150 Weird Facts About Animals That You Need Know

1. An alligator’s brain weighs less than an Oreo.

2. Ants don’t sleep but they take 8-minute naps twice a day.

3. Anteaters can be as big as humans, but the inside of their mouths is the size of an olive.

4. Apes tell lies.

5. Aracari sleep with their heads in their armpits.

6. Armadillos can’t keep themselves warm and form groups when the temperature drops.

7. Bald eagles save everything they find until their nests fall to the ground because the trees can’t support their weight.

8. It takes a banana slug 24 hours to get somewhere a block away.

9. Barn owls are usually monogamous but 25% of couples separate.

10. Bats have long-distance relationships.

11. Beavers need to chew constantly because their teeth never stop growing.

12. If bees made minimum wage, a jar of honey would cost $182,000.

13. Birds can’t go to space because they need gravity to swallow.

14. A female black bear can hibernate for up to 8 months.

15. Black eagles watch their children fight to the death without intervening.

16. Blobfish have no muscles.

17. Burrowing owls laugh when they’re afraid.

18. Butterflies taste everything they walk on.

19. Camels can drink 30 gallons of water in 15 minutes.

20. Polydactyl cats have thumbs but they aren’t opposable.

21. If a chinchilla gets wet, it might never dry.

22. A chipmunk can’t recognize its face in a mirror.

23. Cicadas stay underground for 17 years.

24. Clownfish have a slimy mucus coating.

25. Colobus monkey stomachs can handle food that no one else will eat.

26. Coot parents peck at their young if they ask for food, so only the quietest survive.

27. Cougars can’t roar but they can scream.

28. Cows produce the most milk when they listen to R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts.”

29. City coyotes live longer than coyotes in the wilderness.

30. Sections of highways on Christmas Island are closed for red crab migration.

31. Female crickets can’t chirp.

32. Crocodiles lived with dinosaurs.

33. Crows never forget a face.

34. Dik diks mark their territory with their tears.

35. Dogs can’t see television, but they pretend to like it so they can be close to you.

36. Two dogs were hanged for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials.

37. Only half a dolphin’s brain sleeps at a time.

38. Dragonfly migration takes 4 generations.

39. Anything a duckling meets within 10 minutes of being born becomes its parent.

40. Dwarf lemurs line their homes with feces.

41. Elephants can’t jump.

42. Elephant babies suck on their trunks the way human babies suck on their thumbs.

43. In crowded groups of emperor penguins, mates find each other by smell instead of sight.

44. Emus can’t walk backward.

45. Fennec fox ears take up a third of their body.

46. If a female ferret goes into heat and doesn’t mate she will die.

47. Adult fireflies don’t eat.

48. Fire salamanders eat their siblings.

49. A female fisher can be pregnant for 350 days in a year.

50. Scientists don’t understand why flamingos stand on one leg.

51. When flatworms are sliced in half and regrow themselves they have the same memories.

52. Foxes live, work, eat, and sleep alone.

53. Frogs can close their ears.

54. Garden lizards eat their own tails for calcium.

55. Gibbon calls can be heard 2 miles away.

56. Giraffe sleep 3 hours a night.

57. Giraffe babies fall six feet to the ground when they’re born..

58. All gnu (wildebeest) are born during a 3-week period.

59. Goats can see almost 360 degrees around them.

60. The average goldcrest lives 8 months.

61. Gorillas can catch human colds.

62. Guinea pigs sleep with their eyes open.

63. Guppies can’t take naps because they don’t have eyelids. 

64. Hammerhead sharks can smell electricity.

65. Guacamole is extremely poisonous to hamsters.

66. Harp seal pups are abandoned on beaches at birth, and 30% don’t survive.

67. Herrings communicate with farts.

68. Groundhog day was hedgehog day until the 1800s.

69. Hornbill chicks come out of the nest when they’re a few days old, then immediately go back in for another few months.

70. Horses that look like they’re smiling are actually smelling the air.

71. Houseflies can only hum in the key of F.

72. If humans had the metabolism of hummingbirds they’d have to eat 400 hamburgers a day.

73. Hyacinth macaws have the intelligence of a 3-year-old.

74. Hyenas eat rotting meat.

75. Hyraxes have 30 different calls.

76. Jellyfish have no hearts.

77. Kangaroos cough to show submission.

78. Kiwis can remember a bad memory for 5 years.

79. Koalas are only social for 15 minutes a day.

80. Koi fish can live 200 years.

81. Leeches have 32 brains.

82. Male lions eat first and make the women and children eat last.

83. Little brown bats are awake for 4 hours a day.

84. When early ocean explorers thought they saw mermaids they were actually looking at manatees.

85. A Portuguese man o’war is actually several organisms attached together.

86. 15 mara families live in one burrow.

87. Marine iguanas sneeze out salt when they eat too much of it.

88. The average mayfly lives less than a day.

89. Meerkat babies are given dead scorpions to play with.

90. Mice can sense the sadness in other mice and it makes them sad too.

91. Monk seals can’t dream underwater.

92. Moose eat for 8 hours a day.

93. Mosquitofish can only count to 100.

94. Moths have no stomachs.

95. Narwhal means “corpse whale” because of their blotchy, translucent skin.

96. Nurse sharks lose a tooth a week.

97. An octopus lives alone and leaves home only when necessary. 

98. Opossum moms carry their children on their backs.

99. An ostrich spends 7 months alone every year.

100. Owls can’t move their eyes because they don’t have eyeballs, they have eye tubes.

101. Pandas don’t have set sleeping areas, they just fall asleep wherever they are.

102. Male white front parrots vomit on females they want to mate with.

103. Male peacocks make fake mating sounds to attract females.

104. Pigs have trouble seeing the sky because of how their eyes are placed.

105. Pigeons put off things they don’t want to do.

106. Pit vipers have heat sensors on their mouths.

107. A platypus swims with its eyes closed.

108. Strawberry poison dart frogs feed their unfertilized eggs to their hatched babies.

109. Pregnant polar bears gain 500 pounds.

110. Newborn porcupines are ready to injure someone within minutes of being born.

111. Prairie dogs have different calls to communicate different human heights and human shirt colors but can’t differentiate between circles and squares.

112. Puma, mountain lions, and cougars are all the same animal.

113. Boy puppies let girl puppies win when they playfight.

114. Domesticated rabbits live 8 years as pets or 24 hours on their own.

115. Raccoon hands are nimble enough to steal a dime from your shirt pocket.

116. The ring-tailed lemur that smells the worst is in charge of the whole group.

117. Lab rats enjoy mating more when they’re wearing vests.

118. Red ruffed lemurs leave their kids when they go look for food.

119. Rhinos make a squeaking sound to call for their friends when they’re lost.

120. Roadrunners make themselves cry to get rid of excess salt.

121. Scorpions are nocturnal hunters but they glow in the dark.

122. Sea otters live in almost-freezing water that would kill a human in an hour.

123. Sea turtles never meet their moms.

124. Great Britain has invested hundreds of thousands of pounds to study why seagulls attack so many people at outdoor festivals.

125. Seahorses are one of the only animals where the males become pregnant.

126. Shark pregnancies can last years.

127. Sheep can only remember 50 faces.

128. Long-tailed skinks eat their own eggs.

129. Sloths come down from their trees once a week to use the bathroom.

130. If you cut off a snail’s eye, it will grow back.

131. Snow leopards eat 20 pounds of food a night.

132. A sparrow will eat anything that fits into its mouth.

133. Some species of spiders eat through their mom when they’re born.

134. Squirrels can’t burp.

135. When star tortoise eggs hatch at cold temperatures more males are born, and when they hatch at warm temperatures more females are born.

136. Tarantulas can go years without eating.

137. Tarsier eyes are bigger than their stomachs.

138. After Tasmanian devils mate, the female sneaks away in the night.

139. Tigers don’t like making eye contact while they hunt.

140. Turtles breathe out their butts.

141. Walruses breathe on the ocean floor to uncover food hidden in the sand.

142. Water-holding frogs eat their own skin for nutrients.

143. Baby whales gain 200 pounds a day.

144. Wild yaks eat snow to stay hydrated.

145. If a wolf is kicked out of its pack it never howls again.

146. Woodpecker tongues wrap around the back of their brains.

147. Worms have five hearts.

148. Zebras can’t sleep alone.

149. Adélie penguins push each other off ledges to see if the water’s safe.

150. An albatross can pick up smells 12 miles away.

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