Free Animal Trivia Facts

This is the first page of animal trivia facts.

The first bird domesticated by man was the goose.

There are more chickens in the world than people.

Chickens absorb vitamin-D through their combs from sunshine.

The average hen will lay 227 eggs a year

Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.

A group of geese on the ground is gaggle, a group of geese in the air is skein.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two.

The female pig is the fastest barnyard mama. Miss Piggy gestates in three months, three weeks, and three days.

The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.

The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' head enables it to see all four feet at all times.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cows' knees can't bend properly to walk back down.

Lots of animal trivia.

A female swine, or a sow, will always have a even number of teats or nipples, usually twelve.

A pig is a hog -- hog is a generic name for all swine -- but a hog is not a pig. In the terminology of hog raising, a pig is a baby hog less than ten weeks old. Source: "2201 Fascinating Facts"

Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink."

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same pattern of spots.

A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew.

A pig's skin is thickest at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.

The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild.

Over the average lifespan of 11 years, a dog will cost you $13,350.00.

When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.

The way to get more mules is to mate a male donkey with a female horse.

A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.

Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.

Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- anantelope-like, Asian forest creature.

Horses cannot vomit.

Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.

A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times it's own weight each year.

A capon is a castrated rooster.

A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

A normal cow's stomach has four compartments: the rumen, the recticulum (storage area), the omasum (where water is absorbed), and the abomasum ( the only compartment with digestive juices).

A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.

It is physically impossible for pigs to lookup into the sky.

Brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red ear lobes; white eggs come from hens with white feathers and white ear lobes. Shell color is determined by the breed of hen and has no effect on its quality, nutrients or flavor.

Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have a very high probability of having six toes.

A cat's jaws can not move sideways.

Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.

Armadillos can be house broken.

Armadillos have four babies at a time, always all the same sex. They are perfect quadruplets, the fertilized cell split into quarters, resulting in four identical armadillos.

Armadillos get an average of 18.5 hours of sleep per day.

Armadillos can walk underwater. Fun animal facts.

Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.

Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language; commonly German but more recently Hungarian or some other Slavic tongue.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

Reindeer like to eat bananas.

The Pug dog is thought to have gotten it's name from looking like the pug monkey.

The newest dog breed is the Bull Boxer, first bred in the United states in 1990-91.

The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

A bear has 42 teeth.

A cat has four rows of whiskers.

When angered, the ears of Tazmanian devils turn a pinkish-red.

Porcupines float in water.

Giraffes have no vocal cords.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.

Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra.

Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.

Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.

Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.

Hamsters love to eat crickets.

In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

Camel's milk does not curdle.

There are only two animals with blue tongues, the Black Bear and the Chow dog.

A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times it's own weight each year.

A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

A polecat is not a cat. It is a nocturnal European weasel.

A zebra is white with black stripes.

All pet hamsters are descended from a single female wild golden hamster found with a litter of 12 young in Syria in 1930.

An adult lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away, and warns off intruders or reunites scattered members of the pride.

Beaver teeth are so sharp that Native Americans once used them as knife blades.

Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.

Catnip can affect lions and tigers as well as house cats. It excites them because it contains a chemical that resembles an excretion of the dominant female's urine.

Cheetahs make a chirping sound that is much like a bird's chirp or a dog's yelp. The sound is so an intense, it can be heard a mile away.

Despite its reputation for being finicky, the average cat consumes about 127,750 calories a year, nearly 28 times its own weight in food and the same amount again in liquids. In case you were wondering, cats cannot survive on a vegetarian diet.

Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small game as hares.

Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of the water. They frequently rise to the surface for air.

During World War II, the very first bomb dropped on Berlin by the Allies killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

Elephant tusks grow throughout an elephant's life and can weigh more than 200 pounds. Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks.

Most people would consider the largest insect to be the bulkiest, in this case the Acteon Beetle (Megasoma acteon) from South America the males of which can be 9cms long by 5cms wide by 4cms thick Insect trivia and facts.

A one-day old baby cockroach, about the size of a spec of dust, can run almost as fast as its parents.

More human deaths have been attributed to fleas than all the wars ever fought. As carriers of the bubonic plague, fleas were responsible for killing one-third of the population of Europe in the 14th century.

Bees must collect the nectar from two thousand flowers to make one tablespoonful of honey.

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.

Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sideways, like scissors, to obtain the juices from the food.

There are more beetles than any other kind of creature in the world.

Crickets hear through their knees.

Most spiders belong to the orb weaver spider family, Family Aranidae. This is pronounced "A Rainy Day."

It is a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly -- so says City Ordinance No. 352 in Pacific Grove, California.

A flea expert is a pullicologist.

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.

The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs.

In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.

Tapeworms range in size from about 0.04 inch to more than 50 feet in length.

Megaphragma caribea from Guadeloupe, measuring out at a huge 0.17 mm long, is now probably the smallest known insect in the world.

Scientist have recorded the otherwise inconspicuous Springtails at densities as high 100,000,000 per square meter in the ordinary farm soil of Iowa U.S.A.

In Africa swarms of Orthoptera ( Desert Locusts Schistocerca gregaria) may contain as many as 28,000,000,000 individuals.

The highest sustained ground speed recorded is that of the black cutworm (Agrotis ipsilon) which flies at speeds of between 97 and 113 km/h (60-70 mph)

The dehydrated larvae of the African chironomid Polypedilum vanderplanki were able to withstand exposure to liquid helium (-270 C) for up to 5 min. with a 100% survival rate

The "long-tailed" South African Scorpion (Hadogenes troglodytes) reaches a length of over 8 inches, and is probably the longest scorpion in the world.

The average scorpion probably lives three to five years, but some species undoubtedly live at least 10-15 years.

The world's largest roach (which lives in South America) is six inches long with a one-foot wingspan.

A cockroach can live a week without its head. The roach only dies because without a mouth, it can't drink water and dies of thirst.

Roaches can live without food for a month, but will only survive a week without water.

The House Fly is often a carrier of diseases, such as typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and anthrax.

The complete life-cycle of a house fly takes from 10 to 21 days.

The first bird domesticated by man was the goose.

The average canary has about 2,200 feathers.

There are more chickens in the world than people.

The average robin lives to be about 12.

There is a type of parrot in New Zealand that likes to eat the rubber strips that line car windows.

Chickens absorb vitamin-D through their combs from sunshine.

The average hen will lay 227 eggs a year

Emus have double-plumed feathers, and they lay emerald/forest green eggs

Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.

Swans are the only birds with penises.

A group of geese on the ground is gaggle, a group of geese in the air is skein.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

It takes forty minutes to hard boil an ostrich egg.

Kiwi birds are blind, they hunt by smell.

The top knot that quails have is called a hmuh.

The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.

"Eat like a bird?" Many birds eat twice their weight a day.

Emus cannot walk backwards.

A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.

There are more bald eagles in the province of British Columbia then there are in the whole United States.

Hummingbirds are the only animals that can fly backwards.

A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.

A group of larks is called an exaltation.

A group of geese is called a gaggle.

Big Ben was slowed five minutes one day when a passing group of starlings decided to take a rest on the minute hand of the clock.

A group of ravens is called a murder.

A group of owls is called a parliament.

Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two.

A robin's egg is blue, but if you put it in vinegar for thirty days it turns yellow.

A penguin only has sex twice a year.

The penguins that inhabit the tip of South America are called jackass penguins.

If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow.

Many species of bird copulate in the air. In general, a couple will fly to a very high altitude, and then drop. During their descent, the birds mate.

Ancient Romans ate flamingo tongues and considered them a delicacy.

Crows have the largest cerebral hemispheres, relative to body size, of any avian family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.

If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.

A capon is a castrated rooster.

Mockingbirds can imitate any sound from a squeaking door to a cat meowing.

All swans and all sturgeons in England are property of the Queen.

A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.

A father Emperor penguin withstands the Antarctic cold for 60 days or more to protect his eggs, which he keeps on his feet, covered with a feathered flap.

Most father penguins lose about 25 pounds while they wait for their babies to hatch.

A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second. Fun online bird facts and trivia.

Parrots, most famous of all talking birds, rarely acquire a vocabulary of more than twenty words, however Tymhoney Greys and African Greys have been know to carry vocabularies in excess of 100 words.

By feeding hens certain dyes they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.

Lovebirds are small parakeets who live in pairs.

Macaroni, Gentoo, Chinstrap and Emperor are types of penguins.

Owls have eyeballs that are tubular in shape, because of this, they cannot move their eyes.

Pet parrots can eat virtually any common "people-food" except for chocolate and avocados. Both of these are highly toxic to the parrot and can be fatal.

The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds.

The fastest bird is the Spine-tailed swift, clocked at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour.

The hummingbird is the only bird that can hover and fly straight up, down, or backward!

The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that cannot walk.

The largest bird egg in the world today is that of the ostrich. Ostrich eggs are from 6 to 8 inches long. Because of their size and the thickness of their shells, they take 40 minutes to hard-boil.

The most frequently seen birds at feeders across North America last winter were the Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch and American goldfinch, along with downy woodpeckers, blue jays, mourning doves, black-capped chickadees, house sparrows, northern cardinals and European starlings.

The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 70 million years.

The turkey was named for what was wrongly thought to be its country of origin.

In Massachusetts, it is illegal to feed ducks on Sunday between the hours of 5am and 12pm while humming.

If an average man had a metabolism comparable to that of a hummingbird he would have to eat 285 pounds of hamburger every day to maintain his weight.

Bowerbirds of Australia and New Guinea decorate their courting grounds with everything from beetle wings to car keys.


Since 1600, 109 species and subspecies of birds have become extinct.

Emus have double-plumed feathers, and they lay emerald/forest green eggs.

A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.

Percentage of bird species that are monogamous: 90

Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water.

An eagle can kill a young deer and fly away with it.

A group of chickens is called a peep.

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

The first bird domesticated by man was the goose.

There are more chickens in the world than people.

Chickens absorb vitamin-D through their combs from sunshine.

The average hen will lay 227 eggs a year

Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.

A group of geese on the ground is gaggle, a group of geese in the air is skein.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two.

The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.

The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cows' knees can't bend properly to walk back down.

A female swine, or a sow, will always have a even number of teats or nipples, usually twelve.

Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink."

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same pattern of spots.

A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew.

It is physically impossible for pigs to lookup into the sky.

A pig's skin is thickest at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.

The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild.

Over the average lifespan of 11 years, a dog will cost you $13,350.00.

When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.

The way to get more mules is to mate a male donkey with a female horse.

A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.

Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.

Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- anantelope-like, Asian forest creature.

Horses cannot vomit.

Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.

A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times it's own weight each year.

A capon is a castrated rooster.

A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

A normal cow's stomach has four compartments: the rumen, the recticulum (storage area), the omasum (where water is absorbed), and the abomasum ( the only compartment with digestive juices).

A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.

Brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red ear lobes; white eggs come from hens with white feathers and white ear lobes. Shell color is determined by the breed of hen and has no effect on its quality, nutrients or flavor.

By feeding hens certain dyes they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.

Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range: between 14 and 35 hertz.

Female chickens, or hens, need about 24 to 26 hours to produce one egg. Thirty minutes later they start the process all over again. In addition to the half-hour rests, some hens rest every three to five days and others rest every 10 days.

Hummingbirds are the smallest birds - so tiny that one of their enemies is an insect, the praying mantis.

In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.

On average, pigs live for about 15 years.

Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.

Prairie dogs are not dogs. A prairie dog is a kind of rodent.

The first bird domesticated by man was the goose.

There are more chickens in the world than people.

Chickens absorb vitamin-D through their combs from sunshine.

The average hen will lay 227 eggs a year

Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.

A group of geese on the ground is gaggle, a group of geese in the air is skein.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two.

The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.

The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cows' knees can't bend properly to walk back down.

A female swine, or a sow, will always have a even number of teats or nipples, usually twelve.

Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink."

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same pattern of spots.

A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew.

It is physically impossible for pigs to lookup into the sky.

A pig's skin is thickest at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.

The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild.

Over the average lifespan of 11 years, a dog will cost you $13,350.00.

When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.

The way to get more mules is to mate a male donkey with a female horse.

A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.

Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.

Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- anantelope-like, Asian forest creature.

Horses cannot vomit.

Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.

A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times it's own weight each year.

A capon is a castrated rooster.

A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

A normal cow's stomach has four compartments: the rumen, the recticulum (storage area), the omasum (where water is absorbed), and the abomasum ( the only compartment with digestive juices).

A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.

Brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red ear lobes; white eggs come from hens with white feathers and white ear lobes. Shell color is determined by the breed of hen and has no effect on its quality, nutrients or flavor.

By feeding hens certain dyes they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.

Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range: between 14 and 35 hertz.

Female chickens, or hens, need about 24 to 26 hours to produce one egg. Thirty minutes later they start the process all over again. In addition to the half-hour rests, some hens rest every three to five days and others rest every 10 days.

Hummingbirds are the smallest birds - so tiny that one of their enemies is an insect, the praying mantis.

In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.

On average, pigs live for about 15 years.

Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.

Prairie dogs are not dogs. A prairie dog is a kind of rodent.