Funny Facts and Fun Trivia about Animals 06
Pekingese dogs were sacred to the emperors of China for more than 2,000 years. They are one of the oldest breeds of dogs in the world.
Pet parrots can eat virtually any common "people-food"except for chocolate and avocados. Both of these are highly toxic to the parrot and can be fatal.
Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.
Prairie dogs are not dogs. A prairie dog is a kind of rodent.
Purring is part of every cat's repertoire of social communication, apparently created by the movement of air in spasms through contractions of the diaphragm. Interestingly, purring is sometimes heard in cats who are severely ill or anxious, perhaps as a self-comforting vocalization. But, more typically, it is a sign of contentment, first heard in kittens as they suckle milk from their mother.
Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying members of their own species.
Rats can't throw-up.
Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer.
Snails produce a colorless, sticky discharge that forms a protective carpet under them as they travel along. The discharge is so effective that they can crawl along the edge of a razor without cutting themselves.
Snakes are immune to their own poison.
Some baby giraffes are more than six feet tall at birth.
Tapeworms range in size from about 0.04 inch to more than 50 feet in length.
The "caduceus" the classical medical symbol of two serpents wrapped around a staff - comes from an ancient Greek legend in which snakes revealed the practice of medicine to human beings.
The 1st buffalo ever born in captivity was born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in 1884.
The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in 1866.
The anaconda, one of the world's largest snakes, gives birth to its young instead of laying eggs.
The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.
The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds.
The biggest member of the cat family is the male lion, which weighs 528 pounds (240 kilograms).
The biggest pig in recorded history was Big Boy of Black Mountain, North Carolina, who was weighed at 1,904 pounds in 1939.
The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue.
The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American court.
The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.
The calories burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race average 10,000. The 1,149-mile race commemorates the 1925 "Race for Life" when 20 volunteer mushers relayed medicine from Anchorage to Nome to battle a children's diphtheria epidemic.
The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs."
The expression "three dog night" originated with the Eskimos and means a very cold night - so cold that you have to bed down with three dogs to keep warm.
The fastest -moving land snail, the common garden snail, has a speed of 0.0313 mph.
The first house rats recorded in America appeared in Boston in 1775.
The first seeing-eye dog was presented to a blind person on April 25, 1938.
The giant squid is the largest creature without a backbone. It weighs up to 2.5 tons and grows up to 55 feet long. Each eye is a foot or more in diameter.
The honeybee kills more people world-wide than all the poisonous snakes combined.
The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards.
The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that cannot walk.
The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 70 million years.
The largest animal ever seen alive was a 113.5 foot, 170-ton female blue whale.
The largest cockroach on record is one measured at 3.81 inches in length.
The last member of the famous Bonaparte family, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, died in 1945, of injuries sustained from tripping over his dog's leash.
The male penguin incubates the single egg laid by his mate. During the two month period he does not eat, and will lose up to 40% of his body weight.