a sow, will always have a even number of teats or nipples, usually twelve.
A pig is a hog -- hog is a generic name for all swine -- but a hog is not a pig. In the terminology of hog raising, a pig is a baby hog less than ten weeks old. Source: "2201 Fascinating Facts"
All the pet hamsters in the world are descended from just one female wild golden hamster found with a litter of 12 young in Syria in 1930. The species had been named in 1839 when a single animal was found, again in Syria, but it had net been seen by scientist for nearly a century. Selective breeding has now produced several color varieties. Source: "Reader's Digest Book of Facts"
Contrary to popular belief, animals are not all color-blind. Many species, including dogs, horses and sheep, can distinguish some colors -- though not as well as humans -- while the primates, especially chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys, have color vision equal to that of humans. Another widely held belief -- that bulls dislike the color red -- is probably also wrong. Experiments seem to show that it is the swirling movement of the matador's cape, not its color, that excites them. Source: Reader's Digest Book of Facts
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
"Eat like a bird?" Many birds eat twice their weight a day. Source: "Knowledge in a Nutshell"
Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occuring, relax and correct itself. At about that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground it's rib cage absorbs most of the impact.
Bees must collect the nectar from two thousand flowers to make one tablespoonful of honey.
Emus cannot walk backwards.
It takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be one pound.
Ninety-nine percent of all lobsters die a few weeks after hatching. In fact, the odds are 10,000 to 1 against any larval lobster living long enough to end up as a lobster dinner.
A dolphin's hearing is so acute that it can pick up an underwater sound from fifteen miles away.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
Hummingbirds are the only animals that can fly backwards.
Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean.
A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
A group of whales is called a pod.
A group of geese is called a gaggle.
A group of ravens is called a murder.
A group of larks is called an exaltation.
A group of owls is called a parliament.
Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink."
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
The embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother's womb, the survivor being the baby shark that is born.
The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.
Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.
Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.
A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same pattern of spots.
An ant lion is neither an ant nor a lion.
Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two.
Rabbits love licorice.
The eye of the giant squid is fifteen inches in diameter -- the size of a basketball.
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
Dinosaur droppings are called coprolites, and are actually fairly common.
The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk.
Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off.
The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.
Spider Monkies like banana daquiries.
A robin's egg is blue, but if you put it in vineger for thirty days it turns yellow.
The gene for the Siamese coloration in animals such as cats, rats or rabbits is heat Sensitive. Warmth produces a lighter color than does cold. Putting tape temporarily on Siamese rabbit's ear will make the fur on that ear lighter than on the other one.
A baby eel is called an elver, a baby oyster is called a spat.
An elephant can be pregnant for up to two years.
Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living.
The penguins that inhabit the tip of South America are called jackass penguins.
The word rodent comes from the Latin word `rodere' meaning to gnaw.
It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
A rhinoceros's horn is made of hair.
Starfish don't have brains.
Shrimps' hearts are in their heads.
Shrimp can only swim backwards. Source: "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"
A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
A penguin only has sex twice a year.
A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew.
It is physically impossible for pigs to lookup into the sky.
A pig's skin is thickest at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.
Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sidewards, like a scissor, to extract the juices from the food.
If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow.
Many species of bird copulate in the air. In general, a couple will fly to a very high altitude, and then drop. During their descent, the birds mate. Sometimes the couple gets too involved and SPLAT!
A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.
Dalmatian dogs are born pure white, they don't start getting spots until they are three or four days old.
Ancient Romans ate flamingo tounges and considered them a delicacy.
Scientists found a whole new phylum of animal on a lobster's lip.
Elephants and camels both have four knees.
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
During WW II, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs.
There are more beetles than any other kind of creature in the world.
If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.
When a giraffe's baby is born it falls from a height of six feet, normally without being hurt.
The only way to stop the pain of the sting of the flathead fish is by rubbing the slime of the belly of the same fish that you were stung by on the wound that it inflicted upon you.
The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint -- no two lion share the same pattern of whiskers.
There is a type of parrot in New Zealand that likes to eat the rubber strips that line car windows.
The top knot that quails have is called a hmuh.
New Zealand kiwis lay the largest eggs with respect to their body size of any bird.
The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild.
Big Ben was slowed five minutes one day when a passing group of starlings decided to take a rest on the minute hand of the clock.
Over the average lifespan of 11 years, a dog will cost you $13,350.00.
A polar bears' fur is not white, it's clear.
Polar bear's skin is actually black. Their hair is hollow and acts like fiberoptics, directing sunlight to warm their skin.
Polar bears camouflage themselves more completely during a hunt by covering their black noses with their paws.
Only one in one thousand animals born in the sea survives to maturity
Rats like boiled sweets better than they like cheese.
Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have a very high probability of having six toes.
A cat's jaws can not move sideways.
Female orcas live twice as long as male orcas. The larger numbers of female orcas in a pod are because of the female's longer lifespan, not because the males have collected a harem.
Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
Octopi have gardens.
Crows have the largest cerebral hemispheres, relative to body size, of any avian family.
When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.
The way to get more mules is to mate a male donkey with a female horse.
A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.
Crickets hear through their knees.
Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.
A type of jellyfish found off the coast of England is the longest animal in the world.
Swans are the only birds with penises.
A whale's penis is called a dork.
Some carnivores, rodents, bats and insectivores have a penis bone, called a baculum.
A barnacle has the largest penis of any other animal in the world in relation to its size.
Iguanas, koalas and Komodo dragons all appear to have two penises. To clarify, though, they have a single penis, but it is split in two (pretty much 'Y'-shaped.) This organ is known as a hemipenes. Snakes also share this interesting feature. Apparently, the dual penis is for ease of left-handed or right-handed mating. Also, at least in snakes, the semen does not flow through a vessel (like in mammals), but rather, a groove."
One way to tell seals and sea lions apart is that, sea lions have external ears and testicles.
Some female hyenas have a pseudo-penis.
Most spiders belong to the orb weaver spider family, Family Aranidae. This is pronounced "A Rainy Day."
Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- anantelope-like, Asian forest creature.
Most armadillos seen dead on the road did not get hit by the wheels. When an armidillo is frightened it jumps straight into the air.
Armadillos can be house broken.
Armadillos have four babies at a time, always all the same sex. They are perfect quadruplets, the fertilized cell split into quarters, resulting in four identical armadillos.
Armadillos get an average of 18.5 hours of sleep per day.
Armadillos can walk underwater.
Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.
The anteater, aardvark, spiny anteater (echidna), and scaly anteater (pangolin) are completely unrelated - infact, the closest relatives to anteaters are sloths and armadillos, the closest relative to the spiny anteater is the platypus, and the aardvark is in an order all by itself.
A twelve-foot anaconda can catch, kill, and eat a six-foot caiman, a close relative of crocodles and alligators. While these snakes are not usually considered to be the *longest* snake in the world, they are the heaviest, exceeding the reticulated pythoningirth.
Most snakes have either only one lung, or in some cases, two, with one much reduced in size. This apparently serves to make room for other organs in the highly-elongated bodies of snakes.
Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language; commonly German but more recently Hungarian or some other Slavic tongue.
The sea wasp is half an inch long at best and more poisonous than any other jellyfish known to man.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.
There are more bald eagles in the province of British Columbia then there are in the whole United States.
Horses cannot vomit.
Rabbits cannot vomit.
Chinese Crested dogs can get acne.
Only humans and horses have hymens.
Reindeer like to eat bananas.
Chia Pets are only sold in December.
The pet ferret (Mustela putorias furo) was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat.
The female ferret is referred to as a `jill'.
The Pug dog is thought to have gotten it's name from looking like the pug monkey.
Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life! What about milk, you say? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and grass is living!
It is a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly -- so says City Ordinance No. 352 in Pacific Grove, California.
The newest dog breed is the Bull Boxer, first bred in the United states in 1990-91.
The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
A flea expert is a pullicologist.
A bear has 42 teeth.
All swans and all sturgeons in England are property of the Queen. Messing with them is a serious offense.
If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.
An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
A cat has four rows of whiskers.
When angered, the ears of Tazmanian devils turn a pinkish-red.
The poisonous copperhead smells like fresh cutcucumbers.
All porcupines float in water.
Giraffes have no vocal cords.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra.
The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design located on their apron (belly.) The male blue crab has the Washington Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol.
Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes.
Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.
Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.
An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs.
Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.
Hamsters love to eat crickets.
In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
Camel's milk does not curdle.
The pupil of an octupus' eye is rectangular.
There are only two animals with blue tongues, the Black Bear and the Chow dog.

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