Dr. Waqas Nawaz DVM PMAS AAUR Pakistan

1. The World of animals is full of many interesting & truly amazing facts. A detailed study
of the fascinating animal kingdom which leaves anyone speechless. The incredible ways in which
different animals carry on their daily lives makes us marvel at the miracle of nature. Here, I have
chosen some examples of the interesting records and facts to illustrate how wonderful Nature is &
how it empowers animals to survive against tremendous odds.
1. FASTEST ANIMAL ON THE GROUND: The “Cheetah” with speed up to 109Km/hr.
the cheetah can however maintain this high speed for short distance, only of a few hundred
meters. After this it is totally exhausted and out of breath & must stop to get rest for several
minutes. The cheetah is one of the 37 different species of the family ‘Felidae’. Compare to
other species of cats like tiger, lions, leopards, a Jaguar (Carnivore with black spots) the
cheetah is not a very strong animal physically. It must, therefore, rely on its high speed
mostly to catch prey. There is one thing that is different about the cheetah from other cats;
its claws are non-retractable. In other words, the claws of cheetah are always extruded
unlike other cats who can draw their claws into sheath & expose only when required.
The fastest animal over a long distance is the “Pronghorn”, a type of antelope found in
North America. (NOTE: Cheetah = Left pic, Central pic = Pronghorn, Sailfish = right pic)
2. FASTEST ANIMAL IN AIR: The “Peregrine Falcon” when diving, achieves a speed of
up to 200Km/hr. The speed of birds is difficult to measure for a number of reasons i.e the
wind speed, the altitude at which a bird is flying, the ambient temperature, age, sex of a
bird and other factors make comparison between birds difficult. However the
aforementioned bird is generally accepted.
3. FASTEST ANIMAL IN SEA: The “Sailfish” achieves a speed of
100Km/hr considering the fact that the drag or resistance of water is
Much more than air, the speed of the sailfish is truly quite phenomenal.
4. BIGGEST ANIMAL ON PLANET: The “Blue whale” having length
Up to 25.5 meters (86 ft) and weight up to 120 tons. It is much larger
Than the largest pre-historic dinosaurs. This gigantic creature eats mainly
A kind of small shrimp or crustaceans called Krill.
Right upper = Peregrine Falcon, Right Lower = Krill, Left = Blue whale

2. 5. RAREST MAMMAL: So many species are critically endangered today that several may
qualify for this distressing record. Still the “Javan Rhino” found only one the island of
Java, Indonesia, and perhaps also in the dense rainforests of South-East Asia and may be
the rarest mammal species today an estimate of less than 5 species left in the World.
6. TALLEST ANIMAL: The “Giraffe” takes this record easily with large male being up to
5.55 meters (18 ft) tall. Giraffes are found exclusively in Africa.
7. MOST POISONOUS ANIMAL: Not the Scorpion, nor any snake, but the “Box Jelly
Fish” found in the coastal waters of the Northern Australia and parts of South-East Asia,
a large box jelly fish has enough poison or venom to kill 60 human adults.
8. STRONGEST SENSE OF SMELL: The “Male Emperor moth” can smell a female up
to 11Km away, making it the champion in the strongest sense of smell stake. Most animals
have a fairly keen sense of smell which either helps them to find prey or to avoid predators.
As the majority of animals in the World are nocturnal i.e active by night, a strong sense of
smell can be very useful after dark.
9. LONGEST LIVING: The “Tortoises” can reach an age beyond 150 years
10. HIGHEST LIVING MAMMAL: The “Himalayan Yolk” found in the Himalayas has
been found living at a height of 6200 meters (over 20,000 ft). This animal found in the
high mountains of Asia including Pakistan, has a very thick & shaggy coat, a thick skin
and layers of fat underneath which enables it to survive in the extremely low temperatures
of its habitat.
11. DOGS: They have sense of hearing 400 times more than human & sense of smell 90,000
times more than human. Their benefits are; sense of smell to track a culprit, sense of
hearing even at 40 ft away they can hear the sound produced by the fallen leaves pressed
under the foot of a suspicious person, and used as a companion animal.
Box jelly Fish Himalayan Yolk Giraffe
Javan Rhino Male emperor moth

3. A number of mammals have very specialized diet;
 Panda eats bamboo almost exclusively
 Koala, which looks like a special teddy bear but is not from the bear family, is perhaps
most specialized eater amongst mammals. Out of 500 species of Eucalyptus tree, it eats
leaves of only 6 species. Not only this, it will prefer one tree of the same species to
another and even one leaf to another. It is not that known how it decides which leaf to
eat & which to ignore.
Blue whale, the largest animal on planet Earth, does not eat any of the thousands of fish species
present in ocean, instead its diet is almost exclusively a small shrimp-like creature called Krill.
It eats up to 4 tons of Krill every day. This is equivalent n height to a fully grown African male
Elephant.
There is a great variation in size and shape amongst all animal groups. The Smallest mammal
(Kitti’s Hog Nosed Bat) weigh 2 grams and Largest mammal (Blue Whale) weigh up to 120
tons or 60 million times more than the smallest mammal
Panda Koala Kitti’s Hog Nosed Bat
Birds are a class of animals characterized by the possession of feathers, the laying of eggs
from which the young hatch and ability to fly. This ability has been lost during evolution by a
handful of birds. Flightless birds are known as Ratites, they include Ostrich of Africa, Rhea of
South America, Emu & Cassowary of Australia, the Kiwi of New Zealand and of course the
special species of Penguins.
The smaller the birds, the faster the wing beat. The record holder is the Hummingbird of
South America which has a wing beat of up to 90 beats per second. This incredible speed creates
the humming sound from which the bird has been given its name. This speed enables the
hummingbird to remain virtually motionless in one place in midair as it sucks nectar from flowers.

4. Some birds spend considerable time in the air, without needing to land on either land or
water. Among land-based birds, the Common Swift will spend 2-4 years continuously in the air,
eating, drinking & sleeping. Even more extraordinary is the Sooty tern, which is reputed to stay
airborne from 3 year up to 10 years continuously, over tropical oceans. Even to feed, it does not
settle on the ocean surface, but dives to catch fish from the water surface.
Many birds are high flyers, surviving at altitude at which no mammal could remain alive
owing to the lack of oxygen. Whooping Crane have been recorded at 8,230 meters (2,700 ft).
Bar-headed Geese have been seen flying over the Himalayas at an altitude of nearly 9,000 meters
(over 29,000 ft).
Birds, especially the birds of prey (also called raptors) have excellent vision. For example
the Peregrine Falcon can spot a pigeon at a distance of over 8Km (5 miles).
Whooping Crane Sooty tern
Ostrich Rhea Emu Penguins
Cassowary Kiwi Hummingbird Bar-headed geese
Whooping Crane Sooty Tern Common Swift

5. Reptiles include some 22 species of Crocodiles and Alligators, 265 species of Turtles and
Tortoises, about 2700 species of Snakes and some 3800 species of Lizards.
Crocodiles can shut their jaws by tremendous power. By contrast the muscles for opening
the jaws are extremely weak out. The jaws of a crocodile, up to 2 meters in length, can literally be
kept close with just a rubber band.
Out of 2700 species of Snake, only about 700 are poisonous (less than 26%) and even out
of these, 1/3rd
are harmless for human.
Turtles and Tortoises, as a group, have the longest lives of any land animal. The record is
152 years for a male “Marion’s Tortoise”. The extinct Dinosaurs were also reptiles.
Crocodile Alligator Dinosaurs
There are some 24,000 species of Fish in the World and about 100 new species are discovered
every year. Considering that nearly 80% of the species of planet in water, it is not surprising that
many new fish species are discovered every year. There are some remarkable facts concerning
fish.
A lot of fish hunt & eat insects for food. The “Archer Fish”, found in India, Malaysia and
Northern Australia, hunts insects sitting on leaves and brushes hanging over the water, by spitting
water droplets at them. The archer fish is able to do this with amazing accuracy and force, which
makes the insects fall in the water where it is promptly eaten.
It is generally believed that fish cannot survive out of water. However, some fish are capable
of staying out of water for long periods. For example, the “Lung Fish” lives in swamps which
often dry out. The fish then switches from gill breathing to lung breathing, burrows into the sand

6. and waits up to 4 years in a state of dormancy for the rains to come & convert the dry sand into a
wet swamp again.
Similarly, some fish stay out of water by resorting to “Flying”. This action is not true-flight,
but rather skimming over the surface. Some species of flying fish can stay out of water in this
manner for up to 40 seconds, jumping to a height of 10 meters (33 ft) or a 3 stories building &
covering a distance of 400 meters (1,300 ft) in the process.
Not all fish lay eggs. Some species like Sharks give birth to live young like mammals. Such
fish are called viviparous fish.
But of course the vast majority of fish lay eggs. For example, The “Sunfish” may lay as many
as 300 million eggs at a time. The need for laying large number of eggs is to improve the chances
of reproduction. As for most fish, there may be no direct contact between male & female fish. And
the fertilization of at least some eggs is insured by the sheer numbers of eggs laid.
Archer Fish Lung Fish Sunfish
Shark

7. Amphibians are animals which live both on land & in water. They include some 3,800 species
of Frogs and toads, about 355 species of Newts and Salamanders, and about 170 species of
Caecilians, animals that look like large earthworms. The last named are found only in the tropics
& subtropics. Whereas the other groups are found all over the World.
Two species of Frog, both found in Australia, are only animals in the World which give birth
to their young inside the female stomach. The “Female Eungella gastric brooding frog” and the
“Female Platypus gastric brooding frog” swallow their own fertilized eggs which develops into
tadpoles and the froglets inside the stomach, then the female gives birth through her mouth.
Throughout this period of 5-7 week, the female does not feed herself. Both the frog species have
not been seen since mid-1980 and in feared that these species may already be extinct.
Though all frogs & toads, have lungs, they are also able to absorb oxygen through their skin
either from air or water. This means that a frog can stay under water for its whole life if it so
desires.
Some frogs secrete a toxic substance from their skin, the “Golden Poison Dart Frog” of the
Columbian rainforests carries enough poison to kill 1000 human. These poisonous frogs are always
very brightly colored, which in Nature’s way of warning other species to stay away from them.
The longest gestation period (pregnancy) of any vertebrate is that of black colored “Alpine
Salamander”, found in the Switzerland, Bosnia, Croatia and Albania, this animal has a gestation
period of 2-3 year.
Eungella frog Platypus frog Golden Poison Dart Frog
Alpine Salamander