Maybe you've heard that dogs can detect diseases in humans and that cats hear four times as well as humans. If you're craving even more fascinating facts about animals, you've come to the right place! Keep scrolling to learn more about the entire animal kingdom.
But wait, there’s more! You might also get a kick out of these dog facts, cat facts, or even shark facts. If you’re willing to look beyond just Planet Earth, we can guarantee that these space facts are out of this world. Plus, we rounded up the most interesting facts we could find for anyone who wants to know a little more about, well, everything.
1. The average length of a giraffe's tongue is 20 inches. And they can grab things with it.
2. Female dragonflies will sometimes fake their own death to avoid mating with a male.
3. Flatworms contain both male and female reproductive genitalia, and two flatworms will "penis-fence" until one has successfully jabbed and inseminated the other.
4. Male garter snakes will imitate a female garter snake in order to attract males that will cuddle and keep them warm.
5. To avoid being eaten by the female, a male argonaut octopus may detach its mating arm and leave it in the female before swimming away to safety.
6. Drone bees die immediately after mating because their penis and abdomen are completely torn from their bodies during the process.
7. Sea lion pups and their mom communicate through special vocalizations so they can identify one another.
8. "Puppy-dog eyes" are a result of dogs co-evolving with humans.
9. Giraffes' tongues are black in color to prevent them from getting sunburnt. They actually stick their tongues out that much.
10. Baby elephants can't see very well when they're first born so they identify their mom through "touch, scent and sound."
11. Male giraffes will use their extremely long tongues to taste the pee of female giraffes to determine if they're ovulating.
12. The Dumbo octopus's fins look like ears, giving it its Disney-inspired name.
13. It's extremely common for male giraffes to have sex with each other. Like, extremely common. As in 50% of all male giraffes have no problem sexing up other male giraffes.
14. Hippopotamuses have pink sweat, a thick red-ish substance they produce that acts as sunscreen.
15. Wolves get scared of strangers and hide.
16. Ostriches swallow pebbles to be able to grind their food.
17. Giraffes can sprint up to 35 miles per hour, which is pretty fast for an animal that is practically wearing stilts.
18. And because their legs are so long, giraffes walk at 10 miles per hour without even trying.
19. Goats and cows have accents.
20. There's an abandoned minefield that has accidentally created a penguin sanctuary. The mines keep poachers out, but the penguins are too small to set them off.
21. Cats can nurse hedgehogs.
22. Giraffes can live without water longer than a camel can. At this point, it's OK to suspect that they're indestructible.
23. They're probably a little tense: Their blood pressure is twice that of humans.
24. In fact, their system for regulating blood pressure has been replicated by aeronautical engineers for use in spacesuits.
25. No two giraffes have the same pattern of spots, but giraffes that live in the same area tend to have similar coats.
26. Seagulls often stomp on the ground — often referred to as their "rain dance" — to attract earthworms and other food.
27. Giraffe herds have almost no defined social structure or hierarchy.
28. Cats are responsible for the global extinction of 33 species.
29. Dogs prefer to poop facing the North Pole.
30. Your dog probably dreams about you.
31. Umm Nyolokh is a substance made from the liver and bone marrow of a giraffe. If ingested, it allegedly produces giraffe-themed hallucinations.
32. Zebra moms keep their babies in the center of the herd to keep them safe from predators.
33. There are deer in Eastern Europe that still won't cross where the Iron Curtain was.
34. The oldest living creature was a clam that lived 507 years.
36. Ants can survive a fall from any height. Even from an airplane.
37. Some fish can recognize their owner's face.
38. Giant pandas are no longer an endangered species, and tiger populations are on the rise.
39. When a baby elephant is born, other mothers in the social group will trumpet to celebrate or announce the baby's arrival.
40. Dolphin mothers sing to their babies while they're in the womb.
41. The first animal to orbit the moon was a tortoise.
42. Cows have "best friends" and are happier when they're with them.
43. The Latin word for giraffe is "camelopardalis," which is a throwback to the Roman idea that they look like a hybrid between camels and leopards.
44. The only thing keeping the nine different species of giraffe from regularly interbreeding is rain. It disrupts their migration patterns.
45. Your dog ~actually~ loves you, not just because you give them food and walks.
46. When dogs appear in movies and TV, sometimes they have to have CGI tails because they wag too much during the scene.
47. Dogs can tell when you're due to come home by how much of your scent is remaining in the house.
48. Chinchilla fur is so dense that it's very bad for them to get wet. So instead of bathing in water, they bathe in dust like this:
49. Giraffes give birth standing up, which means the first thing a baby giraffe experiences is a six-foot-drop onto the cold, hard ground.
50. Hundreds of trees — if not more — become seedlings every year because of squirrels who forgot where they buried their food.
51. There is a hotel in Kenya that doubles as a giraffe sanctuary, where you can hang out with giraffes all day.
52. Vampire bats love to share.
53. Scorpions glow under ultraviolet lights
54. Wasps taught us how to make paper!
55. Some sharks are loners.
56. Sharks "taste test" everything.
57. Lions love to cuddle.
58. Eels travel for months just to mate.
59. Male coyotes dote on female coyotes as they dote on their babies.
60. Female giraffes are pregnant for 15 months.
61. Wolves mourn when one of their own dies.
62. Baby giraffes sleep with their heads on their butts.
63. Black widow spiders flick silk at attackers.
64. Alligators pretend their heads are trees to attract birds.
65. Giraffes sleep a maximum of two hours a day, and usually for under 10 minutes at a time.
66. Alligators blow bubbles to mate.
67. Giraffes fight by whipping their heads at each other.
68. "Giraffe" is pronounced similarly in almost every language except for Cherokee, which calls them "digalisdugisgi."
69. Atlantic puffins mate for life, and share parental responsibilities equally.
70. Wombats poop cubes.
71. Sheep are actually born with long tails.
72. Alex the parrot is the only animal to ever ask an existential question.
73. Egyptian fruit bats exchange food for sex.
74. Cows are either natural optimists or pessimists — just like humans!!!
75. Ginger cats are predominantly male, while calicos are predominantly female.
76. Stoats — weasel-like mammals — are thought to have had their name derive from the Dutch word for "naughty."
77. While most owls are nocturnal, snowy owls are actually diurnal.
78. Even though they have suuuuper long necks, giraffes only have seven vertebrae — the same number as in a human neck!
79. Golden moles have eyeballs, but they're covered by skin — so essentially, they're useless.
80. The Turritopsis Dohrnii jellyfish can revert back to a younger version of itself, it's basically immortal.
81. A horned lizard can shoot blood from its eyes.
82. Alligators have permanently erect penises that are hidden inside their body.
83. Rabbits practice cecotropy, which means they eat their own poop.
84. Snakes have two penises hidden in the base of their tails.
85. The Binturong, also known as the Asian Bearcat, smells like buttered popcorn.
86. All male felines have a barbed penis with more than 100 hooks made of kerotin that help induce ovulation.
87. There are about 370 species of lungless amphibians that depend on cutaneous respiration (the exchange of gas through moistened skin) to breathe.
88. Giraffes are the only animals born with their horns, which are actually called ossicones.
89. Tigers have stripes underneath their fur on their skin.
90. Killer whales can go through menopause.
91. Gorillas can catch human illnesses.
92. Crocodiles can't move their tongues because they have a membrane that holds it in place.
93. Lions are capable of mating over 100 times a day.
94. Snails can regenerate their eyes completely approximately 25 days after amputation.
95. Once a baby joey becomes too big for her pouch, a koala bear mom will carry him on her back.
96. Polar bears cubs stay with their mom for at least two years, learning the ropes about hunting and diving.
97. Emperor penguin moms and dads alternate roles while raising a chick, one will hunt for food while the other stays at the breeding site to keep the baby warm and safe.
98. A Harp seal mom can identify her baby from "hundreds of others based on smell alone."
99. For the first two years of their life, young orangutans are dependent on their mom for food and transportation.
100. Each night before going to sleep, gorillas make a cozy bed out of leaves. Gorilla moms share these nests with their nursing babies.
101. Giraffe mothers "often return to where they were born to have their own babies."
102. Baby rhinoceroses are born with no horn so they depend entirely on their mother for protection.
103. If joeys are frightened, they'll jump headfirst into their mother's pouch!
104. Wolf pups are born blind and deaf, so they need constant attention from their mom!
105. A moose calf can stay with it's mom for up to a year before it's time for mom to have another baby.
106. A mother hippopotamus gives birth to her baby underwater, then helps him to the surface, so he's able to breathe.
107. And finally, a lioness will hide her cubs in a dense bush until they're old enough to join the pride.
Do you know any super random but super cool animal facts that weren't included in this list? Feel free to leave them in the comments below!
This article contains content from Syd Robinson, Andy Golder, Pedro Fequiere, Alana Mohamed, Dan Meth, Kaelin Tully, Alexis Nedd, and Francesca Rea. It was compiled by Salimah McCullough.