Amazing animal facts (General)

• As a general rule in the animal kingdom, the more complex or relatively big the eye in relation to the body, then the smaller the rest of the brain.
• According to one study, plant and animal species are becoming extinct at the rate of 17 per hour.
• Brazil has the most species of mammals (524), fresh water fish, insects and parrots of anywhere.
• Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.
• Cleopatra used a mixture of horse teeth, bear grease, burnt mice and deer marrow in her attempt to cure Julius Caesar's baldness (it didn't work). Hedgehog urine was also thought to be beneficial.
• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• Increased water consumption in animals is sometimes a sign of illness.
• Ireland has only about half the number of animal species that Britain has, including no snakes or toads (although there are some frogs).
• Livestock excrete 130 times as much waste as people.
• Many animals seem to be able to detect the Earth's magnetism. The Arctic Tern's migratory route follows the Earth's lines of magnetic force. Many other animals such as caribou, sea turtles, whales, birds and fish may also use the Earth's magnetism to find their way.
• Methane gas can often be seen bubbling up from the bottom of ponds. It is produced by the decomposition of dead plants and animals in the mud.
• More than 99.9% of all the animal species that have ever lived on earth were extinct before the coming of man.
• Of all known forms of animal life ever to inhabit the Earth, only about 10 % still exist today.
• Of people with companion animals, 18% sleep with them.
• Only one in one thousand animals born in the sea survives to maturity.
• Over 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles worldwide are killed by plastic rubbish every year. Marine life, in particular turtles, is prone to mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish, ingesting them and dying of intestinal blockage.
• Pets like the sound of laughter, and most know when you're in pain.
• Scientists estimate that there are currently 1.4 million animal species known to science; with possibly as many as 30 million on the planet.
• The air is so polluted in Cubato, Brazil, that no birds or insects remain and most trees are blackened stumps. Its Mayor reportedly refuses to live there.
• The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue.
• The fox, the coyote, and the hawk often follow badgers in order to catch animals that it has discovered.
• The oceans contain 99% of the living space on the planet.
• There are more species of fish than mammals, reptiles and birds combined.