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Crap
About Animals & People
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The following
are all of the Weekly Droppings that have appeared on
Mindless Crap, dating back to the first one posted on
October 1, 2000.
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Porcupines can only lose their quills if they make
contact with another animal. They can't shoot
their quills at an enemy. |
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The "funny bone" is so named because the lower end of
the humerus makes up part of the elbow. |
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According to a Navy scientific study of recorded shark
attacks, men are attacked almost ten times more
often than women are. |
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A chameleon's
eyes work independently of each other. |
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Greyhounds have the best eyesight of any dog. |
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The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards. |
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Mexican jumping beans jump because there is an actual
one-quarter-inch caterpillar trapped inside. |
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The only part of the human body that has no blood supply
is the cornea. It takes its oxygen directly from
the air. |
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A kangaroo
cannot jump if its tail is lifted off the ground.
It needs its tail for pushing off. |
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Human birth
control pills also work on gorillas. |
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Cats have two
sets of vocal chords. |
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Sight accounts
for 90 to 95 percent of all human sensory perceptions. |
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Leopards use their spots as camouflage. Since they spend
most of their idle hours sleeping in trees, they hide
themselves in the spotty shadows created by the tree's
leaves. |
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| A
male gypsy moth can smell a female gypsy moth seven
miles away. |
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| Snails
sleep a lot. In addition to several months of
winter hibernation, they crawl into their shells to
get out of the hot sun or away from heavy rains. |
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| Every
year in the United States, four times the amount of
money spent on baby food is spent on pet food. |
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| An
ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. |
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| The
little overhang of bone and feathers over an eagle's
eye is there to protect the sensitive eyeball from the
mountain and desert sun. It's not meant to make
the bird look fierce. |
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| A
mockingbird has been known to change its tune 87 times
over a span minute span. |
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| To
keep your feet warm, put on a hat: 80% of all body
heat escapes through the head. |
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| The
kangaroo rat can cover ground at a rate of 17 feet per
second. It can leap as much as 18 inches
straight up and can switch directions at the peak of
its jump. |
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| The
gila monster is the only poisonous lizard in the
United States. |
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| Greyhounds
have the best eyesight of any breed of dog. |
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| When
a person is wide awake, alert, and mentally active, he
is still only 25% aware of what various parts of his
body are doing. |
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| The
Venus flytrap feeds primarily on ants, not flies. |
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| Houseflies
hum in the key of F. |
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| The
lemur of Madagascar is one of very few of the human
species' ancestors that has survived unchanged down
the long corridors of evolution. Having developed after
the first primates, it is classified as a prosimian,
meaning "before monkey," and is one of the
ancestors common to both monkeys and men. |
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| The
nearest relative of the hippopotamus is the common pig. |
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| Bats
are the only mammals that are able to fly. |
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| The
ancient Egyptians trained baboons to wait on tables. |
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| The
number of cricket chirps you count in a fifteen-second
span, plus 37, will tell you the approximate current
air temperature. |
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| Goats
do not eat tin cans, as lampooned in cartoons.
They nibble at the cans because they're after the glue
on the labels. |
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| It
has been proven that feathers directly evolved from
reptiles' scales. Therefore, birds came after
reptiles. |
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| Humans
are the only animals that can blush. |
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| The
red kangaroo of Australia can jump 27 feet in one bound. |
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| The
first offspring of captive-born elephant parents in
the Western Hemisphere was a 150-pound Asiatic elephant
born on Mother's Day in 1975 at the Los Angeles Zoo. |
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| The
big differences between pythons and boa constrictors:
pythons are longer and lay eggs. Boas give birth
to live babies. |
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| Hippopotamuses
actually sweat blood. Their skin contains a great amount
of an oily substance that exudes from the pores, and
when the beast perspires a little blood gets mixed in. |
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| In
1976, the average human had $5.60 worth of chemicals
in their bodies. In 1946, that number was $0.98. |
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| The
average human breathes about 700,000 cubic inches of
air every day. |
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| Thirteen
muscles are used to make a person smile. |
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| The
kiwi has nostrils near the tip of its bill that allows
it to sniff the ground for food. |
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| Badgers
and coyotes hunt ground squirrels together. The
badger tracks the squirrel and digs into its tunnels,
and the coyote catches it when it tries to escape. |
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| An
adult male ostrich, the world's largest bird, can weigh
up to 345 pounds. |
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| The
average adult has about 3,500 square inches of skin.
The skin itself has roughly a billion pores or openings. |
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| Insects
shiver when they're cold. |
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| Sea
otters have the thickest fur of all animals. |
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| The whiskers on a
catfish are called barbells. |
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| Marie
Owen was the first policewoman in the United States.
She started her career in Detroit in 1893. |
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| A
queen bee lays about 1,500 eggs on an average day. |
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| Smith
is the most common last name in the United States.
A little over 1% of all Americans share that
last name. |
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| Police
dogs were
first used in 1816 in Scotland. |
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| Pink
elephants
can be found in some regions of India.
Because of the red soil, elephants take on a
permanent pink color because the spray dust over their
bodies to protect themselves from insects. |
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| For
a short distance,
the bluefin tuna can swim 50 miles per hour. |
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| A
grasshopper needs a minimum temperature of 62 degrees
Fahrenheit in order to be able to hop. |
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| The
country with the highest rate of cremations is Japan.
In 1996, 98.7% of all deaths were cremated. |
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| In
the ten years between 1987 and 1997, there was an increase
of over 800 million people on the planet. |
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| The
barn owl has one ear higher than the other.
The left ear is higher and points downward to
hear sounds from below it, while the right ear is lower
and pointed upward to pick up sounds from above. |
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| In
1999, the most common food allergy was to nuts. |
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| One
American of every 16 will have one of the Top 12 most
common last names. |
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| At
birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about
four ounces. |
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| It's
been estimated that man have been riding horses for
over 3,000 years. |
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| The
zebra is basically a light-colored animal with black
stripes. |
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| Many
scientists believe that birds evolved from reptiles.
Both species lay eggs, and they both have egg teeth
that serve only one purpose: to help the babies break
the egg and enter the world. Egg teeth fall off
within hours of birth. |
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| According
to the Population Council, people overwhelmingly tend
to marry partners who live near them. |
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| At
sea level there are 2,000 pounds of air pressure on
each square foot of your body area. |
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| The
chow-chow and the Chinesse Shar-Pei are the only dogs
that have a black tongue. The tongues of all other
dogs are pink. |
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| Three
million people in the United States have an impairment
of the back or limbs that is a direct result of an accidental
fall. |
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| Scientists
have discovered that the mating call of the Mediterranean
fruit fly has exactly the same frequency as lower F#
on a harmonica. |
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| Robert
Wadlow is regarded as the tallest man ever known. He
was 8'11" at the time of his death at the age of
21. |
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| A
rat can go without water longer than a camel can. |
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| A
five and a half year old weighing 250 pounds was exhibited
at a meeting of the Physical Society of Vienna on December
4, 1894. She ate a normal diet and was otherwise in
good health. The problem: she wasn't able to sweat. |
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| No
evidence of man's evolutionary ancestors has so far
been found in either North or South America. Fossils
and other remains suggest that the first Americans crossed
the Bering Straits (which at the time was dry land)
from Asia between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago. |
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| A
rattlesnake's fangs fold inward when its mouth is closed
so it doesn't bite itself. |
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| A
honey bee travels an estimated 43,000 miles to gather
one pound of honey. A pound of honey consists of 29,184
drops. |
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| The
number of times a drowning person will rise to the surface
depends on how much air is in his lungs. He could rise
once, twice, or five times. Or not at all. Obese
people will stay afloat longer than skinny people because
fat contains air molecules. |
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| The
fleshy projection above the bill of a turkey is called
a snood. |
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| The
beluga whale, otherwise known as the white whale, is
nicknamed the "sea canary" because of the
birdlike chirping sounds it makes. |
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| A
pied-billed grebe is called a peebeegeebee by birdwatchers. |
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| The
largest human organ is the liver, which weighs about
55 ounces in a person weighing 150 pounds. By some definitions,
the skin is an organ, in which case skin would be the
largest organ at 384 ounces. |
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| The
animal whose brain accounts for the largest share of
its body weight is the squirrel monkey.
It's brain makes up about 5% of its total weight. |
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| The
saluki is the oldest known breed of domesticated dog.
Carvings of animals resembling the saluki have been
found in excavations of the Sumerian Empire. They are
believed to have originated from between 6,000 and 7,000
B.C. |
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| The
giraffe is the only animal born with horns. |
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| Worldwide,
the
most common environmental allergy is dust. |
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| A
male moth can smell a female moth from 100 yards away. |
