Animals Facts for Kids
Amazing facts about creatures big and small
Adult mayflies live for only one day — just long enough to mate and lay eggs. They don't even have a functional mouth because they don't need to eat.
The wolverine is known as the fiercest animal pound for pound on Earth — it has been recorded driving bears and packs of wolves away from fresh kills.
Manta rays have the largest brain-to-body ratio of any fish and have passed the mirror self-recognition test, suggesting a degree of self-awareness.
North American porcupine quills have tiny backward-facing barbs and a coating that lubricates them into flesh — making them extremely difficult to remove.
Bowhead whales can live for over 200 years, making them the longest-lived mammals on Earth. Scientists have found harpoon tips from the 1880s in living whales.
Male birds of paradise perform some of the most elaborate courtship dances in the animal kingdom, rearranging their iridescent feathers into shapes that look almost alien.
The tiger beetle is the fastest running insect on Earth relative to its size — it moves so quickly its eyes cannot keep up, so it must stop repeatedly to reorient itself.
A rattlesnake's rattle is made of loose segments of keratin that click together. A new segment is added each time the snake sheds its skin.
Male emperor penguins incubate their egg on top of their feet for two months through Antarctic winter blizzards, eating nothing and huddling together to stay warm.
Unlike most amphibians, axolotls remain in their juvenile, aquatic larval form their entire lives — a phenomenon called neoteny — and never transform into a land animal.