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ANIMALS ANIMALS ANIMALS ANIMALS ANIMALS ANIMALS ANIMALS Fascinating Facts ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ How do we know what animals think or feel? I say be kind to animals just in case it matters to them. The poet William Blake said, "How do you know but that every bird that cleaves the aerial way is not an immense world of delight closed to your senses five?" Lifespans of Animals Horse...............30 Rabbit...............5 Dog.................15 cat.................13 rat..................2 mouse......less than 1 Elephant...........100 Crocodile..........300 Cow.................25 Pigeon..............20 Eagle..............100 Whale..............100 clam...............150 Tortoise...........350 Lion................40 Pig.................25 Crow...............100 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Dogs And Cats Did you know that 80 million U.S. pet owners spend 20 million on pet care, 11 billion on pet food, and 8 billion on collars treats and toys!? In one large city a telephone operator traced the source of an emergency phone call because the caller would not speak. The phone only emitted unusual noises. When the ambulance crew arrived at the scene, they found a basset hound who had dialed 911 in the process of chewing up the phone! There was a dog (part collie) who liked to take baths and learned how to turn the water on and off and adjust the faucets to get his bath water just right! Dogs see only black, white and gray. They can hear much better than humans, though. They can hear sounds ten times farther away than we can. The original reason for poodle grooming was to make swimming easier for them. The only things that are taxed in Ile de Sein, France, are dogs. Dogs' noseprints are as unique as human fingerprints. England's Queen Elizabeth prepares breakfast for her two Corgis every morning after tea. She dishes out their food with silver spoons and then serves it on a silver platter. On the average, a dog costs its owner about $1.40 a day to feed, $500 per year. In ten years, $5,000! (Editor's note: It costs about 11 cents to feed your pet algae 1/2 teaspoon of algae everyday. Not to mention what it could save you on vet bills!) "In order to keep a true perspective on one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him." - Dereke Bruce It costs about $30 per month to feed a horse. It costs about $15 per month to feed a cat. Americans spend almost 3 billion dollars a year on food for their kitty-cats. In comparison, America spends only 700 million dollars on drug prevention and treatment programs. And speaking of cat food, a mouse can have 8 babies. Assuming four of them are female, and knowing that a mouse can give birth 60 days after being born itself, after 18 months, a pair of mice can become 4.5 million. Ann Morgan willed $500,000 to Tinker, her fluffy white Turkish Angora cat that she said was "my best friend and companion." Her will states that her apartment be maintained and a caretaker be hired for the cat. "She felt that once you took an animal, it was a lifelong commitment." If you have to introduce a second cat into your house, your first kitty cat may have trouble getting used to the new intruder. If you put a little perfume on both cats, so that they will smell the same as each other, they will trust each other more. A man named Sir Henry Wyat was sentenced to the Tower of London, at a time when prisoners generally starved to death. Sir Henry's kitty-cat seemed to understand the situation because she snuck into the Tower bringing him a freshly-killed pigeon every day. When the king heard of this, he felt compassion for the kitty and her owner, and immediately set Sir Henry free. Cats will not walk on aluminum foil. This is good to know when you are trying to protect something that your cat would tend to walk on such as a part-done jigsaw puzzle. Cats' whiskers have a function similar to those curb feelers which were so common on cars in the 1950's. When a cat pokes its head into a small tunnel or opening in the bushes, the whiskers are used to gauge the dimensions. If the opening doesn't rub the whiskers, the cat's body will fit through. Why are cats so meticulous about keeping clean? They lick off all blood and odor-causing matter to prevent attracting flies and larger predators. The world's largest domestic cat was "Tiger" a part- Persian who weighed over 42 pounds. I found a helpful tip on a computer BBS "Cat Chat." He said to start clipping your kitten's paws so he would get used to it. Then you can clip them easily when the kitten matures into an adult cat. This procedure is painless to the cat. Be sure to just clip the sharpest tips off - not too short. ;qooooooo.,,,xkiiiiiii: This is what happens when a kitty cat walks across the computer keyboard while you are trying to type. If you need to give liquid medicine to a cat, do not try to feed it to the cat. This would only result in a battle. Instead, spill the medicine on the kitty's fur. The cat will lick it off in the process of cleaning. When a cat turns around and around before laying down, this is an instinct left over from the days when they slept in tall grass. The turning action pushed the grass down into a nest. When surveyed, 50 percent of the women said they'd rather have a cat than a man. And, 70 percent of the men said that their cats were more cuddly than their girlfriends or wives! Which world famous philosopher invented the "kitty door?" The answer coming up. What is polyclactylism? Find out later! The very most effective scratching posts are made with sisal, a hemp rope material. Cats love tearing into it. It's really something they can sink their claws into! You can usually find these scratch posts in a pet supply store or catalog. Be sure it is tall enough for your cat to stretch out and up to. Also, be sure it's sturdy and stable enough to stand up to a vigorous scratching session. You can stabilize it by wedging it in a corner or against a wall. You can order a good quality one from the Felix Company. Please see "Natural Care Resources And Tips" chapter for their address. Please note: There are also sisal door mats. One friend has had great success with them. She strategically places them around her house. One is in front of the record albums her cat used to tear to shreds. She says that her kitty is very satisfied to use only these sisal mats for his indoor scratching "exercises." Sir Isaac Newton invented the cat flap. He did it out of love and concern for his cat's freedom. Are cats sensitive to predict earthquakes? Apparently, yes. Since thet're very aware of small vibrations, changes in the static electricity and are sensitive to ultrasonic sounds, it makes sense that they could "hear" an earthquake coming. It's been reported than many cats will run around frantically trying to find a way out of a building within moments of an earthquake. A large number of white cats are born deaf. In those who have one blue eye and one different coiored eye, the ear on the blue-eyed side is deaf. The first ever cat show was in Winchester, England at the St. Giles Fair in 1598. The largest domestic cat is the Maine coon, up to 30 pounds, and the smallest, the drain cat from Singapore, weighing 6 pounds - the female weighs only 4 pounds! It is often reported that cats cannot taste sweet flavors. Actually, they can sense sweetness, but do not have much interest in sugary things. What is particularly interesting about their sense of taste, is that they have a special taste for the flavor of water, which we humans cannot taste. The Victorian author and artist, Edward Lear nearly worshipped Foss, his tabby cat. Concerned about his cat's comfort, when he relocated, he had his architects build his new home exactly like his old one! He wanted to assure that there would be little or no trauma to the cat. An indoor cat lives an average of 8 and 1/2 times longer than an outdoor cat. When cats scratch, they're not sharpening their claws. They're shedding their old claw sheaths like snakes shed their skin. They chew off their back claws with their teeth. Cats scratch on your favorite piece of furniture (especially well-loved recliners!) for a very specific reason. They are simply responding to your personal fragrance. That's why hanging one of your sweatshirts over a scratching post makes their scratching post more inviting. Cats also like to rub up against your favorite furniture and your leg. This is because they're putting their scent on you. It's their way of saying "this is mine." A 15th century nobleman cut a sleeve off one of his expensive garments rather than disturb his much cherished cat who fell asleep on it! Noble indeed!! The Egyptian word for cat was miu. In Chinese it was and still is mao. In Latin, felis was the word. During the fourth century, Maltese, cattus. It came from the Nubian (North African) word, kadis. In French, chat; Swedish, katt; Italian, gatto, German, Katze; Dutch, Kat; Icelandic, kottur: Polish, kot; Norwegian katt; in Yiddish, kats, and in Greek, gata. Qittah is the modern Arabic word for cat. Domestic cats come from the North African wild cat, Felis lybica, via the ancient Egyptians around 3500 years ago. The proof is in specific records and drawings found on temple and palace walls in Egypt. They worshipped a Goddess who had a cat's head on a woman's body. Her name was Bastet which means She of Bast. The main cat temple was in Bast. Every year nearly 50,000 people gathered for a festival to revere cats. Bastet represented fertility and beauty, and was the symbol of the sun, moon and light. Since the Egyptians considered cats sacred, they mummified and buried them with mice, jewels and their favorite toys to feed and comfort them on their journey into the after-life. Cats appeared in Japan around 999 A.D. They were honored and loved. They were, however, over-protected and kept locked up in their homes and palaces. In the meantime, the silk-worm industry was being chewed up by rats. Then, in 1620, a law was passed, demanding that all cats be let out to hunt as they were naturally intended. Shortly after, the silk-worm industry made an amazing come-back! China was first visited by cats around 1,000 B. C. A symbol of family happiness, the Chinese attributed them with divine powers. During the day, cat vision is far less than normal human vision. We can see a small object at five times the distance a cat can. They need 1/6 of the light we need to make out the same details of shape and movement. Did you know that cats can see colors. So far, it's known that they know the difference between red and green, red and blue, red and gray, green and blue, green and gray, blue and gray, yellow and blue, and yellow and gray. Not all cats respond to catnip! Only around 53% do. The difference is genetic. Also, cats avoid it in their first two months or so. Belonging to the mint family, catnip exudes an oil called hepetalactone (an unsaturated lactone), which sometimes has a euphoric effect. Cats cannot hear sounds vibrating below 62 cycles per second. And, we can hear as low as 20 cycles per second. A cat's hearing is more sensitive above 4,000 cycles than ours is. For sounds below 500 cycles, we hear better than a cat does. Funny how sometimes cats will lay on the very thing you are writing or reading. Well, one of Charles Dickens' cats went a step further. When the author's cat thought it was time to focus on him instead of the writing, he would extinguish the writer's candle with his paw! On ship voyages past, cats were very welcome guests. They kept the rodent population down and offered some comfort to the weary sailors. They especially considered calico cats to be lucky. They believed that they could somehow warn them when rough seas were ahead! Polyclactylism is the name of a genetic mutation which causes a cat to have six or more toes. ............................................................. Cat Laws In 948 A.D., Howel Dda, a Welsh king, changed his kingdom's law codes. He specified that his subjects keep cats and that they must treat them kindly. His code further stated that as soon as a kitten was born, it was worth one penny and when it opened its eyes, two pennies, and when it got his first mouse, four pennies. Back then, one cent equaled a lamb or a kid and four cents, a sheep or a goat. To be worth all four pennies, a cat must be keen of eyesight and hearing, must have its claws, and be willing to give birth. If the cat failed to meet the criteria, one third of the price must be refunded. The law also stated that "the seller is to answer for her not caterwauling every moon." When someone was caught stealing a cat from the King's granary, he had to repay the King with a heap of grain equal in height to the length of the cat including its tail. (From Hester and Linne - it's not our intention to neglect other animals - we were just full of cat stories this time! If and when we release an update, we PROMISE to talk more about dogs!) ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Live Longer With A Pet Petting an animal can lower your blood pressure and relax you. It does this by reducing your body's manufacture of adrenalin, it causes the heart to pump with less force - thereby taking the load off of an over-worked hearts. Your pet can have much the same beneficial effect on your system as meditation. Pets can also reduce stress and alleviate loneliness and depression. By being non-judgemental listen- ers, they can help people become more confident and communicative. An animal friend can also help regain trust to those who have experienced relationship hurts. For those living alone, pets provide companionship and a sense of safety. They give people the experience of unconditional love and acceptance. And, by giving us some- thing to nurture and care for, they teach us how to be more loving, kind and gentle. They also ignite feelings of joy and amusement, bringing out the playful child in us. Pets are especially powerful for seniors. According to psychologist Judith Siegel, a public health professor at UCLA, seniors with pets see the doctor less than those that do not have pets. Protect your cherished pet! Many of the household, cleaners, lawn and garden products are very harmful to ani- mals. Everything they get on their coat or skin ends up in their stomach. For instance, if you have sprayed your lawn with pesticides, artificial fertilizers, etc, your pet absorbs these poisons through their paw pads, mucous membranes and skin. Because they continually lick their fur and paws, they can get an even greater dose of toxins from lying on a chemically treated surface. For instance, if your pet lays on your newly polished furniture, not only will he absorb it, he will also eat the polish later when grooming. Also, some animals are sensitive to air fresheners, window and other chemical cleaners. So - please for the safety and health of your animals and other life, please use natural, environmentally safe household su- pplies. These products can be found in catalogs and natural food stores. It is advisable not to use mice, rat poisons, or insecticides any where near your cat and other animals, also. And, it is not cute to give animals alcohol. Cats, especially cannot tolerate alcohol. According to pet care book author Pat McKay that "ninety percent of disease in animals has to do with a poor diet." Also, Dr. Plechner, D.V.M., a well-known veterinary allergist theorizes that there is a connection between commercial pet foods and the high incidence of allegies and chronic health problems among pets. Please note: See "Natural Care Resources And Tips" for natural pet care suppliers. ............................................................. Birds Chicks that have just hatched will follow the first moving thing they see and think that moving thing is their mommy. I wonder what happens when the first thing they see is a cat? Mynah birds can be trained to say "hello" to people. There is one mynah that even says "hello" to photographs of people. He recognizes them even if they are wearing sunglasses. Hummingbirds do not suck nectar, they lap it like a cat, with a tongue that can flick in and out 13 times per second! Some vultures have learned that for dinner they can crack other bird's eggs by throwing stones at them. A human heart beats at about 50 to 100 beats per minute. A hummingbird's heart beats between 36 and 1200 beats per minute. When at rest, the bird's heart beats at 480. Our body temperature is always close to 98.6. Theirs is between 55 and 110 degrees. When the subject of a national bird came up, Benjamin Franklin suggested a turkey, but an eagle was selected. In 1876, when constructing the 550-foot tall Washington Monument, (when it was 153 feet tall), workers had to get a rope to the top, but they did not have any sort of scaffolding. They tied a thread to the leg of a pigeon, put him inside the unfinished tower and made a sudden noise. The scared bird flew up to the top, and out. A string was attached to the thread and pulled to the top, and then a rope was pulled to the top with the string. There is a species of bird called European Grosbeak. It's official scientific name is Coccothraustes coccothraustes coccothraustes. Some people in China use live quail in the winter as hand warmers. There is a species of bird, the cowbird, which is too lazy to make nests. They put their eggs in nests belonging to other birds. If you give an oystercatcher a choice between one of her own eggs, or a fake egg made of wood, she will sit on the wooden one. There were a flock of ducks that lived on the roof of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee who used to take the elevator to the ground floor when they wished to go anywhere. There was a research project that involved having a scientist yell at chickens - then measure their health compared to other chickens that were treated nicely. As it turns out, the chickens treated kindly are more resistant to infection. The largest chicken egg ever laid weighed over one pound. In 1875, a chicken cage was lifted up by a gust of wind and carried 4 miles. The passenger pigeon, which became extinct in 1914, numbered over two billion just thirty-five years earlier. They used to fly in such large flocks that it would seem like night in the middle of the day. Farmers used to shoot at them and would sometimes hit two or three with one shot. There is a bird in Antarctica that repels threatening animals in unique ways. The bird throws up in the enemy's face. If that doesn't work, it blows snot at them with enough force to bowl a human over. When a gas pipeline crossing the California desert springs a leak it would normally be hard to find the break. To find the leak easily, the gas companies put a chemical into the gas that arouses the mating instinct in buzzards. They congregate around the area of a leak, making it easy to spot. A 300-pound ostrich has 45 feet of intestine. Their eggs have a shell so hard that a 250-pound man can stand on one without breaking it. Please note: Do not leave fishing line around. When your through with it, pack it out and put it somewhere where the birds will not get tangled up in it!! Also, please dispose of pop tops, and plastic six-pack can holders. The reason for this, is because many birds have been found tangled up and dead because someone was too lazy and careless to put them in a garbage can! The other morning when I went out to get the sprinkler from the front lawn, I saw a bird struggling to get off the ground. As I got nearer, I saw that it was a gorgeous Pileated Woodpecker. His wing was all bruised, bloodied and nearly broken from having fishing line with a small lead weight tightly wrapped around it. Because we have two cats, I had to stay and watch over the bird. I shouted out for my husband to come quickly with gloves and scissors, but he didn't hear me. So, I scooped up one of our cats, and ran into the house and told him to grab the scissors and the gloves, and come help a woodpecker that was wrapped up in fish line. He held the bird while I cut some of the line away. I cried. I then held the bird and Jeff did the more delicate, close work. He's more skilled with that sort of thing. We then put him on the tree. In a few minutes, he flew! We were so relieved and happy! It was satisfying knowing that we were able to help him. ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Brains The cerebellum is the rear part of the brain which is most convoluted. It has long been considered the center for balance and muscular coordination. (In birds it is much larger than the same organ in other animals - because they need it for flying). Recently it has been discovered that there are direct circuits between the cerebellum and emotional responses. Scientists raised three groups of monkeys. Some were raised by their mother. Some were raised by a stationary Chlorox bottle covered with fur. The last group were raised by a Chlorox bottle that was remotely controlled and acted somewhat like a real mother. The monkeys with the movable bottle mother grew up nearly as normal as those raised with a real mother, but those with a stationary mother, grew up schizophrenic. A fish's brain weighs about the same amount as its spinal cord. In humans, the brain weighs 55 times more than the spinal cord. The brain of an elephant is four times bigger than a human brain. The animal with the largest brain compared to the size of its body is an ant. Human brains weigh about 44 to 50 ounces. The biggest brain in any class of apes is only about 16 ounces. Have you ever tried to sell something big to someone, who tells you, "I'll have to sleep on it." There is validity to this technique. A person can enhance their decision making power while sleeping. This is done through dreams. It seems that while dreaming we are practicing our thinking skills, and more specifically, reprocessing our thoughts and activities of the previous day. We are able to see issues more clearly the next day, and therefore make better decisions, because we have new power. We have let our brain process the issue overnight. This is an essential trait to survival. For proof, we look at the spiny anteater, a simple mammal who does not have periods of rapid eye movement (REM) during sleep. This indicates that the little guy does not dream. The spiny anteater has another oddity. He has the biggest prefrontal cortex (the thinking part) in relation to the rest of his brain of all animals except humans. He has to process all his thoughts in actual time, as they are happening, because he cannot work things out while dreaming. ............................................................. Dinosaurs Some dinosaurs had two brains! Since nerve signals move from one part of the body to another relatively slowly (It takes 1/50 of second to notice a pain in your foot.) and since these beasts were so large, a second brain was located at the base of the tail to maintain control of the creature's backs. Interestingly, the rear brain was bigger than the one in their heads. The Largest dinosaur, Brachiosaurus weighed as much as 800 people, was taller than a four story hotel, and was as long as two of the longest school buses. Who says all dinosaurs have died? There is a species of lizard called Komodo monitor that can grow to over ten feet long and weigh 365 pounds. Komodo Dragons can eat a pig whole. Actually, most scientists are now saying that dinosaurs were very unlike lizards. Their legs generally were directly under their bodies, not sticking out from their sides like lizards. Their bone structure was more like that of warm-blooded mammals. Tracks have been found made by of groups of dinosaurs moving together in herds with a spacing and depth of impression indicating sustained high speed, again more a mammalian trait than reptilian. Everyone knows that there are places underground that have fossils 70 million years old. What most people do not realize is that these things didn't all die. Scientists recently bored a hole 850 feet down into the era of dinosaurs and found 3500 living, undiscovered species of fungi, protozoa and bacteria. The scientists do not know whether these are the same as those who lived in prehistory or whether they have mutated. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Invertebrates The horseshoe crab is an animal that has not evolved. It is the same as it was 300 million years ago. If you took all the earthworms that are under a typical football field and lined them up, the line would be 94 miles long. They will move ten tons of dirt in a year. Giant earthworms have been found as long as 11 feet. Yuk! Some fleas freeze solid every night, then thaw out to resume their lives in the daytime. Mosquitoes can drink 150 percent as much blood as they weigh. A reason to avoid blue jeans: Mosquitoes are twice as interested in blue as any other color. There is a water beetle that has four eyes. Two are mounted high on its head for seeing through air, and two are lower, for looking into the water. The mayfly has a two-hour long lifespan. It has no mouth, because it will not have time to digest a meal. The largest moths in the world have a 14 inch wingspan. These "Hercules" moths live only 2 weeks and never eat. Insects are nearsighted. They cannot see farther than 9 feet. How is it that insects get stuck to a spider's web, yet the spider does not? The spider's feet secrete a bit of oil. If a spider slips or falls, it can get trapped in its own web. Bees have to fly a total of 72,000 miles to gather enough honey for one jar. Ants sleep about three hours, then stretch and appear to yawn, just like people do when waking. If you could jump as high as a grasshopper, relative to its size, you could jump more than 1/2 mile straight up. There is a species of bug that can fly up to 818 miles per hour, faster than the speed of sound. If you could weigh all the bugs in the world, and weigh all the people in the world, your pile of bugs would weigh twelve times as much as the people. How do spiders make their silk? They excrete a polymer and then stretch it so quickly that this stretching creates aligned, crystalized solid molecules. Spiders inject their victims with a chemical that dissolves them. Then the spiders drink their lunch with their mouths which are soda straw-like. A tarantula can totally liquify a mouse. The crosshairs that you see in a surveyor's transit have to be very thin. Some transit makers use the silk of a black widow's web. If a drop of liquor gets on a scorpion, it will immediately commit suicide with its own stinger. Some male moths can locate a single female moth by her odor up to one mile away. If you cut the head off a cockroach, it will continue to live for up to many more weeks. Scientists have found out that termites are affected by music. They will eat up your house twice as fast if you play rock music. The ears of some bugs are located in unusual places. Crickets listen to sounds with their knees while cicadas hear with their stomachs. The giant squid has the largest eye of any living animal at up to nine inches in diameter. (fifteen inches according to another source) These squid live so deep in the ocean that live ones have seldom been seen. Dead ones have been found that are up to 55 feet long. Jellyfish are animals who are composed of mostly water - 95 percent. A sponge is a unique character. If you cut him into several small pieces or squeeze him through a screen, his parts will eventually reform the original shape without any harm done. Octopi have three hearts. The largest octopi are 32 feet across. Octopi are pretty smart! Scientists have actually trained them to perform simple tasks. They have been observed pulling the stoppers out of bottles to get at the stuff inside, and even unscrewing jar lids. Some of the very largest octopi live not in some remote deep part on the Indian Ocean, but in Puget Sound in the State of Washington. If a lobster loses an eye, it will grow a new one. Starfish have a gross and unusual manner of eating. They regurgitate their stomach through their mouth onto their food, and absorb it directly. Then they suck their stomach back in. ............................................................. Lower Vertebrates Some anglerfish, who live in the ocean at depths of over one mile, have unusual lives. To see where they are going in that depth, or perhaps to attract food, the females have a chemically operated lamp that hangs on a stalk in front of their mouths. The male doesn't need to see because early in his life, he bites into the belly of the female and stays there forever. After a while the female grows skin over the connection, and the male degenerates, losing his teeth, his fins, and any manner of life beyond being a small appendage hanging off the female. Some catfish have taste buds over their entire body. When Pacific salmon get to a certain age, their pituitary glands suddenly secret poison to kill them. A fisherman in England hooked three pike at once. While pulling in the first, it was eaten by a second who had been eaten by the third. While fishing at a pond in New York State, a man lost the glass part of his lantern. Five years later, once again fishing in the same spot, he caught a fish that was wearing that same glass lantern chimney, stuck around it's body. One species of shark is so competitive that the babies fight each other within their mother, until only one is left to be born. Sharks never get sick. Sharks almost never get cancer. Scientists are studying them to find out why and whether their protection is adaptable to humans. Sharks will eat anything. The only exception, is that they will not eat anything in the vicinity of where they give birth. This is how nature protects them from accidentally eating their own babies. The people of the world eat over 200 million frogs per year. So many people around the world enjoy eating frog legs that there is likely to be an eco-system problem in Asia, where most frogs for food come from. They eat zillions of insects, keeping the wildlife balance in check. Perhaps people would stop eating frogs if they realized that the frog's legs are usually cut off while the frogs are still alive. When horned toads are threatened, they shoot jets of blood from their eyes. Crocs eat rocks. The first meal of a baby crocodile consists of several stones. Scientists think these are for ballast, to help the croc keep upright while swimming and/or to grind up food during digestion. If alligator eggs are kept above 86 degrees, all the babies will be males. If incubated at below 86 degrees, all females will result. Another theory about the extinction of dinosaurs is that with a global change in temperature, only one sex would have been born. A seven-inch chameleon can stretch its tongue up to ten inches to eat bugs that are passing by. Scientists have discovered that a chameleon will still imitate the colors of its surroundings, even if blinded. There is a species of lizard that has three eyes. Two of its eyes are located in the normal place, the third one is on the top of its head. There is a species of snake that is awake for two hours per day, and sleeps the other 22 hours. There have been snakes born with two heads. When researchers in Louisiana placed rubber snakes and turtles on highways and observed the behavior of 22,000 motorists, they discovered that 87% of the drivers purposely avoided hitting the creatures. Warm blooded animals versus cold blooded animals: The warm-blooded animals are always ready to move or react to their environment, while the cold-blooded animals must be especially careful and aware in emergency situations when the temperature's not in their favor. cannot react quickly to an emergency. On the other hand, warm-blooded animals must spend much of their time eating to supply their energy requirements. If people were reptiles instead of mammals, we would have to eat only once per week. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Mammals Rabbits sleep 16 times per day. The blood of mammals has exactly the same dilution of salt as ocean water. We all know that whales are big, but few of us realize just how big. The biggest species is the Blue Whale. This animal is bigger than any dinosaur that ever lived. The biggest dino (brachiosaurus) was only 50 tons and 80 feet long. One blue whale is as big as 25 of the largest elephants. (150 tons, 100 feet long) Think of 75 Volkswagen vans. They are that big! And they grow fast. Youngsters gain weight at the rate of ten pounds per hour. A blue whale's tongue is about the same weight as three Chevy station wagons. Their heart is about the same size as a Toyota sedan. This mammoth organ beats about nine times per minute. (at the other end of the spectrum is the hummingbird with up to 1200 beats per minute, or 133 beats for every time the whale's heart beats. The life of a domestic elephant in Thailand: School begins at age three. The elephant is introduced to two boys who will learn with them. The boys are called mahouts. For the next six years they learn all about working with each other to get wood out of the jungle. For the next fifty years, the elephant and the mahouts are employed by the timber industry. The reason there are two men for one elephant, is that if something happens to one of the men, the other will be able to continue working with the elephant. Then, at age 59, the elephant is retired, and gets to graze freely in the forest for the next forty years or so. The mahouts, if still alive, still visit the elephant in the forest every few days. An elephant can eat a quarter-ton of grass in one day. The skin of a hippopotamus is an one and a half inches thick! When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red. The stomach of a hippopotamus is ten feet long. Bertha the cow from County Kerry, Ireland lived to be 49! Not only was she the longest living cow on record, she had the most calves too - 39! You can convince a cow to go up stairs, but it is nearly impossible to get one to come down. The record for milk production from one cow is 11,756 gallons in one year. Sometimes a moose will approach a car, thinking it is another moose. They are very nearsighted animal. Aren't you glad you are not a koala? Koala bears have a diet that consists of only one thing, eucalyptus leaves. Interestingly, their appendix is up to 8 feet long. Teddy bears were named after U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. He enjoyed a koala bear that was given to him, and toy manufacturers started making a toy bear, named after the President. A man named Marinus captured a bear and taught him how to plow his fields! A horse cannot focus its eyes in the way humans do. They have to change the angle of their heads if they want to see close objects clearly. A man in France who had been riding his pony through the forest had a problem. The pony injured his knee while stumbling over rough terrain. So, he carried the pony more than a mile to a veterinarian. The pony weighed almost a quarter-ton. Brand-new baby giraffes are six feet tall and weigh almost 200 pounds. Kangaroos push off the ground with their tails when they jump. Squirrels forget where they hid about half of their nuts. The word Hamster is from a German word that means "to hoard." Breathing liquid is possible. Mice can breathe liquid that is saturated with oxygen for several hours. This could allow divers to rise or sink rapidly without getting the bends. The only problem is the first breath - overcoming the instinctual fear of drowning. Pre-mature babies sometimes are forced to breathe liquid when their lungs are too underdeveloped to breathe air. The technical name for the black rat is rattus rattus. A rat must never stop gnawing. This action grinds down their ever-growing incisors. If they were not provided with anything to gnaw, their lower teeth would eventually grow through their skull and into their brain. A scientist, W. Donner Denckla, at the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (of all places), removed the pituitary glands of rats and injected the necessary hormones for survival. These rats lived much longer and showed less signs of aging than ordinary rats. At 24 months of age, only 2 out of 125 control rats were still alive. This is a typical lifespan for rats. Of the 95 rats without the pituitaries, even though handicapped, at age 34 months, 20 were still alive. This is equivalent to humans at age 95, where only 1 percent of us are still alive. Some old male monkeys become bald, just like some humans. In 1914, France's first lady was kidnapped by an orangoutan who had escaped from the zoo in Paris. He carried her up into a tree and kept her for hours. She was so embarrassed by this incident that the government kept it a secret for forty years. The world's most outrageous musical instrument was made in France during 1450. Connected to a keyboard was a long row of spikes. Under each spike was a pig, arranged according to the pitch of its oink. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sea Mammals Whales have the worst bad breath imaginable. According to Herman Melville, who researched whales thoroughly for his novel, Moby Dick, "The breath of the whale is frequently attended with such an insupportable smell as to bring on a disorder of the brain." So far, the biggest whale ever weighed (by calculations) was 170 tons, equal to more than 4 fully-loaded tractor-trailers. A baby blue whale gains 200 pounds per day while drinking 50 gallons of milk. Her mom eats 4 tons of plankton and other junk food out of the water every day. Many dolphins and some whales have an easy time of catching their fish dinners. Evidently, they stun the small fish with ultrasonic sound waves before snapping them up. Dolphins have brains that are 40 percent larger and more wrinkled than humans. Are we really the most intelligent species on earth? The answer is probably yes. (Editor's note: sometimes I wonder!) Much of the dolphin's brain is taken up with their sense of sonar. Scientists are now assuming that they can not only "see" their surroundings and other dolphins with their sense of sonar, but that they can actually see into their family members and friends. They would not have to ask another dolphin if it is feeling ok, they can see and hear for themselves. ............................................................. Miscellaneous Camels can go for several days without water. They also can carry a half-ton and walk 40 miles a day. In Turkey, they wrestle camels. To ready the male camels for the ring, they groom them for meticulously, perfume and "dress' them elaborately. Just before the match, they introduce a few female camels to get them "in the mood." Whichever camel ends up on its' back is the winner. The champ is showered with flowers, many gifts, and money! (Editor's note: Hopefully, they treat the camels well.) There is a one-celled animal called Chaos Chaos which is different than any other creature. Being amorphous, but with three nuclei, it will often try to go in more than one direction at a time stretching itself to great lengths before pulling back into "shape" and going in only one direction. When it reproduces, it becomes three smaller creatures, not two. Perhaps this is what life is mostly like on other planets, where there are very rare creatures that have only one nucleus and divide in two. All the information in this database is reliably calculated from or based on what others have written. However, you may wish to conduct your own research to make absolutely sure of the facts. As you have probably heard, some chimpanzees have been taught sign language. Now some of them have taught the language to other chimps and they have conversations among themselves. The flounder, a funny-looking flat fish, has both eyes on one side of its body. A person can carry a weight approximately equal to themselves. An ant can carry a weight 100 times heavier than themselves. Ants are the creatures with the biggest brains relative to their body size. If an ant were as big as we are, they could carry 10 automobiles on their backs and probably solve calculus problems simultaneously. Kittens are born with their eyes closed. Only after they have lived several days, do their eyes open for the first time. Scientists discovered that if they put blindfolds on the kittens for the first three days their eyes are open, they will be blind for life. Evidently this time is important in the training of their brains' sight interpretation capability. The blindfolded kittens' eyes work fine, but their brains have no idea what to do with the pictures! Newborn kittens who lived in white boxes painted with horizontal black stripes could never learn to see vertical things during their entire lives. And, of course those raised among vertical stripes could not see horizontal things. Cats' eyes are specially developed to see horizontal things much better. In ordinary lighting their irises open as vertical slits, allowing lots of light to come in, but because the slits are narrow, focus on the horizontal plane is easy to maintain, but their ability to focus on objects vertically is reduced due to the relatively large opening vertically. Their retinas, like human retinas, analyze the picture before it is sent to the brain. The brain doesn't just get a dot by dot representation, but rather an interpreted story from the retina. One rather obvious fact relating to this interpretation is that a cat will see movement much more clearly than the detail of a still scene. For instance, if your cat is not paying attention to you, wave your hand a little bit, and the cat will instantly look your way. All this makes sense for a cat's survival. Their food moves in the grass and they have to see it right away. But the motionless grass and the rocks are of no significance. Most of a cat's food moves across the ground - horizontally. This is why a cat can easily chase a ball of paper fastened to the end of a string as long as you move it along the floor, but when you move it into the air, they lose it. Watch a cat stalk a bird. They get closer, and closer, then suddenly the bird flies up into the air. Often the cat doesn't even look up. To the cat, the bird simply vanished. Cats have been rated as the most intelligent animals under primates. Cats brains weigh about 1 percent of their total body weight. Human brains weight 2 percent of our total weight. The next time you peel an orange a few feet away from your kitty-cat notice his/her reaction. The cat will wrinkle its nose and leave the area, possibly displaying even more obvious signs of distaste in the process. NOTE: Looking for something specific? Press the [S] key to search this chapter. In parts of Florida is a species of toad that is poisonous. So, if you live in Florida, call your dog or cat if you see them chasing a toad. Puppies have lungs. Goldfish have gills. Many species of shrimp breathe with their legs. Snapping turtles have two ways of getting their oxygen. They have lungs and they can absorb oxygen from water with their rectums. Lets say you are snorkling off the coast of Florida. And along comes a 12 foot long slimy thing weighing about as much as a station wagon, with a quizzical expression in it's wide set eyes. What would you do? The proper answer is to pet it. Manatees, oceanic mammals are so huge that they have no natural enemies, and so they aren't going to be afraid of you. They just come up to you as friendly as can be to see if you would like to pet them. Smokey The Bear was originally named Hot Foot Teddy. I'll bet most of you reading this are not familiar with the word ichthyology. I'll tell you shortly. Frogs can get athlete's foot just like people do. One use that satellites are being put to: Several sea turtles have been fitted with radio transmitters which bounce signals from the ocean, off satellites and back to earth so us humans can figure out where they go. When a dolphin gives birth, a midwife dolphin attends. Often the midwife helps push the baby to the surface for its first breath. What does ungulate mean? The answer is coming up shortly. Americans spend four times more money on dog food than on baby food. In research where horses were taught to work light switches, they consistently demonstrated that they preferred light by turning the lights on at night. Andrew Carnegie had a business partner with a temper. The one sure thing that was sure to calm him down was talking about horses. According to the 1793 National Stud Registry, all thoroughbreds come from three Irish Stallions! Ireland's limestone-rich water helps horses to build very strong bones. Vincent O'brien, the world's greatest horse-trainer, started right out with 3 successive wins. He grew up in a poor, Irish farm family. Racing was the ancient Celt's sport and pastime. In late 17th century Ireland, two men raced from church steeple to steeple - hence the term "steeple-chase." Ichthyology is the study of fish. There is little bug called the bean aphid, that gives birth to live young if there is more than 14 hours and 55 minutes of daylight per day, but lays eggs if there is less daylight. Experimenters at the University of Chicago have almost recreated life. With a mixture of the 'primordial' gases, and a bolt of artificial lightning, they caused the spontaneous formation of amino acids, which it is believed, in the right combinations, will create lifeforms. There is a mysterious many-tentacled animal who lives in the ocean called the Atlantic giant squid. These squid are big - some are longer than a city bus. An ungulate is a goat or a horse, or a cow, any animal with hoofs. Experiments have suggested that a dog's sense of smell may be 1 million times more sensitive or accurate than a human's. Even though a female butterfly can secrete only about 1/4 millionth of an ounce of her perfume into the air, a male butterfly can smell it and track her down from seven miles away. There is bird, called a "dipper," that flies under water. Using its wings as fins, It can go down to 20 feet and stay there up to 30 seconds. If there is time, a skunk will warn you before spraying. The warning has two phases. First the skunk pats his front feet on the ground several times. Then he shakes his head from side to side. If you aren't gone by then, better run fast! Some snails inject each other with a stimulant before mating so that their once in a lifetime session can last for several hours. Elephants will date for weeks before mating. Experimentation has shown the a dolphin's sonar is so well developed that they can discern a one-inch difference between two objects located 10 feet away. A fish's spinal cord weighs about the same as the fish's brain. In a human the brain weighs about 55 times as much as the spinal cord. Various species of monkeys range from 8 to 18 to one. Cats are 4 to 1. A farmer in Australia taught his pet monkey to drive a tractor. Lemmings, little hamster-like creatures, do in fact perish by falling over cliffs. An evolutionary population control development causes them to overbreed, and by systematically running over cliffs, the size of the population is limited. In the 1800's there was interest in an idea to train and harness 10 eagles to take a man into the sky, the way people of that era used horses to pull a carriage. The idea never got off the ground. One type of prehistoric bird, Dinornis maximus, was 13 feet tall, taller than a house. If a salamander is injured it can repair the damage much better than a human. If part of the salamander's heart, eye or brain is removed, a replacement part regrows in its place. If they lose a leg, a new one is grown. Comparing this phenomenon to a frog, closely related to a salamander, but not able to regenerate new parts, a remarkable discovery was made. When a frog or a salamander is first injured, positive electrical voltage can be measured at the injury. With the salamander, the electricity soon switches to a strong negative voltage, but with the frog, the voltage stays positive. Researchers have discovered that an animal's brain chemistry is different than ours. They may actually feel less physical pain than humans. Perhaps this is why dogs can walk barefoot on sharp gravelled driveways without hopping and wincing. There is one cat for approximately every 5 people in America. Geese have been known to fly higher than 5 miles up in the air. A study revealed that after a year 28% of severe coronary-care patients who did not own pets died, but only 5.6% of those who did own pets died. It seemed to make no difference whether their pets were horses, birds, dogs or cats. Some advantages of owning a dog for elderly people: 1) The well-trained large dog gives a sense of security or safety. 2) The dog can be a reason to get regular exercise - going for walks. 3) Touching your pet reduces tension and blood pressure. 3) Dogs and other pets give love unconditionally, thereby alleviating loneliness and depression. 4) They are great companions, also helping with feelings of isolation and alienation. A chimpanzee has been shown by a scientist how to make a stone knife by chipping flint rocks. Then the chimp was shown how to cut open a box of chimpanzee treats. Now the chimp can do the whole operation without help. The use of tools is one of the measures of humanness. Scientists have determined that human babies are less intelligent that chimpanzee babies. In general a rat can make a good pet, but they have one disconcerting problem. The rat's average lifespan is only two years. Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite. Very little dogs and pug-nosed dogs may have been bred too far into their specialty. The problem is with their teeth. It seems that their teeth have not decreased in size as much as their mouths, and when these teeth grow in, they come in all crooked. These crooked teeth trap food particles and eventually cause extreme decay and periodontal disease. You can actually brush a dog's teeth to help prevent dental and oral problems. To do it, start when the dog is quite young, and put your finger in their mouths and rub their teeth while playing with them. They will get used to this, and you can eventually substitute a toothbrush with a small amount of baking soda for your fingers. Also starting at a young age, make sure your dog or cat gets crunchy food in their diet everyday to help reduce plaque buildup. ------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter End