25 Interesting Facts about Animals – Part 2

Bears are considered by many wildlife biologists to be one of the most intelligent land animals in North America. They possess the largest and most convoluted brains relative to their size of any land mammal. In the animal kingdom, their intelligence compares with that of higher primates.

2. In 2011, a male grey wolf which was dubbed OR-7 or ‘Journey’ by the researchers who were tracking it noticed that it migrated more than 1000 miles alone through Oregon and California in search of a mate.

3. Newborn ducks will take on the characteristics of the first animal they see. If the first animal they see is a human, then they will think they are human and grow up thinking they are human. This is called "imprinting" and it's their natural instinct to follow the first thing they see.

4. Foxes can jump 3 feet in the air to dive 3 feet into snow to catch mice. They determine the speed and trajectory of the mouse before nose-diving with pinpoint accuracy.

5. A duck is called a duck because it ducks its head under the water to feed. The animal was named after the verb and not the other way around.

Frasier the Sensuous Lion was an 18-year-old lion (the human equivalent of 80) who was adopted by a pride of females at an animal park. He was blind, had no teeth, and could barely walk, but ended up siring 35 cubs.

7. As of 2011, wild pigs were one of the most destructive animals in America causing more than $400 million in damages a year in Texas alone. They can dig 3-feet deep destroying crops and even feast on lambs, calves, sea turtle eggs, and everything in between.

8. Some animals like crocodiles, alligators, and a few tortoises and turtles do not age physically, and can not die of physical old age. They die of diseases, accidents, predators, and other causes.

9. Mongoose was imported to the island of Hawaii in 1883 by the sugar industry to control the rat population. What they did not realize is the two animals were on opposite sleep schedules (nocturnal/diurnal) and thus mongoose was ineffective in reducing rat population.

10. Macaques and by extension many other monkeys and mammals have the anatomical capacity to speak but not the brain capacity and neural control to do so. This contradicts the often claimed statement that animals can’t make speech due to their specific anatomy.

Live snails need their own train ticket if you take one on a train in France. According to French law, when taking any animal under 6kg (approx. 13lbs) one must pay 7 Euro (approx. $7.5) for the ride. Law requires you to stay with your snail and keep it and the other passengers safe for the whole ride.

12. Possums and opossums are different animals and that the spellings shouldn't be used interchangeably.

13. Cows, being social animals,can actually recognise each other based on facial features, which is an ability attributed only to a low number of species.

14. Pigs are smarter than any other domestic animal and they are considered by animal experts to be more trainable than dogs or cats.

15. Hippos can sleep underwater using a reflex that allows them to bob up, take a breath, and sink back down without waking up.

The gopher tortoise is a species of turtle native to the southeastern United States. The gopher tortoise is seen as a keystone species because it digs deep burrows that provide shelter for at least 360 other animal species, often preserving their lives during forest fires.

17. The Spinifex Hopping Mouse has one of the most efficient kidneys of any animal and creates its own water through metabolic processes. They produce solid urine with very little water.

18. Goats have horizontal, slit-shaped pupils. Because goats' irises are usually pale, their contrasting pupils are much more noticeable than in animals such as cattle, deer, most horses, and many sheep.

19. Golden Poison Frog is one of the most toxic animals on Earth. It can kill 10 adult humans with just 1mg of its poison. Interestingly Golden Poison frogs raised in captivity and isolated from insects in their native habitat never develop venom.

20. There is a rare breed of pig called sheep-pig, which is capable of producing wool, just like sheep. There are many variations of these animals, the Mangalica is one of the most common breeds.

Giraffes can run extremely fast. At a gallop, they reach a speed of up to 60 km/h, which ranks them among the fastest animals in the savanna, right after the representatives of the cat family.

22. The world's largest known sponge was discovered off the coast of Hawaii. The animal is an unidentified genus of sponge with a bluish-white color and brain-like appearance, around the size of a minivan.

23. Alpheidae a.k.a the pistol shrimp is one of the loudest animals in the sea. The quick snaps it makes with its specialized claw creates a cavitation bubble moving at 60 miles per hour. When the bubble collapses it reaches temperatures of over 7,700°C and is 218 decibels loud, which is strong enough to kill small fish, and even create a tiny flash of light.

24. There is a jellyfish that undergoes a process called transdifferentiation. Instead of dying, they can reverse its life cycle, earning the name the Immortal Jellyfish - the only known animal to do this.

25. The Costasiella kuroshimae (also known as "leaf slug" or "leaf sheep") is a species of sacoglossan sea slug that has the ability to retain the chloroplasts from the algae it feeds on and use them to photosynthesize its own energy.