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?”
- Shrews have to eat every couple of hours, otherwise they will starve
- Only 3 mammals go through menopause – humans, elephants, and humpback whales.
- Humpback whales can make the loudest noise of all mammals (not that kid behind you on the plane!)
- Each ear of a cat has 32 muscles, and the ears can move independently of each other
- A giraffe’s tongue is prehensile, blue,/black in colour and approximately 20 inches in length!
- The cheetah can reach up to 70 mph
- African Wild Hunting Dogs (African Painted Dogs) ensure their young eat first, unlike most wild predatory species
- The hippo is the second heaviest land mammal; elephants being the first
- Rhinoceros means “nose horn” (rhin – nose; ceros – horn)
- A pony is up to 14.1 hands high (144.78 cm), a horse is 14.2 hh (147.32 cm) and taller
- There are more than 4,200 species of mammals!
- The stripes on tigers and zebras are unique to the individual – no 2 patterns are alike; like human fingerprints
- The Sun Bear is the smallest of all bear species (the koala bear is not a bear but a marsupial)
- The Narwhal tusk is actually a large, protruding tooth
- Caribou are also known as Reindeer
- 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!
- Przewalski’s horse is the only true wild horse species left in the wild
- The Saiga Antelope has an enlarged nose that hangs down over its mouth
- 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.
- The only mammal that can fly is a bat (and Batman of course)
