Animals and Creatures-Bizarre Fact Page 8

Bizarre Fact #351:
Did you know...
The berry butterflies (hypsa monycha) of Singapore, in their caterpillar stage, group around the top of a stem to foil predatory birds by imitating the appearance of a poisonous berry.

Bizarre Fact #352:
Did you know...
The bite of a leech is painless due to its own anesthetic.

Bizarre Fact #353:
Did you know...
The black bear is not always black. It can be brown, cinnamon, yellow, and sometimes a bluish color.

Bizarre Fact #354:
Did you know...
The black widow spider can devour as many as twenty 'mates' in a single day.

Bizarre Fact #355:
Did you know...
The blue whale can go up to 6 months without eating.

Bizarre Fact #356:
Did you know...
The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.

Bizarre Fact #357:
Did you know...
The bottle-nosed whale can dive to a depth of 3,000 feet in two minutes.

Bizarre Fact #358:
Did you know...
The cells which make up the antlers of a moose are the fastest growing animal cells in nature.

Bizarre Fact #359:
Did you know...
The chameleon has a tongue that is 1.5 times the length of its body.

Bizarre Fact #360:
Did you know...
The crocodile is a cannibal; it will occasionally eat other crocodiles.

Bizarre Fact #361:
Did you know...
The crocodile is surprisingly fast on land. If pursued by a crocodile, a person should run in a zigzag motion, for the crocodile has little or no ability to make sudden changes of direction.

Bizarre Fact #362:
Did you know...
The Dalmatian dog is named for the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, where it is believed to have been originally bred.

Bizarre Fact #363:
Did you know...
The digestive juices of crocodiles contain so much hydrochloric acid that they have dissolved iron spearheads and six-inch steel hooks that the crocodiles have swallowed.

Bizarre Fact #364:
Did you know...
The domestic cat is the only species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. Wild cats hold their tail horizontally, or tucked between their legs while walking.

Bizarre Fact #365:
Did you know...
The dragonfly has about 30,000 lenses covering the retina of its eye, and thus sees many, many images where we see only one.

Bizarre Fact #366:
Did you know...
The duckbill platypus can store as many as six hundred worms in the pouches of its cheeks.

Bizarre Fact #367:
Did you know...
The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.

Bizarre Fact #368:
Did you know...
The East Alligator River in Australia's Northern Territory, was misnamed. It contains crocodiles not alligators.

Bizarre Fact #369:
Did you know...
The electric eel has an average discharge of 400 volts.

Bizarre Fact #370:
Did you know...
The female lion does ninety percent of the hunting.

Bizarre Fact #371:
Did you know...
The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. She must be able to see another pigeon in order for her ovaries to function. Her own reflection will work if no other pigeon is available.

Bizarre Fact #372:
Did you know...
The first chimpanzee to travel in space was named Ham. The name came from the lab that he was raised in - the Holloman AeroMedical lab in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Ham's flight in a Mercury space capsule in 1961 helped to prove that space travel could be safe for humans.

Bizarre Fact #373:
Did you know...
The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.

Bizarre Fact #374:
Did you know...
The flamingoes of East Africa have few natural enemies. In general, the only predators an adult flamingo need fear are the fish eagle and the marabou stork.

Bizarre Fact #375:
Did you know...
The flying gurnard, a fish, swims in water, walks on land, and flies through the air.

Bizarre Fact #376:
Did you know...
The flying snake of Java and Malaysia is able to flatten itself out like a ribbon and sail like a glider from tree to tree.

Bizarre Fact #377:
Did you know...
The giant crab of Japan can be as large as 12 feet across.

Bizarre Fact #378:
Did you know...
The Giant cricket of Africa enjoys eating human hair.

Bizarre Fact #379:
Did you know...
The giant Pacific octopus can squeeze its entire body through a hole the size of its beak.

Bizarre Fact #380:
Did you know...
The giant tortoise can live longer in captivity than any other animal.

Bizarre Fact #381:
Did you know...
The golden tree frog has a croak that sounds like a mallet chipping rock, but in summer it sounds like a tinkling bell.

Bizarre Fact #382:
Did you know...
The greyhound dog can reach speeds of up to 42 miles per hour.

Bizarre Fact #383:
Did you know...
The hairless area of roughened skin at the tip of a bear's snout is called the rhinarium.

Bizarre Fact #384:
Did you know...
The heaviest dog on record is an Old English Mastiff named Zorba, who weighed 343 pounds and measured 8 feet and 3 in. from nose to tail.

Bizarre Fact #385:
Did you know...
The ichneumon fly has a sense of smell so keen that it can locate a caterpillar deep inside a tree trunk.

Bizarre Fact #386:
Did you know...
The Japanese quail has many values to the people who live in the areas it habitates. They are used for their song, their eggs, their uses as fighting cocks, for their meat, and are carried around in cold weather in South china to keep one's hands warm.

Bizarre Fact #387:
Did you know...
The Javan rhinoceros - a solitary, single-horned species - is the world's rarest large mammal. Only an estimated 50 to 70 of the animals remain in the wild. There are none in captivity.

Bizarre Fact #388:
Did you know...
The kakapo is a nocturnal burrowing parrot of New Zealand that has a green body with brown and yellow markings. Its name is from Maori and means "night parrot."

Bizarre Fact #389:
Did you know...
The katydid has supersonic hearing. It can hear sounds up to 4-5,000 vibrations per second.

Bizarre Fact #390:
Did you know...
The king crab walks diagonally.

Bizarre Fact #391:
Did you know...
The kinkajou's tail is twice as long as its body. Every night, it wraps itself up in its tail and uses it as a pillow.

Bizarre Fact #392:
Did you know...
The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 10 thousand years.

Bizarre Fact #393:
Did you know...
The largest insect in the world, the meganeuron, a prehistoric dragonfly, measured 29 inches from wingtip to wingtip.

Bizarre Fact #394:
Did you know...
The largest order of mammals, with about 1,700 species, is rodents. Bats are second with about 950 species.

Bizarre Fact #395:
Did you know...
The leaf bug of ceylon (phyllum sicci folium) has legs and antennae the color and shape of leaves, has indentations on its body like the vein marks on a leaf, and hangs from branches, swaying in the breeze exactly like a leaf.

Bizarre Fact #396:
Did you know...
The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk.

Bizarre Fact #397:
Did you know...
The lifespan of a squirrel is about nine years.

Bizarre Fact #398:
Did you know...
The longest recorded life span of a camel was 35 years, 5 months.

Bizarre Fact #399:
Did you know...
The longest species of centipede is the giant scolopender (Scolopendra gigantea), found in the rain forests of Central and South America. It has 23 segments (46 legs) and specimens have been measured up to 10.5 inches long and 1" in diameter.

Bizarre Fact #400:
Did you know...
The mako shark and great white shark are two of the few species of shark that are warm blooded.