The Ultimate Illustrated Animal Trivia Book

500 Fascinating Facts to Entertain, Amuse, and Educate All Ages

By: David Fickes

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

If you love animals and interesting facts, this book has 500 fascinating animal facts and over 140 beautiful, black-and-white photographs to entertain, amuse, and educate all ages. It makes a perfect gift for kids or anyone who loves animals. The facts and photographs cover a wide variety of animals; for example:

• Murmurations are the patterns starlings create when they flock together in the sky in swooping, coordinated patterns.
• The opossum has an average gestation period of just 12 days, the shortest of any mammal.
• Wombats are the world’s only animal with cube-shaped poop. It appears to be due to their intestines' irregular shape and elasticity.
• Gorillas are several times stronger than humans; a male silverback gorilla can lift 1,800 pounds.
• Bees have five eyes; they have two large, compound eyes on the sides of their head and three simple eyes on the top of their head.
• Zebras are black with white stripes. Zebra embryos are completely black; the white stripes appear during the last embryonic stage.
• Ants have the highest brain-to-body-weight ratio of any animal. Some species have a brain-to-body-weight ratio of 14-15%; comparatively, humans have a ratio of about 2.5%.
• Dogs aren't colorblind, but compared to humans, they only have 20% of the cone photoreceptor cells that control color perception. Dogs see in shades of yellow and blue and cannot see the range of colors from green to red, so dogs see the colors of the world as basically yellow, blue, and gray.
• A polar bear’s fur isn't white. It is transparent and appears white only because it reflects visible light.
• A baby blue whale gains about 200 pounds of weight each day.
• Cicadas flex their muscles to buckle a series of ribs, one after another, to produce their loud sound. Every time a rib buckles, it produces a click; many clicks produce the buzzing sound. The series of ribs are called a tymbal.
• A cat's jaw can't move sideways, so they can't chew large chunks.
• The elephant probably spends more time standing than any other mammal. In the wild, they live up to 70 years, and they only sleep about two hours a day. They also often sleep standing up, only lying down every few nights.
• Horses can't breathe through their mouths. A soft palate blocks off the pharynx from the mouth except when swallowing.
• A termite queen can live for at least 50 years, longer than any other insect. Some scientists believe they may live to 100.
• Male pandas perform a handstand when they urinate. By doing the handstand, they get their pee higher up the tree, allowing their scent to be carried further and increasing their mating chances.
• The hippopotamus produces its own sunscreen. It produces a mucus-like secretion that keeps them cool and acts as a powerful sunscreen.
• Bears have the best sense of smell of any land animal. Black bears have been observed traveling 18 miles in a straight line to a food source; grizzlies can find an elk carcass underwater, and polar bears can smell a seal through three feet of ice.
• Giraffes need the least sleep of any mammal; on average, they only sleep 30 minutes a day, just a few minutes at a time.
• In the wild, there is no such thing as an alpha male wolf. Wolves act like families, with older members as leaders. There is no fighting to move up the hierarchy, and they aren't born as leaders or followers.
• The average garden snail has over 14,000 teeth arranged in rows on its tongue. The typical snail tongue might have 120 rows of 100 teeth; some species have more than 20,000 teeth.
• Iguanas have three eyes. They have a third parietal eye on top of their head that can just distinguish light and dark.