Cats who eat the plant catnip go into ecstasy.They chase non existent rats and swipe at phantom butterflies. When cats sense the bruised leaves or stems of catnip, they will rub in it, roll over it, paw at it, chew it, lick it, leap about and purr, often salivating copiously. Some cats will also growl and meow.
Many other animals like hallucenogic drugs and alcoholic substances as well: Reindeer seek out and eat fly agaric mushrooms and then run round and round in circles. Elephants run for the fermenting fruit of the Marula tree , which they can smell from 10 miles away. Under its alcoholic spell they throw fruit at each other and behave rowdily. Waxwing birds eat fermenting rowan berries and often die of acute alcoholic liver disease, just like humans. Bees and wasps get drunk on fermenting apples which impairs their locomotion and learning ability. Goats become very frisky after eating bright red coffee berries.
Madagascar lemurs gently bite the bodies of large millipedes who then exude chemicals. The lemurs rubs them over their bodies and go into a trance like state. They sit in circles and pass around the millipede to rub until its chemicals are used up. Then they drop it on the ground and pick up another one.
Fruit Flies that sip alcohol behave in the same way as drunk humans. They become hyperactive and then disorientated and then they become quite unco-ordinated and sedated and eventually pass out.
Llamas chew coca leaves, which contain small amounts of cocaine, with no ill effects. But when "street cocaine" is mixed in with their feed, they become irritable and hostile Jaguars gnaw at the bitter ayahuasca vine used by Amazonian priest in order to induce trances in human beings.
Zebras stand in pairs alongside each other facing in opposite directions allowing each to rest his or her head on the other’s neck. This allows them to rest and to lessen the surface open to flies.
Cats like being grasped and stroked at the nape of their necks, probably because that is what their mothers did when they were kittens.
Cows enjoy being licked by each other’s sandpapery tongues and often fall asleep while being licked.
Chimpanzees and other primates spend 20% of their waking hours grooming each other, cleaning out each other’s hair of parasites and other material.
Cat pals often groom each other, using their raspy tongue to comb the other’s hair.
Trumpet Birds nibble each other’s chins or napes to express affection. The recepient falls into a sleeplike trance which looks like ecstasy, Finches land in front of turtles and hop up and down to express their desire to look for insects on the turtle. If the turtle is agreeable he extends her neck to full length and stands still while the bird looks into ever nook and corner that the insects may be hidden.
When Hippopotamus want their feet cleaned , they go to areas underwater where Barbels collect and stand still with their toes apart so that the fish can get at the parasites. Labeo fish act as toothbrushes for hippos polishing their teeth while they stand in the water with their jaws dropped, Small moths dwell on the fur of sloths waiting for the sloth to come down from his tree to defecate so that they can lay their eggs in his dung.
Many other animals like hallucenogic drugs and alcoholic substances as well: Reindeer seek out and eat fly agaric mushrooms and then run round and round in circles. Elephants run for the fermenting fruit of the Marula tree , which they can smell from 10 miles away. Under its alcoholic spell they throw fruit at each other and behave rowdily. Waxwing birds eat fermenting rowan berries and often die of acute alcoholic liver disease, just like humans. Bees and wasps get drunk on fermenting apples which impairs their locomotion and learning ability. Goats become very frisky after eating bright red coffee berries.
Madagascar lemurs gently bite the bodies of large millipedes who then exude chemicals. The lemurs rubs them over their bodies and go into a trance like state. They sit in circles and pass around the millipede to rub until its chemicals are used up. Then they drop it on the ground and pick up another one.
Fruit Flies that sip alcohol behave in the same way as drunk humans. They become hyperactive and then disorientated and then they become quite unco-ordinated and sedated and eventually pass out.
Llamas chew coca leaves, which contain small amounts of cocaine, with no ill effects. But when "street cocaine" is mixed in with their feed, they become irritable and hostile Jaguars gnaw at the bitter ayahuasca vine used by Amazonian priest in order to induce trances in human beings.
Zebras stand in pairs alongside each other facing in opposite directions allowing each to rest his or her head on the other’s neck. This allows them to rest and to lessen the surface open to flies.
Cats like being grasped and stroked at the nape of their necks, probably because that is what their mothers did when they were kittens.
Cows enjoy being licked by each other’s sandpapery tongues and often fall asleep while being licked.
Chimpanzees and other primates spend 20% of their waking hours grooming each other, cleaning out each other’s hair of parasites and other material.
Cat pals often groom each other, using their raspy tongue to comb the other’s hair.
Trumpet Birds nibble each other’s chins or napes to express affection. The recepient falls into a sleeplike trance which looks like ecstasy, Finches land in front of turtles and hop up and down to express their desire to look for insects on the turtle. If the turtle is agreeable he extends her neck to full length and stands still while the bird looks into ever nook and corner that the insects may be hidden.
When Hippopotamus want their feet cleaned , they go to areas underwater where Barbels collect and stand still with their toes apart so that the fish can get at the parasites. Labeo fish act as toothbrushes for hippos polishing their teeth while they stand in the water with their jaws dropped, Small moths dwell on the fur of sloths waiting for the sloth to come down from his tree to defecate so that they can lay their eggs in his dung.
Chimpanzees mothers often play with their young by chasing them and tickling them when they catch them Elephant babies play by trunk wresting with each other Arabian Babbler birds play tug of war in groups just like humans Playfighting is common in many young kangaroos. Doria’s tree Kangaroos lie on their sides and box each other playfully Dolphin take chains of seaweed and pay tug of war with them Laughing Gulls ride the tidal current till it reaches the sea.When the tide dissipates, they come back to the beach and start again Dolphins play mischievously with seagulls.They bait bait them by letting dead fish float to the surface and when the gulls go for the bird, they catch them gently and dunk them in the water before letting them go.
Blue Tits gather in swarms from all over and mob crows who are going after one Tit’s eggs in her nest.
All monkeys and apes stick their tongues out repeatedly if offered sweet food The Bullfish has taste sensors all over its body – any part can taste food.
Seals on the shore can detect the small ripples left by a swimming fish , upto 5 minutes later A cowbird can sing 40 notes in his one second call A wren can sing 100 notes in his 8 second call Each baby bat’s call to its mother, lasting barely one tenth of a second, is so distinctive that the mother can make it out among the millions of bats roosting ion the same cave Ravens sometimes play by hanging upside down powerlines, then swinging up onto the line , even hanging from them by their bills Penguins love sliding down snowbanks in play Young alligators play by coming out of the water and repeatedly sliding down the muddy slope into the water Crows often drop stones on nuts to break them Purple Martins often play catching feathers: one bird drops it in the air and the others try and catch it Hippos can do backward somersaults in water.
When chimpanzees want to play , they invite their playmates by making a face in which the mouth is opened but the lips hide the teeth.
When a raven wants to play with another raven he has a play walk” he rounds his back , bends his head slightly and pulls back his shoulders Lambs invite other lambs to play by leaping in the air and kicking back their hind legs When Coyotes want to play they squirm and roll on the ground When mongooses want to play they whip their tails from side to side When foxes want to play they make little running movements with their hindlegs When badgers want to play they twist their heads from side to side When bears want to play they wobble their heads When Arabian Babbler birds want to play they crouch and then look at the other bird in the eye When dogs want to play they bow with their front legs flat on the ground and wag their tails.
Vervet monkeys have different calls for different predators. If the monkey gives a call denoting eagle , the rest of the group rush down to the lower sections of the trees; if the call means leopard, the group rushes to hang on the outside small branches which will not take the weight of the leopard.
Ducks have different calls : happy cheeps,sad cheeps,desperate cheeps, when-do-we -eat cheeps, where-are-you-mother cheeps and I’m-coming-mother cheeps.
A fruit bat can , in his forest,find a tree that is miles away and only fruits every second year.
Wilson’s Warbler migrates thousands of miles each spring to return the exactly the same patch of woodland he or she nested in the previous year.
The bird Honeyguide can remember every bees’ nest in a 100 square mile area. Roosters attract hens by announcing the presence of a newly discovered bit of food. Some roosters try to deceive the hens by fake calls .
However if a rooster does it too often , the hens ignore his calls. Pigeons in cities navigate using roads and , like humans, turn left or right at motorway junctions.
When American bullfrog tadpoles sense that their waterbody is drying up, they start calling. The male frog responds by digging a trench through the mud from the nearest pond to the tadpoles so that they can swim to safety. Sheep can recognize 50 or more members of their flock from photographs of their faces alone and can retain this ability their whole lives.
Golden moles in Africa sense termites by the vibrations they make in the sand. When certain insects lay eggs inside certain plants, the plant cells around the egg begin multiplying until a growth develops on the plant like a plant tumor called a gall. When eggs hatch inside these galls, the larvae eat the gall's tissue and then fly out by making a hole in it.
A newly born aphid becomes a reproducing adult within about a week and then can produce up to 5 offspring per day for up to 30 days!
Sandloving Wasps prey on honey bees. The Wasp catches a honey bee swollen with flower nectar and squeezes the bee in order for it to cause the bee to disgorge its syrup. Then the wasp licks the bee's tongue dry before taking it back to its nest to feed to its young.
When dry weather comes, Snails bury themselves in the soil. Snails plug up their shell holes with mucous. Through the dry spell the animals remain in a state of suspended animation in which their body processes slow to a point almost like death.
Ducks & Swans don't feed their young. They just guide them to food. Since theyoung are born with downy feathers they can be led straight to the water & shown how to dabble for food.
Four men with shovels cannot dig as much and as fast as one burrowing Aardvark working with his claws. Baby Guinea Pigs feel the same stress as human babies when they are separated from their parents. Hyena societies have both males, females and children but the group leaders are always female. Bee eater birds take the venom out of bees by rubbing them against a twig or squeezing them to cause the venom to squirt out.
The Sharp Ribbed Newt, if grabbed by a predator, thrusts out a row of sharp poison tipped thorns through its own sides into the mouth lining of the hunter. cats & dogs, like people, are either right handed or left handed.
A newborn polar bear cub weighs a lot less than a newborn human, only about 1-1.5 pounds. Yet when fully grown, polar bears reach weights of up to 1,600 pounds.
Cats prefer to eat their food at 86º F. A frightened dog puts it's tail between it's legs because it covers the scent glands in the anal area. Since the anal glands carry scents that identify individual dogs, this behavior is the canine equivalent of insecure humans hiding their faces.
In an ant colony ,a worker ant will live for up to 5 years; while a Queen will live up to 25 years.
The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.
Cat whiskers are found on the face and on the back of the forelegs as well. Some lions can mate over 50 times a day.
Some worms are segmented with each segment bearing the same fundamental structures as all the others and with the same internal organs . By distributing organs among many segments, it becomes less dangerous to an annelid if one organ is damaged . Young segmented worms usually add new segments as they grow older by simply making new copies of the body's last segment -- a sort of efficient assembly-line construction
Polar bears can swim 60 miles without pausing for a rest. The Galapagos Tortoise has a potential life span of 200 years.
A purring cat doesn't always mean a contented cat. Cats will also purr if they are in pain.
Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean.
Dogs have about 100 different facial expressions, most of them made with the ears.
A dolphin's hearing is so acute that it can pick up an underwater sound from fifteen miles away.
Lobsters can live up to 50 years.
Cows do not have upper front teeth.
We share 98.4% of our DNA with a chimpanzee - and 70% with a slug.
Great White Sharks can go as long as three months without eating.
A Dragonfly can spot an insect moving 33 feet away.
When a Queen Bee lays the fertilized eggs that will develop into new queens, only one of the newly laid queens actually survives. The first new queen that emerges from her cell destroys all other queens in their cells and, thereafter, reigns alone.
A male Garibaldi Damselfish attract females for mating by covering a rock with a thick layer of alga. The females inspect each rock and the male with the most algae covered rock has a higher chance of mating. The algae is used to protect the eggs of the fish.
To prevent the nest from getting soaked, the White-chinned Swift, which nests behind the waterfalls of Latin America plant pieces of moss in the nest which then grow and reinforce the nest.
The Amazon Army Ants raid nests of certain black ants and carry back to cocoons and larvae to their own homes. When the cocoons hatch, they will become the slaves of these army ants and do all their work.
A Leech is a worm that feeds on blood. It will pierce its victim's skin, fill itself with three to four times its own body weight in blood, and will not feed again for months.
When a Fflea jumps, the rate of acceleration is 20 times that of the space shuttle during launch
The world's smallest winged insect, the Tanzanian Parasitic Wasp, is smaller than the eye of a housefly.
A Rhinoceros Beetle can support up to 850 times its own weight on it's back. That would be the equivalent of a man carrying 76 family-sized cars around on his back.
Many birds eat twice their weight a day
A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.
A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquitoes-sized insects in just one hour.
Beaver teeth are so sharp that Native Americans once used them as knife blades.
Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.
The Kiwi can't fly, lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 70 million years.
Moles can tunnel through 300 feet of earth in a day.
Chameleons can reel in food with their tongues from a distance as far away as more than two and a half times their body lengths.
Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump.
Tapeworms range in size from about 0.04 inch to more than 50 feet in length.
Unlike most fish, electric eels cannot get enough oxygen from water. Approximately every five minutes, they must surface to breathe, or they will drown.
Gypsy Moth young larvae have hairs with small air pockets that allow them to travel great distances when the wind is strong. They have been found as high as 2,000 feet in the air, and are known to travel five miles a day . .
The Midge has the fastest wingbeat at 62,760 beats per minute.
Often in populations of insects, males of the species emerge first as adults, and thus are available for mating when the females emerge. The Opifex Mosquito male immediately mates with the female as she emerges from her pupa shell.
Moths and Butterflies are the only insects that can coil up their mouths when they are not in use.
Some male Cockroaches produce a pheromone called seducin from their bodies, on which the females nibble during mating. This pheromone is an aphrodisiac.
The Asian Vampire Moth pierces the skin with its strong, sharp proboscis and drinks the blood of animals.
A Caterpillar grows to about 27,000 times the size it was when it first emerged from its egg.If a human baby weighed 9 pounds at birth and grew at the same rate as a caterpillar, it would weigh 243,000 pounds when fully grown.
Because the Caterpillar's skin doesn't grow along with it , it must periodically shed the skin as it becomes too tight. Most caterpillars moult five times before entering the pupa stage.
Lobsters and crayfish eat their own shell after molting.
Female Guppy fish can have up to five litters of babies from mating only one time.
The California Sea Hare is a sea animal of the clam family.. It has ruffled flaps along its back . Its color is determined by the color of the plant matter on which it feeds - red, brown, or green. When disturbed, it secretes a purple dye from glands under its mantle.
Common dolphins can swim up to 30 miles per hour.
Each cocoon of a silkworm can produce a single thread of silk that is about 1,500 feet long
Some Case Moth caterpillars build a case around themselves that they always carry with them. It is made of silk and pieces of plants or soil.
The females of some moth species lack wings, all they can do to move is crawl.
Some moths never eat anything as adults because they don't have mouths. They must live on the energy they stored as caterpillars.
Tachinid flies are parasites of other insects. They lay its small white eggs just above the legs of the caterpillar . Upon hatching, the fly maggots will burrow through their hosts skin and feed on its internal organs. The caterpillar will die just as the fly larvae emerge .
Houseflies find sugar with their feet, which are 10 million times more sensitive than human tongues
While gathering food, a bee may fly up to 60 miles in one day.
Wasps feeding on fermenting juice have been known to get "drunk' and pass out
Harpy Eagle mothers lays one or two eggs but only the first chick to hatch survives. That first eaglet gets all the attention, while the other egg dies from lack of incubation. Both parents feed the eaglet for about 10 months. Harpy eagle chicks are ready to go at about six months of age, but they usually hang around the nest for over a year, begging a meal from mother and father
To help it climb, a Koala has special hands and feet, both of which have claws.. A koala has two thumbs on its hands, and the ridged skin on the bottom of its feet gives it traction for climbing Zebras have their own “smile”—a bared-teeth grimace that is a greeting and helps prevent aggression When a male Warthog wants to attract a female, he does a courtship “chant” of rhythmic grunts that sounds like an engine in need of a tune-up. The first thing a worker Honeybee does when she hatches is to turn right around and clean her cell for the next egg.
Natural Bees have the ability to buzz so hard that they cause flowers with tiny holes in them to release their pollen. Cultivated honeybees do not know how to "buzz pollinate Dolphins, like cows, have two stomachs — one for storing food and one for digesting it.
Humans only have 792 distinct muscles, whereas grasshoppers have 900, and caterpillars may have as many as 4,000 separate muscles.
The Morgan's Sphinx Moth from Madagascar has a tube mouth that is 12 to 14 inches long to get the nectar from the bottom of a 12 inch deep orchid.
An aphid can produce 50 babies in one week that will mature in another week. In one year, a single cabbage aphid and its young, if none died, could produce 1,560,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 individuals under ideal conditions
Shelldwellers are miniature cichlid fish in Africa’s Lake Tangyanika that lay their eggs in empty shell shells. The female stays inside the shell and the male defends the territory.
Maneka Gandhi
