Ice breaker, conversations starter or just plain off the wall trivia – factoids are great. Check out this list – you are bound to see one or more that you like – and use them as you will!
Animal Factoids: All true – Really!
- The giant squid, found usually in the deep reaches of the oceans, has the largest eye of any animal.
- There is a sea squirt found in the seas near Japan that digests its own brain. When the sea squirt is mature, it permanently attaches itself to a rock. At this point it does not need to move anymore and has no need for a brain. So, waste not want not, it eats it.
- A male gypsy moth can smell a female gypsy moth in heat up to a mile and a half away.
- A squirrel cannot contract or carry the rabies virus.
- 1 in 5,000 north Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue.
- The brown myotis bats when born are equivalent to a woman giving birth to a 30 pound baby.
- If you keep a Goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.
- A snail can sleep for 3 years.
- Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.
- The housefly hums, middle octave, key of F.
- A horse has 18 more bones than a Human.
- Elephants are the only mammals that can’t jump.
- A polar bears skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.
- Rats can’t vomit. That’s why rat poison works so well.
- Giraffes have no vocal chords.
- Cats can hear ultrasound.
- A full-grown bear can run as fast as a horse.
- Cat’s urine glows under a black light.
- The largest known butterfly is Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing from New Guinea, which has a wingspan of approximately 11 inches (28 cm).
- The smallest butterfly, the Dwarf Blue from Africa, has a wingspan of only 1/2 inch (1 cm).
- The distance between an alligators eyes in inches, is directly proportional to the length of the alligator in feet
- The honey badger can withstand hundreds of African bee stings that would kill any other animal.
- The world smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
- The opening to the cave in which a bear hibernates is always on the North Slope.
- An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
- The hippopotamus does 80% of their vocalizations under water.
- The cells that make up the antlers of a moose are the fastest growing animal cells in nature.
- Scientists in Brazil have reported the emergence of a species of super-flea; they are bigger than cockroaches and can jump 20 feet (6 m).
- Polar bears are left-handed.
- The average flea can jump up to 150 times its own length. To match that a human would have to jump 1,000 feet (305 m).
- A cockroach can live 9 days without its head before it starves to death.
- Butterflies taste with their feet.
- A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
- Starfish don’t have brains.
- A hippo can run faster than a man can.