• Polar bear livers are poisonous because they contain too much vitamin C.
• A Polar Bear’s skin is black.
• All polar bears are left-handed.
• The brown bear is found in North America, Europe, and Asia, making it the most widely distributed bear in the world.
• Brown bears have five curved claws on each paw. The front claws are longer than the back, and may be up to 15 cm (6 inches) long. The front claws are mainly used for digging, but are also used for killing prey and fighting.
• The wild Giant Panda population is currently limited to six small forest fragments in southwestern China.
• Bamboo, the primary food-source for Giant Pandas, provides much of a Panda’s daily water requirements. Bamboo is usually about 50% water by volume, while new-bamboo shoots can be nearly 90% water.
• According to the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF), around 4,000 Koalas are killed each year by dogs and cars alone. As their natural habitat is destroyed, Koalas must live closer to humans than they otherwise would choose to.
• It is illegal to keep a Koala as a pet in every country. Zoos and wildlife rehabilitators must apply for special permits before keeping Koalas.
• Wombats are extremely strong and very proficient diggers.
• Tapirs are mainly nocturnal and spend much of the day in sleep.
• During the day the Tasmanian Devil usually hides in a den or dense bush.
• If you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground, it can’t hop.
• Kangaroos hop across the grassy plains of Australia at high speed. They cruise at 40 kph and reach 60kph for short bursts, using their long tail to help them balance. One red kangaroo made a record breaking long-jump of almost 13 metres.
• To bounce along at high speeds wallabies and kangaroos use their enormous back legs as springs.
• The smallest living kangaroo, the Musky Rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) has an average head-body length of only about 10 inches (25 centimeters).
• Weighing more than 200 pounds (90 kg), the Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), is both the heaviest living kangaroo and heaviest marsupial.
• Standing as tall as 6 feet (1.8 meters), the Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus), is the largest living species of kangaroo. The Red Kangaroo also has the distinction of being the largest living marsupial.
• Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range: between 14 and 35 hertz.
• An Elephant’s tusks never stop growing as long as it lives.
• Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.
• Female elephants are one of the few animals (other than humans) who live past their reproductive years. A female elephant usually ends her reproductive period between the ages of 45-50. Female elephants continue to assist in the care of other’s young even when they can no longer reproduce.
• Asian elephants prefer a wide range of forest habitats, including mountain forests at heights of 10,000 feet.
• The African Elephant can move at speeds of up to 40 km/h (25 mph) when frightened or upset. However, a more sedate 6 km/h (4 mph) is more common.
• The African Elephant has the longest gestation period (time in the womb) of any mammal. The average African Elephant gestation period is 660 days, but may last as long as 760 days.
• African Elephants can lift up to 600 pounds (272.15 kg) with their trunks.
• African Elephants have two fingerlike features on the tips of their trunks, allowing them to manipulate small objects (Asian Elephants only have one).
• An African Elephant’s trunk is usually about 5 feet (1.52 m) long and weighs around 300 pounds (136.4 kg).
• African Elephants can hold up to 11.5 liters (3 gallons) of water in their trunks at one time.
• Rhinoceroses have extremely poor vision, but an acute sense of smell.
• The African black rhinoceros excretes its own weight in dung every 48 hours.
• It is believed that up to 90% of adult Black rhinoceros deaths are the result of poaching to obtain their horn.
• On July 8th, 2006 the World Conservation Union declared Diceros bicornis longipes (a subspecies of Black rhino) tentatively extinct, after finding no trace of the last remaining population in northern Cameroon, which was previously counted at 10 animals.
• A Polar Bear’s skin is black.
• All polar bears are left-handed.
• The brown bear is found in North America, Europe, and Asia, making it the most widely distributed bear in the world.
• Brown bears have five curved claws on each paw. The front claws are longer than the back, and may be up to 15 cm (6 inches) long. The front claws are mainly used for digging, but are also used for killing prey and fighting.
• The wild Giant Panda population is currently limited to six small forest fragments in southwestern China.
• Bamboo, the primary food-source for Giant Pandas, provides much of a Panda’s daily water requirements. Bamboo is usually about 50% water by volume, while new-bamboo shoots can be nearly 90% water.
• According to the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF), around 4,000 Koalas are killed each year by dogs and cars alone. As their natural habitat is destroyed, Koalas must live closer to humans than they otherwise would choose to.
• It is illegal to keep a Koala as a pet in every country. Zoos and wildlife rehabilitators must apply for special permits before keeping Koalas.
• Wombats are extremely strong and very proficient diggers.
• Tapirs are mainly nocturnal and spend much of the day in sleep.
• During the day the Tasmanian Devil usually hides in a den or dense bush.
• If you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground, it can’t hop.
• Kangaroos hop across the grassy plains of Australia at high speed. They cruise at 40 kph and reach 60kph for short bursts, using their long tail to help them balance. One red kangaroo made a record breaking long-jump of almost 13 metres.
• To bounce along at high speeds wallabies and kangaroos use their enormous back legs as springs.
• The smallest living kangaroo, the Musky Rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) has an average head-body length of only about 10 inches (25 centimeters).
• Weighing more than 200 pounds (90 kg), the Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), is both the heaviest living kangaroo and heaviest marsupial.
• Standing as tall as 6 feet (1.8 meters), the Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus), is the largest living species of kangaroo. The Red Kangaroo also has the distinction of being the largest living marsupial.
• Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range: between 14 and 35 hertz.
• An Elephant’s tusks never stop growing as long as it lives.
• Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.
• Female elephants are one of the few animals (other than humans) who live past their reproductive years. A female elephant usually ends her reproductive period between the ages of 45-50. Female elephants continue to assist in the care of other’s young even when they can no longer reproduce.
• Asian elephants prefer a wide range of forest habitats, including mountain forests at heights of 10,000 feet.
• The African Elephant can move at speeds of up to 40 km/h (25 mph) when frightened or upset. However, a more sedate 6 km/h (4 mph) is more common.
• The African Elephant has the longest gestation period (time in the womb) of any mammal. The average African Elephant gestation period is 660 days, but may last as long as 760 days.
• African Elephants can lift up to 600 pounds (272.15 kg) with their trunks.
• African Elephants have two fingerlike features on the tips of their trunks, allowing them to manipulate small objects (Asian Elephants only have one).
• An African Elephant’s trunk is usually about 5 feet (1.52 m) long and weighs around 300 pounds (136.4 kg).
• African Elephants can hold up to 11.5 liters (3 gallons) of water in their trunks at one time.
• Rhinoceroses have extremely poor vision, but an acute sense of smell.
• The African black rhinoceros excretes its own weight in dung every 48 hours.
• It is believed that up to 90% of adult Black rhinoceros deaths are the result of poaching to obtain their horn.
• On July 8th, 2006 the World Conservation Union declared Diceros bicornis longipes (a subspecies of Black rhino) tentatively extinct, after finding no trace of the last remaining population in northern Cameroon, which was previously counted at 10 animals.