The breed of the Thoroughbred horse is only about 300 years old, although horse racing has been popular in England since Roman times, and can be traced back to Central Asia among prehistoric nomads.
Ostriches are such fast runners, they can outrun a horse. Male ostriches can roar like a lion.
In ancient Rome, auburn-haired puppies were sacrificed to ensure a plentiful corn crop.
Communication within the prairie dog community is crucial to the creatures' survival. An appointed sentry, spotting a predator, will give a distinctive warning cry, which instantly sends all others grabbing up babies and scurrying to the safety of their burrows. An all-clear call later announces that danger is passed. Experts are fascinated by the prairie dogs' cooperative system.
Ostriches live about 75 years and can reproduce for 50 years.
In England, the most commonly used guide dog for the blind is the Yellow Labrador Retriever.
Contrary to popular belief, dogs do not sweat by salivating. They sweat through the pads of their feet.
In Korea, the deer is a symbol of long life, and is often portrayed in the company of immortals.
Cougars can kill animals eight times their size.
Cows have four stomachs. Often, when a calf is born, the farmer will make it swallow a magnet. This is to attract the various nails, staples, bits of wire, and so on, that the cow may ingest while grazing. This odd hunger is known as "hardware disease."
The venom of the king cobra is so deadly that one gram of it can kill 150 people. Just to handle the substance can put one in a coma.
The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial (pouched mammal) indigenous to North America. They will play dead when threatened, and contrary to folklore, do not sleep hanging by their tails. They have a litter size of up to 22, but only a maximum of 13 offspring live. Their babies stay in the pouch for the first 60 days.
The largest bird egg in the world today is that of the ostrich. Ostrich eggs are from 6 to 8 inches long. Because of their size and the thickness of their shells, they take 40 minutes to hard-boil.
The weasel and the ermine are the same animal. This mammal's coat changes with the season — in its white winter coat, it is known as an ermine, in its brown coat, it is a weasel.
The largest Great White Shark ever caught measured 37 feet and weighed 24,000 pounds. It was found in a herring weir in New Brunswick in 1930. The harmless Whale Shark, holds the title of largest fish, with the record being a 59-footer captured in Thailand in 1919.
The brilliant colors in a hummingbird's feather are created by tiny platelets that resemble a pancake filled with air bubbles. They are called "interference colors," and are much like the shimmering colors seen in a soap bubble or in a drop of oil.
The whale has the slowest metabolism of all animals. Despite its great size, it lives on one of the smallest of all creatures: the microscopic plankton, found throughout the sea.
The largest jellyfish in the world has a bell that can reach 8 feet across and tentacles that extend over half the length of a football field.
The burrowing boodie of Australia is the only kangaroo in the world that lives underground.
Out of the 650 known species of leeches, Hirudo medicinalis is the most common used by doctors.
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