Animals

Saturday, 25 July 2026
27 facts about turtles
27 facts about turtles
The only vertebrates so armored
The first turtles appeared on Earth at the end of the Permian about 240 million years ago. Although the first ones had neither plastron nor carapace, ...

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Narwhal
A huge threat to narwhal is the climate change.
Melting glaciers expose narwhal to more frequent attacks from predators.
Tasmanian devil
The strength of their bite relative to their body weight is one of the highest among all land predators.
Their jaws expand 75 degrees to 80 degrees and their bite force exceeds 550 N. According to the bite force quotient (BFQ), they outclass the tiger, lion, leopard, or brown bear.
Leeches
Pliny the Elder wrote that leeches suck blood and are helpful for "rheumatic pains and all kinds of ailments and fevers."
In June 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration approved leeches for medical use, recognizing them as a therapeutic agent.
Insects
The blood system of insects is open.
This means they have no veins, but hemolymph (which functions as blood) is forced by arteries into t ...
Hedgehogs
From 1950s to 1980s, hedgehogs were an unofficial symbol of NATO.
Many countries consider hedgehogs a perfect symbol due to their peaceful nature, yet the ability to defend themselves when the need arises.
Sea lamprey
They migrate upstream from bodies of water to spawn.
Fish that behave in this way are called anadromous. When they reach their destination, the male begi ...
Sea lamprey
Their skeleton is made of cartilage instead of bone.
Sea lampreys belong to the class of Chondrichthyes, which make up a minority of all living fish. Of the nearly 35,000 species of fish, there are about 1200 cartilaginous species only.
Bird of Paradise
Raggiana bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea raggiana) is featured in the emblem and flag of Papua New Guinea.
Alpaca
The alpaca reaches a length of 128-151 cm with a body weight of 55-85 kg.
The height at the withers is 80-100 cm.
Dik-dik
Male dik-diks have small horns.
They measure about 8 cm, are longitudinally striated, and slant backward. Sometimes the horns are partially covered by hair that forms a vertical tuft on the top of the head.