There are millions upon millions of species living on the planet, so to say we know very much about any of them would be a bit of a stretch because there is so much information out there that somehow, some way, just gets kinda lost in the ether, which leads to a number of questions from us. Today we’re paying tribute to some of our burning animal questions with these interesting, bizarre, and just plain quirky facts about only a few of the species we share a planet with.
A flamingo’s head has to be upside down for it to eat. Flamingos are already quirky what with the whole standing on one leg thing, but they also have to eat with their heads upside down so the bristles at the top of their beaks can filter out mud and dirt that they tend to suck in with their food.
Crime junkies, this is for you. The fingerprints on a koala bear are so indistinguishable from human fingerprints that they have on occasion been confused at a crime scene.
Here’s a weird one: squirrels can’t burp or vomit. No rodents can actually, which is why rat poison is so effective. Other animals would have some way to get the toxins out, but rodents don’t.
Blue whales are heavy. Like, really heavy. And we know this doesn’t sound too wild and crazy, but once you start realizing just how heavy they are, it really puts their size and weight into perspective. The size of the average Blue whale is roughly the size of 3 – 4 elephants, the weight of one elephant being in the tongue alone. Their tongue is the same size as an actual elephant.
Sloths do just about everything slow, even digesting food. In fact, it takes sloths about two weeks to digest their food.
Animals have their own special ways of communicating with each other, and horses prefer to use facial expressions. In fact, researchers have identified (17) discrete facial expressions among horses.
Most of us have probably heard that cockroaches can survive a hot minute without their heads, but have you ever wondered exactly how that’s possible? Because their brain is located within their body. In fact, even after losing their heads, cockroaches only die because they no longer have a mouth to eat with.
Are you a clumsy human? Maybe you can’t walk past a table without whacking your hip on it or maybe you hit your (not so) funny bone about fifty times a day. Either way, you probably aren’t as clumsy as an orangutan. Roughly 50% of orangutans have fractured bones because they tend to fall out of trees. Frequently.