Parexocoetus brachypterus | Two Wing Flying fish

Two-Wing Flying fish photos | Flying fish facts

Klasifikasi ilmiah

Kerajaan: Animalia

Filum: Chordata

Kelas: Actinopterygii

Ordo: Beloniformes

Famili: Exocoetidae

Parexocoetus brachypterus

Beautiful Flying fish have fins large enough, approximately 30 45 cm. Speed "fly"

it can reach 60 km / h and a distance of 30 to 50 m,

there is even an estimate can reach hundreds of meters, with the help of the waves.

Record for the longest flight of flying fish is 45 seconds.

Fly fishing using aerodynamic body to penetrate the surface of water at high speed and large fins and a strange function like the wings to keep it flying above the waves.

Fly fishing is not really a flying animals, like birds, but only just floated. Flying fish can easily cover the distance up to 200 meters or more and can reach a height sufficient to -unintentionally - perched on the deck-deck ships.

The first reason flying fish that have 40 or more of these species is due to fly to escape or avoid the action of the marine predators like fish mackerel, tuna, swordfish and marlin. However, this fish is also wary of the threat of bird beak above it, in addition to these fish are also being hunted by fishermen in Japan and Barbados for the meal.

Mechanism of how these fish can fly too simple. Initially they will be accelerated in the water until it reaches the speed of 70 km / h assisted by flapping their tails. Once they jump on the water, fins-flippers will expand and take advantage of the wind to gain altitude. Sometimes they thumped his tail to keep the high jump and change direction.

In several species of flying fish wings on the chest also assisted in the rear wing, so the four wings of this kind beratraksi greater in the air. Although his flying ability is not far away, flying fish can fly together, with a unique formation for a distance of up to 400 meters.

Interesting facts about Grasshopper

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Hexapoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Orthoptera

Suborder: Caelifera

Interesting facts about Grasshopper

1. Has hairs ("sensilla") all over the body to detect air movement.
2. Can hear up to 50,000 Hz.
3. They can leap twenty times the length of its body.
4. Grasshoppers are found everywhere instead of some cold regions near the two poles.
5. If you pick up a grasshopper, it will spit a brown liquid. This is often known as 'tobacco juice'.
6. There are 18,000 types of grasshoppers in the world.
7. Grasshoppers do not have ears. They sense sound with an organ known as tympanum which is present in their knees.
8. The sound made by grasshoppers is actually the grasshoppers rubbing their hind legs. The sound is made by male grasshoppers and not all types of grasshoppers may produce this sound.

Interesting facts about Frog

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Amphibia

Subclass: Lissamphibia

Order: Anura

Suborders :Archaeobatrachia, Mesobatrachia, Neobatrachia

Interesting facts about Frog

1. Has an eardrum (tympanic membrane) on the outside of the body behind the eye.
2. Frogs don’t drink water they absorb it through their skin.
3. Frog bones form a ring when the frog is hibernating, just like trees do. Scientists can use these rings to figure out the age of a frog.

Interesting facts about Humans | Homo sapiens

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Family: Hominidae

Subfamily: Homininae

Tribe: Hominini

Genus: Homo

Species: H. sapiens

Trinomial name: Homo sapiens

115 Interesting facts about humans

1. If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.
2. If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.
3. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
4. Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.
5. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.
6. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.
7. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
8. The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.
9. Men’s shirts have the buttons on the right, but women’s shirts have the buttons on the left.
10. The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.
11. Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.
12. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.
13. When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red.
14. The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples.
15. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.
16. Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.
17. It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.
18. The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.
19. Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and 140,000 people die.
20. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
21. The average person laughs 13 times a day.
22. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
23. Whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.
24. The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!!
25. People with higher number of moles tend to live longer than people with lesser number of moles.
26. Humans were first infected with the HIV virus in the 1930s.
27. Thinking about your muscles can make you stronger.
28. We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening. Layers of cartilage in the joints gets compressed during the day.
29. There are approx. 550 hairs in the eyebrow.
30. The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.
31. The life span of a taste bud is 10 days.
32. The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
33. The largest known kidney stone weighed 1.36 kilograms.
34. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
35. Kidney stones come in any color--from yellow to brown.
36. Babies are born without kneecaps. They appear when the child is 2-6 years of age.
37. Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second!
38. The average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime.
39. If you ate too many carrots you would turn orange.
40. The force of 1 billion people jumping at the same time is equal to 500 tons of TNT.
41. A baby is born every seven seconds.
42. You can tell if a skunk is about if you smell only .000000000000071 ounce of its spray.
43. You breathe about 10 million times a year.
44. The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you'll have a bad dream.
45. The foot is the most common body part bitten by insects.
46. The most common time for a wake up call is 7 a.m.
47. The typical person goes to the bathroom 6 times a day.
48. The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger.
49. The most sensitive finger on the human hand is the index finger.
50. The human body weighs 40 times more than the brain.
51. After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.
52. A person swallows approx. 295 times while eating dinner.
53. Your urine will turn bright yellow if you eat too much asparagus.
54. There are more people alive today than have ever died.
55. The human body is better suited to two four-hour sleep cycles than one eight-hour one.
56. A man's beard contains between 7000 and 15,000 hairs.
57. A beard grows an average of 140mm a year
58. A hair is 70 per cent easier to cut when soaked in warm water for two minutes
59. Women's hair is about half the diameter of men's hair
60. During an average lifetime, a man will spend 3,350 hours removing 8.4 meters of stubble
61. 4.5 million people have their health 'adversely affected' by air pollutants each year.
62. 4 million children die each year from inhaling smoke from indoor cooking fires that burn wood and Dung
63. 4 million people die annually from diarrhea infections, caused by poor sanitary conditions
64. The hardest bone in the human body is the jawbone.
65. Your Hand Can Have A Mind On Its Own
66. You Could Remove A Large Part of Your Internal Organs and Survive
67. The Strong Contraction of Your Heart Creates Enough Pressure To Squirt Blood As Far As 30 Feet
68. You Can Still Have An Erection After Death
69. Heart Attacks Are More Likely To Happen On Monday
70. Three Hundred Million Cells Die In Your Body Every Minute
71. Babies Have More Bones Than You Do
72. Your Hair Is Almost Indestructible
73. You Can Survive Without Food But Not Without Sleep
74. If stomachs did not have a lining of mucus, your stomach would digest itself.
75. There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.
76. It takes about 60 seconds for a human blood cell to make a complete circuit of the body.
77. The average person will shed 40 pounds of skin in his/her lifetime.
78. 1/15th of a pint of blood is pumped with every heartbeat.
79. Humans share 98.4% of our DNA with chimps. In comparison, we share 70% of our DNA with a slug.
80. The lightest baby to survive weighed a mere 283 grams.
81. On average, women say 7,000 words per day while men manage just over 2,000 words.
82. The human brain uses 20% of the body’s energy but is only 2% of the body’s weight.
83. On average, humans lose 40-100 strands of hair per day.
84. A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100mph.
85. A cough can reach the speed of 60mph.
86. The average person will drink about 16,000 gallons of water in his/her lifetime.
87. It takes 17 muscles to smile while taking 43 muscles to frown.
88. The human brain is composed of 75% water.
89. Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
90. More germs are transferred while shaking hands compared to kissing.
91. There are approximately 550 hairs in a person’s eyebrow.
92. The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.
93. The number of eye blinks varies greatly from about 29 blinks each minute if you are talking to someone to only 4 blinks each minute if you are reading.
94. The average human blinks 25 times per minute.
95. A nail takes around 6 months to grow from base to the tip.
96. Each second 10,000,000 cells die and are replaced in your body.
97. Your liver performs over 500 functions in your body.
98. The average person spends 1/3 of their lifetime sleeping.
99. Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
100. Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.
101. The tooth is the only part of the human body that can’t repair itself.
102. One human hair can support 3kg.
103. Humans are the only animals that cry tears and blush.
104. It takes the interaction of 72 different muscles to produce human speech.
105. If the normal one hundred thousand hairs on a head were woven into a rope, it could support a weight of more than twelve tons.
106. The fingernail grows about 1.5 inches per year.
107. The total amount of skin covering an adult human weighs 6 lbs.
108. The average person flexes the joints in their fingers 24 million times during a lifetime.
109. Each person inhales about seven quarts of air every minute.
110. On average, we breathe between 12 and 18 times a minute.
111. The average guy will grow about 27 feet of hair out of his face during his lifetime.
112. Approximately 1 out of 25 people suffers from asthma.
113. The average man sweats 2 1/2 quarts every day.
114. One out of every hundred American citizens is color blind.
115. A human heart beats 100,000 times a day.

Falcon | Falco berigora | Falco peregrinus

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Falconiformes

FAMILY: Falconidae

GENUS SPECIES: Falco peregrinus / Falco berigora

Amazing Facts about Falcon

1. Can see a 10 cm. object from a distance of 1.5 km.
2. Visual acuity is 2.6 times better than human.
3. Can see sharp images even when diving at 100 miles/hr.
4. Falcon's scientific name comes from the Latin word, "Falco Peregrinus" which means wandering falcon, traveler, or foreigner.
5. There are 39 species of falcon - the Peregrine is one of five commonly found in Canada. There are 3 subspecies of Peregrines ~ American, Artic and Peale's.
6. 5 types of falcons live in the U.S. ~ gyrfalcon, peregrine, merlin, American kestrel, and prairie falcon
7. Peregrines are the most well known of the falcons.
8. Some like to migrate south to Latin America in the winter. They can migrate as far as 10,000 miles ~ farther than other birds.
9. Peregrines can live up to 17 years.
10. The female is called a falcon, the male is called a tiercel.
11. They vary in size depending on where they live ~ the biggest are in Alaska.
12. Their wings are thin and pointed, and span about 40 inches.
13. Slim birds with a small head. The male is about 1/3 the size of the female. Their bodies average 15 - 21 inches long and weigh about 2 pounds. The female will weigh about 10.6 ounces more than the male.
14. Adult Peregrines have blue-gray wings, backs, and heads, with white undersides marked with black bars going across the chest. There faces are white under their chin. They have large, dark eyes and very sharp beaks and yellow talons (feet).
15. Peregrines make a "kek-kek-kek" noise, especially when angry or aggressive.
16. They have very good eye sight ~ they can spot a meal up to a mile away.
17. They are raptors (Latin meaning "to seize") - birds of prey / carnivores - and eat other birds ~ sparrows, starlings, gulls, ducks, and their favorite, pigeons. In fact, during WWII they were often shot in England to keep them from eating the pigeons that were carrying important messages to the forces.
18. Falcons are the swiftest birds of prey and are very muscular. In level flight the travel about 50 kilometers (31 miles) an hour. In a dive, called a "stoop" they reach speeds over 300 kilometers (186.33 miles) an hour!
19. They have a unique way of hunting for food ~ they dive at their prey so fast that they overtake it by surprise, catching it in mid-air, and the speed kills the prey instantly. They are diurnal - they hunt during the day. The capture takes less than 2 minutes!
20. An adult eats about 70 grams (2 1/4 oz.) of food a day ~ that equals about 2 blackbirds.
21. In the city it has been observed that falcons don't like to land on the ground ~ even if their meal falls to the ground, they won't go get it. In fact, they don't usually fly lower than the level of their nest.
22. They are at the top of the food chain, so adult peregrines have no natural predators. They do however, face many threats from humans ~ use of pesticides, altering of landscape and habitats, egg collecting, hunting, and taking of the young for falconry. Baby falcons (eyases) are a tasty meal for owls, racoons, and mountail cats.

Elephant | Loxodonta africana | Elephas maximus indicus

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Proboscidea

Family: Elephantidae

Genus: Elephas

Species: E. maximus

Subspecies: E. m. indicus

Trinomial name : Elephas maximus indicus / Loxodonta africana

Elephants are mammals, and the largest land animals alive today

Amazing Facts about Elephants

1. Has hearing range between 1 and 20,000 Hz. The very low frequency sounds are in the "infrasound" range.
2. Humans cannot hear sounds in the infrasound range.
3. Elephant Facts ... Did You know ?
4. Elephants stomp when they walk.
5. Elephants sleep standing up.
6. Sometimes baby elephants lie down to sleep.
7. Elephants bathe. Sometimes the spray dirt on themselves to get the parasites off. Sometimes they bathe in mud
8. Elephants live in herds.
9. They cool off by fanning their ears. This cools the blood in their ears. That blood goes to the rest of their body and cools off the elephant.
10. They poop 80 pounds in one day.
11. Elephants weigh 10,000 pounds. It would take 250 students to add up to 10,000 pounds.
12. They collect food with their trunks.
13. Only grown up ladies and their babies live in the herds.
14. The daddy elephants leave the herd when they are 12 years old.
15. They fight with their tusks.
16. They eat grass and bark.
17. During the wet season they eat things low to the ground.
18. During the dry season they use their trunk to gather food from trees and bushes.
19. They suck up water into their trunks and shoot it into their mouths.
20. Elephants need lots of room to roam and eat. (Some of us think that this must mean they are not happy in the zoo or in the circus.)
21. They can run 24mph for short distances.

Amazing Facts about Eagle

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Falconiformes ( or Accipitriformes)

Family: Accipitridae

Eagles are large birds of prey which are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species (the Bald and Golden Eagles) can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in Central and South America, and three in Australia.

Amazing Facts about Eagle

1. Eyeball length = 35 mm (human eyeball length = 24 mm)
2. Visual acuity is 2.0 to 3.6 times better (depending on the type of eagel) than that of humans.
3. Bald Eagles are not really bald. Their head is actually covered with white feathers. The white feathers on their head comes when they are 5 or 6 years old. Baby eagles are partially covered with down, but when they leave the nest, they have dark feathers all over. The female can be one third larger than the male. They have wide long wings that help them stay in the air. A Bald Eagles wing span is normally 8 feet.
4. Usually they live near the sea. They only live in trees 75 feet or higher. Bald Eagles add to their nest over and over. Sometimes it can take a pair of eagles as long as six weeks to build their nest for the first time. The eyrie is the large nest made of sticks and lined with twigs and green grass. The heaviest nest ever found is 1 ton. (That's 2000 pounds!)
5. They mate for life. The female may lay from one to three eggs and raises one brood (group) a year. If these eggs are destroyed the female may lay more eggs. It takes four weeks for an eagle egg to hatch. Eaglets grow slowly and need a large amount of food.
6. Bald Eagles normally eat fish. Sometimes they will eat snakes and smaller birds. They have long sharp beaks and curved talons to help hold prey. They can fly with 8 pounds of food. Bald Eagles help man by catching rodents and rabbits that destroy grain fields.
7. Eagles have great eyesight that helps them see for one to one and a half miles away. (Thus the term eagles eye) They can dive at 100 miles per hour. Their eyesight and diving ability help them catch food.

Amazing facts about EarthwormsEarthworm | Lumbricus terrestris

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Annelida

Class: Clitellata

tOrder: Haplotaxida

Suborder: Lumbricina

Families: 18

Number of Hearts: 9

Size: Up to 14 in (35 cm)

Weight: Up to 11.2 g (0.39 oz)

Natural Habitat: Throughout the world

Diet: Herbivorous

Lumbricus terrestris

Interesting & Amazing facts about Earthworms

1. Earthworms can survive only in moist soil. However, too much moisture is also not good for them.
2. Rototilling of the soil can be harmful to earthworms.
3. Earthworms are hermaphrodites i.e. a single individual has both female and male organs.
4. An earthworm can replace or replicate lost segments. However, the extent of this ability depends upon the species as well as the amount of damage.
5. Even though earthworms are hermaphrodites, they need to mate with another worm to produce offspring.
6. Earthworms do not have eyes, but are extremely light sensitive.
7. An earthworm can consume as much as one third of its body weight in a single day.
8. Earthworms usually come out of the dirt after excessive rain storms, since the soil becomes too moist for them to survive.
9. Earthworms can be found in almost every type of soil. At the same time, their number greatly increases with the improvement in the health of the soil.
10. An earthworm does not have lungs. Rather, it breathes through its skin.
11. There are basically four types of earthworms - Nightcrawlers, Garden Worms, Manure Worms and Red Worms.
12. After digestion, earthworms produce excrement that is about the same size as a pin head.
13. In times of drought, an earthworm can dig deep into its burrow, which can be as deep as six feet.
14. Entire body covered with chemoreceptors (taste receptors).

Amazing Facts about Dragonfly

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Suborder: Epiprocta
Infraorder: Anisoptera

Amazing Facts about Dragonfly

1. Eye contains 30,000 lenses.
2. A bee flaps its wings about 300 times per second, but a dragonfly flaps its wings at only about 30 beats per second. (fact, dragonflies have two sets of wings so they don’t have to beat them as much to fly.)
3. A dragonfly is a very strong and good flyer, and can fly at speeds of up to 36 miles per hour. (fact, but not all dragonflies are that fast – one was clocked at this speed in Australia)
4. Dragonflies are known as snake doctors because they can bring dead snakes back to life. (myth)
5. There were huge dinosaur dragonflies that lived 300 million years ago. (fact – the largest fossil found had a 2 ½ foot wingspan, and currently there are dragonflies in Costa Rica that measure 7 ½ inches across the wings.)
6. Dragonflies have huge stingers and some people are allergic to their stings and can die. (myth – the thing that looks like a stinger on a dragonfly is actually called a clasper and the male dragonfly uses it to hold onto the female when they are mating.)
7. There are about 5,000 different species of dragonflies all over the world except in Antarctica. 450 of the species can be found in the United States and about 80 species in British Columbia. (fact, most of the 5,000 species are found in remote, tropical areas.)
8. A dragonfly’s eyes have about 30,000 lenses and a dragonfly can see all the way around it, but they don’t see details very well. (fact, a human eye only has one lens and sees better than a dragonfly, but only to the front and side of them.)
9. From the time a dragonfly egg hatches, it can live anywhere from six months to six years, but only about two months as an actual dragonfly. (fact, most of the time spent is as a nymph in the water before the dragonfly’s metamorphosis into a full grown dragonfly.)
10. In the old days, dragonflies would seek out bad kids and sew their mouths together with their claspers while they slept. Dragonflies were known as the devil’s darning needles. (myth – dragonflies don’t have pockets to carry the thread to the beds of sleeping wicked children.)
11. A dragonfly’s scientific name is Odonta, which comes from the words “tooth-jawed” because the entomologist (insect scientist), Johann Christian Fabricius, who named them studied the dragonflies’ mouths in order to distinguish the different species. Now their wings are studied as well to classify dragonflies. (fact – other names for dragonflies around the world are water dipper in England, old glassy in China, and the ancient Celts called dragonflies big needle of wings.)

Common species

Southern hemisphere
Common Spreadwing Lestes plagiatus
Common Threadtail Elattoneura glauca
Goldtail Allocnemis leucosticta
Swamp Bluet Africallagma glaucum
Pinhey's Whisp Agriocnemis pinheyi
Black-tailed Bluet Azuragrion nigridorsum
Common Citril Ceriagrion glabrum
Yellow-faced Sprite Pseudagrion citricola
Gambel's Sprite Pseudagrion gamblesi
Hagen's Sprite Pseudagrion hageni
Hamon's Sprite Pseudagrion hamoni
Kersten's Sprite Pseudagrion kersteni
Masai Sprite Pseudagrion massaicum
Pseudagrina\atal Sprite Pseudagrion spernatum
Orange Emperor Anax speratus
Common Thorntail Ceratogomphus pictus
jack Notogomphus praetorius
Paragomphus cog panorpoides and Acisoma trifidum
Banded Groundling Brachythemis leucosticta
Broad Scarlet Crocothemis erythraea
Little Scarlet Crocothemis sang
Blck Percher Diplacodes lefebvrii
Black-tailed Skisciothemis farinosa
Two-striped Skimmer Orthetrum caffrum
Epaulet Skimmer Orthetrum chrysostigma
Julia Skimmer Orthetrum julia
Palpopleura p\ithemis arteriosa
Dropwing Trithemis furva
Kirby's Dropwing Trithemis kirbyi
Jaunty Dropwing Trithemis stictica

Northern hemisphere
Broad-bodied ChaserEmperor, Anax imperator
Keeled Skimmer, Orthetrum coerulescens
Black-tailed Skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum
Common Whitetail, Libellula lydia
Migrant Hawker, Aeshna mixta
Azure Hawker, Aeshna caerulea
Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea
Norfolk Hawker, Aeshna isosceles
Common Hawker, Aeshna juncea
Red-veined Darter, Sympetrum fonscolombii
Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum
Vagrant Darter, Sympetrum vulgatum
Yellow-winged Darter, Sympetrum flaveolum
Broad-bodied Chaser, Libellula depressa
Four-spotted Chaser, Libellula quadrimaculata
Scarce Chaser, Libellula fulva
Green Darner, Anax junius
Downy Emerald, Cordulia aenea
Blue-eyed Darner, Aeshna multicolor
Roseate Skimmer, Orthemis ferruginea
Widow Skimmer, Libellula luctuosa
Great Pondhawk, Erythemis vesiculosa
Comet Darner, Anax longipes
Banded Pennant, Celithemis fasciata
Somatochlora margarita, Somatochlora margarita

Amazing Facts about Dolphin

Suborder Odontoceti, toothed whales

Family Delphinidae, oceanic dolphins

Genus Delphinus

Long-Beaked Common Dolphin, Delphinus capensis

Short-Beaked Common Dolphin, Delphinus delphis

Genus Tursiops

Common Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus

Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops aduncus

Genus Lissodelphis

Northern Rightwhale Dolphin, Lissodelphis borealis

Southern Rightwhale Dolphin, Lissodelphis peronii

Genus Sotalia

Tucuxi, Sotalia fluviatilis

Costero, Sotalia guianensis

Genus Sousa

Indo-Pacific Hump-backed Dolphin, Sousa chinensis

Chinese White Dolphin (the Chinese variant), Sousa chinensis chinensis

Atlantic Humpbacked Dolphin, Sousa teuszii

Genus Stenella

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin, Stenella frontalis

Clymene Dolphin, Stenella clymene

Pantropical Spotted Dolphin, Stenella attenuata

Spinner Dolphin, Stenella longirostris

Striped Dolphin, Stenella coeruleoalba

Genus Steno

Rough-Toothed Dolphin, Steno bredanensis

Genus Cephalorhynchus

Chilean Dolphin, Cephalorhynchus eutropia

Commerson's Dolphin, Cephalorhynchus commersonii

Heaviside's Dolphin, Cephalorhynchus heavisidii

Hector's Dolphin, Cephalorhynchus hectori

Genus Grampus

Risso's Dolphin, Grampus griseus

Genus Lagenodelphis

Fraser's Dolphin, Lagenodelphis hosei

Genus Lagenorhynchus

Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus acutus

Dusky Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus obscurus

Hourglass Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus cruciger

Pacific White-Sided Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus obliquidens

Peale's Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus australis

White-Beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris

Genus Orcaella

Australian Snubfin Dolphin, Orcaella heinsohni

Irrawaddy Dolphin, Orcaella brevirostris

Genus Peponocephala

Melon-headed Whale, Peponocephala electra

Genus Orcinus

Killer Whale (Orca), Orcinus orca

Genus Feresa

Pygmy Killer Whale, Feresa attenuata

Genus Pseudorca

False Killer Whale, Pseudorca crassidens

Genus Globicephala

Long-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala melas

Short-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus

Genus Australodelphis

Australodelphis mirus

Family Platanistidae

Ganges and Indus River Dolphin, Platanista gangetica with two subspecies

Ganges River Dolphin (or Susu), Platanista gangetica gangetica

Indus River Dolphin (or Bhulan), Platanista gangetica minor

Family Iniidae

Amazon River Dolphin (or Boto), Inia geoffrensis

Family Lipotidae

Baiji (or Chinese River Dolphin), Lipotes vexillifer (possibly extinct, since December 2006)

Family Pontoporiidae

La Plata Dolphin (or Franciscana), Pontoporia blainvillei

Six species in the family Delphinidae are commonly called "whales" but genetically are dolphins. They are sometimes called blackfish.

Melon-headed Whale, Peponocephala electra

Killer Whale (Orca), Orcinus orca

Wolphin Kawili'Kai at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii.

Pygmy Killer Whale, Feresa attenuata

Wolphin Kawili'Kai at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii.

False Killer Whale, Pseudorca crassidens

Long-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala melas

Short-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus

Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera. They vary in size from 1.2 m (4 ft) and 40 kg (90 lb) (Maui's Dolphin), up to 9.5 m (30 ft) and 10 tonnes (9.8 LT; 11 ST) (the Orca or Killer Whale). They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating fish and squid. The family Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacean order, and relatively recent: dolphins evolved about ten million years ago, during the Miocene. Dolphins are among the most intelligent animals and their often friendly appearance and seemingly playful attitude have made them popular in human culture

Amazing Facts about Dolphin

1. Like bats, dolphins use echolocation for movement and locating objects.
2. Can hear frequencies up to at least 100,000 Hz.
3. dolphins are mammals? They give birth to live young and nurse them with milk.
4. dolphins have to come up to the surface to breathe? Most dolphins surface every few minutes, but they can stay under water for up to 15 minutes. A dolphin breathes through the blowhole on top of its head.
5. dolphins evolved from land animals? The land ancestor of the dolphin lived about 50 million years ago and looked a little like a wolf. This animal hunted in shallow waters and by and by adapted itself to life in water: the forelegs became flippers, the hindlegs disappeared and the fluke evolved, the fur disappeared and the nostrils moved to the top of the head.
6. dolphins use echolocation to navigate and to find food? Dolphins send out clicks that are returned from other objects in the water (just like an echo). This way a dolphin can locate food, other dolphins, predators or rocks.
7. dolphins live in families? These families are usually led by a female dolphin. The dolphins in a family help each other, for example when raising their young. When travelling or hunting, several families might join together to make a larger group, a school of dolphins.
8. the largest dolphin is the orca? It can reach up to ten metres in length. For more information on this dolphin, read our text about orcas.
9. … dolphins have a thick layer of fat beneath their skin? This layer of fat is called blubber. As dolphins have no fur, they need the blubber to keep warm. Dolphins in colder waters usually have a thicker layer of fat than dolphins in warm waters.
10. dolphins are endangered? Humans are the greatest threat to dolphins: environmental pollution, habitat destruction and overfishing are the main reasons why so many dolphin species are endangered. Lots of dolphins get stuck in fishing nets and in some countries, dolphins are deliberately killed because they eat the fish that the fishermen want to catch. If we do not do anything about it, dolphins might soon be extinct.
11. not all dolphins live in seawater? There are some species that live in fresh water: the river dolphins. Unfortunately, river dolphins are critically endangered and it is even feared that one species, the baiji, has already died out.
12. you can help to protect dolphins? Educate yourself about these animals and tell others about them. Care more about our environment and start to recycle more things. Raise money for an organisation that helps to support dolphins.

Amazing Facts about Dog

109 Amazing Facts about Dog

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Canidae

Genus: Canis

Species: C. lupus

Subspecies: C. l. familiaris

Trinomial name : Canis lupus familiaris

Amazing Facts about Dog

1. Has olfactory membrane up to 150 sq. cm.
2. Can hear sound as high as 40,000 Hz.
3. Dogs have social and impulsive internal structures that are similar to those of human being's, and this allows us to understand their behavior.
4. Many dog owners treat their dogs the wrong way as if they were children when the truth is that dogs are a completely different species.
5. All dogs have a strong need to be around others whether it is humans or other animals and if they are isolated from social contact, they can start escaping from the house or their behavior changes in search of attention from the owner.
6. A dog's sense of smell is about thirty seven times stronger than ahuman's.
7. The areas of the brain that process the signals that come from the dogs nose are much bigger in size and complex than those same areas in the human mind.
8. Fearful dogs tend to have problems capturing and communicating messages to other dogs and this often times leads to a fight.
9. When a dog wags his tail it means the dog is excited. This does not mean though, that the dog is trying to be friendly, and it is important to learn how to interpret the rest of the dog's body language before getting close to a dog that is wagging his tail.
10. Some signals dogs do such as inclining themselves and bending their front legs are seen in all dogs around the world. These types of universal signals do not need to be learned because dogs everywhere understand them.
11. Dogs that are well trained learn to adjust their behavior in order to be accepted by other dogs.
12. Compared to children, dogs have less capacity to understand the sounds and signs and it is very difficult for them to learn words like "Sit", "Heel" etc.
13. It is a myth that dogs are color blind. They can actually see in color, just not as vividly as humans. It is akin to our vision at dusk.
14. Dogs DO have better low-light vision than humans because of a special light-reflecting layer behind their retinas
15. A German Shepherd guide dog led her blind companion the entire 2100 mile Applachian Trail
16. If never spayed or neutered, a female dog, her mate, and their puppies could product over 66,000 dogs in 6 years!
17. Dogs’ only sweat glands are between their paw pads
18. Like human babies, Chihuahuas are born with a soft spot in their skull which closes with age
19. The breed Lundehune has 6 toes and can close its ears
20. Teddy Roosevelt’s dog, Pete, ripped a French ambassador’s pants off at the White House
21. President Lyndon Johnson had two beagles named Him and Her
22. Franklin Roosevelt spent $15,000 for a destroyer to pick up his Scottie in the Aleutian Islands
23. In Roman times, mastiffs donned light armor and were sent after mounted knights
24. The Russians trained dogs during WWII to run suicide missions with mines strapped to their backs
25. A dog’s mouth exerts 150-200 pounds of pressure per square inch with some dogs exerting up to 450 pounds per squre inch.
26. A one year old dog is as mature, physically, as a 15 year old human
27. The U.S. has the highest dog population in the world
28. France has the 2nd highest
29. The average city dog lives 3 years longer than a country dog
30. 87% of dog owners say their dog curls up beside them or at their feet while they watch T.V.
31. Dogs can be trained to detect epileptic seizures
32. 15 people die in the U.S. every year from dog bites
33. In 2002 alone, more people in the U.S. were killed by dogs than by sharks in the past 100 years
34. Gidget is the name of the Taco Bell dog
35. Newfoundlands are great swimmers because of their webbed feet
36. Basset Hounds cannot swim
37. Greyhounds are the fastest dogs on earth, with speeds of up to 45 miles per hour
38. Bingo is the name of the dog on the side of the Cracker Jack box
39. The bible mentions dogs 14 times
40. Three dogs survived the sinking of the Titanic – a Newfoundland, a Pomeranian, and a Pekingese
41. The Labrador Retriever is the #1 favorite breed in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
42. Obesity is the #1 health problem among dogs
43. An estimated 1,000,000 dogs in the U.S. have been named as the primary beneficiaries in their owner’s will
44. An American Animal Hospital Assoc. poll found that 33% of dog owners admit to talking to their dogs on the phone and leaving answering machine messages for them while away
45. Dog’s nose prints are as unique as a human’s finger prints and can be used to accurately identify them
46. At the end of the Beatles’ song “A Day in the Life”, a high-pitched dog whistle was recorded by Paul McCartney for his sheepdog
47. 70% of people sign their pet’s name on greeting and holiday cards
48. 58% put pets in family and holiday portraits
49. There are only 350 Cisky Terriers in the world – perhaps the rarest breed
50. The phrase “raining cats and dogs” originated in 17th century England when it is believed that many cats and dogs drowned during heavy periods of rain.
51. Dogs have no sense of “time”
52. Humans have kept dogs as pets for over 12,000 years
53. The largest breed of dog is the Irish Wolfhound
54. The world’s smallest dog breed is the Chihuahua
55. The St. Bernard is the heaviest
56. Only dogs and humans have prostates
57. But dogs do not have an appendix
58. Every dog on earth likely descended from a species knows as the Tomarctus – a creature that roamed the earth over 15 million years ago
59. The oldest known breed is likely the Saluki – originally trained by Egyptians to help them track game.
60. In 1957, Laika became the first living being in space via an earth satellite while JFK’s terrir, Charlie, father 4 puppies with Laika’s daughter
61. An African wolf dog known as the basenji is the only dog in the world that cannot bark
62. There are 703 breeds of purebred dogs
63. Dachshunds were originally bred for fighting badgers
64. The world’s smartest dogs are thought to be (1) the border collie, (2) the poodle, and (3) the golden retriever while the dumbest dog is believed to be the Afghan hound
65. A dog’s smell is more than 100,000 times stronger than that of a human’s which they need because their eyesight is not as keen as a human’s.
66. Dogs judge objects first by their movement, then by their brightness, and lastly by their shape
67. Chocolate contains a substance known as theobromine (similar to caffeine) which can kill dogs or at the very least make them violently ill
68. George Washington had thirty six dogs – all foxhounds – with one named Sweetlips
69. All dogs are identical in anatomy – 321 bones and 42 permanent teeth
70. Smaller breeds mature faster than larger breeds
71. Female dogs are only ready to mate – “in heat” – twice a year for a total of roughly 20 days
72. Puppies sleep ninety percent of the day for their first few weeks
73. Rin Tin Tin was the first Hollywood dog star and he really signed his movie contracts – all 22 of them – with a pawprint
74. The Wizard of Oz’s Toto was played by a female Cairn Terrier named Terry
75. Up until the late 1800’s, Collies were known as Scottish Sheepdogs
76. Dogs have two times as many muscles to move their ears as people
77. The longer a dog’s nose, the more effective it’s internal cooling system
78. An elderly woman was saved by her 12 pound Yorkshire Terrier who fought off an 80 pound Akita and survived with only 9 stitches
79. U.S. Customs dogs “Rocky” and “Barco” were so good at patrolling the border that Mexican drug lords put a $300,000 bounty on their heads
80. Dogs are all direct descendants of wolves
81. Wolves and dogs can mate to produce fertal offspring
82. Female wolves have been known to travel great distances to regurgitate full meals for their hungry pups
83. Cerberus was the tri-headed dog that guarded the underworld in Greek mythology
84. Female dogs bear their young for 60 days before they’re born
85. Dogs’ sense of hearing is more than ten times more acute than a human’s
86. Humans can detect sounds at 20,000 times per second, while dogs can sense frequencies of 30,000 times per second.
87. The earliest dog fossil dates back to nearly 10,000 B.C.
88. Bloodhounds are prized their ability to single out and identify a number of scents simultaneously
89. Dalmatian puppies are born completely white.
90. The Ancient Chinese carried Pekingese puppies in the sleeves of their robes
91. Boxers are so named because of their manner of playing with their front paws
92. All breeds of dog have been found to attack livestock – from 3 month old puppies, all the way up to thirteen year old poodles
93. A dog’s heart beats up to 120 times per minute, or 50% faster than the average human heartbeat of 80 times per minute
94. The oldest dog on record – a Queensland “Heeler” named Bluey – was 29 years, 5 months old
95. Davy Crockett had a dog named Sport
96. Dogs were first domesticated by cavemen
97. Dogs live 15 years on average
98. Many foot disorders inn dogs are simply an issue of long toenails
99. More than 5,000,000 puppies are born in the U.S. every year
100. More than 1 in 3 American families own a dog
101. Average body temperature for a dog is 101.2 degrees
102. The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts both offer merit badges in dog care
103. Dogs are natural pack animals
104. They are naturally submissive to any creature with higher pack status – human or canine
105. Dogs instinctively require the pack leader’s approval
106. Dogs with little human contact in the first three months typically don’t make good pets
107. The Chihuahua was named after the state in Mexico where they were discovered
108. After birth, puppies’ eyes do not fully open until they’re about 12 days old
109. Their vision is not fully developed until after the 1st month

Amazing Facts about Cricket | Gryllus Assimilis

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Suborder: Ensifera
Superfamily: Grylloidea
Family: Gryllidae

Gryllus assimilis

Amazing Facts about Cricket

1. Can hear using their legs; sound waves vibrate a thin membrane on the cricket's front legs.
2. They have a good vision and hearing.
3. Their compound eyes enable them to see in several directions simultaneously. These are said to foretell good luck.
4. They have very small wings and these lie across the back.
5. Along with time their legs have been developed to jump at great heights. The size varies from ½ to 1 inch. One of the species is smaller then ¼ inch.
6. The common house cricket is not bigger than the ½ inch range.
7. The field cricket is on an average 1 inch in length. The lifespan of a cricket is less than one year.

Amazing Facts about Crab | Liocarcinus vernalis

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Crustacea

Class: Malacostraca

Order: Decapoda

Suborder: Pleocyemata

Infraorder: Brachyura

Liocarcinus vernalis

Amazing Facts about Crab

1. Has hairs on claws and other parts of the body to detect water current and vibration.
2. Many crabs have their eyes on the end of stalks.

Amazing Facts about Cockroach | Periplaneta americana

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Subclass: Pterygota

Infraclass: Neoptera

Superorder: Dictyoptera

Order: Blattaria

Amazing Facts and Information about Cockroach

Can detect movement as small as 2,000 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

Cockroaches (or simply "roaches") are insects of the order Blattaria. The name derives from the Greek and Latin names for the insect.

There are about 4,500 species of cockroach, of which 30 species are associated with human habitations and about four species are well known as pests.

Amazing Facts about Chameleon

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Squamata

Suborder: Lacertilia

Infraorder: Iguania

Family: Chamaeleonidae

Amazing Facts about Chameleon

The eyes of the chameleon can move independently. Therefore, it can see in two different directions at the same time.

Chameleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of lizards. They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous feet, their separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, their very long, highly modified, and rapidly extrudable tongues, their swaying gait, the possession by many of a prehensile tail, crests or horns on their distinctively shaped heads, and the ability of some to change color. Uniquely adapted for climbing and visual hunting, the approximately 160 species of chameleon range from Africa, Madagascar, Spain and Portugal, across south Asia, to Sri Lanka, have been introduced to Hawaii, California and Florida, and are found in warm habitats that vary from rain forest to desert conditions.

Amazing Facts about Cat

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Felidae

Genus: Felis

Species: F. catus

Binomial name: Felis catus

Amazing Facts about Cat

1. Has hearing range between 100 and 60,000 Hz.
2. Olfactory membrane about 14 sq. cm. For comparison, humans have an olfactory membrane of about 4 sq. cm

Amazing Facts about Buzzard

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Accipitriformes

Family: Accipitridae

Genus: Buteo

Species: B. buteo

Binomial name: Buteo buteo

Amazing Facts and Information about Buzzard:

Retina has 1 million photoreceptors per sq. mm.

Can see small rodents from a height of 15,000 ft.

Amazing Facts about butterfly

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

(unranked): Rhopalocera/ Subgroups

Superfamily Hedyloidea: Hedylidae

Superfamily Hesperioidea: Hesperiidae

Superfamily Papilionoidea: Papilionidae/ Pieridae/ Nymphalidae/ Lycaenidae/ Riodinidae

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts, egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. Butterflies comprise the true butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea), the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) and the moth-butterflies (superfamily Hedyloidea). All the many other families within the Lepidoptera are referred to as moths.

Butterflies exhibit polymorphism, mimicry and aposematism. Some, like the Monarch, will migrate over long distances. Some butterflies have evolved symbiotic and parasitic relationships with social insects such as ants. Some species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees; however, some species are agents of pollination of some plants, and caterpillars of a few butterflies (e.g., Harvesters) eat harmful insects. Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.

Amazing Facts and Information about butterfly

Has chemoreceptors (taste receptors) on its feet.

The butterfly has hairs on its wings to detect changes in air pressure.

Using vision, the butterfly Colias can distinguish two points separated by as little as 30 microns.

(Humans can distinuguish two points separated by 100 microns.)

Amazing Facts and Information about Bees

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Suborder: Apocrita

Superfamily: Apoidea

(unranked): Anthophila

Families:

Andrenidae

Apidae

Colletidae

Dasypodaidae

Halictidae

Megachilidae

Meganomiidae

Melittidae

Stenotritidae

Amazing Facts and Information Bees

• Can see light between wavelengths 300 nm and 650 nm.
• Have chemoreceptors (taste receptors) on their jaws, forelimbs and antennae.
• Worker honey bees have 5,500 lenses ("ommatidia") in each eye.
• Worker honey bees have a ring of iron oxide ("magnetite") in their abdomens that may be used to detect magnetic fields.
• They may use this ability to detect changes in the earth's magnetic field and use it for navigation.
• Can see polarized light.

Scientific classification and interesting facts about bats

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Infraclass: Eutheria

Super-order: Laurasiatheria

Order: Chiroptera

Family: 18 families

Genus: 180 genera

Species: Around 1100

24 Amazing Facts and Information on Bats

1. Bats are the only mammal that can actually fly and make up the second largest order of mammals in the world.
2. A little brown bat (myotis) can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in one hour.
3. A mother bat can locate her pup (baby) out of millions in a roost, by tracking down its scent and sound.
4. African heart-nosed bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand, from a distance of more than six feet.
5. Agricultural plants like bananas, bread-fruit, mangoes, cashews, dates and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal.
6. Bats are extremely clean animals and groom themselves almost on a constant basis.
7. Bats give birth to only one baby in a year, making them one of the slowest reproducing mammals on earth for their size.
8. Bats seldom transmit disease to other animals or even humans.
9. During winter hibernation, Red Bats can withstand body temperatures as low as 23 degrees.
10. Frog eating bats differentiate between edible and poisonous frogs by listening to the mating calls of male frogs.
11. Giant flying foxes, which are native to Indonesia, have a wingspan of nearly six feet.
12. Many species of bats roost together in large groups, known as colonies.
13. Most of the bats have very good eyesight. They also have excellent echolocation skills.
14. Most of these bat species are so small that they would easily fit in the palm of your hand.
15. Some of the bats migrate to warmer climates during the winter, while the others hibernate.
16. Studies have indicated that the Old World fruit bats and flying foxes might have descended from early primates.
17. The bumblebee bat of Thailand is the smallest mammal in the world.
18. The droppings of bats in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria.
19. Honduran white bat is completely white in color, with the exception of yellow nose and ears.
20. The tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders.
21. Vampire bats are one of the few mammals who risk their own lives to share food with the less fortunate roost-mates.
22. When hibernating, little brown bats can reduce their heart rate to 20 beats per min and even can stop breathing altogether, for 48 min at a stretch.Can detect warmth of an animal from about 16 cm away using its "nose-leaf".
23. Bats can also find food (insects) up to 18 ft. away and get information about the type of insect using their sense of echolocation.
24. Can hear frequencies between 3,000 and 120,000 Hz.

Types of Ants Species

Types of Ants Species

Army Ants : The queens of the african army ant (driver ant), are the largest ants
in the world. It can be over an inch long

Fire Ants: Fire ants are stinging ants of which there are over 280 species worldwide.

Pharaoh Ants : Up to 300,000 workers with multiple queens will nest in wall and cabinet voids, behind baseboards.

Crazy Ants : Crazy ants get their name from their habit of running about very erratically with no apparent sense of direction.

Weaver Ants : Weaver ants (genus Oecophylla) are known for their communication and nest building behaviour.

Slave Maker Ants : Some ants will raid the colonies of other ants

Jack Jumper Ants : The jack jumper ant, hopper ant or jumper ant is a species of bulldog ant.

Bullet Ants : Paraponera is a genus of ant consisting of a single species, the so-called bullet ant.

Lemon Ants : species of ant that is notable for the creation of Devil's gardens.

Argentine Ant : The Argentine ant is a tiny dark ant native to northern Argentina.

Carpenter Ants : Carpenter ant workers are 1/4 inch long. The queen can be up to 3/4 inch.

Little Black Ants : A very small, black ant closely related to the Pharaoh ant.

Honey Pot Ants : A very small, black ant closely related to the Pharaoh ant.

Yellow Citronella Ants : They are found mostly in New England and the Midwest.

Big Head Ants : Big-headed ants are most often confused with fire ants.

Leaf Cutter Ants : They feed on a specialized fungus that grows only in the underground chambers of the ants nest.

Bulldog Ants : These ant were once found worldwide but is now restricted to Australia.

Gliding Ants : Gliding ants are arboreal ants of several different genera that are able to control the direction.

Atta laevigata: Atta laevigata is one of about a dozen species of leafcutter ants in the genus Atta

Thief Ant: thief ants, get their names because they often raid other ants nests.

Scientific classification and Facts About Ants

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Suborder: Apocrita

Superfamily: Vespoidea

Family: Formicidae

Some Facts About Ants

There are more than 12,000 species of ants all over the world.

An ant can lift 20 times its own body weight.

Some queen ants can live for many years and have millions of babies!

Ants don’t have ears. Ants "hear" by feeling vibrations in the ground through their feet.

When ants fight, it is usually to the death!

Can detect small movement through 5 cm of earth.

Can see polarized light.

When foraging, ants leave a pheromone trail so that they know where they’ve been,

Queen ants have wings, which they shed when they start a new nest.

Ants don’t have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body and carbon dioxide leaves through the same holes.

When the queen of the colony dies, the colony can only survive a few months.

Queens are rarely replaced and the workers are not able to reproduce.

About Ants

They are social insects, which means they live in large colonies or groups. Depending on the species, ant colonies can consist of millions of ants.

There are three kinds of ants in a colony: The queen, the female workers, and males. The queen and the males have wings, while the workers don’t have wings. The queen is the only ant that can lay eggs. The male ant’s job is to mate with future queen ants and they do not live very long afterwards. Once the queen grows to adulthood, she spends the rest of her life laying eggs! Depending on the species, a colony may have one queen or many queens.

Ant colonies also have soldier ants that protect the queen, defend the colony, gather or kill food, and attack enemy colonies in search for food and nesting space. If they defeat another ant colony, they take away eggs of the defeated ant colony. When the eggs hatch, the new ants become the "slave" ants for the colony. Some jobs of the colony include taking care of the eggs and babies, gathering food for the colony and building the anthills or mounds.

Elephants are Smart

Elephants have the largest brain, nearly 11 pounds on average of any mammal that ever walked the earth.

Do they use that gray matter to the fullest? Intelligence is hard to quantify in humans or animals,

but the encephalization quotient (EQ), a ratio of an animal’s observed brain size to the expected brain size given the animal’s mass,

correlates well with an ability to navigate novel challenges and obstacles. The average elephant EQ is 1.88. (Humans range from 7.33 to 7.69, chimpanzees average 2.45, pigs 0.27.) Intelligence and memory are thought to go hand in hand,

suggesting that elephant memories, while not infallible, are quite good.

Parrots Understand

Parrot speech is commonly regarded as the brainless squawking of a feathered voice recorder.

But studies over the past 30 years continually show that parrots engage in much more than mere mimicry.

Our avian friends can solve certain linguistic processing tasks as deftly as 4-6 year-old children.

Parrots appear to grasp concepts like “same” and “different”, “bigger” and “smaller”, “none” and numbers.

Perhaps most interestingly, they can combine labels and phrases in novel ways.

A January 2007 study in Language Sciences suggests using patterns of parrot speech learning to develop artificial speech skills in robots.

Fish can Swap Sex Organs

Many Fish Swap Sex Organs

With so many land creatures to wonder at, it’s easy to forget that some of the weirdest activities take place deep in the ocean.

The strange practice of hermaphroditism is more common among species of fish than within any other group of vertebrates.

Some fish change sex in response to hormonal cycle or environmental changes.

Others simultaneously possess both male and female sex organs.

Birds Can Recognize Landmarks

Birds Recognize Landmarks

Can you imagine a road trip vacation without missed exits, stubborn drivers or map-folding disasters?
Of course noteyou’re not a bird. Pigeons can fly thousands of miles to find the same roosting spot with no navigational difficulties.
Some species of birds, like the Arctic tern, make a 25,000 mile round-trip journey every year.
Many species use built-in ferromagnets to detect their orientation with respect to the Earth’s magnetic field.
A November 2006 study published in Animal Behaviour suggests that pigeons also use familiar landmarks on the ground below to help find their way home

An Elephant’s Daily Poop

An Elephant’s Daily Poop

It’s not surprising to learn that elephants poop a lot; however, the actual amount of dung excreted by an adult elephant on a daily basis is shocking.

The average elephant squeezes out about 220 pounds of excrement every single day.

That’s about the same poundage as a newborn elephant, which generally weighs in at between 170 – 250 pounds.

Woodpeckers Are Soft-Headed

Woodpeckers Are Soft-Headed

Woodpeckers bash their heads against wood about 20 pecks every second,
so you’d think they’d need heads made of steel to survive. Instead, the reality is that woodpecker heads are relatively soft.
Each bird is born with a soft, sponge-like mass behind its beak that absorbs the shock created by pecking.

A Wolf’s Howl Does Not Echo

A Wolf’s Howl Does Not Echo

Wolves hunt in coordinated packs, so long-distance communication is critical to a successful kill.
However, wolves hunt in mountainous areas, so their howling is left vulnerable to echoes that can distort their ability to communicate.
To combat this, wolves howl at a frequency that will not echo. This allows them to confirm the exact location of their hunting partners,
which helps them to ambush unsuspecting prey.

Male Lions Mate 672 Times Per Week

Male Lions Mate 672 Times Per Week

When a lion gets in the mood, there is nearly nothing that can stand in the way.

During mating season, a male lion mounts a female once every fifteen minutes for a full week straight.

This amounts to around 672 raucous episodes. Although, this feat is remarkably impressive,

it appears to take a substantial toll as lions take as much as a two-year hiatus between mating seasons.

Headless Cockroach Can Live Up To Nine Days

Most people are familiar with the notion that cockroach are hearty, durable pests.

Anyone who has ever been plagued by a roach problem knows just how resilient these grotesque little creatures can be.

If you’ve ever seen roaches scatter at the flick of a late night light switch, you also know that these nasty little vermin have an amazing propensity toward copulation.

Yet, many are surprised at just how adept cockroach are at survival and reproduction.

Roaches are able to live up to nine days without a head because their brains are located deep within their body cavities.

A headless cockroach continues to mate with other fertile roaches until eventually succumbing to starvation.

Some Animals Interesting Facts

1. Frogs have an ear drum on the outside of their head.
2. Sea otters always float on their backs when they eat.
3. Polar bears look white, but they actually have black skin.
4. Snakes always keep their eyes open, even when they are asleep.
5. Crickets have ears on their front legs.
6. Aardvarks can hear and smell termites and ants.
7. Cobras are able to kill with a bite as soon as they are born.
8. Flamingos have knees that can bend backward.
9. The pistol shrimp catches its prey by surprising it with a loud banging noise made with its claws.
10. Some species of Australian social spiders eat their mother when food becomes scarce.

49 Really Amazing Animals Interesting Facts

1. The typical hen lays 19 dozen eggs a year.
2. The ostrich has a 46-foot long small intestine.
3. A scallop has 35 blue eyes.
4. A swan is the only bird with a penis
5. The left leg of a chicken in more tender than the right one.
6. The only dog that doesn't have a pink tongue is the chow.
7. Dogs and humans are the only animals with prostates.
8. The giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal.
9. Zebras can't see the color orange.Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 liter bottles.
10. Cows can have regional accents
11. A domestic cat can frighten a black bear to climb a tree.
12. Bonobos are the only non human primates that engage in oral sex, tongue kissing, and face-to-face genital sex.
13. In a fight between a polar bear and a lion, the polar bear would win.
14. US Secret Service sniffer dogs are put up in five-star hotels during overseas presidential visits.
15. Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
16. Bulls are color blind.
17. Pigs can cover a mile in 7.5 minutes when running at top speed.
18. The shell constitutes 12 percent of an egg's weight.
19. A squid has 10 tentacles.
20. A snail's reproductive organs are in its head.
21. When a horned toad is angry, it squirts blood from its eyes.
22. There are more insects in ten square feet of a rain forest than there are people in Manhattan.
23. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
24. The smartest dogs are the Jack Russell Terrier and Scottish Border collie. Dumbest: Afgan hound.
25. A rat can go without water longer than a camel can.
26. The fat molecules in goat milk are 5 times smaller than those found in cow milk. It takes 20 minutes for the stomach to breakdown as opposed to the hour that it takes to break down cow milk.
27. A cow's only sweat glands are in its nose.
28. Mosquitoes have 47 teeth.
29. The Poison Arrow frog has enough poison to kill 2,200 people.
30. Emus can't walk backwards.
31. A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
32. A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
33. A group of owls is called a parliament.
34. A group of ravens is called a murder.
35. A group of bears is called a sleuth.
36. Twelve or more cows is called a flink.
37. A baby oyster is called a spat.
38. Some fleas have split penises like a Y shape
39. An elephant can be pregnant for up to 2 years
40. Chickens can't swallow while they are upside down.
41. The average garden-variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.
42. A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds.
43. A mule won't sink in quicksand but a donkey will.
44. More people are killed annually by donkeys than in airplane crashes.
45. Animal breeders in Russia once claimed to have bred sheep with blue wool.
46. Penguins are the only bird that can leap into the air like porpoises.
47. India has 50 million monkeys.
48. By some unknown means, an iguana can end its own life.
49. Americans spend around $3 billion for cat and dog food a year.