Kingsbrook Animal Hospital's Blog: Animal Facts

Monday, March 29, 2010

Animal Facts


The blue whale is the largest creature that has ever lived on earth. It tips the scales at a whopping 170 tons - that's the same as about 22 elephants. Its heart is the size of a small car, and its largest blood vessels are wide enough for an adult to swim through without much difficulty.

The largest land animal in the world is the Kodiak bear. It weighs about 862 kilograms, which is roughly the same as 14 male gymnasts.

Woodpeckers slam their heads into wood at a rate of 20 pecks per second. What protects them from injury is a spongy area that sits behind their beaks and acts as a shock absorber.

Approximately 50 percent of all orangutans have fractured bones, a result of falling off of trees on a regular basis.

Giraffes and humans have the same number of bones in their necks: seven.

When a lion wants to mate, he cannot be stopped. Copulation occurs every 15 minutes for one week straight. Luckily for lionesses, lions only want to mate once every two years.

All clams are born as males. A clam can change to become a female, but only once, and the change is irreversible.

The brain of a roach is located inside of its body. If a roach loses its head, it can live up to nine days. A decapitated roach dies not because it cannot think, but because it cannot eat.

The koala does not need to drink liquids; it can obtain all of its liquids from eucalyptus leaves which are 50 percent water.

African elephants produce approximately 100 kilograms of manure per day. Most of this manure is eaten up by beetles.