AUSTRALIAN FANTASY ADVENTURES

LET’S GET WEIRD!

I’m always trying to find something unusual in the animal kingdom to blog about. This is not a difficult task considering how many different creatures inhabit our planet. So this week let’s take a look at the numbers and once we do, let’s point out some wild, weird, and wonderful facts.

First of all, did you know that there are over 6.5 million species on land and 2.2 million in the depths of the ocean? That’s a lot of living things, and some of them are truly strange and unusual.

For instance, the cow. Yes, the ordinary cow that roams in green pastures. Cows are very particular about how they eat. Specifically, cows will align themselves in a north-south direction when the graze. Why? Well, scientists are not sure, but they like to give us answers, and they attribute this activity to the earth’s magnetic field. It is now admitted that many grazers, not just cows, exhibit this same behavior. Um…?

To read more about this unusual phenomenon, visit this site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7575459.stm

Or here: http://www.wired.com/2013/11/cow-compass-points-the-way-north/

Okay, next fun fact. Did you know that dolphins call each other by name? I didn’t! I think it's interesting that we know they are calling each other by name? How do we know that? It seems scientists have found that there is a particular whistle attributed to each dolphin. Their specific whistles help them to stay together as a group.

Photo credit: Chicago Zoological Society

To read more about dolphins and how and why they call their dolphin friends, visit this site:

http://www.seeker.com/dolphins-call-each-other-by-name-1767218979.html

Or this one: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23410137

Did you know that tardigrades are extremely durable? They exist all over the Earth and are capable of surviving in temperatures from highs of 300 degrees to lows of -458 degrees. They can even survive in the vacuum of space. What’s more, they can exist without a meal for ten years. Oh, you don’t know what a tardigrade is or what it looks like? Here you go.

To learn more, visit this site, you’ll even see this little microscopic animal walking. It’s quite interesting.

http://factslegend.org/20-interesting-tardigrade-facts/

Human males go to great extents and expense to propose marriage to another human. Did you know that the Gentoo and the Adelie penguins propose by offering a pebble to the female of their choice? Well, that's romantic. It’s not the same sort of rock that humans expect. I guess it’s the thought that counts.

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdpettitt/186727159/

To learn more about this romantic behavior, visit this site:

http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/2010/03/way-to-penguins-hearta-pebble.html

Here are a few weird facts for you:

A group of parrots is called a pandemonium.
A group of ravens is called a murder.
Polar Bears have black skin.
Honeybees can flap their wings over 200 times a second.
Bats are good guys. By eating insects that are considered pests, they save the US agriculture industry an estimated three billion dollars a year.

Okay, two last little ditties and they have to do with music.

Fourteen new species of dancing frogs were discovered in 2014.

This is a wonderful video about the dancing frogs of India. I hope you take a few minutes to watch it.

Finally, the only mammal that has been found capable of keeping a beat is the sea lion. For this, we’ll have to watch a video. It’ll be fun! Watch it!