1. The loudest animal in the world is a mere 2cm long, prawn.

The Pistol
Shrimp is capable of snapping it’s claw shut so rapidly, that it creates a
bubble which collapses to produce a sonic blast, louder than a
Corncode’s sonic boom.

The shock wave can reach 230 decibels, louder than the sound of a gunshot.
The imploding bubble for split seconds also generates temperates of 4,400C,
nearly as hot as the sun, killing it’s prey. 1

2. Flamingos are not pink. They are born grey, their diet of brine shrimp
and blue green algae contains a natural pink dye called canthaxanthin
that makes their feathers pink.

Flamingos in zoos often lost their colouring, until zoo keepers supplemented their
diets. 2

3. Otters “hold hands” while sleeping, so they don’t float away from
each other.

And it’s super-cute. Look.

4. Hummingbirds are the only known birds that can also fly backwards.

They often do this when retreating away from flowers. 3

5. Dolphins use toxic pufferfish to ‘get high’.

Dolphins deliberately handle pufferfish causing them to release toxins as a

defence mechanism. These toxins can be deadly in high doses, but also have a
narcotic effect – and are a powerful hallucinogenic, which dolphins appear to
enjoy.

A documentary witnessed them passing around pufferfish in a pod, before

floating just underneath the water’s surface, apparently ‘mesmerised by their own
reflections’ afterwards. 4

6. The Inland Taipan (also known as, the Western Taipan) is the most
venomous snake in the world. A single bite contains enough venom to
kill at least 100 fully grown men, and can kill within just 30 minutes, if
left untreated.
They very rarely ever come in contact with humans, however. Every reliable
identification of a snake bite victim from an Inland Taipan have been
herpetologists, when handling or studying the snakes. They have all survived,
due to successful treatment with antivenom.

7. The worlds deadliest animal isn’t a shark, bear or tiger, but something
far smaller – the mosquito. According to the World Health Organization,
725,000 people are killed each year from mosquito-borne diseases, such
as Malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever.

They outnumber every other animal in the world, apart from ants and termites.
They can also be found in nearly every part of the world, which all add up in the
risk they pose to humans.

8. There are more than 1.4 billion insects for EACH HUMAN on the
planet, according to recent estimates.

Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth. Their population is

estimated as 107–108 billion alone, in comparison to approx. 7 billion humans on
the planet. 5

9. The shortest living animal in the world is the Mayfly. It’s entire
lifespan is just 24hrs.

The Mayfly reproduces and then dies, during that short 24hr period of life. Some
species of Mayfly only live for 8-10 hours.

10. The horned lizard is able to shoot blood from it’s own eyes, up to a
distance of 3 feet away. The rather bizarre and disgusting act is a
defensive mechanism to confuse predators.

Their blood contains a chemical that is noxious to predators, and this isn’t its only
trick – short-horned lizards are also capable of inflating their bodies up to twice
their size to scare anything away. 6

11. Roosters prevent themselves from going deaf due to their own loud
crowing, by tilting their head backs when they crow, which covers their
ear canal completely, serving as a built-in ear-plug.

A study showed that their crowing averages over 100 decibels, which is roughly
the same as running a chainsaw. 7
12. Little is known about the elusive Giant squid, however the largest
squid ever found measured over 50 feet and weighed nearly a tonne.

To put that in perspective, that’s bigger than a bus. 8

13. The pangolin is able to roll up into an armour-plated ball, so lions

can’t eat them.

If only this worked for poachers, who simply pick them up when they roll into a
ball.

14. Koalas can sleep for up to 22 hours a day.

They need more sleep than most animals, because their diet of eucalyptus
leaves contain toxins, are very low in nutrition, and high in fibrous matter – so
they take a large amount of energy to digest!

15. Swifts spend most of their lives flying in the air, and can fly for
almost an entire year, without ever landing.

A study showed that over a 10-month period, a swift stopped for just 2 hours. 9

16. Even after having its head cut off, a cockroach can still live for
weeks.

Even stranger, a cockroach’s head can actually survive by itself for a few hours,
too. 10

17. A group of parrots is known as a pandemonium.

And the collective noun for porcupines, is a prickle.

18. Cows poo up to 15 times a day, which can be as much as 115

pounds of manure per day, or approximately 21 tons per year.

The large quantities are often put to good use, though – manure, to fertilizer, to
fuel, or biogas to create electricity and heat for developing parts of the world. 11

19. Panda’s must eat 25 – 90 pounds (12-38 kg) of bamboo every day to
meet their energy needs.
This is because bamboo contains very little nutritional value, so they have to eat
it in vast quantities to survive. Although the giant panda possess the digestive
system of a carnivore, they have evolved to depend almost entirely on bamboo.

20. A Blue Whales tongue can weigh as much as a car, or a small adult
elephant.

A Blue Whales tongue can weigh approx. 2.7 tonnes, or 6,000 – 8,000 pounds
(2,720 – 3,630 kg).

21. The longest living, verified animal is a Madagascar radiated tortoise,

which died at an age of 188 years in May 1965.

However, there might be even older. Adwaita, an Aldabra giant tortoise, died at
an estimated age of 255 in March 2006 in Alipore Zoo, Kolkata, India. If verified,
it will have been the oldest terrestrial animal in the world. 12

22. The fastest land animal on the planet is a cheetah. It can reach
speeds of up to 75 mph (120 kph).

While the Peregrine Falcon is the fastest bird, with a diving speed of 242 mph
(390 kph). The Black Marlin is the fastest sea animal, and can swim up to 80
mph (130 kph).

23. Baby elephants suck their trunks for comfort.

Just like babies and young children suck their thumbs, awwww.

Photo courtesy of Darkroomillusions.

24. The Nile crocodiles jaws can apply 5,000 pounds of pressure per
square inch – the strongest bite of any animal in the world.

A human’s jaw produces 100 pounds of pressure per square inch in comparison.
A crocodiles bite is 10 times more powerful than that of a great white shark

25. Axolotl are able to regenerate lost limbs and body organs.

Mexican walking fish can regrow the same limb up to 5 times, and even
regenerate parts of its brain.
26. The Giant Pacific Octopus has 3 hearts, 9 brains and blue blood.

They are also able to change their colour and texture to camouflage themselves
in a blink of an eye.

27. A flea can jump distances 200 times their body length.

They are able to jump 10 inches (25cm) vertically and up to 18 inches (45 cm)
horizontally, making them one of the planets best jumpers relative to its size. It’s
equal to a human jumping as high as the Empire State Building in New York.

28. The male seahorse goes through pregnancy and gives birth to
babies. They are the only animal on earth where the male carries the
baby rather than the female.

The male seahorse has a pouch on its stomach in which to carry babies—as
many as 2,000 at a time.

29. Pufferfish can contain a tetrodoxin, a toxin that is up to 1,200 times

more deadly than cyanide to humans. There is enough toxin in one
pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.

Amazingly despite this, some pufferfish meat is considered a delicacy in Japan.

The meat called Fugu, is expensive and only prepared by licenced chefs with
over 3 years of rigorous training who remove toxic parts of the meat for diners.

30. The loudest animal relative to size is the Water Boatman, which
measures at just 12mm long, but can produce 99 dB of sound by
rubbing its genitalia across its abdomen.

This is the equivalent noise level of operating a circular saw, or a drill. 13

31. The howler monkey is the loudest land animal. Its calls can be heard
from 3 miles (5 km) away.

At its peak, the howler monkey can produce sounds that reach 140 decibels.
That’s as noisy as a jet engine, on take off!

32. There is an average of 50,000 spiders per acre in green areas.

There’s over 45,000 known spider species, with the venom of a few only known
to be dangerous to humans.

33. The aptly named colossal squids eyes are as large as a basketball.

This allows them to detect the faint light of a predator from over 400 feet (120
metres). 14

34. White-tailed jackrabbits are the greatest land jumpers, having been
recorded leaping an astonishing 21ft (6.4m) vertically.

That’s higher than 3 average sized men all stood on top of each other. This large
species of hare can also run up to 35mph (55kph) when escaping predators. 15

35. Grey-headed Albatross can circle the globe in only 46 days.

The incredible round-the-world journey covers 14,000 miles over the 46 day
period at a steady 13mph. They perform this feat by making various pit-stops
along the way. 16

36. Giraffes are the tallest land animal in the world, reaching heights of
19ft (5.8 m). The ostrich is the world’s tallest bird. It can grow up to 9
feet (2.7m) tall.

Over 2 metres (7ft) of a giraffes total size is its famously long neck, which helps it
reach leaves in tall trees.

37. An ostrich legs are so powerful that their kicks can kill a lion.

Or a human! Each two-toed foot has a long, sharp claw – making them
formidable weapons.

38. The dementor wasp paralyses cockroaches with venom to its head,
turning them into a zombie-like state. The toxins leave the cockroach
unable to control its own movements, which incredibly makes it run into
the wasps nest to meet its demise.

The venom is thought to cut brain activity that makes cockroaches sense fear
and run away to safety. The dementor wasp will then lay eggs on the cockroach
to act as an incubator for its young.
39. More than half of all pigs in the world are kept by farmers in China.

There are over 440 million pigs in China. United States in comparison has a
mere 73 million pigs.

40. Polar bears have jet black skin under their white fur coats.

It helps them absorb heat to keep warm, while the white fur helps provides
camouflage in the snowy and icy environment they live.

41. Giant anteaters consume up to 35,000 ants and termites in a single

day.

They use their long sticky tongues to slurp up hundreds of ants per minute.
Interestingly, anteaters purposefully never destroy an ant nest, preferring to leave
some ants alive to rebuild, so it can return and feed again in the future.

42. The little known pangolin is the worlds most poached and trafficked
animal.

This is due to the high demand of their scales and meat in Asian cultures. 70% of
Chinese citizens believe pangolin products have medicinal value, when its been
scientifically proven to be false.

43. Great white sharks can detect a drop of blood in 25 gallons (100
litres) of water and can even sense tiny amounts of blood from 3 miles (5
km) away.

They use their acute sense of smell to detect blood using an organ called the
‘olfactory bulb’.

44. The Naked Mole-Rat can live in an almost zero oxygen atmosphere.

Incredibly, in a zero oxygen environment, the Naked Mole-Rat can still survive for
up to 20-minutes without suffering any harm at all.

45. The smell of a skunk is powerful enough for a human to smell it up to

3.5 miles (5.6 km) away.

The foul smelling spray from a skunk can also cause skin irritation and even
temporary blindness.
 46. The most venonmous fish in the world is the 30cm Stonefish.

They have 13 sharp fin spines on their back, each with two venom glands. Their
stings are extremely painful, can be lethal to humans, and mostly occur as a
result of stepping on the creature.

47. Only 5% of cheetah cubs survive to adulthood.

A study in the 90’s in the Serengeti found that 95% of cheetah cubs died before
reaching adulthood. Many deaths were due to Lions, but also other predators
and disease.

48. A tigers rear legs are so powerful, that they have been found
remaining to stand even after death.

Tigers have been witnessed to have been shot, bled out, and died – and
remained standing throughout.

49. A Rhinoceros‘s horns are made of ‘keratin’, the same type of protein

that makes up hair and fingernails.

Some species of Rhinos have two horns, while others just have a single horn.

50. The Alpine Swift is able to stay airborne for over 6 months without
touching down.

It holds the world record for the longest recorded uninterrupted flight by a bird, at
over 200 days in the air as it hunted flying insects on its wintering range in the
skies over West Africa. 17

51. The Edible Dormouse (Glis glis) is able to hibernate the longest – up
to 11-months of the year when food availability is low.

To be able to pull of this feat, they double or even triple their body weight before
hibernation. During hibernation they are able to reduce their metabolic rate and
the animal may stop breathing for periods of up to an hour at a time. 18