98 Fun Facts About Funny Animal Facts

What do sea otters wrap themselves in to keep from drifting out to sea while they rest and eat?

Sea otters wrap themselves in kelp fronds so they do not drift while resting; they also gather in single-sex groups called rafts that can number dozens of animals.

Which animal is known for being unable to physically vomit?

Horses cannot vomit: a powerful lower oesophageal sphincter and the angle at which the oesophagus meets the stomach keep food from coming back up, so digestive trouble quickly becomes colic.

What is a group of flamingos called?

A flamboyance it is, though the less showy alternative is a 'stand'.

How do wombats mark their territory in an unusual way?

Wombats produce cube-shaped droppings, which they stack on rocks and logs to mark territory; the physics of how the cubes form won Patricia Yang and David Hu a 2019 Ig Nobel Prize.

Which marine creature has three hearts?

An octopus has three hearts: one systemic heart circulates blood around the body while two branchial hearts pump it through the gills.

Up to how many types of photoreceptor cell can a mantis shrimp have in its eyes?

Mantis shrimp eyes can hold up to 16 types of photoreceptor, against three cone types in humans; some species can detect ultraviolet and polarised light.

What happens to a goldfish if kept in a completely dark room for an extended period?

It fades to almost gray: goldfish produce pigment in response to light, so one kept in darkness gradually loses its orange colour, much as human skin tans in the sun.

Which bird builds elaborate decorated structures to attract a mate?

Male bowerbirds build and decorate bowers with berries, shells and even bottle caps; satin bowerbirds favour blue objects, matching the preferences of the females they court.

Roughly how much of each day does a giant panda spend foraging and eating?

A giant panda spends 10 to 16 hours a day eating, because bamboo is so low in nutrients; it may consume 9 to 14 kg and defecate up to 40 times daily.

What unusual defense mechanism do horned lizards use when threatened?

They do it by restricting blood flow leaving the head until tiny vessels around the eyelids rupture; the blood tastes foul to canine and feline predators.

Which group of mammals sleeps around 18 to 20 hours per day?

Bats sleep around 18 to 20 hours a day; the little brown bat has been recorded at nearly 20 hours, while giraffes and horses manage on under five.

The adorable 'sea bunny' that went viral online is actually what type of creature?

The 'sea bunny' is Jorunna parva, a nudibranch (sea slug) barely 2 cm long; its black-and-white rhinophores look like rabbit ears, and it went viral on Japanese Twitter in 2015.

What is the collective noun for a group of crows?

A group of crows is a murder, a term dating from 15th-century English lists of collective nouns; a group of ravens, by contrast, is often called an unkindness.

Turritopsis dohrnii is nicknamed the 'immortal jellyfish' because, when stressed or old, it can do what?

A stressed, sick or ageing individual can revert to the polyp stage and form a whole new colony.

How do elephants typically react on finding the remains of a dead elephant?

They show the same interest in the bones of unrelated elephants that died long ago.

Which animal can rotate its head nearly 270 degrees in either direction?

Owls can turn their heads about 270 degrees; they have 14 neck vertebrae to our seven, and oversized artery channels keep blood flowing to the brain mid-turn.

What unusual ability do flatworms have if cut in half?

Both halves regenerate into complete worms, and pieces as small as 1/279th of the animal can regrow, which is why planarians are called 'immortal under the edge of a knife'.

What color is a hippo's sweat?

Two acidic pigments in the secretion, one red and one orange, inhibit bacteria and absorb ultraviolet light, giving a sunscreen effect.

Which animal's fingerprints are close enough to ours to confuse crime scene investigators?

It is a striking case of convergent evolution: koalas are marsupials, and their prints likely evolved for gripping branches.

What is a baby kangaroo called?

A baby kangaroo is a joey; born about the size of a jellybean, it crawls into its mother's pouch and stays there for roughly six months.

What happens to a male anglerfish when it finds a female?

In deep-sea anglerfish the tiny male fuses onto the female's body, his bloodstream joining hers; early scientists mistook attached males for parasites, so the arrangement is called sexual parasitism.

How do bottlenose dolphins identify and call one another?

Dolphins have been shown to remember another dolphin's whistle after more than 20 years without contact.

Which animal can survive being frozen solid and then thawed out?

The wood frog freezes solid each winter with no heartbeat, breathing or detectable brain activity; glucose acts as antifreeze in its cells, and it thaws and hops away in spring.

Which microscopic animal, sometimes called a water bear, has survived direct exposure to outer space?

Tardigrades, or water bears, survived 10 days in open space on the 2007 FOTON-M3 mission; in their dried-out 'tun' state they withstand vacuum, radiation and temperatures from -272 °C to 149 °C.

What peculiar activity have crows been observed doing for apparent enjoyment?

A hooded crow in Russia was filmed riding a jar lid down a snowy roof, then carrying it back up to go again.

Which insect can pull over 1,100 times its own body mass?

Onthophagus taurus, the bull-headed dung beetle, holds the record; the horns on males are used to fight rivals in tunnels.

What body part does a butterfly use to taste things?

The receptors work only on contact, so landing on a leaf tells a female whether her caterpillars could eat it.

Which waxy substance from a sperm whale's gut was prized by perfumers?

Ambergris forms around squid beaks in a sperm whale's intestines; after years floating in the ocean it develops an earthy scent prized by perfumers as a fixative.

Which burrowing rodent feels no skin pain and resists cancer and oxygen deprivation?

The naked mole-rat lacks the neurotransmitter that signals skin pain, almost never develops cancer and has survived 18 minutes without oxygen; its oxygen-hungry haemoglobin suits crowded, stuffy tunnels.

Thanks to a shared taste-receptor gene mutation, which flavour can cats not detect at all?

Cats cannot taste sweet: a defect in the Tas1r2 gene leaves them without a working sweet receptor, so they are indifferent to sugar; their umami and bitter receptors still work.

What do baby elephants do with their trunks that is similar to human babies?

Calves are born with little control over the trunk, so the habit doubles as practice for a complex organ.

Which animal keeps a favourite rock in a skin pouch for cracking open shellfish?

Sea otters keep a favourite rock in a loose skin pouch under each foreleg, along with the day's catch, and hammer shellfish open on their chests; they are among the few tool-using mammals.

What unique vocalization can a lyrebird produce?

The superb lyrebird mimics chainsaws and car alarms, along with camera shutters, mill whistles and other birds' songs; David Attenborough's 1998 Life of Birds footage made its mimicry famous.

On average, roughly how many hours a day does a domestic cat sleep?

Domestic cats average about 13 to 14 hours of sleep a day, and some manage 20; the light dozing gave English the phrase 'cat nap'.

Which animal's prehensile tongue, about 45 cm (18 in) long, strips leaves from thorny branches?

A giraffe's skull joints let it tip its head back more than 90 degrees, so the 45 cm tongue can reach leaves directly above.

Which animal can regrow whole limbs and even repair parts of its brain and heart?

The axolotl regrows whole limbs and repairs brain and heart tissue without scarring; it can even accept eye and brain-tissue transplants from other individuals and restore them to full function.

What do male gentoo penguins compete over to win a female's attention?

Male gentoo penguins present females with the nicest pebble they can find for the nest; nest stones are jealously guarded, and disputes over ownership turn into noisy fights.

What is a group of pugs called?

A group of pugs is a grumble, a modern collective noun popular with breed clubs; it nods to the snorting, grumbling noises the flat-faced dogs make.

Which animal cannot stick its tongue out?

Crocodiles cannot stick their tongues out: the tongue is held by a membrane to the floor of the mouth. Its surface carries salt-gland pores, a trait that separates crocodiles from alligators.

How do herrings communicate with each other underwater?

Researchers named the bursts Fast Repetitive Tick sounds, and the discovery earned a 2004 Ig Nobel Prize.

Which mammal lacks a functional stomach altogether?

The platypus has no functional stomach: its gullet joins almost directly to the intestine, and the genes for acid and pepsin production have been lost. Males also carry a venomous spur on each hind foot.

What fraction of all known animal species on Earth are beetles?

Beetles make up about 1 in 4 of all described animal species, some 400,000 named kinds; asked what creation revealed about its maker, J.B.S. Haldane reportedly replied 'an inordinate fondness for beetles'.

What unusual talent does the pistol shrimp have?

If the flash were thermal, the collapsing bubble would need to exceed 5,000 K, close to the surface temperature of the Sun.

How many tentacles do most land slugs carry on their heads?

Most land slugs have four tentacles: the upper pair carries eyespots and senses light, while the lower pair provides the sense of smell.

What unexpected material makes up a rhinoceros horn?

Rhinoceros horn is made of keratin, the same protein as hair and fingernails, with no bone core unlike antlers; there is no good evidence for the health benefits claimed in traditional medicine.

Which animal is known to laugh when tickled?

The 50-kHz calls are ultrasonic, and rats that 'laugh' most also play most and seek out other laughing rats.

Which Australian animal's young are called puggles?

Echidna young are called puggles: the mother lays a single egg into her pouch, and the hatchling stays there lapping milk from skin patches for about two months.

Sloths spend almost their whole lives in the canopy; roughly how often does one climb down to defecate on the ground?

About every eight days, and scientists still argue over why they risk it, since sloths are most vulnerable to predators on the ground.

Roughly what share of predatory mantis species practise sexual cannibalism?

About 90% of predatory mantis species practise sexual cannibalism, though in the wild only around a quarter of male-female encounters end with the male being eaten.

Experiments on decapitated cockroaches found they still showed which behaviour?

Headless cockroaches still showed shock avoidance and escape: in Horridge's 1962 experiments decapitated roaches learned to hold a leg up to avoid electric shocks, since ganglia along the body control movement.

What is a turkey vulture's primary form of defence?

A turkey vulture's main defence is regurgitating semi-digested meat: the foul-smelling vomit deters most nest raiders and can sting if it lands in a predator's eyes.

Male emperor penguins eat nothing while incubating their egg and lose about how much weight?

A male emperor penguin loses about 12 kg (26 lb) over roughly 64 days of incubation, standing through the Antarctic winter without eating while the female feeds at sea.

What does a lobster usually do with the shell it has just moulted?

A freshly moulted lobster usually eats its shed shell, recovering the calcium it needs to harden the new one, which takes several weeks.

A hummingbird's heart rate has been measured as high as how many beats per minute, in a blue-throated hummingbird?

1,260 beats per minute came with 250 breaths a minute at rest; at night hummingbirds can drop into torpor, slowing metabolism to about one-fifteenth of normal.

Roughly how much weight does a newborn blue whale calf gain per day?

A blue whale calf gains about 90 kg (200 lb) a day on extremely rich milk, putting on roughly 17,000 kg before it is weaned at 6-8 months.

How does a sea cucumber 'breathe'?

A pair of respiratory trees branching inside the cloaca extract dissolved oxygen before the water is expelled again.

How do common vampire bats help roost-mates that failed to find a meal?

Who gets fed is predicted by kinship, association and past reciprocal help, and bats that groom each other also share food.

How long do adult females of the mayfly Dolania americana survive?

Adult female Dolania americana live less than five minutes, just long enough to mate and lay eggs; mayflies are also the only insects in which a winged form moults again, from subimago to adult.

Each of a tarsier's eyeballs is about 16 mm across, making it as large as which organ?

A tarsier's eyeball is as large as its brain, about 16 mm across; since the eyes barely move in their sockets, the tiny Southeast Asian primate turns its head nearly 180 degrees instead.

A cuttlefish's pupil has what unusual shape?

A cuttlefish's pupil is a smoothly curving W; the odd shape may accentuate chromatic aberration, letting a colour-blind animal sense colour by focusing specific wavelengths.

A satellite-tracked great frigatebird in the Indian Ocean stayed aloft without landing for how long?

One tracked great frigatebird stayed aloft for two months; the 2016 study found the birds ride updrafts under cumulus clouds and sleep in brief bursts on the wing.

Non-breeding common swifts may stay in continuous flight for up to how long?

Non-breeding common swifts can stay airborne for up to ten months: a 2016 tracking study found some never landed between breeding seasons, and they never voluntarily settle on the ground.

When a Virginia opossum 'plays possum', how long can the death-feigning last?

Playing possum can last several hours, up to about four; the involuntary state also convinces some large animals that the opossum is no threat to their young, not just an unappetising meal.

Which bird lays the largest egg relative to its body size?

The kiwi lays the largest egg relative to body size of any bird: it can weigh about 20% of the female's weight, roughly six times what a bird her size would be expected to lay.

What determines whether an American alligator egg hatches male or female?

Incubation temperature decides the sex: alligator eggs kept at around 33 °C produce mostly males, while cooler nests near 30 °C produce females.

How do hagfish defend themselves against larger predators?

The jawless 'slime eels' have skin attached only along the back, and it holds close to a third of their blood volume.

The chemical spray a bombardier beetle fires at attackers reaches roughly what temperature?

A bombardier beetle's spray comes out near 100 °C: an exothermic reaction of hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide vaporises about a fifth of the mixture, which drives it out with a pop.

A woodpecker's extremely long tongue bone winds around the outside of what?

A woodpecker's hyoid, the tongue bone, wraps around the outside of its skull and anchors near the nostril; the extra length lets the tongue reach deep into insect tunnels.

A female seahorse deposits up to how many eggs into the male's brood pouch?

A female seahorse can deposit up to 1,500 eggs in the male's brood pouch after a 'true courtship dance' lasting about eight hours; the male then carries them for several weeks.

Which function for a zebra's stripes is best supported by the evidence?

Deterring biting flies has the strongest support: striped surfaces attract far fewer horse flies, which spread diseases lethal to equines such as African horse sickness and equine infectious anaemia.

The Basenji is nicknamed the 'barkless' dog because it vocalises how instead?

The Basenji makes a yodel-like 'talk', nicknamed a barroo, thanks to an unusually shaped larynx, a feature it shares with the New Guinea singing dog.

The star-nosed mole, the fastest-eating mammal, can find and eat food in as little as how long?

The star-nosed mole can find and eat food in about 120 milliseconds; its brain decides within roughly eight milliseconds whether something is edible, using a star of 22 tentacles packed with touch receptors.

Greenland sharks reach sexual maturity at roughly what age?

Greenland sharks reach sexual maturity at about 150 years; radiocarbon dating of eye lenses put the oldest individual at roughly 392 years, and gestation is estimated at 8 to 18 years.

The 'bum-breathing' Fitzroy River turtle gets up to what share of its oxygen through its cloaca?

The Fitzroy River turtle can take up to 70% of its oxygen through its cloaca, whose enlarged bursae are lined with branching papillae that pull oxygen straight from the water.

Which Australian marsupial went viral in the 2010s as 'the world's happiest animal'?

The quokka, a cat-sized wallaby from Rottnest Island, became 'the world's happiest animal' online; the apparent grin is a coincidence of facial structure, which has not stopped the selfie trend.

What does a camel actually store in its hump?

Metabolising that fat yields a greater mass of water than the fat itself, because the process pulls in oxygen.

A greater honeyguide leads people to what?

In northern Tanzania the birds raised the Hadza people's rate of finding bee nests by 560%.

Male ring-tailed lemurs settle disputes in 'stink fights' by doing what?

They douse their tails in pheromones from glands near the wrists before waving them at opponents.

The so-called vulture bees of South America feed on what?

Vulture bees (Trigona) feed on rotting meat instead of pollen; their strong mandibles tear flesh, and the secretions they store gave rise to the belief that they make 'meat honey'.

Which fish has a second set of throat jaws that shoot forward to grab prey?

Moray eels have pharyngeal jaws in the throat that lunge forward into the mouth to grip prey and drag it down, a mechanism described by Mehta and Wainwright in 2007.

Hoatzin chicks are notable for having what on their wings?

Hoatzin chicks have two claws on each wing; if threatened they drop into the water, swim under the surface and later climb back up to the nest using the claws.

How does the aye-aye of Madagascar locate grubs hidden inside trees?

Having found a hollow, it gnaws a hole and fishes the grub out with a specially thin middle finger.

How does an archerfish knock down insects perched on overhanging leaves?

An adult almost always hits the target on its first shot, usually firing at an angle of about 74 degrees.

When the dominant egg-layer in a clownfish group disappears, what happens?

The breeding male changes sex to become the new female; clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites, and the largest non-breeder then moves up to become the breeding male.

A narwhal's spiralled tusk is actually what?

A narwhal's tusk is an elongated canine tooth that erupts through the lip from the left side of the upper jaw; some males grow two when the right one also pushes through.

In what position have pods of sperm whales been observed sleeping?

Sperm whales drift vertically with heads near the surface in a 'sleeping' posture; a 2008 study also found they may sleep with both halves of the brain at once, unlike many whales.

What colour is horseshoe crab blood?

Horseshoe crab blood is blue because it carries oxygen with copper-based hemocyanin; its amebocytes are harvested to test medicines and vaccines for bacterial toxins.

Underneath its white or yellowish fur, what colour is a polar bear's skin?

The guard hairs are hollow and transparent, trapping heat and helping the bear float.

The reflective layer in Arctic reindeer eyes changes between which two colours over the year?

The shift improves their vision during the months of continuous darkness, and they can also see into the ultraviolet.

Which bird is one of the few known to recognise itself in a mirror?

Eurasian magpies passed the mirror mark test in a 2008 study, pecking at a coloured sticker on their throats; self-recognition had previously been shown mostly in great apes, dolphins and elephants.

Where does a male Darwin's frog carry his developing tadpoles?

The male Darwin's frog keeps the tadpoles in his vocal sac; he swallows the eggs once the embryos start moving and holds them there until they finish metamorphosis.

Female Surinam toads incubate their eggs where?

Female Surinam toads carry their eggs in pits in the skin of their backs, each embryo developing in its own pocket; fully formed toadlets emerge after several months.

Chinchillas have the densest fur of any land mammal, with roughly how many hairs per follicle?

Each chinchilla follicle sprouts about 50 hairs, giving roughly 20,000 hairs per square centimetre; the animal is named after the Chincha people of the Andes.

In a 1995 experiment, pigeons were trained to tell apart paintings by which two artists?

Watanabe's pigeons learned to tell Picasso from Monet, then generalised to unseen works and even sorted cubist from impressionist paintings; the study won the 1995 Ig Nobel Prize.

How many eyes does a box jellyfish have?

24 eyes, six on each of its four rhopalia, and unlike most jellyfish some are true lens eyes with retinas and corneas.

What lets a walrus bob upright in the water and sleep?

A walrus inflates a pharyngeal air sac in its throat to bob upright and sleep at sea; its genus name Odobenus means 'tooth-walker', from the way it hauls out using its tusks.

What feature lets a honey badger turn and twist freely even when a predator grabs it?

The honey badger's very loose, thick skin lets it twist round and bite an attacker that has hold of it; with its strength and famously ferocious defence, it has few natural predators.

Imo, a female Japanese macaque on Koshima Island, became famous for doing what with her sweet potatoes, a habit her troop copied?

Washing them in water came first; Imo later dipped clean food in seawater for seasoning, and the habit spread through the troop for generations.