To read the tribute to SFC Marcus Muralles, please click here
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Strange Animal Facts
Here are a few cool things Strange Cosmos came up with. Anyone wanna fact check them? (If we were still homeschooling, it would be science homework... but, alas... )
Blue whale babies weigh up to 7 tonnes at birth.
A female cod can lay up to 9 million eggs.
Snakes can see through their eyelids.
Elephants spend 23 hours a day eating.
Vultures sometimes eat so much they can't take off again.
The Amazon 'Jesus Christ lizard' can run across water.
The biggest Antartic inland animal is a wingless fly measuring about 60 mm long.
Fleas can jump up to 30 cm, twenty times their own body length.
Bluebottle flies can smell meat from distances 7 km away.
Many birds migrate, but the Arctic tern travels furthest. It flies from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and back again, a trip of 32,000 kilometers.
Some animals can regrow parts of their bodies if damaged. Starfish can grow new 'arms.' Slow-worms can regrow broken-off tails. Lizards can grow new tails.
One golden poison-dart frog could kill up to 1500 people with its poison.
The giant squid has the largest eyes of any animal. They can be 39 cm across, which is 16 times wider than a human eye.
The peregrine falcon can spot its prey from more than 8 km away.
The sleepiest mammals are armadillos, sloths and opossums. They spend 80 per cent of their lives sleeping or dozing.
A mayfly only lives one day, but a tortoise can expect to live 100 years.
Stegosaurus was one of the most famous of the dinosaurs and was an impressive 9 metres long. But its brain was the size of a walnut.
