The 24 Most Adorable Animal Facts… OF ALL TIME.

Fact: animals are cute. Fact: animals have often-overlooked behaviors and characteristics. Fact: If you combine the cute with the educational, you get this… the 24 most adorable animal facts of all time.

1. Cats “headbutt” people because they make them feel safe, or they trust them.

2. Puppies have 28 teeth and normal adult dogs have 42.

3. Since they do not hibernate, an individual pika must collect a large pile of dry grasses to eat in its rocky burrow in order to make it through the winter.

4. The Grizzly bear’s name comes from the word “grizzled” which means ‘streaked with gray hair’.

5. Every year, the Peruvian town of Churin holds a Guinea Pig Festival, including an elaborate costume competition.

6. Wombat poo is cube-shaped to stop it from rolling away…

7. Dogs will sneeze to tell other dogs that they’re playing, so when they’re playing rough it doesn’t turn into a fight.

8. Gray squirrels bury nuts all over the place, and often forget them, growing new trees. This makes them more ecologically friendly than red squirrels, who store nuts in piles on the ground which don’t take root.

9. Infant Pygmy Marmosets babble to develop their language skills, similarly to the way human babies babble.

10. Two-toed sloths cannot shiver to stay warm like other mammals due to their low metabolic rates and little muscle tissue.

11. Yawning is infectious because it supplies a method for the most sleepy to forcefully communicate their need for rest and thus ensures that the group rests/sleeps together.

12. Baby dolphins have spines on the sides of their tongue. The spines zip up to make a straw so that they can drink the mother’s milk without getting salt water in it.

13. Dachshund literally means ‘Badger Dog’ – They were originally bred to hunt and fight badgers in their burrows.

14. When a rabbit is happy it will sometimes jump in the air twist it’s body. This is called a binky.

15. The capybara is the largest rodent in the world, followed by the beaver, porcupine, and mara.

16. The Tonkin Snub-Nosed Monkey is one of the most endangered primate species in the world.

17. The red panda uses its long bushy tail not only for balance, but also as a blanket during chilly winter nights.

18. Baby Japanese Macaques make snowballs. They do not use them for any survival purposes, they just like to have fun.

19. Slow loris may be cute, but it’s the only venomous primate in the world. When it raises its arms, it’s performing a defensive stance, and preparing a venom.

20. When puppies play fight, boy puppies will often let girl puppies win.

21. Manatee calves nurse underwater from teats under their mothers flippers.

22. Fennec fox’s feet are hairy, which helps them perform like snowshoes and protects them from extremely hot sand. The fox’s feet are also effective shovels for frequent digging.

23. Baby Elephants will suck their own trunks for comfort.

24. Polar bears generally lead solitary lives. Some adult and sub-adult males, however, sometimes form friendships which can last weeks or sometimes even years. These males may travel, feed, and play-fight together.

One more fun fact: Did you know animals spend most of their time in the wild waiting for a nature photographer to come across them so they can show off? It’s totally true. I mean, how else could all these photos exist? :)

47 Surprising Facts About Animals:

 

1. Hummingbirds can fly backwards.

2. Some spiders can grow bigger in urban areas.
3. Cicadas expand and contract their exoskeletons to make their loud calls.
4. When caterpillars metamorphosize, they digest themselves into a “soup,” then reform into a butterfly.
5. The largest bat colony in the world in Bracken Cave, Texas, is believed to have 20 million bats.

5. Female insects of the genus Neotrogla have a penis and can have sex for up to 70 hours.

6. There’s a mammal in Australia that has sex until it disintegrates.
7. During sex, flies create a buzz that can attract predatory bats.
8. Female black widow spiders sometimes kill and eat their male counterparts after mating.
9. Female komodo dragons don’t need a male to reproduce.
10. Bald eagles court each other in the sky. They lock talons while freefalling, then soar upward before hitting the ground.

11. Female kangaroos have three vaginas.

12. Snakes have two penises, but only use one at a time.
13. Bumblebees can sense a flower’s electric field and use it to find pollen.
14. Honeybees can taste with their feet.
15. And honey is believed to have an eternal shelf life.

16. Armadillos found in the U.S. nearly always give birth to identical quadruplets.

17. Elephants are pregnant for almost two years.
18. They’re also believed to grieve for their dead.
19. Penguins have knees.
20. Wombat poop is cube-shaped.
21. Guinea pigs are neither pigs nor from Guinea.
22. Koala bears aren’t bears: They’re marsupials.
23. On a 95-degree day, hugging a tree in the shade could help a 25-pound koala lose up to 68 percent of its extra body heat.

24. Ostrich kicks can kill a human.

25. Male platypuses are venomous.
26. An octopus has three hearts.
27. Horned lizards can shoot blood out of their eyes to defend themselves.
28. Mantis shrimp have four times as many color receptors in their eyes as humans do.
29. Catfish use their entire bodies to taste things.
30. You can use a blue whale’s wax earplug to work out its life history.
31. Dolphins can stay active for 15 days or more by sleeping with only one half of their brain at a time.

32. Some lobster species can live to be 50 years or older.

33. Lobsters pee out of their faces.
34. The Chinese soft-shelled turtle can expel urea, the main waste product in urine, out of its mouth.
35. Some turtles can breathe through their butts.
36. Each of a tarsier’s eyeballs is as big as its brain.

37. A group of otters is called a romp.

38. A group of rhinoceroses is called a crash.
39. A group of porcupines is called a prickle.
40. Baby porcupines have soft quills at birth, which harden within a few days.

41. While moms hunt, emperor penguin dads fast for weeks and protect their egg from the cold with a special flap of skin.

42. Grizzly bear dads sometimes kill cubs, so moms find dens that are far away from males.
43. Seahorse dads carry fertilized eggs in their pouch and can give birth to hundreds of babies at a time.
44. Tardigrades are the only animal we know of that can survive in the vacuum of space.

45. Giraffes have sturdy hearts and high blood pressure, which help prevent fainting when they lift their heads from the ground to the sky.

46. Aging male giraffes go black instead of gray.
47. And that feeling you get when something is so cute you can’t help but want to squeeze it hard is called “cute aggression.”