* The "caduceus" the classical medical symbol of two serpents wrapped around a staff—comes from an ancient Greek legend in which snakes revealed the practice of medicine to human beings.
* A "chickadee" was a Michigan logger whose job it was to spread horse manure on steep icy hills. The purpose was to slow down, by friction, the sleigh's loaded with 16ft. virgin timber logs coming down the ice road slopes.
* A "chickadee" was a Michigan logger whose job it was to spread horse manure on steep icy hills. The purpose was to slow down, by friction, the sleigh's loaded with 16ft. virgin timber logs coming down the ice road slopes.
* The anaconda, one of the world’s largest snakes, gives birth to its young instead of laying eggs.
* The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.
* The average adult male ostrich, the world’s largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds.
* The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae — "Island of Dogs."
* The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses.
* The chameleon has several cell layers beneath its transparent skin. These layers are the source of the chameleon’s color change. Some of the layers contain pigments, while others just reflect light to create new colors. Several factors contribute to the color change. A popular misconception is that chameleons change color to match their environment. This isn’t true. Light, temperature, and emotional state commonly bring about a chameleon’s change in color. The chameleon will most often change between green, brown and gray which, coincidently, often matches the background colors of their habitat.
* The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can’t retract its claws.
* The giant squid is the largest creature without a backbone. It weighs up to 2.5 tons and grows up to 55 feet long. Each eye is a foot or more in diameter.
* The honeybee kills more people world-wide than all the poisonous snakes combined.
* The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that cannot walk.
* The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
* The Pacific Giant Octopus, the largest octopus in the world, grows from the size of pea to a 150 pound behemoth potentially 30 feet across in only two years, its entire life-span.
* The turkey was named for what was wrongly thought to be its country of origin.
* The underside of a horse’s hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.
* The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.
* There are around 2,600 different species of frogs. They live on every continent except Antarctica.
* There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth. There are more than 900,000 known species of insects in the world.
* Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than man.
* Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
* The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.
* The average adult male ostrich, the world’s largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds.
* The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae — "Island of Dogs."
* The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses.
* The chameleon has several cell layers beneath its transparent skin. These layers are the source of the chameleon’s color change. Some of the layers contain pigments, while others just reflect light to create new colors. Several factors contribute to the color change. A popular misconception is that chameleons change color to match their environment. This isn’t true. Light, temperature, and emotional state commonly bring about a chameleon’s change in color. The chameleon will most often change between green, brown and gray which, coincidently, often matches the background colors of their habitat.
* The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can’t retract its claws.
* The giant squid is the largest creature without a backbone. It weighs up to 2.5 tons and grows up to 55 feet long. Each eye is a foot or more in diameter.
* The honeybee kills more people world-wide than all the poisonous snakes combined.
* The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that cannot walk.
* The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
* The Pacific Giant Octopus, the largest octopus in the world, grows from the size of pea to a 150 pound behemoth potentially 30 feet across in only two years, its entire life-span.
* The turkey was named for what was wrongly thought to be its country of origin.
* The underside of a horse’s hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.
* The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.
* There are around 2,600 different species of frogs. They live on every continent except Antarctica.
* There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth. There are more than 900,000 known species of insects in the world.
* Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than man.
* Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.