21 interesting animal facts
When it comes to the animals of the earth, it seems the only thing that humans have going for them is their brains and the level of intelligence they can contain, but in terms of being compared to the rest of the world’s creatures physically, we end up quite low on the list. Here are 21 interesting animal facts about the creatures of our planet that show how superior they are to us in so many ways.
1) The horn of a Rhino is made up of compressed hair. It grows the same way as fingernails do but much faster and intensely compact, making it almost as hard as rock.
2) The hagfish has four hearts, a slug has four noses and a cow has four stomachs.
3) Chimpanzees in Guinea have worked out how to ferment tree sap by pouring it into natural contains such as bowls in rocks and large leaves. The mixture ferments up to 3% ABV.
4) The Axolotl has the best regeneration abilities of any creature alive. It is able to regrow entire limbs along with functioning joints and even parts of its major organs.
5) Birds aren’t affected by chili powder. Birds don’t have any way of detecting the spiciness of something and their bodies don’t react in the same way most mammals do, so the next time you’re trying to keep a pesky squirrel off your bird table, just put a load of chili powder over the bird feed.
6) The ostrich is the fastest animal on two legs, reaching speeds of up to 70 km/h
7) The bat is the only mammal on earth that can fly, as birds are more closely related to reptiles than mammals and are in a separate class of their own called Aves.
8) There are one million ants for every human on earth
9) If you put the tiniest drop of alcohol on a scorpion, it will go crazy and sting itself to death
10) All the farm animals of the planet generate close to 1.5 billion tons of waste each year, that’s around 30 times more than all humans
11) Honey bees are the world’s oldest unchanged creature, and have been around in the same form they are now for over 30 million years
12) The scientific name of a fox is Vulpes vulpes, and for a moose its Alces alces
13) Dogs are not only man’s best friend but also their oldest. The earliest paintings depicting dogs alongside humans is located in Spain and is 12,000 years old
14) If you hold a kangaroos tail it won’t be able to hop, and their ancestors used to live in trees. Today there are eight species of kangaroo that still live in trees
15) A flea is able to jump 200 times its own height, this is equal to a 6-foot tall human jumping 1,200 feet into the air
16) Moths don’t have stomachs, instead they feed on liquids and store them inside their necks until its moist enough to go straight into their digestive system
17) A caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head, and a cat has 32 muscles in each ear
18) The world’s most poisonous fish is the Stonefish, the most poisonous snake is the inland Taipan, and the most poisonous plant is the tobacco plant because of its highly addictive poison
19) We share 98.4 % of our DNA with chimpanzees, 70% with a slug, and 49% with fungi
20) No two tigers have the same pattern of stripes, and they also not only have striped fur but also striped skin
21) Slugs live a maximum of 1.5 years, whereas mayflies live for only 24 hours
