Obscure Facts you Know—animal edition

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Post facts you know about animals!


Opossums are not “possums”—“opossum” is the correct term.
Chickens can’t eat avocados or they get sick.
Cows weigh half a ton on average.
Insects are animals—some people think insects are not animals but they are!
Lemurs live in Madascar—it’s the only place in the world that has lemurs in the wild!

Male marsupials have forked penises.

Despite the stereotype that dolphins are friendly and sociable, they are actually quite nasty things.
Some have been known to torture and murder porpoises for fun.

Birds chirp with different tones in different parts of the world!

The hippopotamus's name comes from Greek and means "river horse", although they are more related to whales and dolphins than horses.

Although they spend most of the day in water, they don't really swim. They sink and sort of bounce along the bottom, bobbing in a dolphin-style fashion.

They also sweat a sticky pink fluid that acts like a sunscreen that protects them from the blazing African sun.

And when they poop, they spin their tail around to spread their droppings all over the place.

And, although they are herbivores and pretty comical-looking, they are the most dangerous animal to humans in Africa, killing more people than lions or any other predator. Although I heard that part of the reason is people boating on the rivers, not knowing a hippo is right underneath them, and when the hippo comes up it knocks the boat over.

Chocolate labs are the most accident-prone dogs.
I learned this when we took my old chocolate lab to the vet after he was stung by a wasp.

Labs are also the most popular dog breed in the United States.

Havanese dogs can, and frequently do, yodel.

Some lizards and amphibians eat their own skin when they shed.

There are 25 billion chickens in the world!

The wheat-ear is a small songbird. It's name wasn't originally "wheat-ear", though, it was "white-arse" because when it flies away from you, it flashes a white patch under its tail. The Victorian's though that was a bit rude, so the name got changed to "wheat-ear", even though the bird isn't particularly associated with cereal crops.

On a similar note, the birds known in the USA as "chickadees" are known as "tits" in the UK (they're unrelated to the family of birds called "boobies", though!)

If you catch a ladybug and then drop it, whether it falls to the ground or flies away depends on the current temperature. Because of this some people think ladybugs can be used to predict the weather.

Flamingo parents, male and female, both produce milk, which is red in color.

Giraffes have seven cervical (neck) vertebrae which is the same number we have.
Elephants can smell water up to 12 miles away.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

There are fish that live in 28 degree Fahrenheit water—even though they’re cold blooded. Real life vampires, minus the bloodsucking?