15 Useless Animal Facts :D

At the moment, I am training to be a volunteer at Adelaide Zoo and studying Animal Behaviour. This requires me to absorb a huge amount of information about an enormous amount of animals, but I only seem to remember the weird, interesting and entertaining facts the best 😀

1) A Kangaroo can jump 7 metres high, and 5 metres in length. So, theoretically, it could jump over a giraffe!

2) A Zebra herd consists of one male and a group of females. The females better hope they get on the males good side, as when they travel, the male places his least favourite females on the outside of the herd, so if they are attacked by predators they will be eaten instead of his favourite zebras!

3) While elephants put their young on the inside of a group while travelling for protection, a troupe of Hamadryas Baboons will place the breeding pair in the centre, other adults in the middle, and the babies on the outside to be the first picked off if attacked! Safe to say they are not very good parents!

4) A female Spotted Hyena has a penis. Yep, you heard me. They obviously don’t work as per usual, but the females flail these pseudo-penises around in front of each other, and the bigger the penis, the more dominant the female.

5) During mating season, to determine the dominant male, male Ring-Tailed Lemurs have ‘stink’ fights. They rub their stink glands all over their tails, wave their tails at each other and the stinkiest male wins. What a charming way to win over a female, so sexay ;P

6) A pack of African Painted Dogs will roll in each others urine and faeces every morning. Gross right? But essential for their hunting strategy and pack hierarchy. When hunting in long grass they have to stay in formation, and while they may not be able to see each other, because of their (disgusting) morning ritual they certainly can smell each other! 😛

7) A Binturong has a scent gland that releases a scent that smells like buttered popcorn! Er, nom nom? 😛

8) A Saltwater Crocodile has a snap pressure (that is, when they shut their mouth from open to close) of 1 tonne in their jaws! That is equal to the weight of a family car!

9) The first joint on a Giraffes leg is not actually its knee like most people assume. While its knee is located right up near its body, that first knobby looking joint is actually its ankle! That’s a huge freaking ankle!

10) One Poison Arrow Frog has enough poison to kill 2, 200 people! Cute little buggers, but more lethal than an Eastern Brown Snake!

11) A Cockroaches brain is spread throughout its body. This means, if cut in half, the cockroach is still able to survive! Cause of death would not be due to injury or dismemberment, but instead due to starvation! Creepy! 😐

 12) Male ducks form rape gangs. Sucks to be a female duck!

13) Just imagine an elephant stepping on your hand while wearing a stiletto shoe. This is what the bite of a Tasmanian Devil feels like, yeouch!

14) A male lion has a spiked penis, so when it is inside the female, she can’t get away and is forced to let the male mate with her. Again, talk about an unlucky female! 😐

15) And on a more specific note, one of the Panda’s at Adelaide Zoo got drunk! A fig tree overhanging the Panda enclosure was sectioned off by the keepers with an electric fence because they are bad for animals. While these figs are like candy to a Panda, once they are in their stomach they ferment and become alcohol. While Funi (the female) tested the electric fence with her nose, got zapped, and never went near it again, the boisterous male, Wang Wang, got half way through it, got zapped, and figured he may as well keep going! So he spent the rest of the afternoon stuffing his face and getting tipsy! What a party animal ;D YOU GET IT?! XD

I really need to get more sleep, I am far too hyperactive at this time of night 😀