Animal Triva

Animal Trivia

Here are some more interesting and fascinating facts about animals.

Worker ants can live for up to seven years (unless you tread on them); and the queen ant may live as long as 15 years.

When ants find food, they lay down a chemical trail so that other ants can find their way from the nest to the delicious plate of food. How kind!

When the Black Death swept across England many people thought that cats were responsible. As a result, thousands of the innocent felines were killed. Ironically, those people who kept their cats were less affected by the plague because the cats ate all the real culprits: rats.

Carnivorous animals won’t eat another animal that has been struck by lightning. How fussy!

The most common mammal in the US is the mouse.

In an emergency, a large kangaroo can jump more than 10 metres. Incidentally, a young kangaroo is called a “joey”.

The largest pig on record was a Poland-China called Big Bill. He weighed about 1,000 kilos, which is a lot of bacon.

The last member of the famous Bonaparte family, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, had a very unfortunate death: he died in 1945 after tripping over his dog’s leash. How spectacular!

Many scientists believe that birds evolved from reptiles. Both species lay eggs, and they both have special “egg teeth” that serve only one purpose: to help the babies break the egg and enter the world. Incidentally, egg teeth fall off a few hours after birth.

A queen bee lays thousands of eggs, but only one of them will survive. The first, strong queen bee that emerges eats all the others, and thereafter she can reign alone.

Certain frogs are very special and can be frozen and then thawed and then come back to life again. Please don’t try this at home.

One of Korea’s most popular items on summertime menus is “poshintang”, which is basically dog meat soup. The soup is believed to improve male virility, and improve women’s complexions. Watch out, Fido!

The largest cockroach on record measured ten centimetres in length. By the way, a cockroach can live for about three days without its head; and then it dies of starvation.

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime. Incidentally, no two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second, which is a lot of pecking!

An adult male ostrich, the world’s largest bird, can weigh up to 170 kilos, which is the equivalent of one Azerbaijani weight-lifter.

There are pink elephants in some regions of India. They get their colour from the red soil as they spray dust over their bodies to protect themselves from insects.

It takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be two kilos.

A typical bed has more than 6 billion mites in it. So now you know: you are never alone at night.

G L O S S A R Y

to tread vb if you “tread” on something, you put your foot on that thing a chemical trail n a route created by a chemical substance that comes out of the ant a nest n a house that birds build for living in to sweep across phr vb to move across an area very quickly. Literally, to “sweep” is to clean the floor with a brush a culprit n the person who is responsible for a crime struck by lightning exp killed by lightning (a bright flash in the sky that happens during a storm) fussy adj difficult to please or make happy ; someone who demands a lot to trip vb if you “trip”, your leg hits something and you fall a dog’s leash n a piece of leather, plastic or rope that is tied to a dog so you can control the dog to lay an egg exp if an animal “lays an egg”, an egg comes out of its body to reign vb to rule to thaw vb if something frozen (with ice) “thaws”, it returns to the temperature in the room or air and the ice disappears to come back to life again exp to become alive again after having “died” virility n with all the traditional qualities of strength and sexuality to die of starvation n to die because you have not eaten a pattern of spots n the shapes and forms produced by all the coloured circles (spots) on the cow’s body to peck vb if a bird “pecks” at something, it hits that thing with its beak (its nose) a weight-lifter n a person who lifts heavy weights as a sport soil n the earth a mite n a tiny insect that lives on plants, animals or humans