Amazing Animal Facts

Amazing Animal Facts

1. A blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived. On the day it is born, a baby blue whale is already as big as an elephant! 

2. The emperor penguin raises only one chick a year. The female lays the egg, but the male incubates it under a flap of skin. This same flap of skin keeps the chick warm as it grows. 

3. The snapping turtle has a fierce bite, but it has no teeth! The hard, sharp edge of its mouth does the biting. 

4. Troops of rain forest gorillas are always on the move, hunting for plants and fruit to eat. When they find plenty of food and need to digest it, they build day nests on the ground and take a nap. Then they travel until dark, when each gorilla builds a new night nest.

5. Foxes are mainly active during the early night time, when it is dusk, and throughout the night. They are a reddish brown colour and usually are seen on their own. They live in woodland and urban areas and scavenge for food wherever they can find it. 

6. There are many different types of bats, with fourteen different types living in Britain. They eat flying insects and use sound waves, rather than eyesight, to locate them. They live in cool dark places, like caves. 

7. Badgers live underground in family groups. They live mainly in the countryside. They sometimes visit gardens looking for food. Badgers mainly eat earthworms. A badger’s home is called a sett.

8. Mice are rodents, and many rodents come out to look for food during the night time. The wood mouse lives in tunnels underground and is the main food of tawny owls. It has good eyesight and an incredible sense of smell!

9. There are five types of owls that are commonly seen in in Britain. They are the barn owl, tawny owl, the long eared and short eared owls and the little owl. They hunt at night for food, which includes mice, voles and frogs. They have a very good sense of hearing.

10. Hedgehogs are small and make a snuffling noise as they hunt for slugs and other small creatures.  Hedgehogs are covered in small spines and can curl into a ball when frightened. They have poor eyesight but a good sense of hearing. 

11. The king penguin is the second largest of all the penguins.  The king penguin can dive to a depth of 200 feet when it is hunting.  They can swim at speeds of 6 mph, using their wings as flippers to fly through the water, and then hop out onto the rocky shore.  At the start of the mating season the male brays like a donkey while trying to attract a female. 

12. Spider monkeys have a prehensile tail that they use like a fifth limb.  The tail can grab onto branches for extra stability while moving through trees, or it can allow them to hang from branches while foraging.  Spider monkeys do not have thumbs; this aids them in swinging from tree to tree.

13. Anakonda is more at home in the water than on land, and it swims with grace and agility.  It can stay submerged for 10 minutes at a time and often lies beneath the surface waiting for prey.  When kept out of the water, an anaconda's body becomes infested with ticks.  The heaviest of snakes, a 20 foot anaconda weighs more than a 33-foot python.  Unlike most snakes, anacondas give birth to live young. 

14. The river otter is almost impervious to cold because of an outer coat of coarse guard hairs, plus a dense, thick undercoat that helps to "water-proof" the animal.  They have no blubber-the fur keeps them warm.  Scent glands under the tail are used for identification, defense, marking territory, and trail marking.  Small ears and nostrils can be closed tightly when in water; they are excellent swimmers and divers.  During a dive, their pulse slows to a tenth of the normal rate of 170 beats a minute, thereby conserving oxygen.

15. A vampire bat finds its prey with echolocation, smell, and sound. They also use special heat sensors in their noses to find veins that are close to the skin. Usually when a bat approaches its prey, it does not land directly on the animal, but rather, lands nearby and “walks” or hops up to the unsuspecting victim. It then climbs up the animal and finds a suitable meal site. The common vampire bat usually climbs backward, or slightly sideways, and is always highly alert while climbing. In a year, a colony of 100 bats may consume a quantity of blood equivalent to the amount in 25 cows.