The natural world is full of cool and interesting details that go entirely unnoticed for the majority of the population. After all, we can’t exactly go down to the animals’ neighborhood and just interview them, so it’s up to zoologists to get out there and find out what they can.
Here are cool and interesting animal facts for you.
1. The Greenland shark reaches sexual maturity at 150 years old and lives 300-500 years. Always fascinates me that theres something that can live that long
2. Cheetas are so closely related to each other that you can freely transplant organs between all members of their species without needing immunosuppression.
3. Some squid have toroid shaped (donut) brains, and their esophagus (throat) passing through it. If they eat something too big they can get brain damage.
4. There’s an insect called the scorpiofly that impresses mates by bringing them prey to eat. The bigger the meal, the better. Only, some scorpionflies aren’t that great at catching food. So some of these males will imitate females, and wait for other males to bring them their gifts. Then they take the gift, fly away, and give it to an actual female.
5. A green sea turtle can swim faster than Usain bolt can sprint. An animal out there with a house for a body can swim at speeds we don’t allow in playground zones 35MPH.
6. Snails can sleep up to three years
7. A narwhals “horn” is actually an overgrown canine tooth. Also some narwhals can have 2 “horns”!!
8. Polar bears are so efficient at storing Vitamin A, consuming polar bear liver can cause death….one polar bear liver contains enough Vitamin A to kill 52 adult humans.
9. Seals will get seasick if you put them on a boat
10. Porcupines climb trees and come down backwards and use their tail to feel for the ground. Sometimes their tail will hit a branch and they will think it is the ground and so they will jump off and impale themselves. Over time they evolved to have antibiotics in their quills so when they fall out of trees they don’t die.
11. Owls bob their heads up and down to help improve their depth of perception. You can try it out yourself. Focus on an object and bob your head. It doesn’t work for us, but you do look like an idiot.
12. A group if dolphins is a pod, a group of Falcons is a cast. When you watch the Miami Dolphins play the Atlanta Falcons you are watching a pod-cast on TV.
13. Crows will see how you look like and how you act and tell other crows about you.
14. Ravens can mimic sounds and speech like parrots can.
15. A bat’s immune system is so strong it could withstand viruses that could be highly damaging to other species.
