Most female cheetahs go their entire lives without raising a single cub to maturity. The species is dependent on “supermoms” that are particularly adept at raising cubs. One such supermom, Eleanor, has mothered at least 10% of all adult cheetahs in the southern Serengeti.
animals
The scientists who first discovered…
The scientists who first discovered the platypus thought it was fake. Although indigenous Aboriginal people already knew of the creature, European scientists assumed an egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed, venomous mammal had to be an elaborate hoax.
The scientific name…
The scientific name for the western lowland gorilla is Gorilla gorilla gorilla. It is a subspecies of the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla).
Laika, the first dog in space, was taken home…
Laika, the first dog in space, was taken home by a scientist shortly before her launch to play with the scientists’s kids.He wrote ‘”Laika was quiet and charming…I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live’.
Left unchecked, an unspayed rabbit and her intact female descendants…
Left unchecked, an unspayed rabbit and her intact female descendants can produce more than 1300 offspring in a year. Over the course of five years this number balloons exponentially to more than 94 million.
Smaller creatures experience time…
Smaller creatures experience time much faster than we do, so to them we seem to be moving in slow motion.
In 1889 a lion escaped from a traveling show…
In 1889 a lion escaped from a traveling show in Birmingham and ran into the sewers. When an angry mob formed, Frank Bostock, the owner secretly snuck another lion out the back. He then returned with the lion clearly visible and was hailed a hero. The escaped lion was still in the sewers.
A Naked Mole Rat can survive up-to 18 minutes…
A Naked Mole Rat can survive up-to 18 minutes without oxygen by dropping its heart rate and switching to fructose based anaerobic respiration.
In 2002, a cow jumped a 6 foot fence at a slaughterhouse…
In 2002, a cow jumped a 6 foot fence at a slaughterhouse in Cincinnati, only to evade police officers for 11 days, making national news headlines, and eventually living out the rest of its life in NY.
Okunoshima, Japan (aka Rabbit Island) has thousands…
Okunoshima, Japan (aka Rabbit Island) has thousands of wild rabbits which began from only 5 released there in the ’60s. Since there are no natural predators to keep the rabbit population in check and tourists feed them, the rabbits have no fear of people and will swarm them with cuddles.