Funny Facts and Fun Trivia about Animals 04

Cheetahs make a chirping sound that is much like a bird's chirp or a dog's yelp. The sound is so intense, it can be heard a mile away.

Cojo, the 1st gorilla born in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo, in Ohio, in 1956 and weighed 3 1/4 pounds.

Contrary to popular belief, dogs do not sweat by salivating. They sweat through the pads of their feet.

Dachshunds are the smallest breed of dog used for hunting. They are low to the ground, which allows them to enter and maneuver through tunnels easily.

Despite its reputation for being finicky, the average cat consumes about 127,750 calories a year, nearly 28 times its own weight in food and the same amount again in liquids. In case you were wondering, cats cannot survive on a vegetarian diet.

Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small game as hares.

Dogs are mentioned 14 times in the Bible.

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph

Each day in the US, animal shelters are forced to destroy 30,000 dogs and cats.

Each year, insects eat 1/3 of the Earth's food crop.

Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range:between 14 and 35 hertz.

Every known dog except the chow has a pink tongue - the chow's tongue is jet black.

Every year, $1.5 billion is spent on pet food. This is four times the amount spent on baby food.

Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a parade.

Female canaries cannot sing.

For Stephen King's "Cujo"(1983), five St. Bernards were used, one mechanical head, and an actor in a dog costume to play the title character.

French poodles did not originate in France. Poodles were originally used as hunting dogs in Europe. The dogs' thick coats were a hindrance in water and thick brush, so hunters sheared the hindquarters, with cuffs left around the ankles and hips to protect against rheumatism. Each hunter marked his dogs' heads with a ribbon of his own color, allowing groups of hunters to tell their dogs apart.

George Washington's favorite horse was named Lexington. Napoleon's favorite was Marengo. U.S. Grant had three favorite horses: Egypt, Cincinnati, and Jeff Davis.

German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.

Goldfish lose their color if they are kept in dim light or are placed in a body of running water, such as a stream.

Howler monkeys are the noisiest (not the loudest) land animals. Their calls can be heard over 2 miles away.

Hummingbirds are the smallest birds - so tiny that one of their enemies is an insect, the praying mantis.

In 1888, an estimated 300,000 mummified cats were found at Beni Hassan, Egypt. They were sold at $18.43 per ton, and shipped to England to be ground up and used for fertilizer.

In ancient Egypt, entire families would shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died.

In cats, the calico and tortoiseshell coats are sex-linked traits. All cats displaying these coats are female... or occasionally sterile males.

In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.

The the bromine in chocolate that stimulates the cardiac and nervous systems is too much for dogs, especially smaller pups. A chocolate bar is poisonous to dogs and can even be lethal.

The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans called the period dies caniculares, or "days of the dog."

The turbot fish lays approximately 14 million eggs during its lifetime.

The turkey was named for what was wrongly thought to be its country of origin.

The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.

The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.

The world record frog jump is 33 feet 5.5 inches over the course of 3 consecutive leaps, achieved in May 1977 by a South African sharp-nosed frog called Santjie.

The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 5 tons at birth. Fully grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons.