• Interesting Facts about Amphibians (3)
• Interesting Facts about Birds (22)
• Interesting Facts about Fishes (9)
• Interesting Facts about Mammals (48)
• Interesting Facts about Reptiles (16)

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Sperm Wwhale

DESCRIPTION:  The sperm whale is a large,dark-colored, toothed whale with a massive, square-shaped head that can make upmore than a third of its body length. It has a single blowhole that is set onthe forehead and to the left, which produces a distinctive, angled blow. SIZE: Maximum size approaches 20 m; males growsubstantially larger than females.Male - 15.2m,Female - 10.7 m WEIGHT: Male -, 39,500 kg, Female - 12,200 kg FUN FACTS: Sperm whales posess the mostasymetrical skull of any mammal. Sperm whales have the largest brain ofany living animal - weighing up to 4.2 kg Sperm whales have been sonar tracked indives exceeding 2,250 m(1.4 miles).Analysis of stomach contents indicates that sperm whales are capable of divingbeyond 3,000 m. The longest recorded dive for a spermwhale was in excess of two hours. Spermwhales receive their common name for the massive spermaceti organ located inthe forehead region. This organ can hold up to 1,900 liters of wax-like oil.Opinions differ as to the purpose of the spermaceti. Some scientists believethat variations in oil density may assist the sperm whale in adjusting itsbouyancy during dives. Other scientists believe that the oil is used as anaccoustic aid in the process of echolocation.

Uganda Kob

DESCRIPTION: The Uganda kob is a medium-sizedantelope with a medium brown coat, medium length horns and large ears. SIZE:   Male 90-100 cm,Female 82-92 cm WEIGHT: Male About 94 kg, Female About 63 kg FUN FACTS: Males mark territory boundaries bywhistling. Kob breed year-round in East Africa with an 8-month gestation and generally oneoffspring. Inorder to evade a predator, kobs will leap into the air or seek refuge in wateror reed beds.

Vampire Bat

DESCRIPTION:         Pointed ears; longer thumb (incomparison to other true vampire bats); 20 teeth, with largest being 2 uppercanines and 2 upper incisors FUN FACTS: -Vampire bats have fewer teeth than anyother bat because they do not have to chew their food. -Along with flying, vampire bats canrun, jump, and hop with great speed, using their chest muscles to flingthemselves skyward. -Vampire bats in the same colony supporttheir roostmates by regurgitating blood to bats that are unable to find food. -Vampirebats don't suck blood. They make a small incision and lap up the blood of theirhosts.

Walrus

DESCRIPTION: Walruses are very distinctive having alarge, robust, fusiform body that is usually reddish-brown in color. On theirhead region, walruses lack external ear flaps, have hundreds of short,vibrissae (whiskers), and both males and females possess large tusks. Likeother pinnipeds, the fore and hind limbs of a walrus are modified intoflippers. Although hair is present on the rest of the body, it is absent on theflippers. The foreflippers are short and square in shape with tiny claws on alldigits, and the hind flippers are triangular in shape with larger claws on thethree middle digits. On land, walruses are capable of rotating their hindflippers under their pelvic girdle to walk on all fours in a similar manner tosea lions.Adult males are slightly larger than femaleswith longer and stouter tusks. SIZE:  The Pacific subspecies is larger than the Atlantic. Newborn calves are about 95-123 cm long.Male -  2.7-3.6 m,Female - 2.3-3.1 m WEIGHT: Newborn claves weigh about 45-75 kg. Male: About 800-1,700 kg, Female:        About 400-1,250 kg FUN FACTS: Walruses spend about two-thirds oftheir lives in the water. Highly social in nature, huge herds of walruses haulout (leave the water to get on land) on sea ice to rest and bear their young.Most walruses live where the air temperature is about -15 to 5C (5 to 41F). A thick layer of blubber insulates thewalrus. Blubber may be up to 15cm (6 in.)thick. During the winter, blubber may account for one-third of a walrus's totalbody mass. Blubber also streamlines the body and functions as an excess energyreserve. To locate food, walruses use theirvibrissae (whiskers). A walrus has about 400-700 vibrissae on its snout.Vibrissae are attached to muscles and are supplied with blood and nerves. Awalrus moves its snout through bottom sediment to find food. Abrasion patternsof the tusks show that they are dragged through the sediment, but are not usedto dig up prey. Walruses may also take in mouthfuls of water and squirtpowerful jets at the sea floor, excavating burrowing invertebrates such asclams and may consume 3,000-6,000 clams within a single feeding. Theprimary functions of the walruses' prominent tusks seem to be aiding in haulingout on ice and rocky shores and in establishing social dominance.

Waterbuck

Sitatungas(Naakong) are even more specialised than red lechwe, feeding only on aquaticvegetation. The sitatunga have splayed hooves to enable them to walk in thewater. These animals are very shy and can be seen especially well when thewater is very low."Water Kudu" is the Afrikaans translation for thesitatunga. As with the bushbuck, sitatunga are also members of the Tragelaphusfamily (Kudu and Nyala are other members).

Whale

A mammal, by definition, breathes air into thelungs, is warm blooded, feeds its offspring milk and has body hair. Mammalsevolved from reptiles some 70 million years ago and some like whales returnedto the waters approximately 16 million years after leaving it. The platypus isa duck-billed, beavertailed and otter-footed poisonous mammal that is alsospecial because it lays eggs. However, the eggs develop in the uterus for amuch longer time than that of egglaying non-mammals and the young ones are fedmilk — something unique to mammals. It is believed that monotremes (the classof platypus-like mammals) branched from other mammals early in evolution. Theother mammals evolved into either placental or marsupial groups. The class ofmammals that evolved into whales do not lay eggs at all.

White Bengal Tiger

Whitetigers are very rarely found in the wild. In about 100 yeas only 12 whitetigers have been seen in the wild habitats of India. They are almost extinct andmost of the ones living are in captivity, mainly in zoos. This specific tigeris neither an albino or a seperate subspecies of the tiger. They are simplywhite colored and have black stripes that makes them special. It has blue eyesand a pink nose. It also has prestine white colored fur. The white tiger isborn to a bengal tiger that has the recessive gene needed for white coloring. Apure white tiger has no stripes and are completely white in color.

Zebra

Zebra isthe only hoofed mammal who has the most distinctive coat on its body. Thestripes on the coat are as unique as fingerprints in humans, because no twozebras have these stripes exactly alike, although each of the three species hasits own general pattern. The stripeson zebra, the scientists assert, are as some form of camouflage. The patternsmay make it difficult for predators to identify a single animal from a runningherd and distort distance at dawn and dusk. Also because of their uniqueness,stripes may also help zebras recognize one another. Zebras are social animalsthat are accustomed to living in herds. They graze together, primarily ongrasslands. Zebras of plains are the most common species. They live in smallfamily groups consisting of a stallion male, several females, and their young.These units may combine with others to form splendid herds but family memberswill remain close within the herd.  Zebras areconstantly aware of lions and hyenas. Some zebras within a herd remain alert todanger. If a zebra is attacked, the other members of its family willimmediately come to its defense, attempting to drive off predators and byencircling the wounded zebra.

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List of Animals English Globe