Animal Facts You Probably Didn't Know

Bengal tigers are the most water loving of the big cats. They will even chase prey into the water.

- A beaver can hold its breath underwater for 45 minutes.
- A 70-pound octopus can squeeze through a hole no bigger than a silver dollar because it has no backbone.
- An African ostrich egg weighs almost 30 pounds and is so strong that a 200-pound man can stand on it without it breaking.
- A shark can grow a new set of teeth in a week.
- The largest rodent in the world, the capybara from South America, can weigh over 170 pounds.
- Butterflies taste with their feet.
- If a female ferret goes into heat but can't get any sex, she can die.
- The most dangerous animal in the world is the common housefly. Because of their habits of visiting animal waste, they transmit more diseases than any other animal.
- The longest recorded life-span of a tapeworm, to date, is 35 years.

Photo by fortherock

Hummingbirds don't walk, but they are the only birds that can fly backwards.

- Fleas can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms, this is equal to a 6-foot person jumping 780 feet into the air.
- The world's largest amphibian is the giant salamander. It can grow up to 5 feet in length.
- The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal, and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.
- The leg muscles of a locust are about 1,000 times more powerful than an equal weight of human muscle.
- The air temperature can be determined by counting the number of cricket chirps in 14 seconds and adding 40.
- Penguins can jump almost 6 feet into the air.
- A shrimp's heart is in its head.
- There are more sheep in New Zealand than people.
- The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.
- Ants cannot chew their food; they move their jaws sideways, like scissors, to extract the juices from the food.

Photo by Greg Schechter

The world's largest amphibian is the giant salamander. It can grow up to 5 feet in length.

- A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
- Despite the hump, a camel's spine is straight.
- The earliest cockroach fossils are about 280 million years old.
- There are only three animals with blue tongues: the black bear, the Chow Chow dog and the blue-tongued lizard.
- The giraffe clean its own ears with its own 50cm-tongue.
- Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue.
- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
- Hummingbirds don't walk, but they are the only birds that can fly backwards.
- Bengal tigers are the most water loving of the big cats. They will even chase prey into the water.
- Slugs have 4 noses.
- The poison arrow frogs of South and Central America are the most poisonous animals in the world.
- A large swarm of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) can consume 20,000 tons (18,160,000 kilograms) of vegetation a day.
- When it is born, a kangaroo is only 1 inch long.
- Armadillos, opossums, and sloths spend about 80 percent of their lives sleeping.
- The ears of a cricket are located on the front legs, just below the knees.

Photo by scpetrel

On average a hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute.

- Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
- The placement of a donkey's eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all times.
- Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
- On average a hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute.
- Some millipedes (Apheloria Virginiensis) are able to secrete cyanide.
- Dolphins, like humans, have sex for pleasure.
- Panamanian golden frogs don't have outside ears – their lungs pick up sound waves and direct them to their eardrums.
- The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump.
- The length of an elephant is the same as the tongue of a blue whale.
- Shark is the only animal, who never get ill with cancer.
- If a cow is listening to music, it gives more milk!
- Clams born to be males. They can change to become a female, but the changes is irreversible.
- The monarch butterfly can detect its lover's scent eight kilometers away.
- 99% of all animal species that ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
- The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

Disclaimer:
The above facts have been collected from the internet. While we've tried hard to keep them as accurate as possible, you may want to make a detailed research if you think some are false. Please let us know about such instances so that we can keep the article free from any mistakes. Thanks!

Animal Facts You Probably Didn't Know

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