Strange Facts about Animals

As of date, more than one million animal species have been identified scientifically. So, you can expect some interesting facts about animals, regarding their habitat, appearance, feeding, adaptive features, and behavior. Indeed, our planet is filled with dissimilar animals and it is believed that many of them are not discovered as yet.

For all of us, learning strange animal facts is an interesting subject that we can go on and on.

Believe it or not, there are 920000 insects, 6000 reptiles, 6723 amphibians, and 4260 mammals on earth. And many of the species share some scary, strange, yet funny facts that are distinctive from others.

You do not need to be an animal expert for acquiring information about animals. Listed here are some strange animal facts that will leave you wondering about the diversity of living creatures.

For most animal species, the adult male is larger than the female. It is totally opposite in case of anaconda, with the female anaconda being 3 - 5 times larger than the male.

The praying mantis head is uniquely positioned in its head. It is the only insect that can rotate its head to 360 degrees. Also known for its eyesight, it possesses 2 compound eyes and 3 simple eyes.

A young kangaroo (joey) remains in its mother's pouch for about 9 months and suckles for nearly 1 - 1½ years. At birth, the young joey looks like a hairless, small worm with its size similar to a coffee bean.

The population of termites is much higher than the ever-increasing human population. It is believed that the ratio of human population to that of termites is approximately 1:10.

Have you ever thought of forensic studies concerning dogs? Similar to human fingerprints, the nose prints of dogs are distinctive for a particular dog and can be used for identification.

Tigers have a striped skin to complement their fur stripes (about 100 in number). The stripe pattern of tigers is unique and different for each tiger, just like the fingerprints of humans and nose prints of dogs.

A beheaded cockroach can live for more than one week before it dies of starvation. So, whenever you follow ways to kill roaches, do not just cut their head or else, they will survive for another 10 days or more.

The giraffe is not only the tallest animal in the planet, but it has a very long tongue, measuring about 50 cm in length. The long tongue is useful for cleaning its ears.

While studying cat's and dog's behavior, they are found to be either right-pawed or left-pawed (similar to humans). In contrary to this, all polar bear species are found to be left-pawed.

One of the lightest birds that we all are familiar with is the hummingbird. In fact, some of the hummingbirds weigh lesser than the weight of a coin (less than 1 g).

The mole possesses an adaptive feature of fast burrowing. One of the strange facts about this small-eyed mammal is, it completes making a 300 feet tunnel in one night.

A hippopotamus can open its mouth to about 4 feet dimension. No wonder, a child of the same height can fit in a fully opened hippopotamus mouth.

One of the strange facts about animals worth mentioning is the sailfish, which is the fastest swimmer with a recorded speed of 109 km/h. Compare this with the slowest swimmer, the seahorse that drifts with an average speed of 0.16 km/hr.

Insects and animals do help in recycling things! One such example is the housefly that regurgitates ingested food before consuming it again. Don't you think it is an amazing way to reduce starvation!

Butterflies possess taste buds in their legs. This adaptive feature helps them in detecting ideal leaves for laying eggs, so that the leaves serve as food for the newly hatched caterpillars.

The ostrich is an amazing bird that cannot fly virtually, but can run at a speed of about 70 mph. This attribute makes ostrich the fastest land bird on earth.

The eyes of ostrich are as big as billiards balls, and the brain is much smaller than the eyes. The fact is that the eyes occupy much of the space, leaving little room for the brain.

Sharks have a very sensitive sense for perceiving odor, and can detect one blood drop in one million drops of water. The wound healing process is very fast in sharks. What's more, they hardly get scars and are resistant to tumors.

Most probably, the prize for the most hungry animal would go to the South American giant anteater. It has a record of eating more than 30,000 ants in a single day.

Ever heard of an insect weightlifter? It is true in case of the rhinoceros beetle, which can lift an object that weighs more than 800 times its own body weight.

Are you aware about the only dog breed that has a different colored tongue? The chow's tongue is bluish black in color. All dogs except this breed possess tongue that is pinkish in color.

One of the strangest facts about animals is the eye position of a donkey. The eyes are positioned in such a way that this quadruped animal can see all its four legs at a time.

You might have heard about the largest red king crab, which at times weigh about 15 kg. But, are you aware about the smallest crab called pea crab, which resembles a green pea in size?

No other animal can match the snail in a slumber competition. Yes, it is true, and a snail can hibernate and sleep for as long as 3 years continuously.

Well! These were some strange animals facts that you might not have heard before. To conclude with, do not tease a sleeping snake, as it can see through its eyelids. With passing time, more unusual animal facts are expected to come to the light which will surely amaze us.