Animals

Tuesday, 2 June 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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Blue tang
Royal blue tang cannot be bred in captivity. Yet.
A group of scientists managed to breed a royal blue tang in 2016, so hopefully captive-bred may be available in some time.
Quokkas
Quokkas are relatively small for macropods.
They grow up to 40 to 55 centimeters long, and their weight ranges from 2,5 to 5 kg. Their tails rea ...
Common cuckoo
A peculiarity of the cuckoo is its brood parasitism. They lay eggs in the nests of other birds.
The Common Cuckoo has a habit of laying its eggs in other species nests, so an unsuspecting female h ...
Fossa
It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUNC list.
It suffers from habitat loss since only approximately 10% of the forest cover of Madagascar is still ...
Northern pike
Most individuals lead a solitary life.
Under certain conditions, however, it is better to cooperate. Divers reported that smaller pikes som ...
Hummingbirds
They are the only birds that can fly backwards.
They owe this to the special design of their wings, which also allows hummingbirds to stop their flight at any time and hover in place.
Corn snake
The breeding activity of captive corn snakes led to over 800 morphs.
The rarest is the scaleless corn snake, which costs approximately US$500.
Axolotl
It is closely related to the tiger salamander, an amphibian native to North America.
Unlike its cousin, however, the axolotl, lacking thyroid-stimulating hormone, never leaves the aquat ...
Alpaca
Outside of South America, most alpacas are bred in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada and Europe.
Spotted hyena
The spotted hyena has a strong and well-developed neck and forelegs.
The front limbs are longer and stronger than the hind limbs, causing the back to lean back. The rump ...