The Kenney Space Center is a wildlife refuge. Since the beginning of the U.S. manned spaceflight program no one was allowed near the launch pad during launch. As the rockets became more powerful, this area was expanded. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge adjacent to Canaveral National Seashore is one of the largest and most diverse wildlife preserves in Florida. Read more.
During the US Civil War, General Robert E. Lee was given a flock of chickens. He gave the flock to the men as food. But he kept one, named it “Nellie” and kept it as a pet where she would lay eggs for him under his cot each morning.
The cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris sports a facade that illustrates the weakness of cowardice by showing a knight fleeing from a rabbit.
Gorillas purr like cats when they are happy. Big, giant, 600 pound cats.
On October 3, 1918, a pigeon named Cher Ami delivered her message and saved the Lost Battalion of the 77th Division in the Battle of the Argonne, October 1918. The message read:
We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heaven’s sake, stop it.
She was wounded during the mission and was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal with a palm Oak Leaf Cluster for her heroic service. She was fitted with a peg leg and retired to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey where she succumbed to her wounds on June 13, 1919.
Her remains are on display in the National Museum of American History.
PIGS Have Been Used in Battle
In ancient times, if you were being attacked by war elephants the thing to do was to release the pigs. Elephants are distressed by the sound of pigs squealing. Attacks would be broken up as the pachyderms did anything to get away from the noisy porkers. Flaming pigs were also launched by catapult much like the Mongol use of flaming cats. It is of interest to note that the explosive charge loaded into naval guns is still referred to as “The Pig”.
Dogs
Dogs were used by the Soviet Union as anti-tank bombs during World War Two. Dogs were taught that food could been found under tracked vehicles. The dogs were kept hungry and with bombs attached, released to find approaching German tanks. A wooden lever would detonate the bomb on contact with the bottom of the tank. It was reported that over 300 German tanks were destroyed by anti-tank dogs.
If you breed a Boston Terrier with a Pugg, you get a Bugg.
Toto was illustrated in the L. Frank Baum’s first book as a Cairn terrier, though in the rest of the books he’s described as a Boston terrier.
“Three Dog Night” (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing.
Cats are never mentioned in the Bible.
Cat’s urine glows under a black light.
Cats purr at 26 cycles per second, the same as an idling diesel engine.
The maximum running speed of a cat is 31 mph.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
Most cats are left-handed.
Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.
Sir Isaac Newton (yes, that Sir Isaac Newton) invented the Doggie Door. But it was originally a Kitty Door to allow his collection of cats to go in and out without interrupting him.
The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
READERS DISAGREE!
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English butterflye, from Old English butorfloge : butor, butere, butter; see butter + floge, fly; see fly2. WORD HISTORY: Is a butterfly named for the color of its excrement or because it was thought to steal butter? It is hard to imagine that anyone ever noticed the color of butterfly excrement or believed the insect capable of such theft. The first suggestion rests on the fact that an early Dutch name for the butterfly was boterschijte. The second is based on an old belief that the butterfly was really a larcenous witch in disguise.
My TURN
Butterfly or Flutterby? The debate continues. As it stands the insect falls into an etymological niche. That being words whose origin are obscure. Butterfly stands as the officially recognized word. Flutterby seems to be Old English Slang or even English Rhyming Slang. If this odd fact really gets your goat, get your own odd facts page.
Whale oil is used on the Hubble Telescope. In fact…because of it does not freeze in extremely low temperatures (like the ones in Space…duh), Whale oil is used to lubricate ALL of the space vehicles. When the Voyager probes left the Solar System bound for interstellar space, there will be whale DNA for aliens to find when they scarf up the probes.
Revolving doors were invented to keep horses out of stores.
Otters hold hands when sleeping so they don�t drift away from each other.
Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
Dolphins kill more humans every year than sharks and the flu combined.
Humans and ant eaters are the only animals who can snap their fingers.
Cows have best friends.
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off.
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
Penguins only have one mate their entire life and �propose� by giving their mate a pebble.
Starfish have no brains.
There�s a type of jellyfish that lives forever.
Polar bears are left-handed.
A group of porcupines is called a prickle.
A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (Maddog’s note: The “Swimming with Dolphins” attraction in Florida had been closed because male dolphins were successfully having sex with female visitors!)
Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.
A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Twelve or more cows are known as a “flink.” A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess. A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament. A group of ferrets is called a Business. Bees are called a swarm.
- Apes: a shrewdness
- Badgers: a cete
- Bats: a colony or a camp
- Bears: a sloth or a sleuth
- Bees: a swarm
- Buffalo: a gang or obstinacy
- Camels: a caravan
- Cats: a clowder or a glaring; Kittens: a litter or a kindle; Wild cats: a destruction
- Cobras: a quiver
- Crocodiles: a bask
- Crows: a murder
- Dogs: a pack; Puppies: a litter
- Donkeys: a drove
- Eagles: a convocation
- Elephants: a parade
- Elk: a gang or a herd
- Falcons: a cast
- Fish: a school
- Flamingos: a stand
- Fox: a charm
- Geese: a gaggle
- Giraffes: a tower
- Gorillas: a band
- Hippopotami: a bloat
- Hyenas: a cackle
- Jaguars: a shadow
- Jellyfish: a smack
- Kangaroos: a troop or a mob
- Lemurs: a conspiracy
- Leopards: a leap
- Lions: a pride
- Moles: a labor
- Monkeys: a barrel or a troop
- Mules: a pack
- Otters: a family
- Oxen: a team or a yoke
- Parrots: a pandemonium
- Pigs: a drift or drove (younger pigs) or a sounder or a team (older pigs)
- Porcupines: a prickle
- Rabbits: a herd
- Rats: a colony
- Ravens: an unkindness
- Rhinoceroses: a crash
- Shark: a shiver
- Skunk: a stench
- Snakes: a nest
- Squirrels: a dray or a scurry
- Stingrays: a fever
- Swans: a bevy or a game (if in flight: a wedge)
- Tigers: an ambush or a streak
- Toads: a knot
- Turkeys: a gang or a rafter
- Turtles: a bale or a nest
- Weasels: a colony, a gang or a pack
- Whales: a pod, a school, or a gam
- Wolves: a pack
- Zebras: a Dazzle
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world
Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.
All porcupines float in water.
A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why.
When opossums are playing ‘possum’, they are not “playing.” They actually pass out from sheer terror.
Camel’s milk does not curdle.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
Murphy’s Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.
The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
If you bring a raccoon’s head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
An ostrich has never been observed with its head stuck in the sand. A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
During the US Civil War, General Robert E. Lee was given a flock of chickens. He gave the flock to the men as food. But he kept one, named it “Nellie” and kept it as a pet where she would lay eggs for him under is cot each morning.
