- Humans are the only animals that can blush.
- 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.
- The flounder, a weird, flat fish, has both eyes on one side of its body.
- Cojo, the 1st gorilla born in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo, in Ohio, in 1956 and weighed 3 1/4 pounds.
- The red kangaroo of Australia can jump 27 feet in one bound.
- Some catfish have taste buds over their entire bodies.
- It has been proven that feathers directly evolved from reptiles' scales. Therefore, birds came after reptiles.
- The big differences between pythons and boa constrictors: pythons are longer and lay eggs. Boas give birth to live babies.
- When Pacific salmon get to a certain age, their pituitary glands suddenly secret poison to kill them.
- Insects shiver when they're cold.
- Cats, not dogs, are the most common pets in America. There are approximately 66 million cats to 58 million dogs, with Parakeets a distant third at 14 million.
- Shark immune to all known diseases.
- Sea otters have the thickest fur of all animals.
- A fisherman in England hooked three pike at once. While pulling in the first, it was eaten by a second who had been eaten by the third.
- Camel milk does not curdle.
- The whiskers on a catfish are called barbells.
- Pea crabs (the size of a pea) are the smallest crabs in the world.
- Beaver teeth are so sharp that Native Americans once used them as knife blades.
- A queen bee lays about 1,500 eggs on an average day.
- While fishing at a pond in New York State, a man lost the glass part of his lantern. Five years later, once again fishing in the same spot, he caught a fish that was wearing that same glass lantern chimney, stuck around its body.
- At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced by any animal.
- Animals also are either right-handed or left-handed. Polar bears are left-handed - and so is Kermit the Frog.
- Police dogs were first used in 1816 in Scotland.
- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
- 75% of wild birds die before reach 6 months old.
- One species of shark is so competitive that the babies fight each other within their mother, until only one is left to be born.
- Adult cats with no health problems are in deep sleep 15 percent of their lives. They are in light sleep 50 percent of the time.
- The bluefin tuna can swim 50 miles per hour.
- The coyote is a member of the dog family and its scientific name, "canis latrans" means barking dog.
- The skin of a hippopotamus is an one-and-a-half inches thick and nearly bulletproof.
- A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.
- Fish and insects do not have eyelids - their eyes are protected by a hardened lens.
- A giraffe can clean its ears with its 50cm (20 in) tongue.
- A female mackerel lays about 500,000 eggs at one time.
- When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.
- The South American giant anteater eats more than 30,000 ants a day.
- A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.
- The stomach of a hippopotamus is ten feet long.
- Sharks never get sick.
- A grasshopper needs a minimum temperature of 62 degrees Fahrenheit in order to be able to hop.
- The pig is rated the fourth most intelligent animal but are mentioned only twice in the Bible.
- 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.
- At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.
- There are about 53 million dogs in the US, and Paris is said to have more dogs than people.
- A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.
- Sheep are mentioned 45 times and goats 88 times in the Bible.
- It's been estimated that man have been riding horses for over 3,000 years.
- A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.
- Sharks almost never get cancer. Scientists are studying them to find out why, and whether their protection is adaptable to humans.
- Pork is the world's most widely-eaten meat.
- Sharks will eat anything. The only exception, is that they will not eat anything in the vicinity of where they give birth. This is because they are so stupid, this is the only way nature protects them from accidentally eating their own babies.
- In Denmark there are twice as many pigs as people.
- A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.
- The zebra is basically a light-colored animal with black stripes.
- Some bird species, usually flightless birds, have only a lower eyelid, whereas pigeons use upper and lower lids to blink.
- A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.
- Dinosaurs did not eat grass: there weren't any at that time.
- Rabbits sleep 16 times per day.
- A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.
- An elephant can eat a quarter-ton of grass in one day.
- It is impossible to out-swim a shark - sharks reach speeds of 70 km/h (44 mph). Humans can run about 35 km/h (21 mph).
- A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
- Measured in straight flight, the spine-tailed swift is the fastest bird. It flies 170 km/h (106 mph). Second fastest is the Frigate, which reaches 150 km/h (94 mph).
- You can convince a cow to go up stairs, but it is nearly impossible to get one to come down.
- A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
- The record for milk production from one cow is 11,756 gallons in one year. Bibliography -50
- The sailfish is the fastest swimmer, reaching 109 km/h (68 mph).
- A polecat is not a cat. It is a nocturnal European weasel.
- Sometimes a moose will approach a car, thinking it is another moose. They are very nearsighted animals.
- A man named Marinus was so mad when a bear killed his mule that he captured the bear and taught him how to plow his fields.
- A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.
- The slowest fish is the Sea Horse, which moves along at about 0.016 km/h (0.01 mph).
- Dolphins can reach 60 km/h (37 mph).
- Horses cannot focus their eyes in the way humans do. They have to change the angle of their heads if they want to see close objects clearly. That's why they bob their heads up and down as you come near. They want to see clearly.
- An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
- A man in France who had been hunting on his pony had a problem. The pony was injured. So, he carried the pony more than a mile to a veterinarian. The pony weighed almost a quarter-ton.
- Of the 650 types of leeches, only the Hirudo medicinalis is used for medical treatments.
- Ancient Egyptians believed that "Bast" was the mother of all cats on Earth. They also believed that cats were sacred animals.
- Brand-new baby giraffes are six feet tall and weigh almost 200 pounds.
- The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car.
- Ants are social insects and live in colonies which may have as many as 500,000 individuals.
- Ants don't sleep.
- Kangaroos push off the ground with their tails when they jump.
- Squirrels forget where they hid about half of their nuts. This is a major force in reforestation.
- Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history.
- The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant.
- The word Hamster is from a German word that means "to hoard".
- Cats have more than one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
- The scales of a crocodile are made of ceratin, the same substance that hooves and fingernails are made of.
- Cat's urine glows under a black light.
- The technical name for the black rat is rattus rattus.
- There are 701 types of pure breed dogs.
- Contrary to popular belief, dogs do not sweat by salivating. They sweat through the pads of their feet.
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