Amazing animal facts

Wood Sprite loves to explore various types of wildlife, and frankly so do Indy and I. Some of the most interesting stories we read each week involve animal species and their unique talents and adaptations. Here are some fun facts we’ve learned this week.

Crickets sound like a choir when you record their music and slow it down! Indy pointed out that this was just like the cartoon film Epic, where the insect world lives in a faster dimension than the human world. You have to click and listen to this recording. It is so beautiful, yet spooky, all at once—like a Neil Gaiman book.

The oldest known organism is not a sea turtle, but a clam that lived 405 years. Even so, there’s also a species of jellyfish that can revert back to its child state after reaching adulthood, giving itself immortality!

Humpback whales have their own form of “pop” music, which are calls that get passed around the entire ocean!

Rats are ticklish! How cool is that? I have heard that they are exceptionally clever animals but I never knew they were ticklish.

Lots of animals hold hands or tails—such as seahorses and otters—and cows have best friends.

There are 7 quadrillion ants in the world—or a million ants per person!

Chimpanzees play with dolls! They cuddle, scold and role play with sticks the same way human children do with dolls.

Polar bears have black skin—and cuttlefish have blue-green blood. Here in St. Louis, if you bleed blue you’re considered a St. Louis Blues fan, but it’s definitely not literally blue!

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia