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Animal facts

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

Brown bear

  • Kodiak bears from Alaska are the largest brown bears.
  • There are about 200,000 brown bears in the world, more than half of them in Russia.
  • Romania has the largest population of brown bears in the European Union.

Budgerigar

  • Wild budgerigars are green and yellow with black barring.
  • They move in response to water and food availability.
  • Some imitate words, but not every bird does.

Buffalo

  • The African buffalo is one of Africa's "Big Five" animals.
  • Hunters have called the African buffalo "the black death" because it can be very dangerous.
  • Adult male African buffalo have a hard shield on the forehead called a boss, formed where the horns meet.

Bumblebee

  • There are about 250 species of bumblebees.
  • Bumblebees can warm up by shivering their flight muscles.
  • Bumblebees can fly in weather too cold for many other insects.

Butterfly

  • A butterfly's life cycle has four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and adult.
  • Butterflies attach their eggs to leaves with a special glue.
  • Some butterflies in the Amazon drink the tears of turtles and caimans to get salt.

Camel

  • There are three species of camels: the dromedary, the domestic Bactrian camel and the wild camel.
  • A camel's hump stores fat, not water.
  • A thirsty camel can drink more than 100 litres of water in a few minutes.

Canary

  • Wild canaries have greenish plumage and dark streaks.
  • Males generally sing more elaborately, but some females also sing.
  • Domestic canaries have been selected for song, colour and appearance.

Cape fox

  • The Cape fox is the smallest canid in southern Africa.
  • It is the only true fox (genus Vulpes) native to southern Africa; the bat-eared fox belongs to a different genus.
  • Its silvery-grey coat and black-tipped bushy tail help identify it.

Capybara

  • The capybara is the largest living rodent.
  • It belongs to the guinea pig family, rather than the pig family.
  • It swims well and can hide underwater when threatened.

Carpathian red deer

  • Carpathian stags are famous for some of the largest red deer antlers in Europe.
  • A stag grows a completely new set of antlers every year.
  • Antlers are among the fastest-growing tissues of any mammal.