Funny Facts and Fun Trivia about Animals
A swarm of Rocky Mountain locusts flew over Nebraska on July 20-30, 1874 covering an area estimated at 198,600 square miles. The swarm must have contained at least 12.5 trillion insects, weighing about 27.5 million tons.
The largest insect in the world, the meganeuron, a prehistoric dragonfly, measured 29 inches from wingtip to wingtip.
The silkworm moth has lost the ability of flight due to domestication.
Scientists have actually performed brain surgery on cockroaches.
Out of 20000 species of bees, only 4 make honey.
A typical Mayfly only lives one day.
The katydid has supersonic hearing. It can hear sounds up to 4-5,000 vibrations per second
The male of one species of insect related to the praying mantis can only reproduce after the female has bitten off his head.
Butterflies taste with their hind feet.
If two flies were left to reproduce without predators or other limitations for one year, the resulting mass of flies would be the size of the Earth.
Male bees will try to attract sex partners with orchid fragrance.
Fleas can jump 50 times their own height, the equivalent of you jumping a 40 story building
The dragonfly has about 30,000 lenses covering the retina of its eye, and thus sees many, many images where we see only one.
Worms can have up to ten hearts.
Tropical ants, when a flood sweeps down on them, roll themselves into a huge living ball which drifts upon the water, with the young safe and dry at the core.
Certain fireflies emit a light so penetrating that it can pass through flesh and wood.
Scientists turn up as many as 10,000 new species of insects every year.
Cattle are the only mammals that pee back-wards.
Cats make over 100 different vocal sounds; dogs can make about ten.
Cats cannot taste sweet things.
Catgut comes from sheep not cats
Chained dogs are 3 times more likely to bite than unchained dogs.
A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times its own weight each year.
A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.
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 its whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through. The whiskers act as feelers or antenna, 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 believed to be an attempt by the animal to soothe its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive.
A cat's arching back is part of a complex body language system, usually associated with feeling threatened. The arch is able to get so high because the cat's spine contains nearly 60 vertebrae which fit loosely together. Humans have only 34 vertebrae.
A cat's jaw cannot move sideways.
A cat's tongue consists of small "hooks", which come in handy when tearing up food.
A capon is a castrated rooster.
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 Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.
A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
Snakes are immune to their own poison.
Snakes have two sex organs... in case one drops off in their fervent attempt to trick females into mating.
Somebody actually timed a rattlesnake mating session that lasted 22.75 hours.
A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.
A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living.
It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs
Smartest dogs: 1) Scottish border collixe; 2) Poodle; 3) Golden retriever. Dumbest: Afghan hound.
An ostrich's eye is bigger that its brain.
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.