20 Random Animal Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

Animals can be peculiar at the best of times with their unique idiosyncrasies and strange behaviours. Here we highlight a few random animal facts you probably didn’t know about.

1. Adult lions pretend to be hurt by the bites of their young to encourage their strength.

Lioness and her cubs

2. Rats are not physically capable of vomiting, hence why Rat Poison is so effective.

3. Elephants are the only species of animal other than man known to have rituals around death. Elephants even grieve for non-family members.

4. Female Koala Bears have two vaginas.

5. Sloths sometimes mistake their own arms for branches, causing them to fall to their death.

6. Possums don’t ‘play dead’. They actually pass out from sheer terror when threatened.

7. Some Green Tree Frogs can be blue or yellow. Blue types lack the yellow pigment and, much more rarely, yellow types lack the blue pigment.

8. Cows ‘moo’ in accents specific to their region. They have dialects, just like humans.

9. Male puppies will sometimes let female puppies ‘win’ during play fights in order to get to know them better.

10. Only half of a dolphin’s brain sleeps at a time. The other half makes sure that it comes up for air so that it doesn’t drown.

11. Male fireflies emit light a lot more often than females in order to attract mating partners. Sometimes the females ‘flash back’ to lure the males closer so they can eat them alive.

12. When a male honey bee climaxes, his testicles explode and he dies.

13. Vampire Bats feed on those who are injured or too weak to hunt for themselves. Any bats not helping the colony get kicked out.

14. Adult squirrels have been known to adopt abandoned baby squirrels.

15. Cows have best friends and can become stressed when separated from them.

16. Scorpions can hold their breath for up to 6 days.

17. A shrimp’s heart is in his head.

18. The longest recorded flight by a chicken was just over 13 seconds.

19. Crocodiles can’t stick their tongues out due to it being attached to the bottom of its mouth by a membrane.

20. Butterflies are made of the most beautiful colours, unyet they can only see red, green and yellow.

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