With the A-Z of Dog Breeds series finished, I thought I’d do a post about nothing too specific – so here’s a bunch of random facts about a wide range of mammal species (domestic and wild). Enjoy!


“Did You Know?”
  1. Shrews have to eat every couple of hours, otherwise they will starve
  2. Only 3 mammals go through menopause – humans, elephants, and humpback whales.
  3. Humpback whales can make the loudest noise of all mammals (not that kid behind you on the plane!)
  4. Each ear of a cat has 32 muscles, and the ears can move independently of each other
  5. A giraffe’s tongue is prehensile, blue,/black in colour and approximately 20 inches in length!
  6. The cheetah can reach up to 70 mph
  7. African Wild Hunting Dogs (African Painted Dogs) ensure their young eat first, unlike most wild predatory species
  8. The hippo is the second heaviest land mammal; elephants being the first
  9. Rhinoceros means “nose horn” (rhin – nose; ceros – horn)
  10. A pony is up to 14.1 hands high (144.78 cm), a horse is 14.2 hh (147.32 cm) and taller
  11. There are more than 4,200 species of mammals!
  12. The stripes on tigers and zebras are unique to the individual – no 2 patterns are alike; like human fingerprints
  13. The Sun Bear is the smallest of all bear species (the koala bear is not a bear but a marsupial)
  14. The Narwhal tusk is actually a large, protruding tooth
  15. Caribou are also known as Reindeer
  16. The Musk deer, the Muntjac, the Chinese water deer and the Korean water deer all have fangs (or tusks) instead of antlers – Google Image search them; quite odd looking!
  17. Przewalski’s horse is the only true wild horse species left in the wild
  18. The Saiga Antelope has an enlarged nose that hangs down over its mouth
  19. The Jaguarundi is a species of wild cat that is often mistaken for a mustelid, as it bares the appearance of mustelid species; such as the Stoat and the Weasel.
  20. The only mammal that can fly is a bat (and Batman of course)


I hope that you found the random mammal facts interesting – if you want any more information, or have any questions, please feel free to ask in the ‘thoughts’ box below or on the comments page, or via social media sites
– Facebook, Google+, Twitter or LinkedIn.
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