Just as eating, drinking, and breathing are essential to a dog’s livelihood, so is something else that gets far less overall attention: sleeping. Most pet caretakers spend hours expending energy to ensure their dogs get walked every day, that they have time to use the bathroom, that they are given plenty of love and affection, [...]

The Saltwater crocodile and the Nile crocodile are the largest of the 23 crocodilian species. The males grow up to 20 ft (6 metres) long and weigh about a ton. A crocodile’s tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth and it cannot move it, meaning a crocodile cannot chew. It breaks up its [...]

The Tunis sheep from Tunisia is one of the oldest breeds of sheep and is mentioned in the Bible and other ancient scripts. Also known as the Tunisian Barbary, it is noted for the great quantity of fat that accumulates in the tail. As one of the so-called fat-tailed sheep breeds, the tail in some [...]

There are some 950 species of bats. And they are quite amazing. Bats can fly to altitudes of 10,000 ft (3,000 metres) and travel up to 60 mph (100 km/h). They live up to ten years, with one documented as living to 32 years of age. Bats are the world’s only true flying mammals – [...]

The quality of wool depends on the age and condition of the animal from which the wool is taken and on the climate in which it lives. The fleece of a healthy sheep is covered by an oily substance called yolk, which consists of wool grease and dried perspiration. It protects the sheep from rain [...]

A snail has something called a radula in its mouth. It is like a file with rows made up of about 25,000 tiny teeth. A snail has 4 noses and 1 pair or 2 pairs of tentacles on its head. The longer pair houses the eyes on the tip (or at the base of the [...]

The first written account of the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie, was made by the Viking Adamnan in 565AD. He described how St. Columba heard about the monster killing a man, and then rowed to the center of the loch to order the beast to stop such attacks in the future. Ever since that time, [...]

In the old days, sea captains kept pigs on board because they believed, should they be shipwrecked, pigs always swam toward the nearest shore. The pig is rated the fourth most intelligent animal. Pigs are part of the order artidactyla (even toed, hoofed animals). There are more than 180 species of pigs, found on every [...]

If penicillin had been tested on guinea pigs, it might never have reached the public. It is lethal to guinea pigs and other animals. In fact, many important strides have been made in human health without the use of testing on animals. These include the discovery of drugs such as digitalis, nitrite, quinine and penicillin; [...]

Whether your kitty meows or roars, it is a descendant of the Felis silvestris species, which is divided into the African wildcat, European wildcat and Steppe wildcat. The smallest of the descendants is the rusty-spotted cat found in Sri Lanka. It is about half the size of the domestic cat. The largest is the tiger. [...]