- Roosters cannot crow if they cannot fully extend their necks.
- A group of geese on the ground is called a gaggle. A group of geese in the air is called a skein.
- New Zealand kiwis lay the largest eggs with respect to their body size of any bird.
- Reindeer milk has more fat than cows' milk.
- Shrimps' hearts are in their heads.
- It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
- Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard that their hooves fall off.
- A donkey will sink in quicksand, but a mule won't.
- In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
- The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild.
- A pig's skin is thickest at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.
- A baby oyster is called a spat.
- Emus and ostriches are related. Their brown plumage is double-feathered.
- Emus are prized for their emerald/forest green eggs because they can be carved with a cameolike effect.
- Bees must collect the nectar from two thousand flowers to make one tablespoonful of honey.
- A group of ravens is called a murder.
- Twelve or more cows are known as a flink.
- A pig is a hog - hog is a generic term for all swine - but a hog is not a pig. In the terminology of hog raising, a pig is a baby hog less than ten weeks old.
- Contrary to popular belief, animals are not all color blind. Many species, including dogs, horses and sheep, can distinguish some colors - though not as well as humans. Primates, especially chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys, have color vision equal to that of humans.
- Ninety-nine percent of all lobsters die within a few weeks of hatching. In fact, the odds are 10,000 to 1 against any larval lobster living long enough to end up as a lobster dinner.
- In Maryland, state law requires boats to use sail power a certain distance from the shore. In order to dredge for oysters near shore, sailboats called skipjacks are used.
- Emus cannot walk backwards.
- Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- an antelope-like, Asian forest creature.
- A horse cannot vomit; neither can a rabbit.
- Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life! What about milk? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and grass is a living organism.
- An epidemic among animals is called an epizootic.
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- The underside of horse's hoof is called the frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.
- The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
- A full grown bear can run as fast as a horse.
- It takes forty minutes to hard boil an ostrich egg.
- The average garden-variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.
- Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two.
- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
- Pigs, walruses, and light-colored horses can be sunburned.
- When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule. When a male horse and a female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.
- A flea expert is a pullicologist.
- The top knot that quails have is called a hmuh.
- A female swine, or sow, will always have an even number of teats or nipples, usually twelve.
- It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cow's knees cannot bend properly in order to walk down.
- There are more beetles than any other kind of creature in the world.
- A group of owls is called a parliament.
- A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same pattern of spots.
- Goats' eyes have rectangular pupils.
- A widely held belief - that bulls dislike the color red - is probably wrong. Experiments suggest that it is the swirling movement of the matador's cape that excites them.
- Animals attend church services on St. Anthony's Day in Mexico and many other places. This popular saint, who is regarded as a healer of people and animals, is asked to protect the animals. People decorate the animals with flowers and ribbons for the occasion. In some rural areas, peasants also bring bags of insects and worms to be blessed. They hope that this will prevent the creatures from damaging the crops.
- "Eat like a bird" is a popular saying meaning to eat very little. However, many birds eat twice their weight in food a day.
- Only one in one thousand animals born in the sea survives to maturity.
- The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular.
- Reindeer like to eat bananas.
- Camel's milk does not curdle.
- You can tell the difference between male and female blue crab by looking at the design located on the their aprons(bellies). The male blue crab design is in the shape of the Washington Monument, while the female blue crab's apron resembles the U.S. Capital.
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