Animal Trivia

Ostriches do not bury their head in the sand.

The eye of an ostrich is bigger than it's brain.

Because it is a cold blooded animal, a frog will hop out or a pot of boiling water if it is dropped in. However, if it is put in a pot of cold water which is slowly heated, the frog will boil to death.

Some chickens can lay colored eggs. The Ameraucana and Araucana can lay eggs colored blue or green. Green Eggs and Ham, anyone?

Chickens don't fly very far. The longest recorded flight is 13 seconds.

Firehouses have circular stairways because in the early days, the horses used to pull the carriages learned how to climb the straight ones.

The giant sloth sleeps about 17 hours a day and spends only 70 minutes dreaming.

In the Caribbean, there are oysters which can climb trees.

The only continent without reptiles is Antarctica.

Pigs cannot lift their heads to look at the sky.

The heart of a shrimp is in its head.

In 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.

If you ever have the misfortune to be bitten by a crocodile, press your thumbs into its eyeballs. It will let go immediately. In fact, we'd try this trick if we were attacked by any wild animal. Won't hurt to try and it might work.

Worldwide, the animal responsible for the most human deaths is the mosquito.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

Reindeer like bananas.

Shakespeare had over 3,000 references to 180 different animals in his plays, most were real and some were imaginary. Some were simple country wildlife, like hedgehogs, insects, birds, bats, deer and wild boar. Some were exotic like tigers, rhinoceros, bear and elephants. Some were imaginary like phoenix, unicorns and dragons.

You can lead a cow up the stairs, but not back down.

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.

A house fly lives for about one month.

Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

Horses can't vomit.

Bats will always turn left when exiting a cave.

According to studies, a cat has about a 30% less chance to survive if it falls out of a 7th floor window than it does if it falls out of a 20th story window. It is theorized that the cat has to fall about 8 floors before it realizes what is happening, relaxes and corrects itself.

The 10 most most venomous snakes in the world are in Australia. In order from the 10th to the most venomous:

• Western Brown Snake - Pseudonaja Nuchalis
  
  
• Death Adder - Acanthophis Antarcticus
  
  
• Black Tiger Snake - Notechis Ater
  
  
• Tiger Snake - Notechis Scutatus
  
  
• Sea Kraits - Laticauda Colubrina
  
  
• MainLand Tiger Snake
  
  
• Eastern Tiger Snake
  
  
• Taipan - Oxyuranus Scutellatus
  
  
• King Brown Snake - Pseudechis Australis
  
  
• Inland Taipan or Fierce Snake - Oxyuranus Microlepidotus

An elephant can smell water up to three miles away.