Animals

Sunday, 18 January 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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Hippopotamus
Hippos reach an average of 3.5 - 5 meters in length and 1.5 meters in height at the withers.
Their head can weigh up to 225 kg. Hippos can open their mouths to a width of about 1 meter, and the length of their teeth reaches a maximum of 30 cm.
Crustacean
Most crustaceans reproduce sexually but there are hermaphrodites and species that change sex with age.
In crustaceans, internal fertilization occurs. Most aquatic crustaceans guard their eggs and carry t ...
Moose
The oldest description of a moose in European literature does not come from northern areas, but from the Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar.
European drawings and cave paintings indicate that moose were hunted already in the Stone Age. Some ...
Wolf spider
They can be found in many habitats.
Wolf spiders can be found in woodlands, meadows, gardens, shrublands and man-made structures. They are very eager to enter buildings especially in autumn, when it gets colder outside.
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 ...
Ball python
Thanks to breeding in captivity, there are over 7,500 morphs of the ball python.
Basking shark
Basking sharks have essentially no natural predators.
They are known to be attacked by orcas, but few predators hunt these sharks. There is some information that great white sharks feed on the carcasses of basking sharks.
Capybaras
The great capybara is the largest rodent living on Earth.
Capybaras belong to the family Caviidae, so they are cousins of, among others, the domestic cavy, mo ...
Platypus
In reserves, the platypus can be seen in special aquariums, as of 2013 only in Australia.
Leeches
Individuals grown under sterile culture conditions are used for the treatment.
Approximately 0.015 g of hirudin can be obtained from one individual.