Amazing Animal Facts: Porcupines

Porcupines are awesome. I was saw one in the wild when I was on a hike, and I was surprised at how large it was! But the one thing I was unsure about was whether a wild porcupine was dangerous. Here are some interesting facts about porcupines!

• Baby porcupines are called porcupettes. They are born with soft quills which turn hard within hours of delivery.
• Quills that are lost during defense will grow back.
• The quills are a voluntary muscle - they can lay on their back but are activated as a defense mechanism.
• They are nocturnal, have weak eyesight, and rely entirely on their nose for food!
• They are the third largest rodent in the world!
• Their quills are self-medicated with a topical antibiotic. A porcupine attack with thus not necessarily lead to an infection. This is done to prevent the porcupine from accidentally being self-quilled.
• They are not aggressive unless they feel threatened.

Aren't porcupettes cute?

 

This is definitely what I saw on my hike!

 

Amazing Animal Facts: Ants

I just rented Ant-Man to watch this weekend (I know ... I'm late in the game on this). But it got me wondering, are there actually any interesting facts about ants? Turns out there are several! The first one especially blew me away:

• The total biomass of ants on Earth is about equal to that of all the humans on Earth. (Some scientists believe it actually is larger than the biomass of humans!) This is because scientists estimate there are about 1.5 million ants for every single human being.
• Over 12,000 species of ants are known to exist, and a single acre of land in the Amazon rainforest may contain 3.5 million ants!
• The largest any colony ever found was over 3,750 miles wide. To put this in perspective, the shortest distance from coast to coast of the U.S. is about 2,092 miles long. This super colony was found in Europe, where individual colonies of invasive Argentinian ants were found to have been merged.
• Ants don't have lungs -because they're insects!
• Ants can carry objects 50 times their body weight. This is because Ants are known to hit the weight room regularly. Just kidding. Though this is a well-known fact, think about it - that's like the average human being able to lift an RV!

I could totally do this if I wanted.

Amazing Animal Facts - Reindeers!

It's that wonderful holiday time of year again! Growing up, I always wondered if reindeer (besides those which pull Santa's sleigh) existed. They do! Indeed, here are some interesting facts about reindeer:

• In America, reindeer are commonly known as caribou. They're called caribou for when they're in the while, but are known as reindeer when they're domesticated. In Europe, they are called reindeer all the time.
• Reindeers are usually 4 - 5 feet tall excluding their antlers. Their antlers can almost double their size, as they can grow up to 3 feet tall!
• Reindeer are the only type of deer in which the males and the females both grow antlers.
• Reindeer can run up to 50 mph - just fast enough to help them get a running start before flying!
• Reindeer may be known for Rudolph's red nose, but even more impressive than that is the fact that reindeer eyes turn blue in the winter! This change helps reindeers capture more light during the dark winter months, especially in the Artic. Scientists believe reindeers are the only known mammal to undergo such a change.

So if you ever see one of these guys in the wild, don't be afraid just because it's eyes are blue. Instead, be amazed by it's uniqueness!

And the next time you see a caribou, you should wonder - is it really one of Santa's? Merry Christmas!

Amazing Animal Facts: Turkeys!

Gobble, gobble - it's turkey time again! In light of the recent holiday, I got to wondering - are there any interesting facts about turkeys? It turns out there are! Here are just a few:

• A male turkey's gobble is distinctive to each bird, and can be heard from a mile away.
• Did you know a wild turkey can fly up to 55 mph?! I had no idea! Of course, they can only fly that speed for a short distance, but still - that is amazing!
• Ancient Mexican civilizations are believed to see the turkey as a sacred animal.
• The color of the turkey's head and throat will change based upon his mood.
• Last but not least: It is rumored that Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to become America's national bird rather than the bald eagle.

That's right - this beautiful guy almost became our national bird:

Amazing Animal Videos: Octopuses

When researching animals for my first novel, Acea and the Animal Kingdom, one of my favorite animals to research was the octopus. Here some just some of the amazing facts about octopuses that I uncovered:

• Octopuses are considered the most intelligent of all invertebrates.  To test this - the next time you visit an aquarium, ask them about the attempts the octopus will make to try to escape. Every one that I've visited has said they constantly have to change the way they feed an octopus and play with it, because it will figure out ways to escape from it!
• They can solve problems, such as unscrewing a lid to get prey from a container. Perhaps this is another example of the first fact, but either way - if you're trying to hide from an octopus, don't hide in a container with a lid in it.
• Octopuses have three hearts - two pump blood through each of the two gills, while the third pumps blood through the body.
• Octopuses are venomous, but only the small blue-ringed octopuses are known to be deadly to humans.
• Octopuses have four pairs of arms.
• An octopus can lose an arm to escape a predator's grasp and re-grow it later with no permanent damage.
• This is my favorite: Octopuses can fit through anything that their beak can. This is because their beak is the only bone/hard part of their body.

Now for some cool videos!

Can you spot the octopus in this picture? Click through to watch an amazing video to see where it's hiding:

This octopus is an escape artist: (click for video)

Think that was impressive? This popular video shows an octopus escaping from an even smaller hole:

Last one - here's the amazing Indonesian Mimic Octopus: (click for video)

Amazing Animal Fact: Parthenogenesis

Today's blog entry is the first to not specifically discuss a specific animal.  Rather, it's an extremely unique phenomenon that some animals can experience called parthenogenesis.

What is parthenogenesis? It's a form of asexual reproduction in which offspring develop from unfertilized eggs without any male contribution.  Think of it as a "virgin birth" that has been observed to occur in some insects, fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles, and snakes. It's rare, and biologically amazing.

The most recent example of parthenogenesis occurred with a captive female yellow-bellied water snake at the Missouri Department of Conservation's Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center. For as unique of a phenomenon as parthenogenesis is, this water snake has done it twice! The first time in 2014 where two snakes were born, and again this year. Sadly, this year's offspring did not survive.  It will be interesting to see if the 2014 offspring exhibit the same ability for parthenogenesis (if the offspring were female).

Prior to this water snake's ability for repetitive parthenogenesis being exhibited, the only other snake known to do so is the Brahminy blind snake.

So, here's the real question: As cool as this is, do we really want to know that snakes can reproduce asexually? Ah!

Amazing Animal Facts: Grasshoppers

It's that time of year again where grasshoppers are coming out. I've certainly got my fair share in my backyard. So it's left me wandering - what are some interesting facts about these little guys? Here are just a few:

• They can leap 20 times the length of its own body!
• Tucked under their wings are membranes that vibrate in response to sound waves, meaning their ears are on their abdomen!
• Grasshoppers existed long before dinosaurs! Fossil records show they first existed during the Carboniferous period more than 300 million years ago!
• Grasshoppers eat about half its own body weight in plants per day, meaning a swarm will devour crops.
• Grasshoppers and locusts are the same thing.
• Their musical "stridulating" will sing your children to bed.

Okay, I made that last one up - darn!