Giraffes Dropped Five Feet At Birth

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Giraffes give birth standing up, and the baby giraffe falls about five feet to eath usually unharmed.  Within about 30 minutes the baby stands, and can begin running with the giraffe family within ten hours.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

A Dalmatian For Your Coach

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In England Dalmatians are still called English Coach Dogs or Carriage Dogs.  In the 19th century, Dalmatians were trained to run alongside coaches and carriages to chase away highwaymen (robbers), and to keep dangerous animals away from the horses.  For more information click here1 and click here2 and click here3.  What did you learn today?

Domestic Cats Are About 9,000 Years Old

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The modern domestic cat descended from Sardinian, Central Asian, European, and Sub-Saharan African wild cats, and the Chinese desert cat.  Archaeologists and historians estimate that cats became domesticated about 8,000 or 9,000 years ago.  For more information click here and click here.  What did you learn today?

Giraffe's Blood Pressure

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The giraffe's blood pressure is highest of all animal species.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

Polydactyl Felines...or Six-Toed Cats!

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Cats normally have five toes in their front paws and four toes on their back paws.   Cats with six or more toes on their paws (polydactyl cats) are commonly found in New England, Nova Scotia, and Sweden.  Polydactyl cats are virtually never found in Europe.  For more information click here and click here.  What did you learn today?

Bare Dog Paws

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If a human walks barefoot in the snow for very long, their feet would freeze.  Dogs can walk bare-paw in the snow and their paws won't freeze, because the way the blood vessels under the skin on the paw is arranged keeps the paw at the body's temperature.  For more information click here.

6,000 Reptiles!

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There are 6000 species of reptiles, and more are discovered every year!  For more information click here.

My favorite reptiles are the common little green garden lizards.  What's your favorite reptile?  (You can leave comments below.)

Elephant Tusks and Tushes

African female elephant (cow and calf)

Asian female elephant (cow)

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African male and female elephants have tusks, but only the male Asian elephant has tusks.  The Asian female elephant has tushes, which is an incisor-tooth that sticks out from the lips.  For more information click here.

I've ridden an Asian elephant, but I've only seen African elephants in zoos.  Have you seen or ridden an elephant?

Crocodile Tongues

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Crocodile's tongues are attached to the tops of their mouths, and are unmovable.  For more information click here.

I've only seen crocodiles in zoos.  Have you seen a crocodile, and if so where do you see it?

Lewis and Clark, and the Whale Skeleton

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On this day in 1806, Lewis and Clark discovered a skeleton of a 105 feet long blue whale that had washed up from the Pacific Ocean onto the banks of Ecola Creek in what is modern-day Cannon Beach, Oregon.  They discovered the Tillamook Indians nearby boiling the blubber, and purchased some blubber from them.  Clark named this creek Ecola Creek or E co-la, which means Whale Creek.  (All the links in this paragraph are relevant to the expedition.)  For more information, click here, and click here, and click here.

Meriwether Lewis is a very, very distant relative of mine, so I probably have a little greater than average interest in the expedition.  What events in history most interest you and why?

Giraffes Clean Their Ears By....

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Giraffes clean their ears with their tongues, which average almost 20 inches (50 cm).  For more information click here and click here. 

I've only seen giraffes in zoos.  Where have you seen giraffes?

Frozen for Years...

Photo courtesy ARKive

The Siberian Salamanders have an anti-freeze-like compound in their blood that allows them to survive in up to 50-degrees below zero Farenheit.  They can remain frozen for years, then thaw and begin breeding.  For more information, click here , and click here.

If you have seen a salamander, where did you see it?  Do you know what kind of salamander it was?

Largest Woodpecker in History Now on Film

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It is believed that the Imperial Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in history, became extinct in the late 1900's and had never been photographed or filmed.  A 16mm film shot by Pennsylvania Dentist William L. Rhein in 1956 has been discovered and is now being analyzed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which has one of my favorite websites about birds.  The film can been seen at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/imperial.

For more information in addition to the above links, see the website of ScienceDaily.com and BirdLifeInternational.org.

Rattlesnakes & Ambulance Sirens

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The frequency of the rattle-sound produced by the rattlesnake can reach 5000 hertz to 8000 hertz, which is the same as that of the ambulance siren.

For more information on rattlesnakes, see the websites of the American International Rattlesnake Museum, Kidzone, and Reptile Knowledge.