The World of animals is full of many interesting & truly amazing facts. A detailed study

of the fascinating animal kingdom which leaves anyone speechless. The incredible ways in which

different animals carry on their daily lives makes us marvel at the miracle of nature. Here, I have

chosen some examples of the interesting records and facts to illustrate how wonderful Nature is &

how it empowers animals to survive against tremendous odds.

1. FASTEST ANIMAL ON THE GROUND: The “Cheetah” with speed up to 109Km/hr.

the cheetah can however maintain this high speed for short distance, only of a few hundred

meters. After this it is totally exhausted and out of breath & must stop to get rest for several

minutes. The cheetah is one of the 37 different species of the family ‘Felidae’. Compare to

other species of cats like tiger, lions, leopards, a Jaguar (Carnivore with black spots) the

cheetah is not a very strong animal physically. It must, therefore, rely on its high speed

mostly to catch prey. There is one thing that is different about the cheetah from other cats;

its claws are non-retractable. In other words, the claws of cheetah are always extruded

unlike other cats who can draw their claws into sheath & expose only when required.

The fastest animal over a long distance is the “Pronghorn”, a type of antelope found in

North America. (NOTE: Cheetah = Left pic, Central pic = Pronghorn, Sailfish = right pic)

2. FASTEST ANIMAL IN AIR: The “Peregrine Falcon” when diving, achieves a speed of

up to 200Km/hr. The speed of birds is difficult to measure for a number of reasons i.e the

wind speed, the altitude at which a bird is flying, the ambient temperature, age, sex of a

bird and other factors make comparison between birds difficult. However the

aforementioned bird is generally accepted.

3. FASTEST ANIMAL IN SEA: The “Sailfish” achieves a speed of

100Km/hr considering the fact that the drag or resistance of water is

Much more than air, the speed of the sailfish is truly quite phenomenal.

4. BIGGEST ANIMAL ON PLANET: The “Blue whale” having length

Up to 25.5 meters (86 ft) and weight up to 120 tons. It is much larger

Than the largest pre-historic dinosaurs. This gigantic creature eats mainly

A kind of small shrimp or crustaceans called Krill.

Right upper = Peregrine Falcon, Right Lower = Krill, Left = Blue whale

5. RAREST MAMMAL: So many species are critically endangered today that several may

qualify for this distressing record. Still the “Javan Rhino” found only one the island of

Java, Indonesia, and perhaps also in the dense rainforests of South-East Asia and may be

the rarest mammal species today an estimate of less than 5 species left in the World.

6. TALLEST ANIMAL: The “Giraffe” takes this record easily with large male being up to

5.55 meters (18 ft) tall. Giraffes are found exclusively in Africa.

7. MOST POISONOUS ANIMAL: Not the Scorpion, nor any snake, but the “Box Jelly

Fish” found in the coastal waters of the Northern Australia and parts of South-East Asia,

a large box jelly fish has enough poison or venom to kill 60 human adults.

8. STRONGEST SENSE OF SMELL: The “Male Emperor moth” can smell a female up

to 11Km away, making it the champion in the strongest sense of smell stake. Most animals

have a fairly keen sense of smell which either helps them to find prey or to avoid predators.

As the majority of animals in the World are nocturnal i.e active by night, a strong sense of

smell can be very useful after dark.

9. LONGEST LIVING: The “Tortoises” can reach an age beyond 150 years

10. HIGHEST LIVING MAMMAL: The “Himalayan Yolk” found in the Himalayas has

been found living at a height of 6200 meters (over 20,000 ft). This animal found in the

high mountains of Asia including Pakistan, has a very thick & shaggy coat, a thick skin

and layers of fat underneath which enables it to survive in the extremely low temperatures

of its habitat.

11. DOGS: They have sense of hearing 400 times more than human & sense of smell 90,000

times more than human. Their benefits are; sense of smell to track a culprit, sense of

hearing even at 40 ft away they can hear the sound produced by the fallen leaves pressed

under the foot of a suspicious person, and used as a companion animal.

Box jelly Fish Himalayan Yolk Giraffe

Javan Rhino Male emperor moth

A number of mammals have very specialized diet;

Panda eats bamboo almost exclusively

Koala, which looks like a special teddy bear but is not from the bear family, is perhaps

most specialized eater amongst mammals. Out of 500 species of Eucalyptus tree, it eats

leaves of only 6 species. Not only this, it will prefer one tree of the same species to

another and even one leaf to another. It is not that known how it decides which leaf to

eat & which to ignore.

Blue whale, the largest animal on planet Earth, does not eat any of the thousands of fish species

present in ocean, instead its diet is almost exclusively a small shrimp-like creature called Krill.

It eats up to 4 tons of Krill every day. This is equivalent n height to a fully grown African male

Elephant.

There is a great variation in size and shape amongst all animal groups. The Smallest mammal

(Kitti’s Hog Nosed Bat) weigh 2 grams and Largest mammal (Blue Whale) weigh up to 120

tons or 60 million times more than the smallest mammal

Panda Koala Kitti’s Hog Nosed Bat

Birds are a class of animals characterized by the possession of feathers, the laying of eggs

from which the young hatch and ability to fly. This ability has been lost during evolution by a

handful of birds. Flightless birds are known as Ratites, they include Ostrich of Africa, Rhea of

South America, Emu & Cassowary of Australia, the Kiwi of New Zealand and of course the

special species of Penguins.

The smaller the birds, the faster the wing beat. The record holder is the Hummingbird of

South America which has a wing beat of up to 90 beats per second. This incredible speed creates

the humming sound from which the bird has been given its name. This speed enables the

hummingbird to remain virtually motionless in one place in midair as it sucks nectar from flowers.

Some birds spend considerable time in the air, without needing to land on either land or

water. Among land-based birds, the Common Swift will spend 2-4 years continuously in the air,

eating, drinking & sleeping. Even more extraordinary is the Sooty tern, which is reputed to stay

airborne from 3 year up to 10 years continuously, over tropical oceans. Even to feed, it does not

settle on the ocean surface, but dives to catch fish from the water surface.

Many birds are high flyers, surviving at altitude at which no mammal could remain alive

owing to the lack of oxygen. Whooping Crane have been recorded at 8,230 meters (2,700 ft).

Bar-headed Geese have been seen flying over the Himalayas at an altitude of nearly 9,000 meters

(over 29,000 ft).

Birds, especially the birds of prey (also called raptors) have excellent vision. For example

the Peregrine Falcon can spot a pigeon at a distance of over 8Km (5 miles).

Whooping Crane Sooty tern

Ostrich Rhea Emu Penguins

Cassowary Kiwi Hummingbird Bar-headed geese

Whooping Crane Sooty Tern Common Swift

Reptiles include some 22 species of Crocodiles and Alligators, 265 species of Turtles and

Tortoises, about 2700 species of Snakes and some 3800 species of Lizards.

Crocodiles can shut their jaws by tremendous power. By contrast the muscles for opening

the jaws are extremely weak out. The jaws of a crocodile, up to 2 meters in length, can literally be

kept close with just a rubber band.

Out of 2700 species of Snake, only about 700 are poisonous (less than 26%) and even out

of these, 1/3rd are harmless for human.

Turtles and Tortoises, as a group, have the longest lives of any land animal. The record is

152 years for a male “Marion’s Tortoise”. The extinct Dinosaurs were also reptiles.

Crocodile Alligator Dinosaurs

There are some 24,000 species of Fish in the World and about 100 new species are discovered

every year. Considering that nearly 80% of the species of planet in water, it is not surprising that

many new fish species are discovered every year. There are some remarkable facts concerning

fish.

A lot of fish hunt & eat insects for food. The “Archer Fish”, found in India, Malaysia and

Northern Australia, hunts insects sitting on leaves and brushes hanging over the water, by spitting

water droplets at them. The archer fish is able to do this with amazing accuracy and force, which

makes the insects fall in the water where it is promptly eaten.

It is generally believed that fish cannot survive out of water. However, some fish are capable

of staying out of water for long periods. For example, the “Lung Fish” lives in swamps which

often dry out. The fish then switches from gill breathing to lung breathing, burrows into the sand

and waits up to 4 years in a state of dormancy for the rains to come & convert the dry sand into a

wet swamp again.

Similarly, some fish stay out of water by resorting to “Flying”. This action is not true-flight,

but rather skimming over the surface. Some species of flying fish can stay out of water in this

manner for up to 40 seconds, jumping to a height of 10 meters (33 ft) or a 3 stories building &

covering a distance of 400 meters (1,300 ft) in the process.

Not all fish lay eggs. Some species like Sharks give birth to live young like mammals. Such

fish are called viviparous fish.

But of course the vast majority of fish lay eggs. For example, The “Sunfish” may lay as many

as 300 million eggs at a time. The need for laying large number of eggs is to improve the chances

of reproduction. As for most fish, there may be no direct contact between male & female fish. And

the fertilization of at least some eggs is insured by the sheer numbers of eggs laid.

Archer Fish Lung Fish Sunfish

Shark

Amphibians are animals which live both on land & in water. They include some 3,800 species

of Frogs and toads, about 355 species of Newts and Salamanders, and about 170 species of

Caecilians, animals that look like large earthworms. The last named are found only in the tropics

& subtropics. Whereas the other groups are found all over the World.

Two species of Frog, both found in Australia, are only animals in the World which give birth

to their young inside the female stomach. The “Female Eungella gastric brooding frog” and the

“Female Platypus gastric brooding frog” swallow their own fertilized eggs which develops into

tadpoles and the froglets inside the stomach, then the female gives birth through her mouth.

Throughout this period of 5-7 week, the female does not feed herself. Both the frog species have

not been seen since mid-1980 and in feared that these species may already be extinct.

Though all frogs & toads, have lungs, they are also able to absorb oxygen through their skin

either from air or water. This means that a frog can stay under water for its whole life if it so

desires.

Some frogs secrete a toxic substance from their skin, the “Golden Poison Dart Frog” of the

Columbian rainforests carries enough poison to kill 1000 human. These poisonous frogs are always

very brightly colored, which in Nature’s way of warning other species to stay away from them.

The longest gestation period (pregnancy) of any vertebrate is that of black colored “Alpine

Salamander”, found in the Switzerland, Bosnia, Croatia and Albania, this animal has a gestation

period of 2-3 year.

Eungella frog Platypus frog Golden Poison Dart Frog

Alpine Salamander