Share Gallery 1/share_gal_1.zip/share_gal_1/WP/WP064.ZIP/DATABASE

Text File | 1991-04-11 | 17KB | 403 lines

This  file is provided for your entertainment and as a database file
with which to demonstrate DATAKEEPER. It is an excerpt from  ALAMANC
1991. As you can see, this file is about animals.

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
Eagle..............100
Whale..............100
clam...............150
Tortoise...........350
Crow...............100

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.

In 1978, New York City passed a law that made the residents clean up
after their dogs. Until that time, people had to walk around 54 tons
of dog poop deposited daily.

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 the haircuts that poodles get was to make
swimming easier for them.

The only things that are taxed in Ile de Sein, France, are dogs.

An average dog costs its owner about $500 per year.  In  ten  years,
$5,000!

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,  yet,  for  comparison,  America spends only 700 million
dollars on drug prevention and treatment programs.

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 must have felt sad for the kitty, because  he
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.

Why are cats so meticulous about keeping clean? They  lick  off  all
blood and odor-causing matter to prevent attracting flies and bigger
predators that would be interested in the odor of blood.

The  world's fattest cat was "Tiger" a part-Persian who weighed over
42 pounds.

If your kitty-cat scratches up valuable furniture, tape balloons  to
it. The cat will never scratch there again.

If  you  need to give liquid medicine to a cat, don't 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.

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.

Some  vultures  have  learned  that  for dinner they can crack other
bird's eggs by throwing stones at them.

When the subject of a  national  bird  came  up,  Benjamin  Franklin
suggested a turkey, but an eagle was selected.

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
nicely are more resistant to infection.

The largest chicken egg ever laid weighed over one pound.

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.

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.

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.

Some  dinosaurs  had  two brains!  Since nerve signals move from one
part of the body to another relatively slowly (It takes 1/50  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 the back of the creatures.  Interestingly, the rear
brain was bigger than the one in their heads.

The Largest dinosaur, Brachiosaurus weighed as much as a town of 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.

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.  Would  you  be
scared if one landed on your head?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  They usually coexist
alright until one tries to eat the other.

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,  but  6%  of  drivers went out of their way to "kill" the
rubber animals with their tires.

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.  This monster 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.

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 and
nearly bullet-proof.

When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.

The stomach of a hippopotamus is ten feet long.

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 was so mad when a bear killed his mule, that  he
captured the 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 hunting on his pony had a problem. The
pony was injured. 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 have been held under the  surface
in  a  beaker  of  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 have already
been  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.

Humans have been a very successful species in terms of the number of
individuals living on the earth at  this  time.  We  are  the  first
animal  that  can exchange information outside of DNA. Other animals
must rely upon what is built into their system, primarily instincts,
for their information about how  to  deal  with  their  environment.
People can talk to each other about their environment.  For example,
I  can tell you not to eat the leaves of a cherry tree, because they
are poisonous, thereby saving your life.

Some old male monkeys become bald, just like some humans.

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.