Very Interesting facts about Squirrels

Squirrel is one of the cutest animals on this planet. But there are very few facts which we know about them. This article will try to give you some insights about this wonderful animal.

The word “Squirrel” comes from the Greek word Skiouros which means shadow tail. They belong to the order rodentia. Click here to know more about orders of class mammalia.

They are found naturally in every continent except Australia (now introduced by humans) and Antarctica. Usually they live in trees and the holes created by the trunk.

Like all other members of the rodent family they have a large incisor which never stop growing through out their life.

Squirrels have a special liking for nuts. Apart from nuts they also like to eat small insects, leaves, tree bark, roots etc.

There are 200 species of squirrel around the world. Among all African pigmy squirrel is the smallest. The full height of the species is 10 centimeter only and can weight just 10 gm. The largest squirrel is the Alpine Marmot which can reach up to 73 centimeter and can weights 5 to 8 kilos.
Being a mammal they have sweat glands but those are present only in their feet.

They have strong and long muscular hind legs and small front leg. The hind legs help them to jump up to a distance of 20 feet.They have 5 toes in their back feet but only four on their front. Their thumbs have not developed properly and the paws have padding (like cats) inside.

While falling from a height they use their tail both as balance and as a parachute.

They show camaraderie while living in a group. This feature is prominent if a group comes under any type of danger. They produce alarming sound to the group to alert them from possible danger.

The outer coating of a squirrel is filled with soft and silky fur. This is one of the reasons why they appear so cute to us. They also have a very large (compared to their body size) eye. This justifies their excellent vision which is very essential for tree living.

They have a gestation period of 44 days. Baby squirrels are blind at the time of birth.

If you liked the article; Please share it with your loved ones.

Seahorse: A Very Interesting Animal

Seahorse is very popular animal. There are a lot of interesting feature associated with a seahorse. Here in this article we will try to bring out some of those.

The biological name of sea horse is Hippocampus. This means horse caterpillar.

Though it is hard to believe but sea horse is a fish. Like many of the other fishes they breathe through gills and use swim bladders to control buoyancy. Seahorse is classified under class Actinopterygii where most of the bony fishes are present. Unlike any other fishes they have neck, a stout and a long tail. The neck of a sea horse is flexible.

They use their prehensile tail to hold on to grass or other weeds and prevent from being washed away by water currents.

The sea horses have independently movable eyes with excellent eye sight. The meaning is that they can look forward and backward in the same time.

In sea horse the skeleton is outside of the body (Exoskeleton) whereas in other fishes it is inside. They do not have any tail fins; though they possess other fins. They do not have any scales either.

Unlike fishes they like to rest in one area. They are not known for their swimming abilities and use only their dorsal fin for this purpose. Unique feature of their swimming is unlike any other fish which swims horizontally, it swims vertically. The dwarf sea horse is the slowest fish in the world (top speed is about 5 ft per hour).

There are more than 50 species of Seahorse. The size varies from 1 to 15 inch depending on the species.

The food for a sea horse ranges from sea plankton to crustaceans. They use their stout as vacuum cleaners for getting food. Some of the species can blend into the surrounding very easily. This camouflage helps them to defend themselves against predators.

They do not have any stomach.

One of the unique features of a sea horse is that the male becomes pregnant and give birth to the young ones.
During pregnancy they release same type of hormones that pregnant mammal females do. Male sea horse posses a brood pouch and females use a depositor to sent her eggs into the pouch.

It was believed that they are monogamous animal and they pair for life but later studies have proven this wrong. Though, the sea horse will stay with the same mate though out the breeding season. Before breeding they display courtship. Both male and female sea horse changes their colors during this period.

In China, seahorse is consumed and also used in medicine for their conceived medicinal values.
Baby sea horses are known as Fry.


Share the knowledge about seahorse with others. Use the sharing tools:

Poison or Venom: Find is the difference

Biologically speaking poisonous animal and venomous animal is not the same thing. Though both of
them contains dangerous amount of toxins, the basic difference between the two lies is the delivery mode. The venomous animals refer to those who can actively deliver the toxin in to the victim’s body whereas the poisonous animals can not perform this due to lack of delivery mechanism. You will only get the toxin only if you touch, smell or eat them. Poison also tends to spread over a larger area or the body whereas venom is typically produced and stored in a particular place of the body. A venom gland is generally present in venomous animals where the toxins get stored till it needed.

The toxin present in both poisonous and venomous animals consists mainly of protein and other neurotransmitters. Depending on their way of work toxins can be broadly classified in two groups:

1.    Hemotoxin: it affects the blood cells and related organs. It can destroy RBC (RBC delivers oxygen through out the body), disrupt blood clotting and can even result in organ failure. The process of death in this type of venom is generally slower than the neurotoxins. Pit viper is one of the snakes which release this type of toxin.

2.    Neurotoxin: Neurotoxin on the other hand attacks the cells of the nervous system. It causes paralysis, respiratory failure and muscular contraction. The death of the victim occurs very quickly if it is injected with neurotoxin. Cobras are typical example of snakes which posses this type of toxin.

Many animals in the animal kingdom are considered poisonous or venomous.

Snakes (not all of them are venomous. Know more about snake by clicking here) such as cobra, rattlesnake, some octopus, lizards, bees, spiders, frogs etc are few of the examples. 

So remember this, the next time you say a snake is poisonous you actually mean that the snake has toxin spread over its body and touching it can cause poisoning; which may not be the case in most of the time.



Share the knowledge with others:

Interesting Facts about Jelly Fish

We are all aware about Jelly fish they are very common through out the world. Here is a list of some interesting facts about Jelly Fish:

Though they refer to as jelly FISH; technically they are not a fish as they do not have any fish like features such as gills. They breathe through their skin.

Jelly fish is carnivorous. They feed on crustaceans, fish eggs, planktons, small fish and even other jelly fish.

They are the oldest multi-organ animal. They are living in earth for more than 500 million years. The size of a jelly fish can vary from 1 mm to a few meters in diameter.

They are common in every ocean. Very few of them also live in fresh water.

Jelly fish is famous for their toxicity. Upon touching a jelly fish nematocyst cells pierce the skin of the victim and release toxin inside the body. There toxin levels vary species to species. The venom from a sea wasp (a species of box jelly fish) can kill a man within minutes.

They can reproduce both sexually and asexually. A single jelly fish can release more than 45000 eggs per day. The larva of a jelly fish is called planula larva.

Though it seems odd but more people killed by jelly fish than sharks through out the year.

They lack any skeleton i.e. no skeleton is present externally or internally. Depending upon species jelly fish contains 95-98% water in the body composition. They do not possess any circulatory, digestive, respiratory systems.

Jelly fish do not have any locomotary organ; they move through the water by contracting and expanding their umbrella shaped bodies. 

The life span of a jelly fish can vary from few hours to few months.

Some of them possess light emitting organs (bioluminescent organ) and can glow in the dark.

There are two phases of a jelly fish’s life viz. polyp and medusa. It is the medusa phase (umbrella shaped) that we generally refer to as jelly fish.

Jelly fish is harvested for its collagen. This is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Some jelly fish such as blubber jelly fish are edible too. In some Asian countries like Japan and Korea jelly fish is taken as food.

Share the facts with others.

Interesting Facts about Rhinoceros

Today’s article is about Interesting facts of Rhinoceros. Whenever we think about a Rhinoceros a first thing comes to our mind is their horn/horns. But there are many other interesting facts which we generally don’t know about them. We hope this article will give you some insights about that.

The word Rhinoceros comes from two words: rhino which means nose and ceros meaning horn.

Various types of rhinoceros are found viz. white, black, greater one horned, Javan and Sumatran. Black, white and Sumatran Rhinos have two horns where as Javan and one horned rhinos have only one horn.
Among Rhinos White rhinoceros is the largest. They can weight up to 2500 kgs. They are the largest terrestrial animal after Elephants. Javan Rhinos are the smallest among Rhinos. They can reach a maximum of 900 kgs.

They are herbivorous animal. Black rhinos have prehensile upper lip which helps them to grasp grass. A rhino consumes a lot of plant matter like leaves, grass, bushes etc. and in a normal condition produce close to 50 kgs of dung per day. The unique feature of their dung is that the smell of the dung is different for male female and juvenile.

They have a very thick layer (In an average about 1.5 cm) of skin. Despite this huge thickness their skin is relatively very sensitive towards sunburn or insect bites. Sumatran Rhino has long hair through their body whereas all the rest of the rhinos are hairless.

They are not known for their eye sight which is usually very poor. But they compensate that with excellent sense of smell and hearing.

The famous horn of the rhinoceros is made up of hairs and not bones. Rhino calves are born without horns. These horns continue to grow through out their lifetime.

Rhinoceros is a perissodactyle animal i.e. only one toe of their feet has modified to became the hoof. So they are much more closely related to horse and Zebra than many others. To know more about animal classification click here.

Though they appear to be a slow moving animal they can reach a top speed of 60 km per hour. If you want to know about all the animals which have amazing speed check out this article.

Male rhinos are solitary animal whereas the female rhinos are much more social and stay in groups. A group of Rhino is called a Crash. Rhinos have a very long (close to 2 years) gestation period. Only elephants in the animal kingdom have a greater gestation period than rhinos.
They can live for a period of 35 to 40 years.

Due to their large size and aggressive nature not many animals hunt Rhinos. However Lions, Tigers, crocodiles and wild dogs have sometimes preyed on baby or sick rhinoceros but humans are by far the biggest threat to Rhinos. It is believed particularly in Asia that Rhino’s horns have medicinal properties. But there are no evidence of this has been found. Among all the species 3 (black, Sumatran, and Javan) have been registered under critically endangered in IUCN Red list.

As for you all rhino lovers to know September 22 has been celebrated as world rhino day.

If you liked the article please share it with others. You can also share any other interesting facts about Rhinos by using the comment box below.

Horses: some interesting facts

Horses are very interesting animals; they are a part of human civilization from a very early period. Here in this article we will discuss some interesting facts about them.

Horses are the member of the order perisodactyla in class mammalia. The details of classification can be found here.

The horse has evolved from a small multi-toed creature to a large single toed animal over 55 million years.

They have been domesticated at around 3500 BC.

The male horse is called stallion, the female horse is called mare and the newborn is called a foal.

Foals are born with larger legs (90% of their adult length). Most of them are born at nights. After 1 hour from their birth, they can stand.

Though horses are famous for their galloping movements, there are 3 other types of movement: walk, trot, and canter. They are known for their speed and can reach up to a speed of 70 km/h. they are one of the fastest animals on this planet.

They have a very good sense of balance.

There are 150 different breeds and types of horses found in the world.

Horses sleep only two to three hours in a day. Most of the time, they sleep standing. Though they lay down but it is for short time.

Unlike ruminants, their digestive system is a one way traffic. They don’t re-chew the food particles one it reached the stomach. They can’t burp, vomit or even take breathe with their mouth.

Arabian horses have 17 ribs (one less than other horse breeds), 5 lumber vertebrae (one less than other horse breeds) and 16 tail vertebrae (others have 18).

Horses have 64 chromosomes. They have 205 bones in average. They don’t posses the collar bone like a human.

They have the largest eye of any land animal. The eyes are laterally place and have a 350 degree span. The external ear can rotate 180 degree.

The hoof of a horse is like finger nail and it constantly grows. For a domestic horse it needs to be clipped after 5 to 6 weeks. They have 4 toes in front and 3 toes in the back foot.

Horses are measured in ‘Hands’. Their size varies from breed to breed. Their average size ranges from 14 to 18 hands.

The gestation period of a horse is approximately 340 days.

Horse can breed with donkey. The result of their breeding is Mule (male donkey and female horse) or Hinny (male horse and female donkey).

Horses have an average life span of 30 to 35 years. The age of a horse can be estimated by its teeth.

Horses are herd animals. In the wild they live in herds. The herd is usually dominated by a mare. They are very social animal and are more comfortable living in company than alone. It can be very stressful for a horse to live alone. They can form companionship along with their own species, and other animals including humans.

If you like the article, please share it with your friends:

Speedsters in Animal Kingdom

You must have heard the line “Speed thrills but it kills”. But in animal kingdom the phrase is not applicable. It is this speed that makes these animals unique and also acts as a survival tool. In this article we will discuss some of the animals with amazing speed. Some of them runs, some swim and some fly. Some even hop. But what ever is their locomotion, they are best at it. 

These data has been taken from Wikipedia. Just to realize how fast they are, consider this: the top speed of human is considered to be 44.72 km/h (as per the world record).

Peregrine Falcon: they are the fastest of all the living animals. Top speed can reach up to 370 km/h or above.

Horse-fly: Male species of horse fly are known to be the fastest insect in the world. They can fly at a speed of 140 km/h.

Cheetah: They are the fastest animal on land. They can reach up to a speed of 90 km/h from 0 within 3 seconds. The cheetah can run best at short burst. The endurance of this animal is very poor. The top speed can reach up to 120 km/h. More on cheetah in this article.

Hummingbird: They are the smallest bird in the world. They can reach up to a speed of 98 km/h.

Ostrich: They are very good runner and can reach a top speed of 95 km/h. the endurance of a ostrich is very good it can run at a speed of 50 km/h for half an hour. They are the tallest and heaviest species among the birds. 

American Antelope: They are the fastest animal if you consider long distance running. They can run at 56 km/h for a distance of 6 km. whereas the top speed of this animal can reach up to 89 km/h and they can continue it for 800 meters.

Greyhound Dogs: They are the fastest among all the dogs. Their top speed can reach up to 75 km/h.

Horse: The top speed of a horse has been recorded as 70.76 km/h. find more interesting facts about Horses here.

Kangaroo: The normal speed of a hopping kangaroo is around 25 km/h. But their top speed can reach up to 70 km/h. More interesting facts about kangaroo in this article.

Zebra: Top speed of a Zebra is about 60 km/h. More on Zebra can be found here.

Leatherback sea turtle: Among the various sea turtles their bodies are the most hydrodynamic. They can swim at a top speed of 35 km/h. you can find more interesting facts on turtles in this article.

If you like the article, share it with friends: