1. Koalas are marsupials, not bears. They also have no tail or eyelids.
2. Mountain goats are not goats. They are small antelopes.
3. Mice will nurse babies that are not their own.
4. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
5. Rats can’t vomit.
6. The eyes of some birds weigh more than their brains. Likewise, their bones weigh less than their feathers.
7. The five fastest birds are: the peregrine falcon that can fly up to 175 miles per hour, the spine-tailed swift that can go 106 miles per hour, the frigate bird at 95 miles per hour, the spur-winged goose at 88 miles per hour, and the red-breasted merganser at 80 miles per hour.
8. Roosters cannot crow if they can’t fully extend their necks.
9. The kiwi can’t fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than seventy million years.
10. Male cockatoos can be taught to speak, but females can only chirp and sing.
11. The albatross drinks sea water. It has a special desalinization apparatus that strains out and excretes all excess salt.
12. The Egyptian vulture, a white bird about the size of a raven, throws stones with its beak to open ostrich eggs to eat. This bird is one of the very few animals that, like man, manipulates objects as tools.
13. There are more than three hundred species of parrots.
14. Macaws are the largest and most colorful species of the parrot family.
15. Ducks will lay eggs only in the early morning.
16. A duck has three eyelids.
17. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
18. To keep cool, ostriches urinate on their legs; it then evaporates like sweat.
19. Eagles can live in captivity for up to forty-six years.
20. Eagles mate while airborne.
21. The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backward.
22. Flamingos can only eat with their heads upside down.
23. There are no penguins at the North Pole. In fact, there are no penguins anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere (outside of zoos). All seventeen varieties of the bird are found below the equator, primarily in Antarctica.
24. The longest fish is the oarfish, which is shaped like an eel. On average, it grows to more than twenty feetin length, but oarfish of forty-six feet have been found.
25. A shrimp has more than a hundred pairs of chromosomes in each cell nucleus. The shrimp’s heart is in its head.
26. The pistol shrimp makes a noise so loud it can shatter glass.
27. Tuna will suffocate if they ever stop swimming. They need a continual flow of water across their gills to breathe, even while they rest.
28. Electric eels are not really eels but a kind of fish. Although they look like eels, their internal organs are arranged differently. Unlike most fish, electric eels cannot get enough oxygen from water. Approximately every five minutes, they must surface to breathe or they will drown. Unlike most fish, they can swim both backward and forward.
29. The electric eel has thousands of electric cells running up and down its tail. Vital body organs, such as the heart, are packed into a small space behind the head. They use their electric sense to “see.” Their electric sensors act like radar, sending out weak impulses that bounce off objects.
30. Jellyfish are comprised of more than 95 percent water and have no brain, heart, or bones and no actual eyes.
31. An octopus will eat its own arms if it gets really hungry.
32. The octopus’s testicles are located in its head. The pupil of an octopus’s eye is rectangular.
33. The oyster is usually ambisexual. It begins life as a male, becomes a female, then changes back to a male, then back to a female. It may go back and forth many times.
34. The leather coral, which is softer than the stony coral, may attack and eat one of its own kind if subjected to crowded conditions.
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