50 Incredible Animal Facts (MSN)

I just love lists like these that tell me even more amazing facts about animals! Credit goes to MSN, and I love how they put the list on their front page this morning.

My favorite new fact is that Prairie Dogs say hello by kissing!

Video: Great White Shark Cage Breach

I will never go in a shark cage. Especially one near Great White Sharks. Why? This video says it all....

Amazing Animal Video: Battling Giraffes

I had no idea that Giraffes battle each other. They're supposed to be gentle. But after seeing this video, it'd make you think otherwise.

Why do giraffes battle each other? Some researchers believe battles will rarely occur between males who are dueling to mate with a nearby female.

This doesn't happen often, though - so enjoy this rare video!

Caterpillars are Amazing, Too - Right? You Bet!!!

On a hike to a waterfall, my family passed this little guy:

In fact, we actually passed so many of these guys that it got me wondering - there's got to be amazing facts about caterpillars, right? You bet there are! And the more I read about caterpillars, the more I learned just how fascinating they are!

Now, let's stop and just think about one commonly-known thing about caterpillars: they transform into butterflies or moths through a process called metamorphosis. This alone is amazing and unlike most other creatures! In fact, the caterpillar I snapped a photo of will transform into the American Dagger Moth:

Now, moths alone are amazing creatures - for example, male moths can smell a female moth more than 7 miles away despite not having a nose! However, this post is focused on caterpillars instead. So, here are some amazing facts about caterpillars:

• There are 180,000 known different types of caterpillars. 
• When you see a caterpillar, it's in the larva stage of their life cycle. There are 4 parts of their life cycle: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (the chrysalis or cocoon stage); and adult (moth or butterfly). Caterpillars begin making the cocoon after being only 2-4 weeks old! That means you only have a short time to see the little guys before they disappear.
• A caterpillar's job is really one thing: eat. Some consume 27,000 times their body weight. This is so that they have enough energy to complete their metamorphosis and produce eggs as an adult.
• Because of how much they eat, caterpillars increase their body mass by at least 1,000 times! 
• They have about 4,000 muscles in their body! Guess how many a human has? 629. Wow!
• Caterpillars move in a wave like motion from back to front. Can you do that?
• They are geniuses at self defense. Some look like bird droppings, twigs, leafs, or bark. Others will absorb toxins from their host-plants so that birds will not want to eat them.

Enjoy some pics of some crazy-looking Caterpillars, and what they metamorphosis into!!!