Animals

The only Llama we know of in Tibet would be the Dalai Lama, although he currently doesn’t live there anymore. Llamas are believed to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago, and by the end of … Read more

The water buffalo is a large bovine animal, and is commonly used as livestock in southern Asia, and in South America, north Africa, and even southern Europe. The domestic variety of the water buffalo is the product of thousands of years of selective breeding in South Asia and descend from one common ancestor, the Wild … Read more

There are no wild reindeer on earth, but that’s only by a technicality. Reindeer are by definition smaller, domesticated caribou, which means technically that there are no “wild” reindeer in the world. So what do people do with captive reindeer, you may be wondering? Think of them as an arctic camel. Their feet are wide … Read more

Reindeer got their name because they belong to the deer family, and they can wear reins, but that’s the simple version. More likely, the name rein (deer) is of Norse origin from the Old Norse word “hreinn”, which goes back to Proto-Germanic hraina and Proto-Indo-European kroino, meaning “horned animal”. In Finnish the reindeer is known … Read more

The name Caribou is believed to have come from its Micmac Indian name xalibu, “the one who paws,” hinting at the caribou’s trait of pawing in the snow for lichen. Caribou is a term used in North America for wild reindeer. Originally, the reindeer was found in Scandinavia, eastern Europe, Russia, and northern China. Large … Read more

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer made his debut in 1939. Not surprisingly, Rudolph was originally created as part of an ad campaign. The Chicago-based Montgomery Ward department store asked an employee, veteran copywriter Robert May, to come up with a character the store could use in holiday coloring books to pass out at Christmas. As he … Read more

In Clement Moore’s 1822 Christmas poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” which we call ” ‘Twos the Night Before Christmas,” the reindeer is named Donder, from the Dutch word meaning “thunder.” However, in the popular song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the reindeer is called Donner. Donner means “thunder” in German, so it’s not such a … Read more

Some elephants are still used as transportation in India and Asia, but not nearly as many as in the past. This is primarily because most forests have been cut away, reducing the number of elephants needed for logging, a once dependable job for the beast. Also, motor vehicles are rapidly displacing elephants as transportation in … Read more

The African Elephant is hardly ever used as a working animal. In the Congo, people have had some small success training African forest elephants. But as a rule African Elephants are difficult to train, and even then are never fully docile, so the practice never really caught on in other parts of Africa. If you … Read more

There is no record of American silversmith and Patriot Paul Revere owning a horse during the American Revolution, although many argue he probably did. What did happen was this. He was rowed across the Charles River to Charleston, just north of Boston, to begin the ride, so naturally he had no horse with him. The … Read more

George Washington had several horses throughout the American Revolutionary War, but his two prized steeds were Nelson and Blueskin. Mongolia, another favorite horse of Washington’s, was a white Arab. A few of his other horses were Samson, Steady, Leonidas, and Traveller, all good and hearty horse names. Washington, however, wasn’t so straight-faced when it came … Read more

Captain Miles Keogh’s horse, Comanche, who was found wounded but still breathing, survived Custer’s Last Stand. After being rescued and nursed back to health by the U.S. Army in 1876, he was put to work trotting in parades and making other heroic public appearances. In April, 1878, Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis issued a humane order … Read more

Before there were engines, the only power available in the Western world, besides brute human strength, was the power of a horse. Engineer James Watt coined the term when making improvements to the steam engine in the 1760s. Watt needed to be able to place a value on the energy produced by the mechanical steam … Read more

There is the obvious reason why the camel called the “ship of the desert”. Camels can make it across a desert carrying goods, as a ship crosses an ocean. That said, if you’ve ever ridden a camel, you will see another very clear similarity between a camel ride and a ship voyage. Camels move the … Read more

The Bedouins of the Middle East call the camel Ata Allah, or “God’s gift”. The Bedouins are a previously nomadic desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group and have over 160 distinct words in their language to describe camels and their traits. They are divided into five related tribes and are organized on several levels. Several tents of … Read more

We can’t speak for the donkeys, but their presence at the manger when Jesus was Born would have been likely. After all, it was a hotel stable, and we can assume there were all sorts of manger using animals hanging around and wondering what the heck was taking place in their food dish. Even if … Read more

Camels actually have quite a long history in the United States. Many natural history experts believe camels actually originated in North America 40 million years ago and migrated north and west through Alaska and into Asia along with many other large animals prior to the Ice Age. More recently, though, camels were used as pack … Read more

Mange is a fairly common problem with camels, dogs, and a few other animals. It’s caused by a skin mite that burrows into the skin and results in itching, loss of appetite, hair loss, and white sores. This condition is very difficult for the camel and can ultimately lead to death if untreated. The good … Read more

We don’t know what the local aborigines thought when they first saw what they called a tambreet, or boonaburra in the Mallangong language. Although an aboriginal myth about how the platypus evolved has to do with a teenage duck disobeying her father by going ashore and getting raped by a water rat. The name “platypus” … Read more

The platypus has a rubbery bill which makes it possible to shovel up mollusks and other food from the water. It has been discovered recently that the platypus’s bill has thousands of touch-sensitive and electro-sensitive pores. The latter can detect weak electric currents from the muscle activity of prey and perhaps even electric fields from … Read more

The Budgerigar or Common Pet Parakeet, is often called a budgie or parakeet. The Budgie is a small parrot and the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus. The Budgerigar has been bred extensively with a profusion of color forms resulting. Their real name is budgerigar, or “budgie” for short. Found throughout the drier parts … Read more

The kiwi fruit is not called kiwi because it has to go through a kiwi bird’s digestive system to sprout. The kiwi fruit isn’t even a native of New Zealand like the bird. The fruit really comes from southeastern China. It was called the Chinese gooseberry until it was transplanted to tropical places around the … Read more

There aren’t any Fightin’ Emus at EMU, nor are they the mascot of the other significant EMU, Eastern Mennonite University. That’s too bad, because the name would sort of make sense, and not just because of the EMU initials. After all, Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti is overshadowed by its larger, more prestigious relative, the … Read more

There are more than 13 sheep for each of the 3,853,116 people who live in New Zealand. Sheep are an iconic part of New Zealand’s culture and economy and it has the highest density of sheep per capita. In New Zealand, February 15th was declared official National Lamb Day in 2007 to celebrate the country’s … Read more

The Kookaburra song, “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree” is a popular Australian nursery rhyme and round about the Kookaburra bird, and was written by Marion Sinclair. The Kookaburra got its name from name from the Wiradjuri word “guuguubarra”, which sounds like its call. The gum tree is another name for the eucalyptus tree … Read more

The koala is an herbivorous marsupial that lives in Australia, and is also known by it’s scientific name Phascolarctos cinereus. Although cute and teddybear-like, koalas are no more related to bears than they are to elephants. Koalas are marsupials, and their closest living relative is the wombat. English-speaking settlers from the late 18th century first … Read more

Koalas eat Eucalyptus leaves and shoots, and Koalas are herbivorous marsupials, even though they look like bears. But they’re fussy, eating only a few of the 500 species of eucalyptus in Australia. They obtain liquid from eucalyptus leaves and rarely drink water. It’s not true that the word koala comes from an Australian Aborigine word … Read more

Most of Australia’s 140 Species of Native Snakes are Poisonous. Of the world’s top twenty-five most poisonous snakes, twenty-one of them are in Australia, including sea snakes that are two to ten times more poisonous than cobras. Sea snakes are venomous snakes that have evolved from terrestrial ancestors, and live in marine environments for most … Read more

Dingoes are wild dogs native to Australia the size of English setters, and hunt wallabies, sheep, rabbits, and anything else they can catch and drag away. In 1998 a dingo was accused of dragging a baby a few feet toward the bush before being chased away by the infant’s parents. In a celebrated murder case … Read more

The dingo was the first non-native animal species imported to Australia by people, and as with subsequent importations, the results have been somewhat disastrous to the native animal populations. The Dingo is a domestic dog which has reverted to a wild state and currently lives independent from humans in most of its habitat. Dingos love … Read more

A bandicoot is a species of small marsupial omnivores that look very much like rats. The word bandicoot is an anglicised form of the Telugu word pandi-kokku, which means pig-rat, and originally referred to the unrelated Indian Bandicoot Rat. There are twenty-one different species of bandicoots which live in Australia and New Guinea, including the … Read more

Despite what you might have heard, camels don’t really store water in their humps. Instead, the humps are big chunks of fat. Sure, it looks funny, but it’s a system that works. In the desert camels may have to go for days and weeks without food, so the humps act as a storehouse of energy. … Read more

The camel eye is very well adapted for its desert existence. Camels have three eyelids. The upper eyelid and lower eyelid each have eyelashes, and the third eyelid is thin, transparent and moves from side to side like a windshield wiper. During sandstorms, camels often keep their third eyelids closed and can still see where … Read more

Camels are very territorial, and if they feel threatened, they do spit, mostly at each other over food, but sometimes at humans if angry or hurt. Fair warning, if you do get caught in the crossfire, it can be pretty smelly, as camel spit consists of bile from its stomach mixed with saliva. Contrary to … Read more

Camels have many features that help them conserve water in the dry desert heat. They have very efficient cooling systems which reduces the amount of water lost through perspiration. Camels are able to withstand huge changes in body temperature and water content that would kill most other animals, and they may not sweat at all … Read more

If food is hard to find, a camel will eat anything, bone, meat, leather, and even garbage. Camels usually eat grass, various plants, hay and dry grains, and can eat up to 9 pounds per day. Camels seem to always be chewing something don’t they. Camels do ruminate, or chew their cud, but they are, … Read more

There are two types of camel hair. Camel hair from the camel’s protective outer coat is coarse and inflexible, but camel hair or fur the pure under coat are soft and plush. Pure camel hair which is often used for coats, is gathered when camels molt in warmer seasons, and this undercoat is very soft … Read more

Camels can be pretty fast runners. At the beginning of races, camels have been clocked upward of 40 mph. This pace slows considerably as the race progresses, however. The average speed of a racing camel is about 25 mph. A camel usually averages about 2 to 3 miles an hour when simply walking, 9 or … Read more

Unleash the speed debate between horse and camel in a riveting exploration. Discover which animal claims victory in a hypothetical 100-mile race, unraveling the science behind their strides. Key Takeaways: Explore the factors influencing the speed of horses and camels. Understand the biomechanics and adaptations that contribute to their racing capabilities. Find out the surprising … Read more

In their native habitat, it’s estimated that there are only about 500 wild Asian camels and no Arabian ones at all. The Bactrian camel is now reduced to about 1.4 million animals, mostly domesticated, and there are only about 1000 wild Bactrian camels left in the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia. However, outside the … Read more

A camel is an even-toed ungulate with fatty deposits we know as humps on its back. There are two species of camels. The Dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and is found in North Africa and the Middle East. The Bactrian camel has two humps, and the few remaining in the wild in … Read more

Wallabies, Wallaroos, and Kangaroos are all macropods of the Macropodidae family. The word macropod comes from the Greek word meaning “long foot”. Macropods have very large hind legs and a long, powerfully muscled tail, and most are herbivorous grazers and have specialized teeth for cropping and grinding up fibrous plants. There are about 55 different … Read more

Tree kangaroos are macropods that live in trees in the mountainous rainforests of New Guinea, northeastern Queensland Australia, and a few islands nearby. Tree-kangaroos evolved from animals similar to modern kangaroos, and have strong hind legs and very long tails for balance, and stronger forelimbs with longer claws for climbing. On the ground, tree-kangaroos are … Read more

Kangaroo rats are small rodents that live in North America, and their name comes from the way they hop like a kangaroo, although they are not related. There are currently 19 kangaroo rat species and they have highly developed hind legs, live in deep burrows to protect them from the desert heat, and do not … Read more

Captain Kangaroo was the longest-running children’s television program when it aired weekday mornings from October 3, 1955 until 1984 on CBS. Bob Keeshan played Captain Kangaroo, and the show was set in “The Captain’s Place” where the Captain Kangaroo would tell stories, meet guests and perform silly stunts with puppets and regular human characters. Despite … Read more

The Wombat is not a bat at all, but a short-legged, muscular marsupial with a very short tail that lives in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. The Wombat’s name comes from the Eora Aboriginal people who were the natives of Sydney, Australia. A backwards pouch which helps keep the dirt out while digging makes the Wombat … Read more

The Tasmanian devil is the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world and can only be found in the Australian island state of Tasmania. Stocky and muscular and the size of a small dog, Tasmanian devils have black fur, smell bad when threatened, and has an extremely loud and disturbing screech. Just like the cartoon, Tasmanian … Read more

There are sometimes odd exceptions to rules in the animal kingdom. For example, virtually all mammals give birth to their young. However, take careful note of the “virtually” in the last sentence, of the 4,500 known species of mammals, 4,498 of them deliver their babies live. The two that don’t are related to each other, … Read more

The Box jellyfish is a cube-shaped jellyfish known for its potent venom and can be found in northern Australia, Indonesia, Hawaii, and other tropical waters. The Box jellyfish uses its venom to catch prey and as a defense against predators. Its sting is extremely painful and sometimes fatal to humans, making it one of the … Read more

From the 16th century Portugal was a world naval power, and the man-of-war was a large war ship armed with cannons and propelled mainly by sails and not by oars. The man-of-war was developed in England in the early 1600s from the carrack ship design, which later evolved into the galleon. The man-of-war was designed … Read more

The Portuguese Man of War is a marine invertebrate also known as Physalia physalis from the Physaliidae family, and is very similar to a jellyfish but isn’t. Technically a siphonophore, other names for the Portuguese Man of War include Portuguese Man o’ War, bluebottle, and man-of-war. The Portuguese Man of War’s name comes from a … Read more

Sharks are fish that date from more than 420 million years ago, before the time of the dinosaurs. There are over 440 species of Shark and some like the whale shark, which can reach 39 feet, feed only on plankton and small squid. Sharks were called “sea dogs” by sailors until the 16th century. After … Read more

The nurse shark is also known as Ginglymostoma cirratum in the scientific community, and can reach a length of 14 feet and weigh 330 pounds. Its family name, Ginglymostomatidae, comes from the Greek word γίγγλυμος which means hinge and στῶμα meaning mouth. The shark’s skin is very tough and is often sought after for its … Read more

The Great White Shark, also known as great white or white death, is a large shark found in coastal surface waters in oceans all over the world. The great white shark is known for its size, and can exceed 20 feet and 4,940 pounds. With a lifespan of about 30 to 100 years, the great … Read more

Sharks are a fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly efficient streamlined body. The earliest sharks that we know of evolved from more than 420 million years ago, before dinosaurs even existed. Sharks have several sets of replaceable teeth, and popular species such as the Great White Shark are predators at the top … Read more

Cod liver oil is a nutritional supplement that comes from the liver of cod fish, which is how its name originated. It has high levels of omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, and is also high in vitamin A and D. Cod liver oil is known to reduce the symptoms of arthritis, and its other … Read more

The sea otter is a marine mammal that can be found on the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Its thick luxurious fur almost drove them to extinction, and is the thickest fur in the animal kingdom. The otter’s unbelievable density of fur, has about 650,000 hairs per square inch of its … Read more

The electric eel is the only species of its kind that can generate powerful electric shocks for self-defense and hunting prey. Electric eels live in the fresh waters of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers in South America, and is not an eel but a knifefish, despite its name. An electric eel can produce about 500 … Read more

True crabs are crustaceans that have a short projecting “tail” or reduced hidden abdomen, while others such as hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs and crab lice, are not true crabs. Crabs can be found in oceans all over the world, and many crabs in tropical regions live in freshwater and on land. They are usually covered … Read more

A pitiful few members of the blue crab family have paddle-shaped legs that allow them to row through the water. Some crabs such as the Leaf Porter Crab hitch a ride on floating objects like leaves. This peculiar crab from Singapore uses leaves both as a flotation device when traveling and as defense against predators. … Read more

Lobsters have blood that is colorless unless exposed to oxygen, when it develops a bluish tint. Lobsters are mostly gray, green, or brown when alive, but never red. Boiling them breaks down the pigments that color their shells. The most durable heat-resistant pigments are the carotin-based reds, and they are last to break down during … Read more

Lobsters are a little different from humans and mammals, being that they’re crustaceans n all. Many lobsters live up to 50 years and even more in some cases. Some scientists have even claimed that they could effectively live indefinitely. They start out looking like tiny bugs, smaller than crickets, and they grow and molt all … Read more

Unrefrigerated lobster meat turns bad faster than other types of edible animal flesh, including fish. This is why the cruel tradition of boiling them alive began centuries ago, before the refrigerator was invented. Nowadays they can be killed humanely without going bad before boiling. In fact, currently most lobsters are killed and frozen right on … Read more

Females Lobsters mate during the soft-shell phase after molting. The courtship process is a little odd. Before molting, the female approaches a male’s den and stands outside, releasing her scent in a stream of urine. When he emerges from his den, the two spar briefly, then the female places her claws on his head to … Read more

If a Sea Turtle has been swimming, it can stay underwater for a few minutes. If resting, it can stay underwater as long as two hours. Sea turtles are almost always under water, and have developed an anaerobic system of respiration. Although all sea turtles breathe air, they may divert to anaerobic respiration for long … Read more

The longest known case of aquatic crustaceans living out of water is about 10,000 years, a record set by brine shrimp. Brine shrimp is the English name for the Artemia genus of marine crustaceans. The tiny shrimp have evolved little since the Triassic period. Brine shrimp, also known as “sea monkeys” in toy stores, can … Read more

Kangaroos can hop up to 33 feet per jump, with a maximum speed of about 44 mph for short bursts. This method of travel is fast and efficient and has evolved because of the need to travel long distances in search of food and water, rather than the need to escape predators that didn’t exist. … Read more

One reason kangaroos don’t run is because they can’t run, even if they wanted to really badly. To move at slow speeds, a kangaroo performs crawl-walking by using its tail to form a tripod with its limbs, and raises its hind feet forward to move. Their legs have evolved to a point where they’re completely … Read more

A baby kangaroo is a little larger than a lima bean, but smaller than a full-size peanut when it’s born. And it’s not very cute, unless you’re the kind of person who finds slimy pink animal babies irresistibly adorable. Kangaroos are marsupials, as are most of the mammals that are native to Australia. Besides looking … Read more

All kangaroos and marsupials have pouches for their babies, but not all pouches are equal. Marsupials give birth at a very early stage of development and use their pouch or marsupium to help protect their offspring. For a marsupial like the kangaroo, which spends most of its time standing upright on two legs, the marsupium … Read more

Male marsupials do have very strange forked penises. The other strange thing is that their testicles generally lie in front of their penises instead of in back like other mammals. So how do they have sex? Well, it turns out that there’s somebody for everybody, and marsupials are no exception. Female marsupials have two uteri … Read more

No marsupial species are native to Europe, Asia, or Africa. It was once thought modern placental mammals evolved from marsupials, but recent fossil evidence disputes this assumption. The earliest known marsupial is Sinodelphys szalayi, which lived in China around 125 million years ago. On many continents placental mammals were much more successful and no marsupials … Read more

Marsupials are a family of mammals with a distinctive pouch called the marsupium, which females use to carry their young. The only native North American marsupial is the opossum, and the only other marsupial that doesn’t live in Australia is the shrew opossum from South America. All others live in Australia and the surrounding islands. … Read more

The Australian dragonfly is the Fastest Insect in the World. A dragonfly is a type of insect with large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of transparent wings, and an elongated body. Dragonflies are similar to damselflies, but the wings of most dragonflies are held away from the body when at rest. They are not capable of … Read more

No, there weren’t any honeybees in North America before Columbus arrived. European settlers first brought honeybees to the American colonies in 1622. Over the coming years, many of the insects fled the regimentation of man-made hives and sought freedom in their own colonies throughout the New World. By the late 1700s honeybees had settled along … Read more

The frantic piece of music called “Flight of the Bumblebee” was written in 1899 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan. The piece is at the end of Act III, Tableau 1, where Prince Gvidon Saltanovich is transformed into an insect so that he can fly away to visit his father. … Read more

The silkworm is the larva of the domesticated silkmoth known as Bombyx mori, which means “silkworm of the mulberry tree” in Latin. Bombyx mori is a domesticated variety bred from the Bombyx mandarina species from northern India to northern China, Korea, Japan and eastern Russia. As hinted by its Latin name, the Silkworm loves white … Read more

One of the joys of deep-sea fishing is exploding fish. Some deep-sea fish will explode when you pull them out of the water, and no, it’s not a joke or funny for the fish. Here’s why it happens: most fish keep their equilibrium in the water with an air bladder that balances their body mass … Read more

The red dye known as Carmine is made from crushing the red-colored scale insect Cochineal that live on the prickly Paddle Cactus, and is native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico. The Cochineal is a scale insect that produces carminic acid that protects it from predation by other insects and animals. Carminic acid … Read more

Squids, Cuttlefish and Octopuses are mollusks that belong to the cephalopod group of invertebrates, meaning they have eight legs. Squid have a hard inner-body shell called a pen, instead of an outer one like clams and snails. The octopus, in contrast, has no shell at all. Its outer mantle, or skin, is thick and tough, … Read more

The Squid is a much faster swimmer than an Octopus. Octopi are smooth swimmers, gliding along on their tentacles like an eight-legged Fred Astaire, but they’re no match for the squid. Squid shoot water backward with a siphon in its mantle cavity via jet propulsion, pushing them forward in great bursts of speed. Both of … Read more

The giant squid is the second biggest squid and marine invertebrate in the world after the colossal squid. The giant squid is bigger than any octopus, and can grow up to 43 feet for females and 33 feet for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles. There have been reports … Read more

If shooting ink isn’t enough defense to scare off a predator, an octopus can go on the offensive with its tentacles and a beak-like mouth. An octopus’s main defense is to hide by camouflaging itself and avoid being detected as an octopus. Octopuses are also venomous, but only the small blue-ringed octopuses are lethal to … Read more

In the scary movies, the giant tentacles of an Octopus wrap around a victim and pull them down into the octopus’s garden. Except for the dangerous rubberized special-effects kind, there’s no verified record of an octopus actually doing this. Ironically, it isn’t the giant octopus you need to watch out for, but a tiny one … Read more

When an Octopus is threatened by a predator it will squirt ink, change skin color as camouflage, and jet away. As good a job as the ink does of hiding something as hard to hide as an octopus, it’s also poisonous to some creatures and stuns others, even when diluted in the vastness of the … Read more

Octopi, as in the plural for octopuses always sounded funny when saying it, the singular sounded plural and the plural sounded singular. Even those of us who knew the grammar rule tended to avoid using octopi because it made us sound way too smart. So it is both satisfying and deeply disquieting to learn that … Read more

Trout and Salmon are so closely related that some fishermen and scientists have trouble classifying the individual species. Techincally, Trout is a species of freshwater and saltwater fish. Salmon belong to some of the same family as trout but, unlike most trout, most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water. Both Trout … Read more

Salmonella is a rod-shaped, gram-negative, non-spore forming bacteria that cause illnesses in humans and many animals, such as typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and salmonellosis which comes from eating contaminated food. Salmonella infections are zoonotic, which means it can be transmitted by humans to animals and vice versa, and this includes food. People at risk of … Read more

Salmon return to the same exact spot where they were born when spawning and die shortly after. We still don’t know how these fish are able to remember the site of their birth. Salmon live in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Great Lakes of North America. Most of us have … Read more

Deep sea fish are fish that live below the photic zone of the ocean. The most common deep sea fish is the lanternfish, and others include the flashlight fish, bristlemouths, anglerfish, viperfish, and cookiecutter shark. The photic zone extends only a few hundred meters below the ocean surface, and is also an extremely hostile environment, … Read more