Animals and Creatures-Bizarre Facts Page 6

Bizarre Fact #251:
Did you know...
In a test performed by Canadian scientists, using various different styles of music, it was determined that chickens lay the most eggs when pop music was played.

Bizarre Fact #252:
Did you know...
In Budapest, they control the pigeon population by mixing birth control chemicals with the birdseed.

Bizarre Fact #253:
Did you know...
In regions of India where the soil is red - elephants take on a permanent pink tinge because they regularly spray dust over their bodies to protect themselves against insects.

Bizarre Fact #254:
Did you know...
In relation to its size, the ordinary house spider is eight times faster than an Olympic sprinter.

Bizarre Fact #255:
Did you know...
In the air, puffins are powerful flyers, beating their wings 300 to 400 times a minute to achieve speeds up to 40 miles per hour.

Bizarre Fact #256:
Did you know...
In Vermont, the ratio of cows to people is 10:1.

Bizarre Fact #257:
Did you know...
In Wales, there are more sheep than people. (In 1996 the population for Wales was 2,921,000 with approximately 5,000,000 sheep)

Bizarre Fact #258:
Did you know...
Insects make up two thirds of known species.

Bizarre Fact #259:
Did you know...
It takes seven years for a lobster to grow 1 pound.

Bizarre Fact #260:
Did you know...
Jellyfish like salt water. A rainy season often reduces the jellyfish population by putting more fresh water into normally salty waters where they live.

Bizarre Fact #261:
Did you know...
Koala is Aboriginal for "no drink".

Bizarre Fact #262:
Did you know...
Ladybugs bleed to protect themselves. When alarmed, they release drops of a reddish or yellowish bitter tasting liquid from their mouths and from the pores at their joints. This repels prospective attackers.

Bizarre Fact #263:
Did you know...
Lemon sharks grow a new set of teeth every two weeks. That means one shark will go through more than 24,000 new teeth in a year.

Bizarre Fact #264:
Did you know...
Little Miss Muffet was arachnaphobic.

Bizarre Fact #265:
Did you know...
Lobsters are scared of octopuses. The sight of one makes a lobster freeze.

Bizarre Fact #266:
Did you know...
Lobsters can move up to 25 feet per second underwater.

Bizarre Fact #267:
Did you know...
Maggots were once used to treat a bone infection called osteomyelitis.

Bizarre Fact #268:
Did you know...
Male bees will try to attract sex partners with orchid fragrance.

Bizarre Fact #269:
Did you know...
Male birds actually do most of the singing, primarily to stake out their territory and to invite females of their species over to mate. Females tend to select as mates those male birds who sing the most. It is believed they do this not because they like the quality of the singing, but because they have learned the males who sing the most have the most food in their territory. Since the male doesn't have to spend much time hunting for food, it has more time to sing.

Bizarre Fact #270:
Did you know...
Male monkeys lose the hair on their heads in the same way men do.

Bizarre Fact #271:
Did you know...
Males lions can sleep for up to 20 hours a day.

Bizarre Fact #272:
Did you know...
Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.

Bizarre Fact #273:
Did you know...
Many sharks lay eggs, but hammerheads give birth to live babies that look like very small duplicates of their parents. Young hammerheads are usually born headfirst, with the tip of their hammer-shaped head folded backward to make them more streamlined for birth.

Bizarre Fact #274:
Did you know...
Marcel Prousthave had a swordfish at home.

Bizarre Fact #275:
Did you know...
March 14 is "Save a spider day."

Bizarre Fact #276:
Did you know...
Mediterranean divers, before the Middle Ages, used to gather the golden strands of the pen shell, using them to weave a very fine cloth for the purpose of making womens' gloves. The cloth was so fine, in fact, that a pair of these gloves could be packed into an empty walnut shell, or anything of comparable volume.

Bizarre Fact #277:
Did you know...
Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes, and humans all have seven neck vertebra.

Bizarre Fact #278:
Did you know...
Minnows have teeth in their throat.

Bizarre Fact #279:
Did you know...
Mongooses were brought to Hawaii to kill rats. This plan failed because rats are nocturnal while the mongoose hunts during the day.

Bizarre Fact #280:
Did you know...
More than one million stray dogs and over 500,000 stray cats live in the New York City metropolitan area.

Bizarre Fact #281:
Did you know...
More turkeys are raised in California than in any other state in the United States.

Bizarre Fact #282:
Did you know...
More types of fish live in one Amazon River tributary than in all the rivers in North America combined.

Bizarre Fact #283:
Did you know...
Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.

Bizarre Fact #284:
Did you know...
Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.

Bizarre Fact #285:
Did you know...
Most tropical marine fish could survive in a tank filled with human blood.

Bizarre Fact #286:
Did you know...
Most varieties of snake can go an entire year without eating a single morsel of food.

Bizarre Fact #287:
Did you know...
Mother prairie dogs will nurse their young only while underground in the safety of the burrow. If an infant tries to suckle above ground, the mother will slap it.

Bizarre Fact #288:
Did you know...
Mother-of pearl is not always white. It can be pink, blue, purple, gray, or even green. Nor is it produced only by the pearl oyster. The abalone and the pearl mussel both have shells that are lined with fine-quality mother-of-pearl.

Bizarre Fact #289:
Did you know...
Moths have no stomach.

Bizarre Fact #290:
Did you know...
No other animal gives us more by-products than the hog. These by-products include pig suede, buttons, glass, paint brushes, crayons, chalk, and insulation to name a few.

Bizarre Fact #291:
Did you know...
North American oysters do not make pearls of any value.

Bizarre Fact #292:
Did you know...
Octopi and squid have three hearts. Their main systemic heart pumps blood throughout the circulatory system, and two branchial hearts provide some additional push at each of the paired gills.

Bizarre Fact #293:
Did you know...
Of all known forms of animals life ever to inhabit the earth, only about 10 percent still exist today.

Bizarre Fact #294:
Did you know...
Of the 250-plus known species of shark in the world, only about 18 are known to be dangerous to man.

Bizarre Fact #295:
Did you know...
On an average day, a queen bee lays about 1,500 eggs.

Bizarre Fact #296:
Did you know...
On average, dogs have better eyesight than humans, although not as colorful.

Bizarre Fact #297:
Did you know...
One species of antelope, the Sitatunga, can sleep underwater.

Bizarre Fact #298:
Did you know...
Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

Bizarre Fact #299:
Did you know...
Ostriches are often not taken seriously. They can run faster than horses, and the males can roar like lions.

Bizarre Fact #300:
Did you know...
Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water.