Fun facts about life are always truly amazing but how many of these random facts do you actually know? There are probably thousands of facts out there but only we collected the most unbelievable ones about life itself. If you are looking for some amazing trivia information about life you have to continue reading. But to make this even more fun, I want to challenge you. What do you know about life? And how many of these life facts did you know before reading this article? Write us a message and let us know how many you knew. It’s always fun to compare and see if there were some specific facts you found shocking or especially interesting to know.
1. Black panthers are not an actual species. Instead, these are really leopards or jaguars that due to a genetic defect have a black coat.
2. Scientists have demonstrated that cats have the same brain patterns as humans have during sleep. It is therefore assumed that cats can dream.
3. While the mortality rate for cancer ten years ago was 215 deaths per 100,000 people, it has subsequently decreased to 172.
4. In Brazil, a termite mound was discovered that is probably up to 4,000 years old – almost as old as the pyramids in Egypt.
5. Pandas become more fertile when they watch other pandas having sex. For this reason, pandas watch “Panda Pornos” in zoos to increase their fertility.
6. A red hair color paired with blue eyes is the rarest combination of hair and eye color. Only one percent of the world’s population has these characteristics.
7. When your fingers swell from being underwater too long, it is because of an evolutionary trait of your nervous system. The fingers swell so as to provide more grip in wet conditions.
8. Beavers have orange teeth, as they contain a lot of iron. The mineral makes the teeth particularly resistant to external forces.
9. When you immerse yourself in water, your breathing stops automatically, your heart rate slows down and the blood increasingly migrates from your hands and feet into your upper body. This is referred to as the diving reflex, the exact cause of which has not yet been fully determined.
10. There is a type of jellyfish which is immortal.
11. It is impossible to draw a six while turning your foot clockwise simultaneously.
12. Scientists assume that 10,000 years ago all humans still had brown eyes. It was only around this time that the first people with blue eyes were born in the region around the Black Sea. This is seen as an indication that humans continue to develop in their evolutionary biology.
13. Fully-grown bears can run as fast as horses.
14. The first cloned cat has been called “CC” as an abbreviation for “carbon copy”‘.
15. The human kidney can only produce urine up to a salt content of two percent. Salt water, however, has an average salt content of three percent, so our kidneys have to draw water from the body to lower the salt content of the water they take in. The consequence is that after drinking salt water you die of thirst, even though you have actually consumed water.
16. In the early 20th century the Irish woman Mary Mallon, known as “Typhoid Mary”, became infected with typhoid fever and became the first person in the US to be infected with the bacterium, but not to fall ill with it. Due to her ignorance, she infected more than 100 people with the deadly disease and caused the death of several friends and acquaintances.
17. Sharks and rays are the only animals that cannot develop cancer.
18. Until the 1960s, pregnancy tests were carried out by injecting a frog with the test person’s urine. If the frog spawned within 12 to 24 hours, it could be assumed that the test person was pregnant.
19. Because people born blind smile from birth, scientists have concluded that smiling is a genetically determined behavior which is not learned.
20. The Tammar wallaby has a weight of only one gram at birth.
21. Big Major Cay is an island in the Bahamas that is almost exclusively populated by pigs. To this day, it has not been clearly ascertained how the pigs got to the island.
22. “Broken Heart Syndrome” is the medical term for the separation of a beloved partner. The symptoms can be so strong, that the patient gets cardiac dysrhythmia, suffers from pain and is not able to breathe properly.
23. For blind people, who are allergic to dog hair, there are blind horses. A special breed, who are extremely small and very tame.
24. In 1949 a boxing match was held between boxer Gus Waldorf and a bear. The bear was given a muzzle and boxing gloves to create “fair” conditions for both fighters. In the end, however, it was the bear that won.
25. On 14 May 1939, Lina Medina gave birth to her first child at the age of five years and seven months. To this day, she is considered the youngest mother ever. When her parents took her to the hospital, the doctors first thought she was suffering from a tumor. The father of the baby is unknown.
26. If you cook a penguin egg, the egg white remains transparent after cooking.
27. Hummingbirds use falcons as bodyguards. They frequently build their own nest directly underneath a falcon’s nest, since falcons always look down on their prey from above and other animals therefore tend to avoid this area. Hummingbirds, on the other hand, are not hunted by falcons.
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28. A fully-grown elephant can drink about 53 gallons of water within five minutes. Looking for more facts like this? Just read our article about elephant facts.
29. A platypus can sense the electric field generated by the muscle movement of its prey. It can therefore sense the prey’s movement before it even happens.
30. The spider species “Caeristris darwini”spins the largest webs in the world. Their size can reach more than ten feet.
31. The “Lady Macbeth effect” is the phenomenon of wanting to wash yourself physically, even if you have only “dirtied” yourself mentally. If a person is ashamed of an event, he or she will find it liberating to take a shower.
32. With an IQ of approximately 230, the Australian mathematician Terence Tao is the most intelligent person in the world.
33. Human fingers are so sensitive that they can feel objects of 13 nanometers in size. This means that if one finger was the size of the earth, it could feel the difference between a house and a car.
34. The reflex that we automatically lead a small wound to our mouth is an innate protective mechanism. The saliva in our mouth helps the blood to coagulate and kills bacteria.
35. Babies already dream in their mother’s womb
36. Goats have rectangular pupils.
37. Crickets consist of up to 70 percent protein, while beef steaks contain only 17 to 40 percent protein.
38. A cross between a zebra and a horse is called a “zorse”.
39. The brain of an ostrich is smaller than its eyes.
40. About every eight days, sloths climb down to the ground to have a bowel movement.
41. A normal person can distinguish up to one million colors. Approximately three percent of the female population can, however, perceive over 100 million different colors due to an additional photoreceptor in the eye.
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42. Every year, about four million cats are consumed as delicacies in China.
43. The highest jump of a llama was 3.7 feet, and the record is held by the llama “Caspa”.
44. Only two percent of all people have green eyes.
45. Unlike other cats of prey, the snow leopard is not aggressive towards humans. To this day, there has not been a single known case in which a snow leopard attacked a human.
46. Since 1989, the mass of all living insects has decreased by around 76 percent: The causes could be too much fertilizer in agriculture, a reduction in the amount of available green space and climate change.
47. The “hyoid bone”, a small bone in the oral cavity under the tongue, is the only bone in the human body that is not connected to another bone.
48. Only a few special types of piranhas eat meat. All others feed on plants.
49. A chameleon’s tongue can grow to up to one and a half times its body size.
50. The “Diderot effect” is the phenomenon whereby after a purchase some people feel compelled to make further purchases in order to create an appropriate overall picture. If, for example, you buy a new item of clothing, this often leads to dissatisfaction with old items of clothing. You therefore buy clothes that go better with the new garment.
51. If you tell yourself that you slept well last night even though you didn’t, you will still feel less tired. This is called placebo sleep.
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52. Rabbits have such good peripheral sight they are able to see things behind their head.
53. One bite of the Inland-Taipans – the most poisonous snake in the world – injects enough poison into its victim to kill more than 230 people.
54. Dogs can understand up to 250 different words and gestures and count up to five. This makes them about as intelligent as a two-year-old child.
55. Elephants are able to recognize themselves in a mirror. Even most primates do not have this mental capacity.
56. Sharks were on the earth before trees existed.
57. At minimum, a person only needs one kidney with a capacity of at least 75 percent to survive.
58. The bone density of people with a mutated LRP5 gene is eight times higher than in normal people. For these people, it is virtually impossible to suffer a fracture in a normal way.
59. Redheads are less sensitive to pain and more sensitive to temperature compared to people with different hair colors.
60. Humans are the only species that cook their food.
61. Jeanne Calment holds the world record as the longest living human being. She was the first person to verifiably live to celebrate her 116th to 122nd birthday. She was born in 1875, saw the Eiffel Tower being built, sold paint brushes to Vincent van Gogh and died in 1997 at the age of 122.
62. According to current estimates, there are only three living Northern white rhinos left. So the species is on the verge of extinction.
63. Dalmatian puppies are born with a white coat. The black dots only appear after a while in the course of their childhood.
64. Rhnull (rhesus factor zero) is the rarest blood type in the world. So far, only 40 people worldwide are known to have this blood group.
65. The blue whale is the loudest animal on earth. Its cries can be heard from a distance of 373 miles.
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66. A human’s lips are almost always as long as their index finger.
67. Just like whales, elephants and hippos can communicate with their fellow creatures over long distances via infrasound.
68. If you trace your family tree back 25 generations, you will have 33,554,432 direct ancestors. Assuming no incest was involved.
69. Women blink more frequently than men.
70. Slugs are able to sleep three consecutive years.
71. It is assumed that cats are responsible for the extinction of several animal species.
72. The “Medical Students Disease” describes the phenomenon of medical students suffering from the disease they recently have learned about in class.
73. A cheetah can briefly reach speeds of up to 75 miles per hour. However, the sprint exhausts it so much that it needs between 20 and 60 minutes to recuperate before eating. Other predators therefore often try to steal its food in the meantime.
74. In the evening, people are about half an inch smaller than in the morning, as the spine compresses during the day due to the effects of gravity.
75. Okinawa Island in Japan is the safest place in the world. More than 450 people, who are more than 100 years old, live there.
76. In the case of “alien hand syndrome”, the affected person has no control over one of his or her hands. The hand acts completely uncontrolled and in the worst case can even try to strangle the affected person.
77. Beards have a health-benefit effect. They prevent pollen from entering the mouth so that the possibility of getting hay fever is decreased.
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78. The Bonobo Kanzi monkey is able to make its own bonfire and cook its food in it.
79. There are more people with obesity than malnutrition worldwide.
80. The largest dog in the world is 43.7 inches tall.
81. Whales can reach a volume of up to 230 decibels with their songs. That is twice as loud as a jet taking off.
82. At birth, a blue whale is already 26 feet long and weighs more than eight tons. In its first year, the newborn gains approximately 176 pounds of weight per day – 7.3 pounds per hour.
83. A liger is a cross between a lion and a tiger. They are the largest cats of prey in the world and can weigh up to 990 pounds.
84. The Hercules beetle and the Titan beetle are the two largest known beetle species. Both grow to a length of up to 6.7 inches.
85. In Kenya, elephant droppings are used to make paper. 110 pounds of excrement can be used to produce 125 pages of paper. The proceeds from the sale of the paper are used to expand the elephant reserve.
86. The Russian Fyodor Vasilyev holds the record for most children fathered by a man with a woman. In the 18th century, his wife gave birth to a total of 69 children, including four sets of quadruplets, seven sets of triplets and 16 pairs of twins. Later on, he married again and fathered another 18 children with his second wife, including two sets of triplets and six pairs of twins.
87. Italian Frank Lentini was born in 1889 with three legs, four feet, 16 toes and two genital organs. Until his death he earned his living as a circus artist.
88. When Komodo dragons bite their prey, they release a poison that, among other things, inhibits blood clotting. So if their prey is not killed immediately, the dragons can then track it down and feed on it after it has died from blood loss as well as from the other bacteria contained in the poison.
89. The likelihood of getting bitten by a human in New York is higher than the likelihood of getting bitten by a shark in the sea.
90. The average distance a man walks on foot during his life is four times around the world.
91. The hair above a cat’s eyes is called tactile hair.
92. Termite queens have the longest life expectancy of all insects. They can live up to 50 years.
93. Cymothoa exigua, a parasitic isopod, is the only known parasite that can replace an entire body part of its host. First, the parasite feeds on the tongue of a fish until it completely replaces it and in doing so takes over the tongue’s function.
94. There are so many languages in the world that it is not known how many there currently are. Scientists believe that there are more than 6,500 to 7,000 different languages.
95. For every human eaten by a shark, 600,000 sharks are eaten by humans.
96. The embryos of the Sandtiger shark fight each other in the mother’s womb. The surviving embryo will ultimately be born.
97. Kiwis are among the smallest birds in the world, but they lay the largest eggs relative to the size of their bodies.
98. The skin region between a person’s eyebrows is called “glabella”.
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99. At the beginning of the 20th century, horses created so much dirt with their excrements that cars were regarded as the “green” alternative.
100. Qizai is the name of the only brown panda bear in the world. Its brown coat color is due to a genetic mutation.
101. Although women’s brains are slightly smaller, they are more efficient than men’s brains.
102. A Scottish study found that most heart attacks happen on a Monday.
103. Red-haired people produce more vitamin D than people with a different hair color.
104. Approximately one in 5,000 babies is born without an anus due to a deformity. Doctors then need to artificially reconstruct it after birth.
105. From water depth of 33 feet and more there is no more red light. For this reason blood seems to be green at this depth.
106. There are an estimated 500 million dogs on our planet.
107. The scientific name for the western lowland gorilla is “Gorilla gorilla gorilla”.
108. A bite of the Brazilian wandering spider can cause men an erection that lasts for hours.
109. Termites eat their food at double the speed when heavy metal is played.
110. Female lions carry out 90 percent of the lion’s hunting activities.
111. Blue whales are the heaviest animals in the history of the earth. With a length of up to 110 feet, they weigh a total of 150 tons.
112. The guide dog Kirsch has an honorary master’s degree because he attended all lectures together with his owner.
113. The deepest species ever found is the devil worm (Halicephalobus mephisto). It was discovered in a cave in South Africa 2.2 miles underground.
114. A type of jellyfish called the “sea wasp” is the most poisonous animal in the world.
115. On average, a person farts 14 times a day.
116. In 2002, long-distance runner Tom Johnson competed against a horse in an 50-mile race. He ran the distance in five hours and 45 minutes, arriving ten seconds ahead of the horse.
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117. According to scientists, the giant tortoise Jonathan was born around 1832 in the Seychelles and is therefore the oldest living reptile on earth. Some researchers even believe that Jonathan may be the oldest living land animal.
118. Regions of the earth where the inhabitants clearly exceed the average life expectancy of the world population are called “Blue Zones”. Currently, only five Blue Zones are known worldwide. These are Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicola (Costa Rica), Ikaria (Greece) and Loma Linda (California). The reason why people there live so long is not clear.
119. Only five percent of all humans have red hair.
120. The deaf cannot get seasick.
121. Cats have 32 muscles to move their ears. In comparison, humans only have six muscles in their ears.
122. Female skunks are able to influence the development of their embryos, in order to delay birth in times of food shortages.
123. Male kangaroos flex their biceps to impress females.
124. The Indonesian chicken species “Ayam Cemani” has a genetic peculiarity that results in the animals being completely black. Not only is the plumage of the animals black, but also their eyes, skin, flesh, bones, claws and blood. The dark coloration is due to a natural genetic disposition of the chicken, which results in the animal forming more color pigments than other species.
125. Octopus-Wrestling was a popular trend in the sixties. A diver grapples with an octopus in shallow water and tries to bring it to the surface.
126. A koala’s fingerprint is so similar to that of a human being that there have been several cases in Australia with considerable confusion about the perpetrator at a crime scene.
127. Babies are born with 300 bones. In adulthood this number decreases to 206.
128. Swans only have one partner in their lifetime.
129. The “Gombe Chimpanzee War” describes a four-year war between two hostile chimpanzee groups in Tanzania. During this time, there were mutual killings, violence and kidnappings. The war is considered the first known situation in which chimpanzees deliberately killed another chimpanzee.
130. The larvae of cicada of the genus Magicicada hatch only 17 years after they have been deposited in the ground and then live for only a few weeks. As a result, the United States are practically invaded by the small insects every 17 years.
131. In addition to the known blood types of the AB0 system, there is a fourth, very rare variant. It is colloquially called the Bombay blood group, since only about 20,000 people worldwide have this blood group, almost all of whom come from India.
132. The lyrebird is capable of perfectly imitating almost any sound it hears. Birds of this species have been observed imitating the sounds of a chainsaw, a gunshot, a camera shutter or even an explosion.
133. It is genetically determined whether you can role your tongue or not.
134. The South African rock hyrax is only 20 inches tall, weighs about 8.8 pounds and looks like a big guinea pig. Nevertheless, its closest relative is the elephant.
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135. If one donates a part of one’s liver, the missing part will grow again.
136. According to current scientific knowledge, it is assumed that about 8,000 years ago all people in Europe were dark skinned, and that a light skin color only developed recently over the course of the past millennia.
137. On average, children start lying at the age of four.
138. A dog’s sense of smell is 10,000 times stronger than that of a human being.
139. Wildlife goldfishes can live up to 40 years.
140. There are butterflies that migrate south every winter, just like birds. Every autumn, the monarch butterfly sets off on its journey from the north of the United States to Mexico, covering a distance of 2,175 miles. Every day, they cover between 44 and 186 miles.
141. In Iceland, Greenland and the Antarctic there are no ants.
142. Timothy Ray Brown is the first man to be cured from AIDS. In 2007 he received a bone marrow transplant due to his blood cancer. After the treatment, doctors could not detect HIV in his body anymore. To date, nobody knows how this was possible and whether the disease will come back. This phenomena could only be detected on two further people.
143. A few hours after an infection with HIV, post-exposure prophylaxis which can significantly reduce the risk of contracting the virus is possible.
144. If men do not ejaculate for more than seven days, their testosterone levels rise by more than 45 percent.
145. The human eye reacts so well to light that it could see the flame of a candle in absolute darkness from about 30 miles away.
146. Araucana chickens are also referred to as Easter egg chickens, because their eggs can be blue, green, red or brown.
147. The Amazon is home to pink dolphins.
148. Penguins can jump six feet high.
149. A study came to the conclusion that the lack of exercise in the Western world kills the same amount of people as smoking does.
150. No mammal can dive deeper than Cuvier’s beaked whale. A dive into the depth of the oceans can last up to 140 minutes and, according to measurements, reach a depth of 9,816 feet.
151. Gray whales exclusively mate in a threesome.
152. A person has between 100,000 and 150,000 hairs on their head.
153. Scientists believe that it is possible to exterminate all mosquitoes, without impacting on our global ecosystem.
154. Shakuntala Devi holds the world record in mental arithmetic. In 1980 a computer randomly chose the two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 and 2,465,099,745,779, which Devi had to multiply. It took her only 28 seconds for the correct answer: 18,947,668,117,995,426,462,773,730!
155. Pandas are able to fake a pregnancy to get more food from the zookeepers.
156. The Greenland shark, among others, eats polar bears and deer.
157. The first successful blood transfusion took place in 1660 and was between two dogs.
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158. In 2012, a new ant species was discovered in New York City. Scientists named it “ManhattAnt”.
159. City birds are now integrating cigarette stubs into their nests as they have recognized that these are effective against insects.
160. Male narwhals have an ivory horn with a length of up to ten feet on their head.
161. Wombat excrements are cube-shaped. So far, we have not been able to determine the evolutionary advantage of excreta in this shape. It is assumed, however, that it allows the animals to better mark their territory.
162. In 2007, a Greenland whale was killed during a whaling expedition. In the animal’s body, the tip of a harpoon was found which must have been there since 1885. This discovery proved that the animal must have been more than 130 years old and confirmed the hypothesis that the Greenland whale is the mammal with the highest life expectancy.
163. Vikings took cats on sea trips in order to avoid a rat problem. Nowadays, it is assumed that this prevailed the worldwide spread of cats.
164. Greyhounds can reach speeds of more than 68 miles per hour and are therefore almost as fast as cheetahs.
165. Dogs are red-green blind.
166. Eight out of ten people who have been struck by lightning are male.
167. The largest ant colony in the world was discovered in 2002 and contains several billion animals. The superstate has many millions of nests and stretches over 3,580 miles from the Italian Riviera to the northwest of Spain.
168. Before American Kim Peek died in 2009, he was able to read a complete book in less than an hour and remember every detail. He was able to reproduce the exact content of over 12,000 books and was the role model for Dustin Hoffman’s character in the film “Rain Man”.
169. The Hungarian psychologist László Polgár put forward the theory that every human being can be educated to become a genius if only you start encouragement early enough. He convinced his wife of the idea and taught his three daughters chess at the age of four. All three daughters reached the rank of Grand Master. One of the daughters became the second-best female chess player in the world – behind her sister Judit Polgár, who even rose to become the world’s best female chess player. Overall, she ranked eighth worldwide.
170. The human brain consumes about 20 percent of the body’s total energy.
171. The silk of the spider species “Caeristris darwini” is the toughest biomaterial in the world – ten times stronger than a comparable strand of Kevlar.
172. Corals are chemically so similar to human bones that they are used to treat fractures.
173. Regardless of body size, all mammals take an average of about 21 seconds to empty their bladders. Scientists refer to this as the “law of urination”.
174. Because emus and kangaroos are not able to walk backwards, they are officially referred to as heraldic animals of Australia.
175. The parrot “Alex” remains the only animal to ever have asked a question. When he was shown a mirror, he asked, “What color?”
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176. About 80 percent of people breathe exclusively through one nostril. Which nostril is used by the body varies approximately every 2.5 hours. While the other nostril is not being used for breathing, the body cleans it.
177. The highest temperature ever measured in a human body was 115.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
178. Australia is home to 21 of the 25 most dangerous snakes in the world.
179. Lynlee Hope Boemer was born twice. In the 23rd week of pregnancy, the girl was taken out of her mother’s womb by doctors to remove a tumor. After the successful operation, the girl was placed back into the womb, and twelve weeks later the healthy baby was born.
180. Women suffering from “hyperlactation syndrome” produce excessive amounts of breast milk – up to 1.6 gallons of milk a day. A woman’s average milk production is usually less than 0.3 gallons per day.
181. Foxes use the Earth’s magnetic field to estimate distances.
182. Blind people are able to dream and to see pictures in their dreams.
183. With one “bite”, blue whales consume up to 1,100 pounds of food or almost half a million calories. Opening the mouth and eating food alone can burn up to 2,000 calories.
184. Crows are among the most intelligent non-primates on earth. They possess the intelligence of a toddler, can use tools, have a long-term memory, can recognize faces and understand analogies.
185. Octopi have three hearts.
186. Male ants have no fathers because unfertilized ant eggs always produce male ants and only fertilized eggs produce female ants.
187. The “spotlight effect” describes the phenomenon of people often imagining that other people are paying much more attention to them than they actually do.
188. Cats are the most popular pet in the United States. There are 88 million cats compared to 74 million dogs.
189. Like humans, ducks have different accents.
190. There is a low probability that women can become pregnant a second time during pregnancy. This so-called phenomenon of “superfetation” is highly unlikely, but nevertheless possible. The last known case of a woman who was pregnant twice at the same time occurred in 2009.
191. A tiger’s tongue is so rough that it can even lick meat from a bone.
192. In 2008, a female shark gave birth to a pup without having been previously fertilized. So far there are only two cases of asexual reproduction of sharks worldwide.
193. To date, about 5,000 people have already turned their ashes into an artificial diamond after death.
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194. The WWF chose a panda for its logo, in order to save print costs and to set a sign.
195. With a maximum speed of 68 miles per hour, the marlin is the fastest fish in the world. For comparison, a cruise ship travels the seas at an average speed of 19 miles per hour.
196. There is more bacteria on your own skin then there are living people in the world.
197. All people begin their lives as females. The male Y chromosome becomes active just after the fifth week of gestation.
198. Humans and dolphins are the only animals, which have sex solely for pleasure.
199. The largest cat in the world had a length of 1.36 yards.
200. First chimpanzee conspecifics now use stones as tools, for example to crack open fruit. Therefore, the Stone Age has officially begun for chimpanzees.
201. The heart of a shrimp is located in its head.
202. After the last Bucardo – a special type of wild goat – had died, scientists succeeded in creating a clone of the animal in 2003, making it the first species ever to be resurrected after its extinction. However, the clone died after only seven minutes, making it also the first species to go extinct twice.
203. The skin that snakes leave behind during moulting is called a “snake shirt”.
204. Under ideal conditions, two mating rats could produce 482 million descendants over a three-year period.
205. It has been scientifically proven that petting a dog can significantly reduce blood pressure in humans.
206. The most common fracture in the human body is the collarbone.
207. In 2009 in Florida, a man who was accused of owning child porn, said his cat had downloaded the files.
208. Mosquitoes have killed more people than any other animal. It is estimated that mosquitoes kill more people worldwide in five minutes than sharks do in a whole year.
209. In a kidney transplant, the non-functional kidney is usually not removed from the body. Instead, the new donor kidney is inserted into the groin, meaning that after a kidney transplant, the patient has three kidneys.
210. In the 19th and 20th centuries, a family clan with predominantly bluish skin lived in the Appalachian Mountains in the USA. This was due to a disease called methemoglobinemia, which was repeatedly passed on within the Fugate family due to the isolated living conditions in the mountains.
211. When it comes to extreme heat in Melbourne, the lions in the zoo are given frozen blood.
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212. Contraceptive pills also work for gorillas.
213. Worms can have up to ten hearts.
214. There are about three times as many chickens on earth as humans.
215. The Huntsman spider (Heteropoda maxima) is the largest spider species in the world. Adult males usually have a span of up to 12 inches. In Australia, a specimen estimated at 15.7 inches was discovered in 2017.
216. The Flynn effect describes the fact that the average IQ increases with each generation. However, it is not clear why we humans are becoming more and more intelligent.
217. “Fox tossing” was a popular sport in the 16th century in which two people held a 23-foot-long cloth on both sides and then pulled it tight as soon as a fox ran over the cloth so that it flew into the air. The game continued until the animal broke its bones when it hit the ground and was then killed by a hunter.
218. A false pregnancy (scientific term: “pseudocyesis”) is a mental illness in which the affected person shows all the symptoms of a pregnancy without actually being pregnant. In addition to the absence of menstruation, swelling of the breasts and abdomen can also occur. The disease is an example of how great the influence of the psyche can be on a human organism.
219. In order to make wolf puppies urinate, their mother has to lick their bellies with her warm tongue.
220. Dogs have such a good sense of smell that they can even smell when a person’s insulin level drops too low.
221. Zebras and ostriches often stay together in the wilderness. Ostriches can see enemies at long distances, while zebras are able to hear enemies from far away.
222. In summer, storks poop on each other’s feet in order to cool down.
223. A bird of paradise’s feathers are so black that they absorb 99.95 percent of all light. This is only 0.01 percentage points less than the blackest material ever created by humans.
224. The Candlefish is so oily, that it used to be burned and used as a candle.
225. The spider species “Amaurobius Ferox” belongs to the genus of matriphages. This means that the spider female’s children eat their own mother after hatching from their eggs.
226. A study has shown that four percent of all people dream exclusively in black-and-white.
227. Female kangaroos have three vaginas.
228. 32-year-old Wombat “Patrick” living in Australia was the oldest animal of his species. As he was not able to find a female partner, his keepers even created a Tinder profile for him.
229. Koala bears, monkeys and humans are the only animals with an individual fingerprint.
230. The chimpanzee “Congo” was able to draw abstract works of art. Even Pablo Picasso was a fan of his pictures.
231. The urine and sweat of people suffering from “leucinosis” smells of maple syrup. Those affected lack an enzyme needed to break down certain protein elements. For this reason, their bodies increasingly contain the degradation product “sotolone”, which smells strongly of maple syrup.
232. Besides humans, ants and bees are the only animals to wage war against members of the same species.
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233. Around the region of the Ecuadorian city of Quito, a large number of the inhabitants suffer from a special form of dwarfism. The genetic mutation which inhibits growth also protects those affected from all forms of cancer and diabetes.
234. Adult cats exclusively meow to communicate with humans.
235. There are green birds, reptiles and insects, but no green mammals.
236. The oxygen levels of a fetus in the womb are almost as low as on Mount Everest. The low oxygen level helps the fetus to sleep most of its time in the womb.
237. In war times significantly more boys than girls are born. This is called the “Returning Soldier Syndrome”.
238. In Australia in 2009, snipers were tasked with defending a colony of penguins against possible enemies to guarantee the survival of this rare penguin species.
239. The vampire bat has an enzyme that prevents its victims’ blood from clotting on wounds. As a result, the victims lose more blood that the vampire bats can then feed on.
240. The Greenland shark does not reach sexual maturity until the age of 150. With an estimated life expectancy of up to 500 years, it is also the longest living vertebrate on the planet.
241. People who laugh more frequently, live a longer life.
242. Polar bears are left-handed.
243. In addition to humans, homosexuality has been discovered in over 1,500 animal species. Same sex love is therefore anything but contrary to nature.
244. The color that the human eye perceives in complete darkness is called “Eigengrau” (German for “intrinsic gray”).
245. The teeth of limpets are the hardest biological material in the world.
246. Hippopotami on average kill 2,900 humans per year, stags 130, ants 30, cows 22, horses 20 and sharks only five. But who would run away from a cow?
247. After the breeding season, swifts spend up to ten months in the air without landing a single time. With that, they hold the record among birds.
248. To find out whether a female is capable of mating, male giraffes beat their heads on the female’s belly until they urinate. The male can determine the female’s fertility by the smell of her urine.
249. Hippos can sleep under water. A congenital reflex lets them drift to the surface while asleep in order to breathe and then to submerge again without waking up.
250. An octopus has its brain in its tentacles. Even if the tentacles are separated from the body, they continue to search for food for a short time and bring them to a mouth which is no longer present.
251. There are no mosquitoes in Iceland. Scientists are not sure why this is the case, but it is suspected that the special weather conditions of Iceland have something to do with the phenomenon.
252. Until the end of the 19th century, there were so-called quaggas living in the world. Although this was not a cross between a horse and a zebra, the animals were striped in the front like zebras, while the trunk was evenly reddish-brown, therefore more closely resembling a horse. Since a quagga was a subspecies of the plains zebra, South African researchers have been trying for many years to revive the breed – and their efforts have now been crowned with success.
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253. In 1879 the Belgian mail service launched a pilot project in which cats were used to deliver the letters. The project failed.
254. The urine of the Asian bearcat smells like popcorn. The reason for this is that the animal’s urine contains the same fragrance that gives popcorn its distinctive smell.
255. Although apes have already been taught sign language and thus have the ability to answer a human question, no ape has ever asked a question by itself, despite having the necessary vocabulary to do so. Researchers therefore assume that the ability to ask questions requires a high cognitive level. Apes, however, do not seem to have this ability.
256. When cows eat too many carrots, their milk can turn pink.
257. Butterflies are cannibals.
258. The human eye already reached its final size at the age of three and no longer grows afterwards.
259. An interesting new pattern of behavior was observed in Japanese crows. Nuts, which the animals are not able to crack on their own, are increasingly thrown onto roads by the crows so that cars drive over them and crack them. Afterwards, the crow flies back to the open nut and collects the contents.
260. Pigs cannot see to the sky.
261. Currently, there are about seven billion people on earth who make experiences and memories every day. A total of 220 years of new human memories are generated per second.
262. 450 men die of breast cancer in the U.S. each year.
263. In the last 150 years, the average body size of a human has increased by four inches.
264. In the 20th century, there were still stomach-breeding frogs living in Australia. The tadpoles grew up in the mother’s stomach and climbed out of her mouth as soon as they were big enough.
265. The Japanese giant crab is the largest living crab and can reach a span of up to 12.1 feet. However, the body has an average diameter of only 14.6 inches.
266. It would require 1,200,000 mosquitoes to exsanguinate the blood out of a human.
267. The two oldest cats in the world reached an age of 34 and 38. Both belonged to the same owner. She exclusively fed her cats bacon, eggs, broccoli and coffee.
268. Cats cannot taste sugar.
269. When two wolves mate, they stay together for the rest of their lives.
270. The DNA among humans differs by just 0.1 percent. In comparison, a chimpanzee is genetically different from humans by 1.2 percent.
271. The American pygmy shrew has to eat three times its own body weight every day. For this, the animal has to go hunting again every 15 to 30 minutes, as even an hour without food would lead to its death.
272. Koala bears hug trees to cool down on hot days.
273. Joy Milne from Britain has the ability to recognize whether somebody is suffering from Parkinson’s by smell. In a scientific test, she identified the six people among the twelve test subjects who suffered from Parkinson’s disease based only on their smell. However, she also claimed that a seventh person who was actually part of the control group had the disease. Later on, this person was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s, so that Joy ultimately passed the test without a single error. To this day, scientists do not know how Joy Milne’s ability works, but they hope to use this knowledge to find new ways to detect Parkinson’s disease.
274. Octopuses have a favorite arm. They tend to use this arm more often, for example to grab prey.
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275. People with red hair are more resistant to anesthetics.
276. The so-called urchin crab (Dorippe frascone) carries sea urchins on its back to defend itself.
277. A 20 second hug increases the oxytocin level of people so much that afterwards there is a much greater trust between them.
278. Goosebumps are a reflex from the times when man had much more hair. When our hair stands up, we appeared bigger and more menacing to enemies.
279. Dolphins sleep with there eyes open.
280. People who own iPhones have sex more often compared to Android users.
281. Transplanted testicles continue to produce the donor’s sperm.
282. Gnats are especially attracted by people with blood type O.
283. Due to the decline of the lion population, there are now more lion statues worldwide than real lions.
284. A positive pregnancy test in men may indicate testicular cancer.
285. It is possible to die even 24 hours after drowning. People who die from “dry drowning” do not tend to notice their discomfort while the water continues to spread in their lungs until they die.
286. Depending on the cause of crying, tears have a different chemical composition.
287. A study from 2002 showed that 60 percent of people cannot have a ten minute conversation without having lied at least once.
288. The colder your bedroom is, the higher is the likelihood of having a nightmare.
289. With over 1,200 different subspecies, bats account for about 20 percent of all known mammal species.
290. Scorpions can survive up to two years without food.
291. There is a type of fungus that grows on ants and controls their behavior. The ant then has no control over its own body.
292. The Malaysian kissing bug uses the remains of its prey as a shield.
293. Mothers instinctively kiss their newborn baby. Through the kiss the mother takes up bacteria and viruses of the child and forms antibodies which can pass through the mother’s milk to the child.
294. Dogs and humans are the only mammals with a prostate.
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295. In Italy, a man left his cat an inheritance of about ten million Euros.
296. The Norwegian Lundehund is the only type of dog with six toes per paw.
297. In the 18th century the Briton Mary Toft became famous for giving birth to rabbits. Years later she was sentenced to death when it became clear that she just put dead rabbits in her vagina, which she pushed out later on.
298. Cats sweat through their paws.
299. At the Marine Mammal Studies Institute, dolphins have been trained to get the audiences waste out of the basin. Each time they hand out trash to the animal attendants, they get food for it.
300. After the shooting of the first part of “Planet of the Apes” in 1968, actors and producers unanimously reported that a phenomenon of self-imposed “racial segregation” occurred during lunch breaks. The actors preferred to stay with their “fellow species” in the same costume instead of mixing randomly or spending time with their usual friends.
301. Instead of using lawn mowers, Google has about 200 goats that graze the grass on the Google site.
302. Termite mounds are built in such a way that the climate inside always remains approximately the same, even if major weather changes occur. Nevertheless, fresh air constantly enters the mound while pollutants are removed.
303. Brazilian natives used ants as wound clamps. They let the ants bite and close the wound with their pincers and then pulled off their bodies. The pincers remained wedged in the body, closing the wound.
304. An ostrich can run a marathon in less than 60 minutes.
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305. Mangalica pigs are a rare type of pig that due to their curly, light bristles look like sheep.
306. Scientists assume that the first human who will reach 150 years or more, has already be born.
307. The largest land animal permanently living in Antarctica is only 0.24 inches long. It is the wingless mosquito species “Belgica antarctica”.
308. Young elephants like to suck on their trunks just like young children like to suck on their thumbs.
309. Koalas sleep about 90 percent of their lives.
310. With a height of 8.23 inches, Sultan Kösen from Turkey is the tallest man in the world. He has shoe size 62 and the distance from his wrist to the tip of his middle finger is 11.2 inches.
311. The Titanoboa was the largest snake to ever have lived. The 46-foot-long animal, which weighed more than 1.3 tons, haunted the Colombian rainforest some 60 million years ago.
312. Without bats, there would be no tequila, as bats play a crucial role in pollinating agave plants, from which the alcohol is won.
313. Japanese people believe that black cats bring good luck.
314. 90 percent of all people live in the northern hemisphere.
315. Humans do not develop exclusively through the genetic mixture of mother and father. On average, every human is born with about 100 mutations.
316. The hawksbill turtle has probably existed since the Cretaceous period.
317. Scorpions can survive for up to one year without food.
318. Sharks have been living on our planet for more than 420 million years. They existed before the dinosaurs.
319. With a diameter of up to 6.6 feet and a length of up to 120 feet, the lion’s mane jellyfish is the largest jellyfish in the world. It is even longer than a blue whale.
320. Eating chocolate can be fatal for dogs.
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