#WeirdWednesday — Wonderful and weird animal facts you did not know
This world can be very weird sometimes, but also really wonderful.
The animal kingdom may be the most diverse example of how strange things can really get on this blue rock of ours. Here are some weird and wonderful facts you possibly didn’t know about animals:
1. Napping giraffes:
Ever felt a bit groggy because you didn’t get your eight hours’ sleep? Do you usually say “Only five more minutes”? Giraffes might have something to say about that. These lovable, towering leaf munchers only sleep for five minutes at a time, for about half an hour all together for the entire day, and they do this standing upright. In the wild it’s pretty dangerous when you try and catch an extra few z’s, because you never know what’s prowling in the grass nearby.
2. Ever wondered why there are no zebra criminals?
No zebra has ever had the same black and white stripe pattern as any other zebra. Their stripes act as a kind of fingerprint, and their foals often use these to identify their parents in a herd. It’s also thought that predators become confused by all of the moving stripes when a whole herd moves together.
3. A cowboy’s best friend … an ostrich?
Adult ostriches can reach up to 70 kilometres per hour when running. This means that they are nearly a third faster than the average horse. The speed of an average horse is about 50 kilometres per hour, and the fastest ever recorded racehorse reached 70,76 kilometres per hour. Ostriches are also only 10 kilometres per hour slower than a grown lion.
4. Ever wondered who the loneliest pig in the world is?
Khanzir is the one and only pig in the entire country of Afghanistan. Being largely an Islamic country which does not consume any kind of pork meat, there is no need for pig farms. Because of this, Khanzir (which is also the Arabic word for ‘pig’) is on show at the Kabul Zoo and has no mate with which he can interact, making him the loneliest pig in the world.
5. Even the dolphins make us look lazy…
Dolphins can stay alert and keep swimming for at least 15 days at a time. How do they do this? Well, by only half sleeping. Scientists have discovered that dolphins can sleep with only one half of their brain at a time, leaving the other half to keep it going and defend itself against predators.
6. Ever looked at a goldfish and thought it reminded you of the film Jaws?
It turns out that the most common name for pet goldfish across the world is Jaws. This is comparable to naming your Shih Tzu Spike. Other popular goldfish names include: Bubbles, Nemo and Magikarp. Bonus: You’ve probably heard that goldfish only have memories of about three seconds. That’s untrue as goldfish can remember certain things for months. And sometimes you forget where you left your keys a few minutes ago …
7. How does a kangaroo hop?
Answer: Not at all if you lift its tail, it turns out. Kangaroos are the only large animals that move by hoping, and they use their large tails to keep balance. When their tails are lifted from the ground though, they are completely unable to jump up. Kangaroos also can’t jump backwards, and although their tails look like great rudders, they can’t swim at all.
8. The fox and the hound
The phrase ‘The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog’ uses all 26 letters of the alphabet. The use of tracking dogs to hunt foxes started as far back as 3000 BC, in ancient Egypt and Assyria, but the first dogs bred specifically for this job only appeared in the 1600s. Beagles are actually the most common breed used for hunting foxes.
9. Some turtles can breathe through their butts
Correct – there’s not a whole lot more to say about that. So … moving on.
10. Penguins have love all figured out.
Penguins largely mate for life and will only have one partner. The interesting part is how penguins gain the acceptance of their mates. The Adelie penguin, which is most commonly found on the Antarctic coast, are those penguins that look like they’re wearing cute little tuxedos. That’s fitting, because these are the gentlemen penguins of the animal kingdom. The Adelie penguin will scour the coastline until he finds the perfect pebble, which he will then present to his future mate. If she accepts, the two promise to be together forever.
Bonus weird and wonderful fact:
Cute Aggression (or Playful Aggression) is the technical term for a certain type of reaction that people have when they look at something cute, like cat videos online or photos of babies. These are displays of so-called ‘aggression’ which would be viewed as negative in normal circumstances, but are used here to show off an extreme sense of joy. Just think back to looking at a fluffy new-born baby calf, or a mother cat teaching it’s baby how to drink milk, and reacting by gritting your teeth, clenching your fists and saying: “I could just eat them up!”
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