Animals

Sunday, 27 September 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.
Asian elephant
There are approximately 150,000 muscles in their trunk.
Asian elephants can both push over a tree with their trunk, or pick up and shell a peanut.
Laughing kookaburra
Apart from the distinctive laughter, laughing kookaburras have a variety of different sounds.
It all depends on the occasion – the range of calls vary whether its purpose is to show aggression, find other family member or raise an alarm.
European wildcat
Males tend to venture into agricultural areas in search of food, which is usually abundant there.
Females are more conservative and rarely leave forested areas. This probably has to do with the protection of offspring provided by the forest vegetation.
Alligator snapping turtle
Its face resembles prehistoric creatures, namely dinosaurs.
Coyote
The gestation period for a coyote is 63 days.
The average litter consists of six cubs. After birth, the cubs are completely dependent on their mot ...
Crested gecko
It was discovered and described in 1866 by a French zoologist Alphone Guichenot.
Until 1994 the species was thought to be extinct, until rediscovered by Robert Seipp’s expedition.
Viper dogfish
It belongs to the genus Trigonognathus in the family Etmopteridae.
The viper dogfish is the only extant species of the genus.
Red panda
Red pandas are native to southwestern Asia and the eastern Himalayas.
Hummingbirds
During the day, a hummingbird's heart beats up to 1,260 times per minute, while at night the rate drops to between 50 and 180 beats per minute.
Their flight requires huge amounts of oxygen, which the heart must pump at a tremendous rate. The br ...