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Animal facts

Discover the remarkable lives of animals, one fact at a time.

Opossum

  • There are more than 100 species of opossums, most of them in Central and South America.
  • The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial that lives north of Mexico.
  • Opossums have 50 teeth, more than any other North American land mammal.

Orangutan

  • There are three species of orangutans: Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli. All three are Critically Endangered.
  • Orangutans are the largest animals in the world that live mainly in trees.
  • Orangutans are not monkeys but great apes, like chimpanzees and gorillas. Related profile: Chimpanzee. Related profile: Gorilla.

Orca

  • The orca is not a true whale but the largest member of the dolphin family.
  • An adult male's dorsal fin can be up to about 1.8 metres tall.
  • Each orca group has its own set of calls, a kind of family dialect.

Ostrich

  • Wild ostriches live only in Africa, mainly in savannas and semi-deserts.
  • Ostriches are also farmed in many countries for their meat, eggs, feathers and leather.
  • The ostrich is the tallest and heaviest living bird: it can be up to 2.8 metres tall and weigh about 145 kg.

Otter

  • There are 13 species of otters.
  • Sea otters have the densest fur of any animal.
  • Sea otters use stones to crack open shellfish.

Owl

  • Owls can turn their heads through a wide range, commonly described as up to about 270 degrees; they cannot rotate the head through a full circle.
  • The owl was associated with the Greek goddess Athena, as illustrated by surviving coins.
  • Eye colour alone is not a reliable rule for determining when an owl hunts.

Pale fox

  • Its name describes its very pale, sandy coat, which matches the dry ground of its habitat.
  • It lives in the Sahel, the dry belt between the Sahara and the greener savannas to the south.
  • The pale fox is a separate species from the fennec fox.

Pangolin

  • Pangolins are mammals, despite their scales.
  • The scales contain keratin, a protein also found in human nails.
  • Pangolins have no teeth and do not chew their food.

Parrot

  • There are about 400 species of parrots, including macaws, parakeets, lorikeets, lovebirds, cockatiels and cockatoos.
  • Parrots are popular pets because they are intelligent, charismatic, colourful and musical, and some species can even "talk".
  • African grey parrots are famous for their ability to imitate human speech, and some learn hundreds of words.

Peacock

  • There are three species of peafowl: the Indian peafowl, the green peafowl and the Congo peafowl.
  • Only the males, called peacocks, have the famous long train; females are called peahens.
  • A peacock's train has about 200 feathers and is not its real tail: the feathers grow from the back, above the short tail.