Animals and Creatures-Bizarre Fact Page 10

Bizarre Fact #451:
Did you know...
There are 40,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant's trunk. This makes it very strong and flexible, allowing an elephant to pluck a delicate flower or lift a huge log. The trunk is used for touching, grasping, sucking, spraying, smelling, and striking.

Bizarre Fact #452:
Did you know...
There are about 40 different muscles in a birds wing.

Bizarre Fact #453:
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There are about 5,000 species of coral known. Only about half of them build reefs.

Bizarre Fact #454:
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There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are humans on the entire earth.

Bizarre Fact #455:
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There are more than 300 references to sheep and lambs, more than any other animal, in the Bible's Old Testament, one of the earliest records of sheep.

Bizarre Fact #456:
Did you know...
There are more than fifty different kinds of kangaroos.

Bizarre Fact #457:
Did you know...
There is a butterfly in Africa with enough poison in it's body to kill six cats.

Bizarre Fact #458:
Did you know...
There is an average of 50,000 spiders per acre in green areas.

Bizarre Fact #459:
Did you know...
To a human, one giant octopus looks virtually the same as any other of the same size and species. This explains why divers claim to have seen the same octopus occupy a den for ten or more years. But an octopus seldom lives longer than four years.

Bizarre Fact #460:
Did you know...
To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs-it will let you go instantly.

Bizarre Fact #461:
Did you know...
To provide their young with all the comforts of home while growing up, ichneumon wasps lay their eggs in or on the bodies of host grubs. But there's a catch. The grubs are sometimes those of wood-boring insects hidden deep within tree trunks. How to reach them? Ichneumons' abdomens come equipped with an egg laying structure, or ovipositor harden with ionized manganese or zinc. "Some can drill as much as three inches into solid wood," says Donald Quicke of Britain’s Imperial College. When the wasps hatch, they chew their way out with mouth-parts also hardened with minerals from the grubs they ate.

Bizarre Fact #462:
Did you know...
To see at night as well as an owl, you would need eyeballs as big as a grapefruit.

Bizarre Fact #463:
Did you know...
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.

Bizarre Fact #464:
Did you know...
Tuatara lizards, from New Zealand, have two eyes in the center of their heads and a third one on top of their heads.

Bizarre Fact #465:
Did you know...
Unlike most cats, tigers love the water and can easily swim three or four miles.

Bizarre Fact #466:
Did you know...
Until very recently, no centipede was found that did not have an ODD number of leg pairs. Usually the number varies from 15 to 191 pairs, all odd. No one knows why. However, Chris Kettle, a doctoral student in ecology, recently found a centipede with 48 pairs of legs, an even number. The remarkable discovery was presented to the International Congress of Myriapodology in Poland and featured in the science journal Trends in Genetics. Mr. Kettle suspects a genetic mutation is responsible for the even number of leg pairs.

Bizarre Fact #467:
Did you know...
Weighing approximately 13 pounds at birth, a baby caribou will double its weight in just 10 days.

Bizarre Fact #468:
Did you know...
When a hippopotamus exerts itself, gets angry, or stays out of the water for too long, it exudes red sweatlike mucus through its skin.

Bizarre Fact #469:
Did you know...
When reflected from bright lights (head lights) deer's eyes are orange, whereas cats and dogs are green. Rabbits eyes remain black.

Bizarre Fact #470:
Did you know...
When two zebras stand side by side, they usually face in opposite directions. They say this is so they can keep an eye out for predators.

Bizarre Fact #471:
Did you know...
While drug-sniffing dogs are trained to bark like crazy, go "aggressive" at the first whiff of the right powder... Bomb-sniffing dogs are trained to go "passive" lest they set off a motion sensor or a noise sensor or any number of other things that might go "kablooie."

Bizarre Fact #472:
Did you know...
While many people believe that a camel's humps are used for water storage, they are actually made up of fat. The hump of a well-rested, well-fed camel can weigh up to eighty pounds.

Bizarre Fact #473:
Did you know...
While there are hundreds of species of sharks, only about seven are marketed and eaten with any regularity in the United States.

Bizarre Fact #474:
Did you know...
Wolf packs could be found in all the forests of Europe, and in 1420 and 1438, wolves roamed the streets of Paris.

Bizarre Fact #475:
Did you know...
Worms can have up to ten hearts.

Bizarre Fact #476:
Did you know...
You can cut up a starfish into pieces and each piece will grow into a completely new starfish.

Bizarre Fact #477:
Did you know...
You can house break an armadillo.

Bizarre Fact #478:
Did you know...
You can identify a grizzly bear's mark by the sign of five claws. A black bear will lacerate a tree trunk with four claws.

Bizarre Fact #479:
Did you know...
You can tell the sex of a horse by its teeth. Most males have 40, females have 36.

Bizarre Fact #480:
Did you know...
Young beavers stay with their parents for the first two years of their lives before going out on their own.

Bizarre Fact #481:
Did you know...
Young birds such as ducks, geese, and shore birds are born with their eyes open.

Bizarre Fact #482:
Did you know...
You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather.

Bizarre Fact #483:
Did you know...
Snails eat with a rasping mouth called a "radula," which has thousands of teeth.

Bizarre Fact #484:
Did you know...
Some desert snails have been known to sleep for three to four years.

Bizarre Fact #485:
Did you know...
An adult lion's roar is so loud, it can be heard up to five miles away.

Bizarre Fact #486:
Did you know...
There is a species of bird, Antpitta avis canis Ridgley, that barks like a dog.

Bizarre Fact #487:
Did you know...
Koalas almost never drink water. They get fluids from the eucalyptus leaves they eat.