Animals are awesome! What is your favorite animal?
Nature sure is magical! From whiplash squid that hover at the bottom of the ocean 5,000 feet below to the high flying griffon vulture that soars over 37,000 feet high, our world is filled with astonishing creatures!
Perhaps your favorite animal lives in the Sahara desert, the Pacific Ocean, Amazon rainforest, or in your home! Wherever you can find your faves, check out these wonderfully wacky wildlife facts from all across the world!
Awesome Wild Wildlife Facts:
Did you know?
- Flamingos have to keep their heads upside down when eating food!
- Almost all the ants you see are female!
- Only half of a dolphin’s brain sleeps at a time; the other half is wide awake!
- A blue whale’s tongue is as heavy as an entire elephant!
- Cockroaches can survive decapitation - for a while - because they have secondary 'brains' in their bodies!
- Frogs can not only sleep with their eyes open, but can see 360 degrees around them at all times of day!
Magnificent Miniature Animal Facts:
- Did you know the world’s smallest known turtle is the speckled padloper tortoise from South Africa? These ancient turtles are only 3.9 in long at the most, and feed on even teeny tinier plants!
- Next up, is the bee hummingbird. Only about 2.4 in long and weighing less than 0.1 oz, these sweet-sounding birds have to eat twice the amount of their body weight by visiting hundreds of flowers each day. How sweet!
- The super small Barbados threadsnake is thought to be the world’s smallest snake, averaging less than 4 in in length, and is found only on Barbados (with cousins throughout North and South America, Asia and Africa). Although blind, these snakes feed by sucking out the insides of insect bodies and discarding the skin. Small but mighty for sure!
- Now bumblebees are rather small insects for certain, but Kitti’s hog-nosed bat (also known as the bumblebee bat) arguably takes the crown for being the smallest mammal in the world! Only a shade over an inch in length, these bats with pig-like snouts can be found in Thailand (although unfortunately, are at risk of extinction).
What is your favorite miniature creature?
The World’s Gigantic Animals:
Have you ever felt as hungry as an elephant?
Well, that might be a little over-exaggerated considering that the largest land animal is the African bush elephant which can consume up to 300 pounds of food in a single day! These giant mammals do not spend much time sleeping, but instead spend most of their day roaming for food to sustain their (up to) 11.5 tons of body weight.
If you thought an elephant was big, did you know the Antarctic blue whale weighs up to 219 tons, which is the equivalent of about 19 large elephants! And, these enormous marine creatures can eat almost 12,000 pounds of krill per day!
Although not nearly as heavy, the giraffe is known to be the tallest land animal alive today, stretching up to more than 18 feet tall, with almost 8 feet in their necks alone! These peaceful land grazers spend most of their lives standing up, even when they are sleeping or giving birth!
When you think of birds, you probably think of high flyers, but did you know that the ostrich is the biggest (yet flightless) extant bird in the world! Weighing in at up to 320 lb, these birds are still powerfully fast on land and although they cannot fly in the sky, they can run up to 40 mph using their strong legs to quickly run away from predators.
What is the largest animal you’ve ever seen?
How To Help Our Animal Friends Around The World:
Unfortunately, today many beloved animal species are being labeled as “critically endangered” or are at “risk of extinction” due to threats such as habitat loss, pollution, human sport, food, and/or commercial use and sales.
Although these problems have been around for years, there are many simple ways you can help these species! Let’s help the animals we know and love survive in our environment today so that future generations may have the chance to experience a world inhabited by these fascinating creatures too.
With any great movement, it is important to remember that no action is too small to make a difference. You may want to begin on an animal activist journey by considering what positive impact you can make in your local area first.
What interesting animals and wildlife live close to you?
How can you teach your friends, family, and neighbors about the wonderful wildlife that live nearby?
Neighborhood animals and wildlife are not only cool to spot, but help provide us with the natural world and its indispensable products such as clean air, water, food, medicine, recreation, and of course, natural beauty!
Here are five tips to consider to reduce your impact on our wildlife whether in your backyard or across the world. Remember, Earth connects all humans (and creatures) whether in North America, Asia, Antarctica and beyond!
Simple Tips To Help Wildlife Thrive:
- Buy and use eco-friendly products that cautiously and carefully avoid chemicals and methods that can potentially damage the environment.
- Follow the 3-R Rule: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle. This includes paper, plastics, metals, and glass to give your items more than a single use, and can prevent further waste from entering the natural environments when you toss it out.
- Don’t buy or use products made from endangered species. This includes coats with fur-lining, boots of reptile skin, or leather purses and wallets.
- Eat less meat. The methane released from the 1.5 billion cows that are farmed on the planet generates the great bulk of the 15-20% of global emissions that the agriculture sector generates yearly. Eating less meat will mean less meat production being completed and therefore less global pollution as a result.
- Spread awareness! Whenever possible, encourage friends and family to become more informed about our daily impact on the environment and how we can eat less meat, buy eco-friendly products, reduce our carbon footprints, reduce our energy consumption and waste, and help our natural world live healthy and strong.
We love our wacky wildlife friends! Thanks for reading about how we can support them all (both big and small)! It is more important than ever to consider the bigger picture and how we are all connected.
#MakingLifeWarmer
