100+ Fun Facts About Animals That Will Blow Your Mind

Did you know that the chicken is the closest living relative to the T-Rex? How wild!

Updated 4 years ago, July 17, 2020

Here on Earth, we are surrounded by some of the most beautiful and remarkable creatures to ever exist. But what do we really know about them and what they’re capable of?

Here are some fun facts about animals that will most likely blow your mind:

15,000-20,000 new animal species are discovered every year.
A butterfly has about 12,000 eyes.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
Jellyfish are made up of 95% water.
Polar bears touch noses with one another when they greet each other. How cute!
Sea otters hold hands when they sleep so they don’t drift away from each other.
Snakes can burp fire—only if the decomposing animal they eat bursts with methane and hydrogen while being digested.
A scorpion can hold its breath for 1 week.
Alpacas are known to spit when they get annoyed.
Horses use facial expressions to communicate with each other.
A rhino’s horn is made of hair.
10% of the bones in a cat are located in its tail.
Blue Whales are so large that their hearts are about 5 feet long and weigh 400 pounds and their tongues weigh as much as an elephant.
A shark is the only known fish that can blink with both eyes.
An octopus has 3 hearts.
You can hypnotize a frog—just place it on its back and gently stroke its stomach!
It takes 2 weeks for a sloth to digest its food.
Kangaroos can’t fart.
A grizzly bear’s bite is so strong it can break a bowling ball!
About 50% of orangutans will have fractured bones due to falling out of trees.
Female lions doo 90% of the hunting.
If you tickle a rat, it will laugh.
Dogs sneeze when play fighting to show they are playing and don’t wanna hurt you!
Cats only meow because it’s a way of communicating with humans.
Squirrels forget where they bury their nuts.
A duck’s quack doesn’t echo.
Rabbits and parrots can see behind themselves without even moving their heads!
There is a species of mouse that defends its territory by howling.
Hippos have such large mouths that a 4ft. child can fit inside of it.
The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.
If you thaw a frozen lobster, it can come back to life.
Despite being the largest animal to have ever lived on planet Earth, the Blue Whale is known to feed on some of the smallest marine animals: tiny shrimp called krill!
Bulls are actually colorblind and so they can’t see the color red.
Hippopotamus milk is pink.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
Monkeys can go bald in old age, just like humans.
Camels’ humps don’t actually hold water, but rather, fat. This helps regulate their body temperature during the climate of the desert (baking hot days and freezing cold nights).
Cows can walk up stairs but not down them.
The little jump guinea pigs do when they’re happy is called popcorning.
There is a species of sharks that can live under an active and underwater volcano. Investigation cannot be done because divers would get burns from the acidity and heat of the volcano.
A shrimp’s heart is in its head.
Cheetahs can sprint for about 17 seconds straight. After that, they have to stop because they generate so much heat from the exertion that if they continued running they would literally cook their own brains.
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
There is a species of ant that can only be found in Manhattan.
Capuchin monkeys wash their hands and feet in urine.
There are pigs in China that can grow up to the size of a bear.
Koalas sleep up to 22 hours a day.
Cats only meow at humans.
Zebra stripes are a bug repellent, so if you paint a cow with black and white stripes like a Zebra, the flies will stay away from it.
It can take up to a month for a sloth to digest one leaf. Some sloths have a bowel movement once a week!
Deer can run up to 35mph.
Horned lizards squirt blood out of their eyes when a predator threatens them.
There is a species of fish, known as a garfish, that has green bones.
There are roughly 24,000 species of butterflies.
A tarantula spider can go as long as 2 years without food.
Cows sleep while standing up!
Hippos attract mates by urinating and pooping. Ew.
A swan has over 25,000 feathers on its body.
Only half of a dolphin’s brain sleeps at a time. The other half stays awake so the dolphin can come up for air and not drown!
Peacocks are male and peahens are female.
Pigs roll around in mud because they don’t have sweat glands–they do it to stay cool and prevent sunburn!
Seahorses travel by holding each others’ tails.
You can identify the gender of a turtle based on the sound it makes — males grunt, females hiss.
Reptiles, birds, and fish have been known to swallow rocks to help them digest their food.
A woodpecker can peck 20 times per second.
A single elephant tooth can weigh up to 9lbs.
The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed.
When kangaroos are first born, they are only 1 inch long–no bigger than a bumblebee!
A grasshopper can leap 20 times the length of its own body.
An elephant’s trunk has 15,200 muscles in it.
Bumblebees have hair on their eyes.
Goats were the first animal to be domesticated by man, in 10,000 B.C.
We share 98.4% of our DNA with chimps.
Starfish have 5 eyes!
After eating, a housefly will puke up its food and then eat it again. Ew ew ew.
No 2 tigers have the same stripes.
Donkeys’ eyes are placed on their body in a way so that they can see all 4 of their legs.
At birth, a baby panda can be smaller than a mouse.
An octopus has 9 brains.
Dolphins and whales were once land animals that evolved back to the ocean.
Seahorses are the only species where the male experiences pregnancy and gives birth to their young.
Cows can have best friends.
A group of flamingos is called a “flamboyance.”
Penguins “propose” with each other with pebbles.
Elephants are known to be empathetic creatures.
Catfish have 100,000 taste buds all over their body.
Frogs can breathe through their skin.
Birds have hollow bones which is what helps them fly!
Male seahorses have pouches on their stomachs which carries up to 2,000 babies at a time.
Baby porcupines are born with soft quills but they eventually harden within a few days.
Wolverines have frost-resistant fur and teeth that can easily tear frozen meat.
Cows lie down when they sense a storm is coming.
Gorillas are so much stronger than the average man that they can bend iron bars and even uproot an entire tree just for some fruit.
Bees are so smart that they communicate with each other by wiggling their bum in a dance.
An elephant can be pregnant up to 22 months.
There is a species of frogs that stay in their dads’ vocal sacs, and he will cough them up when they are old enough.
Hares can run up to 45 miles per hour!
The chicken is the closest living relative to the T-Rex.
Lobsters pee out of their faces. Ew.
Squirrels often forget where they plant their nuts, and it is estimated that millions of trees in the world have been accidentally planted by them! How funny is that?!