Animals

Friday, 6 February 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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Manatees
These aquatic mammals have long stirred the human imagination and have been the source of many legends and stories in various cultures.
In Colombia’s Guajira region live the Wayuu Indian people. According to their legends, manatees were ...
American flamingo
They are short-distance migratory birds.
Their journeys are driven mainly by searching for additional food sources or disturbing their current habitat.
Insects
Insects breathe using tracheae, to which air is supplied through spiracles.
Tracheae are protrusions of the insects' body walls that branch into a system of tubes inside the body. At the ends of these tubes are liquid-filled tracheae through which gas exchange occurs.
True seals
The largest seal is the Southern elephant seal, also known as the Mirounga leonina.
It lives in Antarctic waters and reaches an incredible size. The average body length of the Southern ...
Octopus
The mouth of an octopus begins with a beak typical of these animals.
American mink
They live near forest waters, marking the boundaries of their territory with the secretions of their perianal glands.
The size of the territory depends on the sex, males have areas of up to 440 ha, and females 8-20 ha.
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.
Pink river dolphin
Their paddle-like flippers allow them to swim in circles.
Fleas
In the Middle Ages, fleas were associated with Black Death.
They carried a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which they transferred onto humans once the populat ...
Northern pike
Young pikes feed on small invertebrates such as daphnia.
As their body weight increases, they quickly move on to larger prey such as flatworms. Once they reach a body length of 4 to 8 cm (1.57 to 3.14 in), they begin to prey on small fish.