Featured Animal Archives - Animal Fact Guide

Featured Animal: Short-beaked Echidna

Posted on September 23, 2018 by admin

Meet our featured animal, the short-beaked echidna!

Here are five fun facts about echidnas:

Baby echidnas are called puggles! [Check out this adorable puggle from the Taronga Western Plains Zoo.]
Echidnas are monotremes, or mammals that lay eggs.
Their long spines are made of keratin, the same material that makes up our fingernails.
The echidna’s pointy snout can sense electrical signals from insect bodies.
Echidnas do not have teeth, but they do have horny pads in their mouths and on the back of their tongues which grind the prey.

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Featured Animal: Tasmanian Devil

Posted on March 20, 2018 by admin

Meet our featured animal, the Tasmanian devil!

Here are five facts about Tasmanian devils:

Tasmanian devils inhabit the island state of Tasmania, although they once lived throughout Australia.
The Tasmanian devil is the size of a small dog.
Tasmanian devils are not picky eaters. They eat carrion (dead animals), including rotten flesh, fur, and bones!
Female Tasmanian devils give birth to up to 50 babies (joeys).
Tasmanian devils are considered endangered. Threats include being hit by cars and Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

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Featured Animal: African Elephant

Posted on August 2, 2017 by admin

Meet our Featured Animal: the African elephant!

Here are five fun facts about African elephants:

Weighing up to 6000 kg (6.6 tons) and measuring up to 3.3 m (10 ft.) at the shoulder, the African elephant is the world’s largest land mammal.
Both male and female elephants possess tusks, which are modified incisor teeth.
On average, an elephant can hear another elephant’s call at 4 km (2.5 mi.) away. Under ideal conditions, their range of hearing can be increased to 10 km (6.2 mi.).
African elephants mostly communicate through low frequency sounds called “rumbling.” They are capable of producing and perceiving sounds one to two octaves lower than the human hearing limit.
African elephants have good memory, which allows them to remember deceased loved ones, harbor grudges, and recognize long-lost friends. Upon the return of a friend, elephants take part in a joyous greeting ceremony where they spin in circles, flap their ears, and trumpet.

Learn more about elephants at our African elephant facts article.

Featured Animal: Bottlenose Dolphin

Posted on March 24, 2017 by admin

Meet our featured animal: the bottlenose dolphin!

National Dolphin Day takes place Friday, April 14, 2017!

Here are five fun facts about bottlenose dolphins:

Dolphins are marine mammals, which means they must come to the surface of the water to breathe. They can hold their breath for up to 7 minutes!
Dolphins can exhale air at 160 km/hr (100 mph) through their blowholes.
Dolphins never fully sleep. One side of their brain must always be active so that they remember to breathe. (They are not involuntary breathers like humans. They must consciously swim to the surface to take a breath.)
Dolphins have a nearly 360-degree field of vision, and they can move one eye independently of the other.
Dolphins produce high-frequency clicks that humans can’t hear. They use these clicks in a sonar system called echolocation. When the clicking sound reaches an object, it bounces back to the dolphin as an echo. Dolphins can process this information to determine the shape, size, speed, distance, and location of the object.

Learn more about dolphins at our bottlenose dolphin article.

Featured Animal: Koala

Posted on September 28, 2016 by admin

Meet our featured animal: the koala!

Friday, September 30 is Save the Koala Day!

Here are five fun facts about koalas:

Koalas are not bears, despite the common phrase, “koala bear”. Koalas are actually marsupials, like kangaroos and wombats. This means female koalas have pouches where their young stay until fully-developed.
Koalas are well-adapted to sitting in trees. They have a curved backbone and two fewer pairs of ribs than most mammals (11 instead of 13) creating a curled skeletal structure that fits well into the forks of branches.
Although there are 600 types of eucalyptus trees, koalas generally limit their diet to two or three favorite kinds.
Koalas have a special kind of bacteria in their stomachs that break down the fiber and toxic oils in eucalyptus leaves. This bacteria is passed down from mother koala to joey via a substance the mother produces called pap.
A koala’s pregnancy lasts 35 days. When the joey is born, it is only 2 cm (less than an inch) long. Although hairless and blind, the newborn uses its strong forelimbs to climb from the birth canal into the mother’s pouch.

Learn more about koalas at our koala facts article.

Featured Animal: California Condor

Posted on September 12, 2015 by admin

Meet our featured animal: the California condor!

Here are five fun facts about California condors:

With a wingspan reaching 3 meters (10 ft.) long, the California condor is the largest flying bird in North America.
California condors can soar as fast as 88 km/h (55mph) and as high as 4,600 m (15,000 ft.).
They eat dead animals like cattle, deer, and sheep as well as smaller mammals like rodents and rabbits.
They can eat over 1 kg (2-3 lbs.) of food at a time, and then go for days without eating anything.
Because they have a robust immune system, condors do not get sick when feasting on carrion (dead animal flesh) despite consuming various strains of bacteria.

Learn more about condors at our California condor facts page.

Featured Animal: Indian Rhinoceros

Posted on November 1, 2014 by admin

Meet our featured animal: the Indian rhinoceros!

Here are five fun facts about Indian rhinos:

The single horn on the Indian rhinoceros distinguishes it from its African counterparts, who all have two horns. Consequently, the Indian rhinoceros is also referred to as the Great One-Horned Rhinoceros
Weighing up to 2200 kg (4800 lb.), Indian rhinos graze in flood plain areas in Northern India and Nepal.
Indian rhinos have lips that are specially adapted to grasp the grass they eat (also known as prehensile lips).
They are considered to be good swimmers and sometimes eat the aquatic plants they encounter.
Rhinoceroses have poor eye sight. However, they make up for it with their exceptional hearing and sense of smell.

Learn more at our Indian rhino facts page.

Featured Animal: Giant Panda

Posted on October 1, 2014 by admin

Meet our featured animal, the giant panda!

Here are five fun facts about giant pandas:

Giant pandas are endangered, with only about 1600 left living in the wild.
Giant pandas can weigh between 100-115 kg (220-250 lb.).
One of the interesting evolutionary traits of the panda is their protruding wrist bone that acts like a thumb. This helps the pandas hold bamboo while they munch on it with their strong molar teeth.
Bamboo makes up nearly the entire diet of the panda. Due to the low nutritional value of bamboo, pandas need to eat 10-20 kg (20-40 lb.) a day.
Female pandas are only able to become pregnant for 2-3 days each spring!

Learn more at our giant panda facts page.

Featured Animal: Cheetah

Posted on September 1, 2014 by admin

Meet our featured animal: the cheetah!

Here are five fun facts about cheetahs:

Accelerating from 0 to 96 km/h (60 mph) in three seconds, the cheetah is the world’s fastest land mammal.
Cheetahs have several special adaptations that allow them to reach top speeds, such as wide nostrils, a powerful heart, strong arteries, and an aerodynamic body frame.
With long legs, loose hip and shoulder joints, and a flexible spine, cheetahs can cover 7 m (20-25 ft.) in one stride.
Although sometimes confused with leopards, cheetahs are distinguished by their “tear-stained” black marks that run from the corners of their eyes down the side of their nose to their mouth.
Young cubs grow a thick yellow-gray coat on their backs called a mantle. The mantle protects the cub from the sun and rain and helps camouflage it in the shadows.

Learn more at our cheetah facts page.

Featured Animal: Giraffe

Posted on August 1, 2014 by admin

Meet our featured animal: the giraffe!

Here are five fun facts about giraffes:

At an average height of around 5 m (16-18 ft.), the giraffe is the tallest land animal in the world.
Many people first believed the giraffe was a cross between a leopard and a camel, which is reflected in its scientific name, Giraffa camelopardalis.
Giraffes have long tongues which help them pull leaves from trees.
Both male and female giraffes have skin-covered knobs, called ossicones, on the top of their heads. Male ossicones are bald at the top, while female ossicones have tufts of fur.
When giraffes walk, they move both legs on one side of their body and then both legs on the other side; this is unique to giraffes. However, they run in a similar style to other mammals, swinging their rear legs and front legs in unison.

Learn more at our giraffe facts page!