Only 5 to 10 percent of cheetah cubs make it to adulthood.
Cheetahs are the fastest land animal and can reach speeds up to 72mph.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
Lions cannot roar until they reach the age of two.
An adult lion's roar is so loud, it can be heard up to five miles away.
A lion feeds once every three to four days.
Between 1902 and 1907, the same tiger killed 434 people in India.
A white tiger can only be born when both parents carry the gene for white colouring.
Some wild tigers can eat up to 40 pounds of meat at a time, and not eat again for several days.
The female lion does more than 90% of the hunting while the male simply prefers to rest.
A cheetah does not roar like a lion - it purrs like a cat (meow).
A cheetah can run 76 kilometers per hour (46 miles per hour) - that's really fast! The fastest human beings runs only about 30 kilometers per hour (18 miles per hour).
Elephants have a slower pulse of 27 and for a canary it is 1000!
Only one mammal can't jump -- the elephant.
The trunk of an elephant can hold up to two gallons of water.
The elephant is the national animal of Thailand.
In a day, an elephant can drink 80 gallons of water.
In 1916, an elephant was tried and hung for murder in Erwin, Tennessee.
Elephants have been known to learn up to 60 commands.
During World War II, the very first bomb dropped on Berlin by the Allies killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
An elephant's trunk can hold 2.5 gallons of water.
An elephant's tooth can weight as much as three kilograms.
An elephant in the wild can eat anywhere from 100 - 1000 pounds of vegetation in a 16 hour period.
An elephant can live up to the age of seventy, or in some cases even more.
Elephants purr like cats do, as a means of communication.
An African adult elephant eats about six hundred pounds of food a day; that’s four percent of the elephant’s body weight!
The black-necked cobra, which lives mostly in Africa, spits its venom into the eyes of its victim, to cause it blindness.
There are no snakes in New Zealand.
The venom of the king cobra is so deadly that one bite can kill twenty people or one elephant.
The fastest moving land snake is the Black Mamba, which can move up to 7 miles per hour.
The King Cobra has enough venom in its bite that it can kill up to 13 adults.
The Australian Brown Snake's venom is so powerful that only 1/14,000th of on ounce is needed to kill a human being.
Taipan snakes have 50 times more toxic than a cobra snake.
Snake venom is ninety percent protein.
Snake is a delicacy in China.
Most snakes have six rows of teeth.
A snake charmer in Bangladesh once found 3,500 poisonous cobras and their eggs hidden underneath the floors of two suburban homes.
Sea snakes are the most poisonous snakes in the world.
The snow leopard protects itself from extreme cold when it sleeps by wrapping its 3-foot-long tail around its nose.
The puma and the leopard are the highest jumping mammals. They are able to reach a height of 16.5 feet.
A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat. This is an attempt by the animal to soothe its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive.
The smallest cat is the Singapore and weighs only 4 pounds.
Cats can make over 100 vocal sounds, while dogs can only make 10.
A cat uses whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through. The whiskers act as antennae, helping the animal to judge the precise width of any passage.
The majority of cats do not have any eyelashes.
Pound for pound, leopards are said to be seven times stronger than humans.
Panthers are known as black leopards, as they are the same species of leopard. If looked at closely, black spots can be seen on a panther.
One out of four American households own a cat.
Just like fingerprints, every cats nose pad is different.
In the 1800's cats were used to deliver mail. In 1879, in Belgium 37 cats were used to deliver mail to villages, however they found that the cats were not disciplined enough to do this.
In a lifetime, the average house cat spends approximately 10,950 hours purring.
In 1888, an Egyptian peasant discovered an estimated three hundred thousand mummified cats in Beni Hassan, Egypt. Of the cats that were not stolen once, the find was made public, the remaining mummified cats were shipped to Great Britain to be used as agricultural fertilizer.
A house cat spends 70% of its time sleeping.
A fall of 30 feet can be survived my most cats.
25% of cat owners blow dry the cat's hair after giving it a bath.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.
A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
A cat can run about 20 kilometers per hour (12 miles per hour) when it grows up. This one is going nowhere today - it is too lazy !.
It costs an average of $5,000 to raise a dog to ten years old.
There are almost 60 million dogs in the United States.
Irish Wolfhound dogs have a short lifespan and live about 7-8 years.
In the United States, every year about 15 people die from dog bites.
In 2002, dogs have killed more people in the U.S. than the Great White shark has killed in the past 100 years.
If you were to remove the scent receptors from a dog's nose and lay them out flat, they would cover an area greater than the dog itself.
Dogs can be trained to detect an upcoming epileptic seizure.
Dalmatian puppies do not have any spots on them when they are born. They actually develop them as they get older.
Border collies are the most intelligent breed of dog.
Bloodhounds have been used since the 1600's for tracking criminals.
Approximately 87% of dog owners say that when they watch T.V. their dog curls up beside them or at their feet.
An average city dog lives approximately three years longer than an average country dog.
There is a doggy disco held in Italy every year where owners can dance with their dogs.
The largest dog in the world is the Irish Wolfhound.
The dumbest dog in the world is the Afghan Hounds.
The dog with the largest ears in the world is a Basset Hound named Mr. Jeffries. The dog's ears are 11.5 inches longs, and are insured for $47,800.
The Basenji dog is the only dog that is not able to bark.
Pixie, a Siberian Husky, gave birth to 7 puppies, one of which was bright green.
Nose prints are used to identify dogs, much like humans use fingerprints.
All dogs are the descendant of the wolf. These wolves lived in eastern Asia about 15,000 years ago.
About 30% of American admit to talking to their dogs or leaving messages on their answering machines for their dogs while they are away.
A dog by the name of Laika was launched into space aboard the Russian spacecraft.
Dogs can't see colors. They're color blind.
Dogs sweat only through their tongues.
Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?!
The fastest dog, the greyhound, can reach speeds of upto 41.7 miles per hour.
Alaskan brown bears, world's largest meat-eating animals that live on land, can weigh as much as 1,700 pounds (771 kilograms)
The grizzly bear can run as fast as the average horse!!
Bears are native to the continents of North America, Asia, Europe, and South America.
At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.
The wild panda's diet consist 99% of bamboo.
The only predator that polar bears have are humans.
The Kodiak, which is native to Alaska, is the largest bear and can measure up to eight feet and weigh as much as 1,700 pounds.
Polar bears have been known to swim more than 60 miles without resting.
Polar bears can smell seals who are 20 miles away.
Polar bears can eat as much as ten percent of their body weight in less than one hour.
Polar bears are excellent swimmers. They have been known to swim more than 60 miles without a rest.
Polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it can be fatal if eaten by a human.
Not all polar bears hibernate; only pregnant females polar bears do.
In the last 30 years, only seven people have been killed by a polar bear in Canada.
If you spray an antiseptic spray on a polar bear, its fur will turn purple.
98% of brown bears in the United States are in Alaska.
Female and male black bears cannot tolerate being around each other except when they breed.
All polar bears are left handed.
Male bears are called boars.
The smallest species of bears is called sun or Malayan bears.
Bears whose brown fur is tipped with lighter-colored hairs are called grizzly bears .
A giraffe's heart weighs an incredible 24 pounds.
A giraffe can go longer without water than a camel.
A full grown giraffe's neck can weigh as much as 500 pounds.
The tallest mammal in the world is the giraffe.
Giraffes have black tongues.
In one minute, the heart of a giraffe can pump 160 gallons of blood.
An adult giraffe's kick is so powerful that it can decapitate a lion.
Adult male giraffes bang their long necks together in a form of ritual fighting, during which no harm is done to either giraffe.
A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!
The stonefish, which lives off the coast of Australia, is the most poisonous fish in the world.
A slug has four noses.
Octopuses have 3 hearts.
A goldfish can live up to 40 years.
A starfish doesn't have a brain.
Killer Whales are the only sea animal that outranks the Tiger Shark as top predator of the sea.
The lung fish can live out of water for as long as four years!
Scallops swim with jet-propelled speed by clapping its shell open and shut.
Starfish have eight eyes - one at the end of each leg.
The snapping shrimp, only 1 1/2 inches long, makes a noise with its one big claw, which sounds exactly like a firecracker.
The leatherback is the biggest sea turtle, and it can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds.
The emperor penguin is playful, and often times lies on its chest and side to slide along the ice and snow.
A Giant squid's eye can be as big as a basketball.
A jellyfish is 95 percent water!
Some fish have eyes that are the same size as their stomach!
The hippopotamus gives birth under water and nurses its young in the river as well, though the young hippos do come up periodically for air.
Animals with some of the longest lives are the Marion’s tortoise (152 years), the fin whale (116 years) and the deep-sea clam (100 years).
The largest member of the dolphin family is called an orca or killer whale.
There are about 40 species or kinds of porpoises and dolphins.
Porpoises and dolphins communicate with each other by squeaking, growling, moaning, and whistling.
Flying fish actually glide on wind currents above the surface of the water, sometimes up to 20 feet above the surface.
Starfish can have up to 16 arms!
The 14-foot-long narwhal is a whale whose tooth can reach up to eight feet long!
Dolphins sleep with one eye open!
The blue whale, the largest animal to have ever existed, is 96 feet long and weights 125 tons. This is as much as 4 large dinosaurs (Brontosauri), 23 elephants, 230 cows or 1800 men.
When an octopus gets angry, it shoots a stream of black "ink".
Minnows have teeth located on a bone in their throat.
The smallest fish in the world are the pygmy goby and the Luzon goby, from the Philippines, which are only one-half-inch long when they are full grown.
The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon water hog that looks like a guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds.
A newly hatched fish is called a "fry."
At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced by any animal.
Fish have gel-slime on their bodies that protects them from parasites.
Fish swimming at depths of 15,000 feet (almost 3 miles down!) can withstand a pressure of 7,000 pounds per square inch. They are able to live in these crushing depths by pumping gas into their swim bladder.
One way to tell the age of a fish is by looking at its scales. They have growth rings just like trees. These are called circuli. Clusters of them are called annuli. Each annuli show one year.
The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons.
A female seahorse lets her husband store her babies inside his stomach!
Sea horses pull themselves around with their chins leading them.
Male zebras are called stallions. Zebras usually travel in herds.
No two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike.
Zebras enemies include hyenas, wild dogs, and lions.
A horse will respond to your emotions/feelings mainly because they are very sensitive animals. Example: if you are angry / frustrated the horse will be frustrated also. But if you are happy and smiling the horse should be good in your lesson or ride.
There are no two zebras who have stripes that are exactly the same.
There are approximately 75,000,000 horses in the world.
It's not only zebra's fur that is striped, their skin is also striped.
All racehorses in the U.S. celebrate their birthday on January 1st.
A full grown horse's intestines are approximately 89 feet long.
If a horse rests it head on your shoulder it means the horse trusts you.
When you hold your hand out to a horse and the horse comes over and blows out warm air onto the palm of your hand it normally means that the horse wants to be friends with you.
Horses have stomachs also and they need to eat. Horses should be fed two times a day.
Mules have one horse and one donkey for a parent.
Baby donkeys or baby mules are also known as "Foals."
More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
A female donkey's milk is closest to human milk
In the U.S., the milk production per dairy cow is approximately 12,000 pounds.
In Colorado, there are about 83,000 dairy cows.
Humans and cows have the same gestation period, which is about nine months.
Dexter is the smallest type of cow. This cow was bred to be a small size for household living.
Dairy cows can produce 20 to 35 gallons of saliva a day.
Cows drink anywhere from 25-50 gallons of water each day.
Cows do not have any upper front teeth. Instead they have a thick pad on the top jaw.
Cows can detect odors up to five miles away.
Cows are able to hear lower and higher frequencies better than human beings.
You would have to milk 260 cows for an entire year to fill a space shuttle's external fuel tank with 529,000 gallons of milk.
There are over 9 million beef and dairy cattle in New Zealand.
There are an equivalent number of cows and people in Friesland, Netherlands.
The temperature of milk when it leaves the body of a cow is 101 degrees Fahrenheit. The milk is then quickly chilled and stored at a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
The temperature of milk when it is coming out of a cow is about 36 degrees Celsius.
Studies have shown that classical music helps cows produce more milk.
On average, a typical dairy cow lies down and stands up about 14 times a day.
On average, 350 squirts are needed from milking a cow to make a gallon of milk.
A group of crows is called a murder.
A cow releases about 125 gallons of gas per day.
A cow averages 40,000 jaw movements a day.
You can lead a cow up a stairwell but not down a stairwell.
Cows have four-chambered stomachs.
Cows can sleep standing up.
A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
A kangaroo can jump 45 feet!
The faster kangaroos hop, the less energy they use.
When the are in danger, kangaroos will beat the ground loudly with their hind feet.
Unlike other four legged mammals, kangaroos cannot walk backwards.
There is a certain species of kangaroo that is only 2.5 centimeters long when it is born.
A newborn kangaroo weighs approximately 0.03 ounces and is small enough to fit in a teaspoon.
Young kangaroos are called joeys.
A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
Kangaroos are native of Australia.
There are more than 50 different kinds of kangaroos.
When the reindeer make their yearly journey across the icy Arctic region, the chemical keeps them from freezing—much as antifreeze keeps a car from freezing up in winter.
The moss contains a special chemical that helps reindeer keep their body fluids warm.
Most animals don’t eat moss. It’s hard to digest, and it has little nutritional value. But reindeer fill up with lots of moss.
Some frogs can be frozen solid, then thawed, and continue living.
Some frogs can pull their eyes into their throat and help push food down!
Frogs live on all continents except Antarctica.
Wood frogs can be frozen solid and then thawed, and continue living. They use the glucose in their body to protect their vital organs while they are in a frozen state.
When threatened, the horned toad shoots blood from it's eyes.
Unlike a frog a toad cannot jump.
There is a substance in the skin of the African clawed frog that helps in fighting infection.
The sound made by the toadfish when mating underwater is so loud that it can be heard by humans on the shore.
The smallest frog is the "Brazilian baby frog", which is smaller than a dime.
The mating call of a male toadfish, who are underwater, is so loud that it can be heard by humans above water.
The fire-bellied toad has a bright red belly that it displays to predators as a defense mechanism. It is also a warning that the toad's skin is poisonous.
The Spring peeper (a frog) can survive the winter season with 65% of its body water as ice.
In 1864, A Quebec farmer found a frog inside a hailstone.
Frogs do not need to drink water as they absorb the water through their skin.
Found in Argentina, the ornate horned frog can eat an entire mouse with one swallow.
An adult "Gold Frog" measures to be 9.8 millimeters in body length.
The bee frog of Africa is no bigger than a bee.
Frogs start their lives as 'eggs' often laid in or near fresh water.
The smallest frog is less than 3/8 of an inch in length.
The largest frog in the world is called Goliath frog.
Frogs belong to a group of animals called amphibians.
The mandrill baboon has a red nose, blue cheeks, and an orange beard!
Chimpanzees use tools more than any other animal except man.
A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.
Squirrel Monkeys are the most common monkey in South-America.
Squirrel Monkeys tails are only partly prehensile.
Squirrel Monkeys move through trees by leaping.
Colobus monkey’s bushy tails, which often exceeds the length of their bodies.
Colobus monkeys have a long, black fur coat with a white stripe running down the sides of their backs to their tails.
Zanzibar is the only place where you will find the Kirk's Red Colobus monkey.
The male howler monkey of Central and South America is the noisiest land animal, which can be heard clearly from a distance of ten miles away.
The Spider Monkey offspring are dependent on their mothers for the first 2 to 3 years, with the females giving birth every 3 to 4 years.
Spider Monkeys will use all five appendages; arms, legs and tail, to scramble through trees.
Spider Monkeys have hook-like fingers, but no thumb, and the tip of their tail can support the weight of their entire body.
Spider Monkeys are very good climbers and are usually found in groups of around 30, often broken up into smaller sub-groups of around 3 or 4.
Groups of Snow Monkeys are primarily formed by adult females, there are roughly three time the number of adult females than there are adult males and young.
Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
Gorillas can catch human colds and other illnesses.
Gorillas are considered apes, not monkeys. The way to distinguish between an ape and a monkey is that apes do not have tails.
Gorilla's have unique nose prints just as humans have unique fingerprints.
Snow Monkeys live in areas where the temperature is an average of -10ºC.
The Old World monkeys include some terrestrial species such as the baboons, while New World monkeys are exclusively arboreal. Some New World monkeys have a prehensile, or grasping, tail. The tail can be used like a hand.
Monkeys are divided into two geographically separate groups - the New World monkeys of South America and the Old World monkeys, found in Africa and Asia.
Most hamsters blink one eye at a time.
A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.
Most dinosaurs walked on their toes.
The stegosaurus had a brain the size of a walnut!
Dinosaurs probably lived to be between 75 to 300 years of age. Scientists figured this out from looking at the structure of their bones.
The chameleon has a tongue that is 1.5 times the length of its body!
Squirrels can't remember where they hide half of their nuts.
Only male crickets can chirp.
A rabbit's teeth never stop growing.
Alligators cannot move backwards.
Texas horned toads can shoot blood out of the corners of their eyes.
The faster kangaroos hop, the less energy they use.
An okapi's tongue can grow to be 17 inches long.
An owl's eyes are bigger than its brain.
Salamanders breath through their skin.
The guanaco of South America, a cousin of the camel, has pads on its feet to keep its feet from burning on desert sand or freezing in mountain snow.
Foxes sometimes nip at the heals of cattle so the stomping of the cattle makes mice and other rodents come out of the ground, for the fox to eat.
Salamanders are known to come out of wood when it was burning inside a fireplace, this is because Salamanders hibernate in wood.
Whether an alligator is a male or female is determined by the temperature of the nest where the egg is hatched – 90 to 93 degrees will make it a male; 82 to 86 degrees will turn it into a female.
Some animals produce their own lights, called bioluminescence. The Brazilian railroad worm has a red light on its head and green lights down its side. All it needs to drive on the street is a turn signal.
You may have heard someone say, "It’s raining cats and dogs." There have been actual documented cases from all over the world of fish, frogs, dead birds, snakes, snails, beetles, worms and jellyfish raining down from the sky in great numbers, but no reports of showers of cats or dogs.
Skunks can shoot their bad-smelling spray only about two yards, but you can smell it up to two and a half miles away.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
