var trivia_content = new Array( "The closest relative to the African elephant, the world's largest mammal, is a rabbit sized mammals called the Hyrax. Both evolved from the same group of mammals, millions of years ago.", "All mammals breathe air. But there are still traces of ancient ancestors. The tube running between a mammal's ear and its throat was once a gill-slit.", "Paraceratherium was the largest land mammal ever. It lived 35 million years ago in Asia and Europe. It looked like a cross between a giraffe and a rhinoceros and was 26 feet tall and 36 feet long.", "All the pet hamsters in the world are descended from the same mother. This was a female wild hamster found with a litter of 12 babies in 1930 in Syria. That's one BIG family!", "Until the age of three months, a cheetah cub has a thick mane of hair on its back. The main helps hide the cub among dry grasses and makes it look bigger and fiercer than it really is to scare away enemies.", "Humans aren't the only animals that use tools. The sea otter floats on its back in the water with a large stone balanced on its stomach. It smashes shellfish against the stone to open them up to eat.", "About 5,000 years ago the Sahara Desert was covered in rich grassland and trees. Paintings found in caves in Algeria show giraffe, hippos and lions, people hunting and cattle grazing!", "If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long -- that's about 2 1/2 city bus lengths! Slinkies were invented by an airplane mechanic who was playing with engine parts and realized the potential playful use of one of the springs.", "Synthetoceras was a strange mammal that lived about 15 million years ago in North America. It looked like a deer, but it had a huge forked horn in the shape of a Y growing on it nose!", "A newly born Kodiak brown bear can weigh less than one pound. By the time it's an adult, it can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds. If human babies grew this much, as adults they would weigh over 6,000 pounds!", "The skunk's tail hides a secret weapon. When threatened, the skunk lifts its tail and squirts a horrible smell from a hidden gland. This smell can reach up to half a kilometer away.", "Pinocchio was made of pine. Pinocchio is Italian for 'pine eyes'. Just as an extra bit of info... Walt Disney had wooden teeth.", "The Asian elephant has the longest tail of any land mammal. Excluding the hair tuft at the end, the tail is 5 feet long.", "At the first sign of danger, brown bear mothers generally chase their cubs up a tree. Getting them down again is the tough part.", "A pangolin is a funny mammal covered in unusual scales. These scales make it look like a dragon, but they are made of hair!", "Gymnastics: Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.", "In 1971, in Kansas, a new artist named D. James Orang, won first prize in an art contest. His paintings sold quite well. Weren't folks surprised when they found out the painter was a six-year-old orangutan living in the Topeka Zoo!", "Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600's by a translator. The story was probably not changed deliberately by the 17th century translator. The glass slipper is more likely to have arisen from a confusion between the French, 'une pantoufle en vair' [a fur slipper] and, 'une pantoufle en verre' [a glass slipper.]", "In the 19th century, in Texas, a HUGE prairie dog town was discovered. It contained an amazing 400 million animals and covered an area about twice the size of Belgium!", "Barn swallows build nests in barns. To make one nest, a pair of barn swallows makes 1,200 trips for mud to build it.", "A cashier in Germany developed an allergic reaction to the 50 deutchmark bill in Germany. It turned out the color 'Bismark Brown' caused an allergic skin reaction in a very small portion of the population.", "When Coca-Cola began to be sold in China, they used characters that would sound like 'Coca-Cola' when spoken. Unfortunately, what the characters turned out to mean was 'Bite the wax tadpole'. It did not sell well. ", "Moles can dig a twelve foot long tunnel in only 24 minutes. At this rate it would take a mole only four years to dig its way from London to Paris!", "The stripes on a tiger's face and the spots on a girafe are like fingerprints-- no two animals have exactly the same pattern.", "One of the best mountain climbers was a beagle [dog] from Switzerland. From 1868 to 1876 she climbed 53 of the most difficult mountains in the Alps, 11 of which had never been climbed before. In 1875 she climbed the highest mountain in the Alps, Mont Blanc, and was made a member of the exclusive Alpine Club!", "Sir Isaac Newton, discoverer of the principles of gravity, also invented the cat door.", "The mermaid legend is thought to come from the rather ugly sea mammal called the dewgong. Up close, they're not pretty, but from a distance, it's shape does look a bit like a human with a fish-like tail.", "Bushy-tailed woodrats build dens made of sticks, bones, leaves and whatever else they can find. They are nicknamed pack rats because they like to collect and stash things in their dens.", "Ding Dong: A teacher at a school near the northerly Kara Sea in Russia heard the doorbell ring and went to answer it. She discovered a very unexpected caller -- a huge polar bear was leaning on the doorbell!", "If people ate nothing but carrots all the time, our skin would have an orangish tint to it...Mel Blanc [the voice of Bugs Bunny] was allergic to carrots. [Bugs wasn't]", "The Giraffe, Camel and Cat are the only animals that walk by moving both their left feet, then both their right feet, when walking. This method of walking ensures speed, agility and silence.", "Paper wasps build paper nests with rooms. They make the paper themselves. The nests are built under eaves or in the shelter of buildings.", "Road Rules: Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.", "The heaviest recorded Blue Whale was a female weighing in at 190 tons, that's as heavy as about 270 cars!", "Mercury is the second-smallest planet. The land on Mercury is like our moon -- it is covered with craters. The daytime temperature on Mercury can reach 400 degrees Celsius at its equator.", "A lion can leap 35 feet through the air in a single jump -- to put it in perspective that's about the length of a city bus.", "Flamingos turn pink from eating shrimp because of the beta-carotene content in the shrimp. Flamingos that do not eat shrimp are white and not pink. Beta-carotene is also in carrots. If we humans ate nothing but carrots all the time, our skin would have an orangish tint to it...", "Palindromes: The word 'racecar', 'kayak', and 'radar' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.", "Don't try this at home! Pearls melt in vinegar.", "Giraffes have adapted an extraordinary tongue for obtaining their staple food source, acacia leaves. The tongue reaching up to 3 feet in total length is prehensile allowing it to maneuver around the large thorns adorning the branches of the tree. Recently it was also found that some acacia species adapted a nauseating liquid driving other animals away. By studying stomach contents and dung, researchers discovered a bacteria developed in the digestive system which once again foils the defense of the tree.", "Jupier is the largest planet. Jupiter is twice as big as all the other planets combined and has 16 moons.", "THX-1138 is the name of a 1971 movie by George Lucas. The numbers 1138 can be found in nearly all Lucas movies. In Star Wars, 1138 is the detention cell where Leia is held. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, it is on a license plate on a car in Egypt.", "Anime for the appetite: In 1983, a Japanese artist made a copy of the Mona Lisa completely out of toast..", "If an orangutan belches at you, watch out! He's warning you to stay out of his territory.", "When two prairie dogs meet, they exchange a 'kiss' to find out if they know each other.", "The Arkansas legislature passed a law that says the Arkansas River can rise no higher than to the Main Street bridge in Little Rock. - I wonder what they'll do to the river if it breaks the law?", "We live in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is a large, spiral-shaped galaxy with arms streaming outwards. It is made up of over 200 billion stars. Our sun is one of them.", "People have seven bones in their neck. The giraffe's neck is about 6 feet long. But they only have seven bones in their necks too -- the bones are just a lot longer than ours.", "Is 13 your unlucky number? Apollo Lunar Mission number 13 was aborted while enroute to the moon in 1970 because of an explosion of a fuel cell in the service module. The flight left the launching pad at 13:13 [CST] hours military time and the accident occurred on April 13.", "A seabird called the fulmar is capable of spitting a foul-smelling, yellowish oil at intruders to their nests. The bird can spit accurately for about 5 feet.", "Garden snails hibernate during the winter and live on their stored fat. A snail can sleep for three years.", "The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.", "The low frequency communication pulses emitted by the Blue Whales and Finback Whales have been measured at 188 decibels, making them the loudest sounds emitted by any living creature. A jumbo jet taking off, by contrast, measures 120 decibels.", "Not only do snails move slowly -- about 23 inches per hour -- they follow irregular paths, often travelling in circles.", "You get warts from human viruses, not from frogs and toads! Frogs have slimy skin to stay moist when it is dry, and toads have bumpy skin to help camouflage them in their habitat. Some frogs and toads have paratoidal glands which secrete poisons as protection which can cause skin irritations and may be poisonous to some species of animals, but warts have nothing at all to do with the frogs themselves!", "There are over 40,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant's trunk. This lets them pick up a single flower or lift a huge log.", "Oops! The 'save' icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on backwards.", "In one town in California, there is a $600 fine for detonating a nuclear weapon inside city limits. Not that it ever happens...", "The Amazon region contains the largest body of fresh water and the largest rain forest in the world. It is home to at least 15,000 documented animal species, 8,000 of which were new to biology when they were discovered. At least 40% of the world's freshwater fish and 25% of the world's bird species reside there.", "The largest land snail ever found was 15 inches long and weighed 2 pounds!", "All spiders make silk, but not all of them weave webs. The jumping spider uses strands of silk to secure itself to a leaf or twig while it launches itself at prey. Bungie jumping anyone?", "Money Matters: If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.", "Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down - hence expression 'to get fired.'", "Deadly snakes: The venom of the king cobra is so deadly that one gram of it is enough to kill 150 people.", "It's cold up there! Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food FROM freezing.", "Ick! A cockroach can live several weeks with it's head cut off.", "Qis the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.", "The white trail that follows a plane is actually ice -- the exhaust vapour freezes because it's so cold at such a high altitude.", "In the 1870s, William Russell Frisbie opened a bakery called the Frisbie Pie Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His lightweight pie tins were embossed with the family name. In the mid-1940s, students at Yale University tossed the empty pie tins as a game. -- and so the frisbee was born!", "Polar bear fur is colorless and eeach hair is hollow. The hair reflects light which is what makes the bear look white. The polar bear's skin is black! Ultraviolet light penetrates each hair to be trapped by the black skin. The bear is warmed by this nature-made solar heating system.", "Canada is an Indian word meaning 'Big Village'.", "Don't try this at home! It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.", "Ick! Elephants have a very poor digestive track so they need tiny organisms to help them digest food. When elephants are young they do not have the organism needed so they eat the mothers poop to get it.", "In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyelashes!", "How can you tell when a gorilla is angry? It sticks its tongue out. ", "Did you know that a Cheetah can reach speeds of up to 71 mph? This makes them the fastest land animal on earth! But, the Peregrine Falcon is the fastest animal. It can reach speeds of at least 124 mph on a long dive during territorial displays or when hunting. A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 600 m.p.h.", "If you lined up all of the red blood cells in your body, they would reach all of the way around the equator of the earth, and then some.", "Weight watchers: Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.", "Insects have been on Earth since about 150 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared! Fossils show that dragonflies from over 300 million years ago still look very much like the ones flying around today.", "Until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5pm. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize *this* was the day of changeover. ", "Mathmatical Magic: 111,111,111 multiplied by 111,111,111 gives the result 12,345,678,987,654,321", "In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license. It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas -- even if you have a license.", "Down under: Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.", "Manufacturers make Ice Cream creamy with carageenan, which comes from kelp!", "You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather.", "The average life span of a major league baseball is 7 pitches.", "The name for Oz in the Wizard of Oz was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence 'Oz.';", "The average human body will produce about 350 miles of hair in a lifetime. ", "Spiders have no ears; instead sensory hairs cover their entire body. Each hair is connected to nerves that go to the brain. The hairs can sense movement and let the spider know when a tasty insect is nearby.", "Most of the little school houses in the U.S. of yesteryear were painted red because red was the least expensive paint color.", "There are over 300,000 different species of beetles -- more kinds than any other animals on the earth.", "Salute: Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. ", "The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Perriwinkle Blue.", "The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's 'Its A Wonderful Life'", "A goldfish has a memory span of about three seconds.", "Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.", "According to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, it is possible to go slower than light and faster than light, but it is impossible to go the speed of light. Also, there is a particle called tackyon which is supposed to go faster than light. This means if you fire a tackyon beam, it travels before you fire it. I get a headache just thinking about it!", "Lucky mascot: The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used. ", "The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start. -- except North/South America, but America starts and ends with 'A'.", "In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the USA refused to shoot a black bear while out hunting. Toy bears were created to celebrate the event. The 'Teddy' bear was named for this popular president!", "Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.", "The pen is mightier than the sword! On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.", "On average, people fear spiders more than they do death. Statistically, you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than a poisonous spider.", "A whale of a tale -- A whale's heart beats only nine times a minute.", "Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.", "Frog-sicles: Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living. ", "Oops! In 1980, the Yellow Pages accidentally listed a Texas funeral home under frozen foods. ", "The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. ", "An Oxymoron: In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.", "Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.", "Peter the Great of Russia, in an effort to 'Westernize' his land, taxed people for growing beards. Pogonophobia: The fear of beards.", "Wolves live in family groups of six to fifteen members. The pack leaders are the alpha male and female. They get to eat first and are usually the only pack members that have babies.", "In Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan 'finger-lickin' good' translates to 'eat your fingers off.' Ouch!", "Precious cow-mmodities: The most money ever paid for a cow in an auction was $1.3 million. In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting ad space on his cows.", "Tigers have striped skin that matches their striped fur.", "Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air. But they can't fly...", "All spiders make silk, but not all of them weave webs. The trap-door spider digs a burrow in the ground and uses its silk to line it. The spider hides in the hole beneath a lid until it feels the tiny vibrations of an insect walking by. Then the spider pops out and ambushes the prey.", "American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class. ", "The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. 'No Va' means 'It Does Not Go' in Spanish. ", "What's in a name? The name 'Wendy' was made up for the book Peter Pan , there was never a recorded Wendy before!", "Typing Tutor: The sentence 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.' uses every letter in the alphabet.", "Beware of Donkey: More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes. ", "A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the 'Mist Stick', a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the manure stick.", "A rat can go without water longer than a camel can.", "More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout every country in the entire the world.", "The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the 'American Pie.' -- thus the name of the Don McLean song.", "1961 was the most recent year that could be written both upside-down and rightside-up and appear the same. The next year that this will be possible will be 6009!", "Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning.", "The nose pad of a cat is ridged in a pattern that is unique, just like the fingerprint of a human.", "Poetry tip: No word in the English language rhymes with the word 'month'.", "Coors put its slogan, 'Turn It Loose' into Spanish, where it was read as 'Suffer From Diarrhea'.", "It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.", "During WWII, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs. They failed.", "Weird science: A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top. ", "When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called Happy Rabbit.", "Blue whales weigh as much as 30 elephants and are as long as 3 Greyhound buses. ", "Much like dogs, the fur of a bear falls out and grows back each year. This is called molting.", "Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because all knights used to be right-handed. When the intruding army would climb the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding the sword because of the difficulties of climbing the stairs. Left-handed knights would have had no troubles, except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil. Kermit the frog is left handed.", "The largest living reptile in the world is the Indo-Pacific -- or saltwater -- crocodile. It weighs over 2,200 pounds and can grow to 23 feet long.", "God save the king? First U.S. president George Washington rejected a movement among army officers to make him King of the United States.", "When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they translated their slogan, 'Pepsi Brings You Back to Life' pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant, 'Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave'.", "Mathematical musings: If you need to remember Pi, just count the letters in each word of the sentence: 'May I have a large container of coffee?' If you get the coffee and are polite, say 'Thank you.' This gives you two more decimal places. 3.141592653...", "A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. Try that as a topic at your next science fair -- if you happen to have a duck.", "The Dairy Association's huge success with the 'Got Milk?' campaign prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read 'Are you lactating?'", "The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.", "What's in a name? In the Mario Brothers movie, the Princess' first name is Daisy, but in Mario 64, the game, her first name is Peach. Before that, it's Princess Toadstool. ", "Koala bears from Australia are not real bears. They belong to a group of animals called marsupials. Marsupials have a pouch where they carry their young. Kangaroos are also marsupials.", "Sharks have rows of sharp teeth that grow back when they break off. They can push their jaws out of their mouths to get a firm bite on prey.", "The 'huddle' in football was formed due to a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him. ", "An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of 'I Saw the Pope' [el Papa], the shirts read 'I Saw the Potato' [la papa].", "Koala culprits: The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene. ", "Wooly war heros: The 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson allowed sheep to graze on the White House lawn during World War I; their wool helped raise money for the Red Cross. ", "Snails' bodies produce a thick slime. Because of this slime, they can crawl across the edge of a razor and not get hurt!", "Chess anyone? The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.", "Shhh! It's against the law to burp or sneeze in a church in Omaha, Nebraska.", "Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate effects a dogs heart and nervous system, a few ounces enough to kill a small sized dog.", "Penguins help each other with the babysitting. Parents take turns hunting for fish while babies wait at the penguin version of daycare. Sometimes it's hard for a returning parent to find its baby among the thousands of other chicks. But each parent knows its own baby by its unique cry and eventually locates them.", "Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.", "The bat is the only mammal that can fly. 'Flying' squirrels actually glide through the air.", "The kiwi bird of New Zealand lays HUGE eggs for a bird it's size. Its eggs weigh a whopping 1/4 of the female kiwi's body weight. To put it into perspective, that would be like a human woman giving birth to a 35 pound baby. Ouch!", "The smallest mammal babies are those of the mouse oppossums of South America. The new-born babies are only as big as a grain of rice.", "The nine-banded armadillo gives birth to sets of identical quadruplets [4 babies]. The babies are always identical and always of the same sex.", "The first elephants lived 40 million years ago. Moeritherium was an ancient elephant that was only as big as a pig is today. Today's African elephant is 300 times bigger. Now that's progress!", "Lemmings are hamster-like rodents from Norway. Their lives have odd four year cycles. For the first three years, the lemmings have babies at an ever-increasing rate. Then they appear to panic at the overcrowding, leave their homes in the millions and rush along until they reach rivers or the sea. They plunge in and attempt to swim across, but most drown. Hey... wouldn't you try to escape with that many kids about?", "The Etruscan shrew has a HUGE appetite. The adult shrew can only live for two hours without eating and can eat three times its weight in food each day. To put it in perspective, that would be like your dad eating a goat, 50 chickens, 60 loaves of bread and 100 apples and 50 oranges every day!", "The Nose Knows: In 1925, a doberman pinscher named Sauer, tracked two thieves 100 miles across the South African desert just be following their scent.", "The duck-billed platypus is a mammal with a beak like a bird. But unlike a birds, the platypus' beak is soft.", "The closest relative to the African elephant, the world's largest mammal, is a rabbit sized mammals called the Hyrax. Both evolved from the same group of mammals, millions of years ago.", "Antlers are made of bone. They fall off every autumn and grow back each spring. Horns are made of keratin, the same thing that hair is made of. Horns grow throughout an animal's life -- they never fall off.", "All mammals breathe air. But there are still traces of ancient ancestors. The tube running between a mammal's ear and its throat was once a gill-slit.", "Paraceratherium was the largest land mammal ever. It lived 35 million years ago in Asia and Europe. It looked like a cross between a giraffe and a rhinoceros and was 26 feet tall and 36 feet long.", "All the pet hamsters in the world are descended from the same mother. This was a female wild hamster found with a litter of 12 babies in 1930 in Syria. That's one BIG family!", "Until the age of three months, a cheetah cub has a thick mane of hair on its back. The main helps hide the cub among dry grasses and makes it look bigger and fiercer than it really is to scare away enemies.", "Humans aren't the only animals that use tools. The sea otter floats on its back in the water with a large stone balanced on its stomach. It smashes shellfish against the stone to open them up to eat.", "About 5,000 years ago the Sahara Desert was covered in rich grassland and trees. Paintings found in caves in Algeria show giraffe, hippos and lions, people hunting and cattle grazing!", "If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long -- that's about 2 1/2 city bus lengths! Slinkies were invented by an airplane mechanic who was playing with engine parts and realized the potential playful use of one of the springs.", "Synthetoceras was a strange mammal that lived about 15 million years ago in North America. It looked like a deer, but it had a huge forked horn in the shape of a Y growing on it nose!", "A newly born Kodiak brown bear can weigh less than one pound. By the time it's an adult, it can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds. If human babies grew this much, as adults they would weigh over 6,000 pounds!", "The skunk's tail hides a secret weapon. When threatened, the skunk lifts its tail and squirts a horrible smell from a hidden gland. This smell can reach up to half a kilometer away.", "Pinocchio was made of pine. Pinocchio is Italian for 'pine eyes'. Just as an extra bit of info... Walt Disney had wooden teeth.", "The Asian elephant has the longest tail of any land mammal. Excluding the hair tuft at the end, the tail is 5 feet long.", "At the first sign of danger, brown bear mothers generally chase their cubs up a tree. Getting them down again is the tough part.", "A pangolin is a funny mammal covered in unusual scales. These scales make it look like a dragon, but they are made of hair!", "Gymnastics: Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.", "In 1971, in Kansas, a new artist named D. James Orang, won first prize in an art contest. His paintings sold quite well. Weren't folks surprised when they found out the painter was a six-year-old orangutan living in the Topeka Zoo!", "Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600's by a translator. The story was probably not changed deliberately by the 17th century translator. The glass slipper is more likely to have arisen from a confusion between the French, 'une pantoufle en vair' [a fur slipper] and, 'une pantoufle en verre' [a glass slipper.]", "In the 19th century, in Texas, a HUGE prairie dog town was discovered. It contained an amazing 400 million animals and covered an area about twice the size of Belgium!", "Barn swallows build nests in barns. To make one nest, a pair of barn swallows makes 1,200 trips for mud to build it.", "A cashier in Germany developed an allergic reaction to the 50 deutchmark bill in Germany. It turned out the color 'Bismark Brown' caused an allergic skin reaction in a very small portion of the population.", "When Coca-Cola began to be sold in China, they used characters that would sound like 'Coca-Cola' when spoken. Unfortunately, what the characters turned out to mean was 'Bite the wax tadpole'. It did not sell well. ", "Moles can dig a twelve foot long tunnel in only 24 minutes. At this rate it would take a mole only four years to dig its way from London to Paris!", "The stripes on a tiger's face and the spots on a girafe are like fingerprints-- no two animals have exactly the same pattern.", "One of the best mountain climbers was a beagle [dog] from Switzerland. From 1868 to 1876 she climbed 53 of the most difficult mountains in the Alps, 11 of which had never been climbed before. In 1875 she climbed the highest mountain in the Alps, Mont Blanc, and was made a member of the exclusive Alpine Club!", "Sir Isaac Newton, discoverer of the principles of gravity, also invented the cat door.", "The mermaid legend is thought to come from the rather ugly sea mammal called the dewgong. Up close, they're not pretty, but from a distance, it's shape does look a bit like a human with a fish-like tail.", "Bushy-tailed woodrats build dens made of sticks, bones, leaves and whatever else they can find. They are nicknamed pack rats because they like to collect and stash things in their dens.", "Ding Dong: A teacher at a school near the northerly Kara Sea in Russia heard the doorbell ring and went to answer it. She discovered a very unexpected caller -- a huge polar bear was leaning on the doorbell!", "If people ate nothing but carrots all the time, our skin would have an orangish tint to it...Mel Blanc [the voice of Bugs Bunny] was allergic to carrots. [Bugs wasn't]", "The Giraffe, Camel and Cat are the only animals that walk by moving both their left feet, then both their right feet, when walking. This method of walking ensures speed, agility and silence.", "Paper wasps build paper nests with rooms. They make the paper themselves. The nests are built under eaves or in the shelter of buildings.", "Road Rules: Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.", "The heaviest recorded Blue Whale was a female weighing in at 190 tons, that's as heavy as about 270 cars!", "Mercury is the second-smallest planet. The land on Mercury is like our moon -- it is covered with craters. The daytime temperature on Mercury can reach 400 degrees Celsius at its equator.", "A lion can leap 35 feet through the air in a single jump -- to put it in perspective that's about the length of a city bus.", "Flamingos turn pink from eating shrimp because of the beta-carotene content in the shrimp. Flamingos that do not eat shrimp are white and not pink. Beta-carotene is also in carrots. If we humans ate nothing but carrots all the time, our skin would have an orangish tint to it...", "Palindromes: The word 'racecar', 'kayak', and 'radar' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.", "Don't try this at home! Pearls melt in vinegar.", "Giraffes have adapted an extraordinary tongue for obtaining their staple food source, acacia leaves. The tongue reaching up to 3 feet in total length is prehensile allowing it to maneuver around the large thorns adorning the branches of the tree. Recently it was also found that some acacia species adapted a nauseating liquid driving other animals away. By studying stomach contents and dung, researchers discovered a bacteria developed in the digestive system which once again foils the defense of the tree.", "Jupier is the largest planet. Jupiter is twice as big as all the other planets combined and has 16 moons.", "THX-1138 is the name of a 1971 movie by George Lucas. The numbers 1138 can be found in nearly all Lucas movies. In Star Wars, 1138 is the detention cell where Leia is held. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, it is on a license plate on a car in Egypt.", "Anime for the appetite: In 1983, a Japanese artist made a copy of the Mona Lisa completely out of toast..", "All mammals breathe air. But there are still traces of ancient ancestors. The tube running between a mammal's ear and its throat was once a gill-slit.", "If an orangutan belches at you, watch out! He's warning you to stay out of his territory.", "Some species of sharks lay egg cases on the ocean floor. When these cases wash up onto shore, they are sometimes called mermaids' purses.", "Great White Sharks have acute hearing, good eyesight, and a keen sense of smell. They use all these senses for hunting.", "Great White Shark skin is so rough that people have sometimes used it as sandpaper.", "Sharks are cartilaginous fish, which means that their skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone.", "The species of shark that tend to be most dangerous to humans include great white sharks, tiger sharks, and bull sharks. ", "Rhinoceros horns, made of a substance similar to that of human fingernails, sometimes break off, but they regenerate, or grow back.", "When a rhino catches the scent of a human or anything else unfamiliar, it is likely to charge. Rhinos can’t see well, so they sometimes charge objects like trees and rocks, mistaking them as threats. ", "Many species of tree frogs can change color to blend with their surroundings, helping them hide from predators.", "There are more than 700 kinds of tree frogs. Tree frogs have suction disks on their fingers and toes that help them stick to leaves.", "The normal heartbeat for one species of hedgehog is about 190 beats every minute. That rate drops to about 20 beats a minute while it hibernates in winter.", "Sometimes hedgehogs fall from trees they climb. They generally bounce unhurt upon landing, shielded by their protective spines.", "Hedgehogs mainly use their sense of smell, rather than sight, to find food. They hunt at night.", "When a hedgehog curls up to go to sleep, it’s for protection. Hedgehogs have prickly spines everywhere except on their face, legs, and bellies.", "A newborn giraffe is about 6 feet [1.9 meters] tall at birth and weighs about 150 pounds [68 kilograms].", "No two giraffes have the same pattern of spots. They are like our fingerprints.", "The giraffe is the tallest mammal on Earth. Giraffes can be 19 feet [6 meters] tall.", "Giraffes can go weeks without drinking water. Giraffes can get most of the water they need from the plants they eat.", "A giraffe’s tongue can be up to 21 inches [53 centimeters] long. It is also prehensile, which means it can grab and hold onto objects.", "Vampire bats are very clean animals that frequently groom themselves as well as other bats.", "Vampire bats have fewer teeth than other kinds of bats. Rather than sucking blood, vampire bats make a small cut with their teeth and then lap up the flowing blood with their tongues.", "Vampire bats are the only known mammals that survive solely on blood. Each night, vampire bats drink about half their body weight in blood.", "Lions are carnivores - meat eaters. They hunt animals ranging in size from small hares to large buffalo. In prides the females do most of the hunting and cub rearing.", "Scientists believe that male lions’ manes make them look fierce and may help protect their throats in battle with other males.", "One way scientists identify individual lions is by recording the spots on their muzzles.", "The scientific family name for dolphins is Delphinidae. The largest dolphins are orcas, also called killer whales.", "Bottlenose dolphins may look like fish but they are mammals. They breathe air, just like you do.", "Crocodiles control their temperatures by basking in the sun during the day, cooling off with a midday dip or a rest in the shade, then spending the night mostly submerged.", "Crocodiles have been around for more than 200 million years.", "Instead of standing up and walking, warthogs may shuffle from one feeding area to another on their knees.", "Orcas or Killer Whales have many hunting techniques, and bumping seals off ice is just one of them. Orcas live and hunt together in cooperative pods, or family groups, much like a pack of wolves. They work together as they hunt.", "A Guanaco is something like a camel without the humps. When a guanaco is upset or annoyed, it spits. A guanaco can run almost 35 miles [56 kilometers] an hour.", "Elephant tusks are ivory teeth that grow throughout the animals’ lives.", "One African Elephant can eat 300 pounds [136 kilograms] of food in one day.", "Elephants use their tusks to get food by digging up roots and prying bark off trees.", "An adult African elephant’s trunk is about seven feet [two meters] long! It’s actually an elongated nose and upper lip.", "A female orangutan has a baby, on average, only once every eight years. Young orangutans may stay with their mothers for 11 or 12 years.", "Emperor penguins are the largest of all penguins, with an average length of 45 inches [115 centimeters].", "A tiger’s roar can be heard as far as two miles [three kilometers] away.", "There are five subspecies of tiger - Bengal, South China, Indochinese, Sumatran, and Siberian. Three subspecies of tiger - Caspian, Bali, and Javan - are extinct.", "Giant pandas are found in the wild only in mountainous bamboo forests of southwestern China. There are probably only about 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild. They are classified as an endangered species.", "'Hippopotamus' comes from two Greek'words that mean 'river horse'. However, hippos are more closely related to pigs than to horses.", "Koalas are marsupials. Newborn koalas - called joeys - continue to develop in their mothers’ pouches after birth.", "Paw pads with rough surfaces help prevent polar bears from slipping up on the ice.", "A Zebra's stripes are like fingerprints - No two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike.", "Kangaroos are pouched animals called marsupials.", "A group of kangaroos is called a mob.", "The largest frogs in the world are called Goliath Frogs.", "Tiny froglets can be picked up by strong winds, carried in storm clouds, and rained down while still alive.", "Alaskan brown bears are the world's largest meat-eating animals that live on land. They can weigh as much as 771 kilograms [1,700 pounds]", "Dr. Charles J. Arntzen in Houston, Texas, is developing a way to grow vaccines in bananas and other fruits. Now that sounds better than a needle!", "The Equator passes through 13 countries.", "The Anaconda is the world's heaviest snake, weighing up to 250 kilograms.", "Male Strap-toothed Whales have two huge teeth growing out of their bottom jaw. These curl upwards and backwards, sometimes so much so that the whale can't open its beak properly.", "Humpback Whales are renowned for their extraordinary and complex songs. These songs can last for hours and are specific to different populations.", "The star of the story Moby Dick, great sperm whales hold many records, including deepest diving mammal, largest toothed whale and biggest brain.", "Dall's porpoises are the fastest porpoises, reaching speeds of 55km per hour. They will regularly bow-ride much to the amusement of the people in the boat.", "The blue whale is the largest animal ever to have lived - bigger, even, than the dinosaurs. Yet they are elusive creatures, and little is known about their lives.", "Most dolphins have poor eyesight and rely on echolocation to find prey.", "Spiders have eight legs and usually have eight eyes.", "Zebra spiders belong to the family Salticidae [also known as jumping spiders] who are believed to have the best eyesight of any arthropod. If you take a close look at one of these spiders it will often turn its head to look straight back at you.", "Wolf spiders are often seen in large numbers and it was once thought that they hunted in packs - which is why they are named after the predatory wolf.", "The Water Spider builds a silken retreat under water among plants which it fills with air. It is a good swimmer and will catch its aquatic prey and subdue it with its venomous jaws. ", "Mothercare spiders are one of the few spiders that look after their young after they hatch.", "Long-jawed Orb-weaver Spiders are able to walk across the surface of water. In fact, they are much faster on water than they are on land.", "Crab spiders are very difficult to spot due to their ability to change color and are often only noticed when struggling with an insect.", "Slow worms are actually legless lizards. One way to spot the difference, is that unlike snakes, lizards have eyelids.", "Male sand lizards fight vigorously for females. They grab the neck of their opponent with their jaws and then roll over and over each other, until one, usually the smaller lizard, retreats.", "Common lizards are the only species of lizard not to lay eggs - instead, the young develop inside the female's body.", "Adders or Common Vipers are the most northerly distributed snake - they are the only species of snake found inside the Arctic circle.", "Peregrine Falcons are the fastest animals in the world. They are believed to achieve speeds approaching 200km per hour [124mph] when plunging from the sky after prey. One has been logged by radar at 183km per hour [114mph] after a dive of 305m [1,000ft].", "A Northern Harrier's face feathers are arranged into a disk. This helps the raptor [bird of prey] to listen out for prey as the feathers form a groove, which direct sound waves to the ear opening.", "Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world. Fortunately they feed on plankton and are harmless to humans.", "Shortfin makos are the world's fastest sharks and can leap spectacularly out of the water when in pursuit of prey.", "The bizarre shape of the Great Hammerhead Shark's head is thought to make the shark more sensitive to electrical signals, which they use to detect hidden prey. ", "It is possible that Bull Sharks are actually responsible for many of the attacks attributed to great whites. They are unusual in that they spend a lot of time in fresh water.", "Sharks belong to a class of fish called the Chondrichthyes, in which their skeletons are made of cartilage rather than bone.", "There are about 450 species of sharks with representatives in all the oceans of the world. They first appeared 400 million years ago, before reptiles, birds or mammals.", "Walruses are famous for their tusks. These can grow up to 1 meter in length, and males tend to have larger tusks than females.", "Rhesus monkeys were the first primates to be rocketed into space. ", "Japanese Macaques are primates that are famous for washing their food. They are often the subject of Buddhist myths, and are thought to be the inspiration behind the saying 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.'", "For years the world's largest primate has been portrayed as a fearsome and aggressive beast. But gorillas are actually gentle giants, who have strong family ties and live on a vegetarian diet.", "Before eating millipedes, Brown Lemurs spit on them and roll them in their hands for a few minutes, possibly because some species are poisonous. ", "Lemurs are only found in the wild in Madagascar.", "Aye-ayes are the largest nocturnal primate in the world. They are also the only primate thought to use echolocation, which they use to find grubs up to 2cm deep in a tree.", "While one King Penguin parent is guarding the chick, the other parent makes a trip of up to 400 kilometers [250 miles] in search of food.", "Molluscs are soft-bodied invertebrates, many of which live in a shell. They form one of the most numerous groups in the animal kingdom with about 50,000 living species.", "The shell of a Great Pond Snail can grow up to 60 millimeters high.", "The Water Boatman is an insect that swims upside-down, propelled by two long legs which paddle like oars, making it look like a rowing boat. ", "Wasps are social insects and live in underground nests of up to around 10,000 workers.", "The ladybug’s bright colours are a warning to predators of its foul taste. When disturbed the ladybird will secrete small amounts of its oily foul-smelling yellow blood from its legs as a further warning to predators such as ants or birds.", "Honey bees have been introduced to nearly all parts of the world by humans. It is thought that the species originated in India.", "Ancient Egyptians revered the scarab [dung beetle]. They credited it with keeping the earth revolving like a giant ball of dung [poop].", "Both the Diving Beetle and its larvae are voracious aquatic predators. The larvae can tackle large prey such as tadpoles and small fish.", "Galapagos Penguins live in the warmest areas of any penguin. When on land, Galapagos penguins hold their flippers out to maximize heat loss and to shade their feet from getting sunburnt.", "Damselflies are smaller than dragonflies and hold their wings together behind the abdomen rather than out sideways.", "The woolly rhino was a member of an ancient group dating back 40 million years, which also includes today's critically endangered Sumatran rhino that also has reddish hair.", "Ambulocetus lived 50-49 million years ago and was descended from land-living carnivorous hoofed animals such as the dog-like Pakicetus. Although Ambulocetus looked a lot like a furry crocodile, it was actually an early whale.", "African elephants are the largest living land mammals. As well as being physically striking, they have remarkably complex and interesting social lives.", "Starfish have the ability to push their stomachs out of their mouths in order to digest prey too big to swallow.", "Grey wolves had the largest natural distribution of any mammal except human beings. Sadly, they can no longer claim this record as they have been lost from much of their former range.", "Red foxes have become the most widespread dogs in the wild, having overtaken grey wolves to the top spot. They are often included in folklore, with a reputation for being sly and cunning.", "Although Dholes or Asiatic Wild Dogs are not fast runners, they have good stamina, and will pursue prey for hours until they finally succumb to exhaustion.", "Penguins can stay underwater for a maximum of 18 minutes, which is not as long as some marine mammals [seals can stay underwater for an hour].", "Unlike some Arctic mammals, the Arctic Fox does not hibernate and can withstand temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius.", "Though the name ‘centipede’ means ‘a hundred legs’, most centipedes actually have much fewer. The common centipede has 15 legs and is an agile hunter.", "The tiger is the largest of all the cats. Sadly, this magnificent animal has been hunted by humans and has lost much of its habitat. Three of the eight subspecies have already become extinct, and other populations are also at high risk.", "Lions are unique in that they are the only cats to live in groups -- called prides. The male lion is also the only cat to have a mane, giving it a regal appearance that has earned it the title of 'king of the beasts'.", "The Iriomote Cat has only recently been discovered. It is possible that there are only sixty of them left in the world.", "Cheetahs are the fastest animals on land. Reaching speeds of over 60 miles per hour, they can easily outrun any animal over short distances.", "The shaggy-haired Sloth Bears were originally classed as sloths. They are noisy eaters -- when feeding, they can be heard sucking up termites from many miles away.", "If running away from an American black bear, the last thing you want to do is climb a tree - they are expert climbers! Fortunately, they are less aggressive than some other bear species.", "Like most newts, great crested newts are able to regenerate an injured limb. They can completely regrow a lost limb within 6 months.", "Common toads deter predators from eating them by using irritant skin secretions, although grass snakes and hedgehogs are undeterred.", "The common frog can breathe through its skin which enables it to hibernate underwater for several months.", "The Whooping Crane is a tall bird with a long windpipe. The length adds force to its loud 'whoop' which can be heard up to 4 kilometers away!", "Gold Medal! Tuna can travel over 105 kilometers or 60 miles per hour. By comparison, the fastest human Olypic swimmer can swim at a speed of about 8 kilometers per hour.", "The Lake Sturgeon is a weird looking fish. Sometimes mistaken for a lake monster, it can grow to be both large and old -- up to 5 meters long and over 100 years of age. Instead of scales, the lake sturgeon has bony armour plates and leathery skin!", "When aggravated, the mink releases a musk that smells worse than a skunks odour. But at least the mink doesn't spray it like skunks do.", "Emperor penguins are the largest of type of penguin, and endure the coldest breeding conditions of any bird.", "Mink are naturally playful and have been known to dive through snowbanks just for the fun of it.", "The tiny Grey Tree Frog changes colour like a chameleon does. It becomes green on a leaf and grey on a tree trunk.", "The Long-billed Curlew has a 40 centimeter long beak. It is almost as long as the bird's entire body and 4 to 5 times longer than its own head!", "Peregrine falcons have been clocked at speeds in excess of 320 kilometers per hour while in a steep dive.", "Male Purple Finches often have 'fencing' matches with their beaks to determine territorial boundaries. Nobody gets hurt though, because usually one gives up and flies away.", "The Star-Nosed Mole has twenty-two small tentacles around its nose. It closes these tentacles over its nostrils whenever it burrows or swims.", "Honeybees have an unusual way of communicating. They do dances to give information to other bees in their hives about the location and distance to good flower locations.", "Beware of Bird! With a wingspan of only 4 cm, the Calliope Hummingbird is Canada's smallest bird. Despite its minute size, it will attack squirrels and even hawks if threatened!", "The Grey Jay or 'Whisky-Jack' is a fearless thief. It has been known to steal bits of food right from a camper's frying pan!", "The American Dipper often nests in rock niches behind waterfalls and has to fly through the water to get home.", "The Western Hog-Nosed Snake has an upturned pig-like nose which protects its nostrils when it goes into underground burrows. This snake rolls over and plays dead whenever it's faced with an intruder.", "The Little Brown Bat can eat up to 600 mosquitoes in one hour. To wash them down, the bat takes a drink by swooping very low over ponds and streams, lapping up water with its tongue while in flight.", "The porcupine's hollow quills help keep it bouyant on water -- just like little life jackets. A porcupine has about 30,000 quills which grow back whenever they are lost or broken.", "King Elder Ducks are such powerful divers and swimmers that they can burst out from beneath the water in full flight.", "Nature's Game of Tiddliewinks -- When the Click Beetle gets turned over onto its back, it compresses and then releases itself with a sudden 'click' noise, propelling itself into the air. It repeats this process until it lands upright.", "The monarch butterfly weighs only as much as a postage stamp, but still manages to migrate 3,600 kilometers each year from Ontario to Mexico. Millions of these butterflies swarming in the air can create a deafening roar.", "The Blue Whale is the largest animal on earth. It is over 30 meters long and weighs 120 tonnes. A blue whale baby is 8 meters long and drinks 91 kilograms of milk per day from its mother!", "A raccoon has two funny ways of sleeping -- lying on its back with its front paws over its eyes or rolled into a ball with the top of its head flat on the floor between its forelegs.", "In 1620, Admiral Beaulieu considered penguins to be feathered fish, due to their adaptations to life underwater. Since then, scientists have classified them as birds.", "Each Killer Whale or Orca has its own distinct black and white pattern. Scientists keep track of these patterns to identify individual whales. The orca is the fastest swimming mammal, reaching speeds of 35 to 55 kilometers per hour.", "Woof? The Mudpuppy is a strange salamander that never leaves the larval stage. It must remain in water and breathe through its large, red, feathery gills.", "The Wood Frog is the hardiest of all frogs and has been found as far north as the Arctic Circle. No other amphibian or reptile can survive in such cold temperatures.", "The salmon is one of the few fish that migrate between fresh and salt water. When travelling upstream to spawning areas, salmon can easily leap 3 meters into the air to get over small waterfalls.", "Coots are not that good at getting up in the air. It is quite funny to watch these water birds run across the lake for a while before they finally manage to lift off.", "Jumping Jackrabbits! The white-tailed jackrabbit can leap 6 meters from a standing start and run up to 72 kilometers per hour.", "The Snowy Owl can walk quite well on the snow because of its heavily feathered feet, which act like snowshoes to keep it from sinking down into the snow.", "Home Sweet Home! Muskrats are a large aquatic member of the mouse and rat family. The muskrat will sometimes eat its own house if it is build of tasty roots.", "Crazy Crustacean! Did you know that lobsters taste with their feet, listen with their legs, have teeth in their stomach, have kidneys in their head and have their brain in their neck!?", "The American Bittern is common in marshes in North America. At the first sign of trouble, it points its bill skyward and stands perfectly still or sways gently like the reeds of the marsh.", "Adelies Penguins use pebbles to line their nest sites, and will often steal stones from their neighbours.", "In spring, Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers peck rows of small holes in tree trunks. These holes fill up with sap which attracts insects. The birds sip the sap and eat the insects for dessert!", "Look out below! To break open shellfish, like clams and mussels, herring gulls drop them from high in the sky onto large rocks.", "Pika! No it isn't a pokemon... it's a rabbit-like whistling mouse found in the mountains of Canada. It gathers grass into a huge mound that is 150 times its own weight.", "Caddis fly larvae build their own mobile homes. They carefully fit together tiny stones, grains of sand, leaves and twigs to make a tube-shaped case they wear for protection." )