August 2

23 Crazy Animal Facts You’ll Find Hard To Believe

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August 2, 2017

The animal kingdom is as weird as it is wonderful. While looking up unusual additions to our Africa Facts That Will Make You Say ‘Wow!’ post, we came across some pretty amazing snippets about Africa’s animals, too. So much so, we decided that African animal facts needed its very own post – and here it is:

giraffe at kwandwe

1. Giraffes only sleep for about 30 minutes per night – the shortest sleep requirement in the entire animal kingdom – and often only at five-minute stretches at most.

lion at chitwa chitwa

2. In contrast, lions can sleep up to 20 hours a day. They’re predators. What do they really have to worry about?

3. Don’t be fooled by his adorable looks and cute name. The honey badger is one of the most dangerous animals to be found in the bush and has few natural predators thanks to its thick skin, ferocity, and superb defence mechanisms.

4. African wild dog packs are led by one monogamous breeding pair. It’s rare that another female in the pack will breed, but if she does, the head female will often take the pups as her own or kill them to keep the pack at its optimum size.

5. We all know that rhino horns and animal hooves are made out of keratin, but did you know that a pangolin’s scales are, too?

elephant at kwandwe

6. Elephants have incredible memories. In times of drought, the matriarch can lead her herd to places where she thinks there might be food or water because she was there once decades ago.

7. Springbok can spring (see what I did there?) up to two metres in the air in multiple leaps. We call this ‘pronking’.

Porcupine at Tswalu

8. Porcupines are rodents (the prickliest rodent of them all) whose Latin name means ‘quill pig’.

9. Ancient Egyptians believed that jackals guided spirits to the netherworld where their souls would be judged.

Buffalo at Kwandwe

10. An elephant may not forget, as the old saying goes, but a buffalo is known to never forgive. Buffalo have been documented attacking people who have hurt them many years after the event has taken place.

Warthog at Kwandwe Game Reserve

11. Small they may be, but slow they are not. Warthogs can run up to 30 miles (48km) an hour!

12. Great white sharks have such terrific senses; they can sense tiny amounts of blood in the water from an impressive three-mile distance (almost five kilometres!).

baby elephant at kwandwe in eastern cape

13. Elephants’ smell senses are just as good – they can smell water from miles away!

14. Seahorses mate for life (Aaw!) and one species, in particular, the Knysna Seahorse, can be found in only three bodies of water in the world. These three habitats are all found along the Garden Route: Plettenberg Bay‘s Keurbooms River, Knysna‘s lagoon, and Sedgefield’s Swartvlei estuary.

cheetah at kwandwe game reserve

15. We all know cheetahs are fast, but did you know how fast? They can go from a standstill to 68 miles per hour (110km per hour) in under five seconds.

close up of a chimpanzee

16. Chimpanzees, our closest living relative, have been observed using tools. In short, scientists have equated this to chimps entering their Stone Age.

elephant shrew

17. The closest relative to the elephant shrew, a member of the Little Five, is not, in fact, a shrew, but an African elephant, a member of the Big 5.

18. Female gorillas only start having babies when they’re around ten years old.

19. Millennia ago, lemurs were found in Africa but faced stiff competition from other primates. When Madagascar separated from the mainland, lemurs tagged along and now are endemic to the micro continent.

southern yellowbilled hornbill at chitwa chitwa

20. Southern  Yellow-Billed Hornbills, made famous by Zazu from The Lion King, have been given the nickname ‘the flying banana’. Can’t imagine why…

21. It may not look like it, but penguins do actually have knees.

dugong in the bazaruto archipelago

22. Dugongs, found in Indian Ocean waters like those around the Bazaruto Archipelago, live almost as long as humans do – an impressive 70 years.

mermaid architecture at santa carolina mozambique

23. Many people believe that these underwater grass grazers were the inspiration for ancient folklore surrounding mermaids.

tortoise

And there you have it, folks. Go share this unusual knowledge with someone else!


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Africa


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About the author 

Melanie Du Toit

Jozi-born, Knysna local, and recovering yachtie, Melanie decided that she missed being land-based after 18 months sailing the seas. Now that she lives in the most beautiful city in Africa (she is adamant about this fact), you will find her trying out new things around Cape Town, dreaming about her next holiday, and using Wikipedia to enhance her skills as an encyclopaedia of useless information.

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