Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Fun Facts About Blue Whales



What’s the biggest animal that ever lived? 

Yes, blue whales are the largest animal that ever lived – larger than the largest dinosaur!

Biggest blue whale ever recorded was ~110 feet (33m). Our whale is pretty big – she’s 85 feet long, which is about 25 m. That’s as long as two school buses parked end to end!
- A blue whale’s tail is as wide as a soccer net (a professional soccer net, not a school one). That’s about 25 ft (8m).
- A blue whale’s flipper (which is analagous to a human’s hand) is as long as you are tall.
- Blowhole (which is like your nose, it’s just on top of their head so it’s easy for them to breathe in water), is large enough for a baby to crawl through. When they exhale, the blow can reach 30 feet tall (and smells terrible).
- Arteries are big enough for a baby to crawl through, at about 9 inches in diameter (approx the same diameter as a dinner plate).
- Heart is as big as a small car (VW beetle for example).
- Blue whale mouths are huge, too – they can swallow a volume of water larger than themselves. Their throat stretches down to their navel. Tongue is the size of an elephant. You and 400 of your friends could fit in its mouth.
- A baby blue whale is about the size of 2 minivans.

Ecology

What do blue whales eat? Are they vegetarians? Do they eat other whales? Do they eat fish?

The largest animal in the world feeds almost exclusively on one of the smallest – krill (euphasiids).

What are krill?

They are small, shrimplike invertebrates, on average only 1 or 2 centimeters long. This means that blue whales are about 1250 times larger than their food. If humans ate food that much smaller than ourselves, we would eat nothing larger than a grain of sand.
They eat 4 – 6 tonnes of krill a day (about as much as an elephant, the largest land animal, weighs) Imagine eating an elephant every single day! That’s about 40 million krill – that’s more than number of people of Canada. Every day.

How do they do this?

They are filter feeders. They basically eat what’s stuck between their teeth (actually, keratin bristles called BALEEN).
They have a giant mouth – extends all the way to their belly button. They also have these big pleats, so their mouth can expand – sort of like you blowing out your cheeks, but more dramatic. They open their mouth, swallow a volume of water bigger than themselves (imagine swallowing yourself), then push all the water back out through their baleen (what they have instead of teeth). The baleen is like a comb, and the krill get stuck inside their mouths – they end up with a big mouthfull of food.
Swarms of krill can stretch for hundreds of square km of ocean – imagine swimming along for miles and miles, then stumbling on hundreds of square km of food, and swimming through it with your mouth open, eating whatever you catch. The swarms of krill aren’t always right at the surface, and whales will sometimes feed deep beneath the surface. They can dive as deep as 300 m, and can stay down for 30 minutes at a time.


Where do they live?

Whales have huge ranges, and are found in every ocean in the world. There are several distinct populations of blue whales – northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere, Atlantic and Pacific. They travel thousands of km every year. They feed in the northern oceans, and build up their fat reserves – maybe you eat a little more in winter, when it’s dark and there are lots of holidays and nothing else to do, but maybe in summer you’re too busy playing outside, or hanging out with your friends – maybe you just have a salad for dinner. In summer, they head for the equator, and the warmer oceans to have their babies.

Tell me about the babies!

Moms have one baby at a time, and give birth about every 2 or 3 years. Whales start calving between age 6 and 10. Babies are 8m long when born, and weigh about 4 tonnes, about size of 2 minivans. It’s important that the moms have good fat reserves, because these babies are hungry – they drink 50-100 gallons of milk per day, which is 50-100 jugs of milk. They grow really rapidly – gain 8 pounds an hour – 200 pounds a day – that’s about a Dad a day!
Blue whales are thought to live to 100, but we don’t actually know how long they live – there are many things we don’t know about blue whales.

Evolution

What is a blue whale? What are they most closely related to? Who are their evolutionary cousins?

Answer – Hippo
But that’s a land animal! Whales are mammals that have adapted to a life in the ocean, but their ancestors lived on land. When did whales return to the ocean – during the early Eocene, about 53 – 54 million years ago.


What was the world like in the early Eocene?

It was in a period of global warming, the oceans were much warmer than they are today. Temperate forests extended to the poles, and tropical forest was found as far north ats 45 from the equator – that’s about Portland, OR. India was travelling away from Africa, colliding with Asia, and the Himalayas were born. [map of early eocene]. Palm trees grew in Alaska, and subtropical rainforest grew at the edges of Antarctica. Early members of other mammal orders were appearing, including bats, rodents, primates, and marsupials. Plants were already far along, having begun to invade the land over 400 million years ago – flowering plants have been around for ~ 200 mya.
The land ancestors of whales were carnivorous mammals called Mesonychids – the largest, Andrewsarchus, was 3.7m and was the largest carnivorous land mammal EVER!

How can we tell that the ancestors of whales lived on land?

Breathe air (no gills)
Fin bones resemble land mammals’ jointed hands except that whales are missing their middle finger.
Spine is shaped more like a running terrestrial animal than like a fish – moves up and down rather than side to side
They have tiny pelvic bones – much reduced, and a tiny femur, too (which is just a tiny little ball).  Lots of individual variation in whales for the number of metacarpals, non-cervical vertebrae. That means that when we were digging up the whale, we didn’t know exactly how many bones we were looking for.
Circulatory and respiratory systems are similar
Their lungs are adapted for diving – trachea extends all the way to the centre of their lungs – our cartilaginous windpipe only extends as far as the branching
All whales have multi-chambered stomachs, inherited from their ungulate ancestors, but of no use in the ocean, including blue whales. Baleen whale stomachs have 3 chambers – forestomach (often contains rocks, to help the muscular walls grind up fish bones and crustacean exoskeletons), main stomach, and pyloric stomach.
Whales need to sleep – but they only put one side of their brain to sleep at a time, like birds do

What are some adaptations of a whale’s body to an aquatic environment?

Streamlined bodies for moving through the water
Forelimbs have become flippers, to move them through the water
Hindlimbs are almost gone – pelvic bone is tiny, their femur is just a little ball!
Broadened tail that moves up and down, not side to side like a fish
No hair, are insulated with blubber instead (except some lip hair, perhaps 4 on their upper lip, and 40 on their lower).
Nose is on top of their head
Senses are adapted to the ocean – they have fantastic hearing (they can hear much lower frequencies than we can).

Population, Conservation, Distribution

Where are blue whales found? How many are there?

They are found in every ocean of the world, and there used to be hundreds of thousands of them. They are fast swimmers (able to reach a top speed of 50 kph when spooked), and for a long time they were too fast and elusive for the whalers to catch.
People have been hunting whales for their oil, blubber, baleen, and meat since prehistory. Blue whales were quick enough to outrun most whalers until about 1868, when the steam engine, explosive harpoons, and air compressors (what were they used for? To inflate dead whales, so they could tow them back to port to be ‘rendered’) were introduced.

What did people use whale products for?

The blubber was rendered for use in lighting, fine soapmaking, and machine lubrication. "Whalebone", the keratin plates baleen whales use to strain food out of the ocean, was prized for corset stays, umbrella ribs, and carriage springs; applications where plastic or steel would now be used.
Blue whales were hunted in great numbers from then on, reducing their numbers from 350,000 to 1 or 2 thousand.
In 1966, the International Whaling Commission banned hunting of blue whales, and today their numbers are estimated at 4,500. Blue whales are on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, and are listed as Endangered under the Canadian Species-at-Risk Act.
Today, scientists estimate there are about 4500 blue whales left on the planet, so their numbers are increasing slowly.

They are still under threat. What threatens blue whales?

Pollution – mammals store pollution in their tissues, and they pass it all on to their firstborn, while it’s gestating and breastfeeding.
Oil spills
Changes in ocean that affect food supply (krill)
Ship strikes (our blue was probably killed by a ship strike)
Noise pollution – blue whales are not only the biggest, but also the loudest animal on the planet – their call is 190 decibels, which is louder than a jet engine, more than twice as loud as a person shouting (about 70 dB). If you happened to be swimming next to one (and you wouldn’t be, because you can’t withstand the pressures at that depth, it would do some serious damage. 150 dB will cause permanent hearing damage.
Whales use song to communicate with one another, and to find mates. Blue whales are mostly solitary. They can call to each other across thousands of km. In Newfoundland, you can hear whales singing in Puerto Rico (that’s like being able to hear someone in Toronto singing when you’re standing where you are right now).
A whale’s acoustic bubble used to be about 1000 km, and now it’s just 100km.  There’s so much noise pollution in the oceans from propellers, sonar, etc., that if people were working down there, WorkSafe BC would make them wear ear protection.
Imagine being a single blue whale out in the ocean, and you’re looking for a mate – you used to have hundreds of thousands to choose from, and you used to be able to hear songs from thousands of km away – now there are only a few thousand, and you can’t hear most of them because of all the noise – they’re living in a construction site.

Monday, 2 July 2012

Ten interesting facts about giant pandas



1. Approximately 99 percent of a panda’s diet – bamboo leaves and shoots – is void of much nutritional value. Its carnivore-adapted digestive system cannot digest cellulose well, thus it lives a low-energy, sedentary lifestyle but persists in eating some 60 species of bamboo. Pandas must eat upwards of 30 pounds of bamboo daily just to stay full.
2. Historically speaking, pandas are one of the few animals whose parts have not been used in traditional Chinese medicine.
3. The WWF logo was inspired by Chi-Chi, a giant panda brought to the London           Zoo in 1961, when WWF was being created. Says Sir Peter Scott, one of those founders and the man who sketched the first logo: “We wanted an animal that is beautiful, is endangered and one loved by many people in the world for its appealing qualities. We also wanted an animal that had an impact in black and white to save money on printing costs.”
4 .The giant panda’s genome was sequenced in 2009, according to the journal Nature.
5. The first panda came to the United States in 1936 – a cub to a zoo in Chicago. It took another 50 years before the States would see another.

6. A newborn panda cub is 1/900th the size of its mother and is comparable to the length of a stick of butter.
        7. A panda’s paw has six digits – five fingers and an opposable pseudo-thumb        (actually an enlarged wrist bone) it uses merely to hold bamboo while eating.

8. Of all the members of the bear family, only sloth bears have longer tails than pandas.

9. Pandas rely on spatial memory, not visual memory.

10. Female pandas ovulate once a year and are fertile for only two or three days.

Amazing facts about Dolphins




  1. … dolphins are mammals? They give birth to live young and nurse them with milk.
  2. … dolphins have to come up to the surface to breathe? Most dolphins surface every few minutes, but they can stay under water for up to 15 minutes. A dolphin breathes through the blowhole on top of its head.
  3. … dolphins evolved from land animals? The land ancestor of the dolphin lived about 50 million years ago and looked a little like a wolf. This animal hunted in shallow waters and by and by adapted itself to life in water: the forelegs became flippers, the hindlegs disappeared and the fluke evolved, the fur disappeared and the nostrils moved to the top of the head.
  4. … dolphins use echolocation to navigate and to find food? Dolphins send out clicks that are returned from other objects in the water (just like an echo). This way a dolphin can locate food, other dolphins, predators or rocks.
  5. … dolphins live in families? These families are usually led by a female dolphin. The dolphins in a family help each other, for example when raising their young. When travelling or hunting, several families might join together to make a larger group, a school of dolphins.
  6. … the largest dolphin is the orca? It can reach up to ten metres in length. For more information on this dolphin, read our text about orcas.
  7. … dolphins have a thick layer of fat beneath their skin? This layer of fat is called blubber. As dolphins have no fur, they need the blubber to keep warm. Dolphins in colder waters usually have a thicker layer of fat than dolphins in warm waters.
  8. … dolphins are endangered? Humans are the greatest threat to dolphins: environmental pollution, habitat destruction and overfishing are the main reasons why so many dolphin species are endangered. Lots of dolphins get stuck in fishing nets and in some countries, dolphins are deliberately killed because they eat the fish that the fishermen want to catch. If we do not do anything about it, dolphins might soon be extinct.
  9. … not all dolphins live in seawater? There are some species that live in fresh water: the river dolphins. Unfortunately, river dolphins are critically endangered and it is even feared that one species, the baiji, has already died out.
  10. … you can help to protect dolphins? Educate yourself about these animals and tell others about them. Care more about our environment and start to recycle more things. Raise money for an organisation that helps to support dolphins.




  1. You can hear a tiger roar over a mile away!
  2.  A tiger can eat 100 pounds of meat a night! Compare that to 400 hamburgers! They need a lot of food because they go days between meals.
  3.  Tigers have been called man eaters, yet they eat frogs, monkeys, porcupines  fowl, and tortoises, especially  when a good deer is hard to find.
  4.  Tigers have eyes that are the brightest of any other animal in the world. At dusk, or in the beam of a torch, they blaze back the ambient light with awe-inspiring intensity.
  5.  Tigers are the biggest cats in the world. They live in steamy hot jungles as well as icy cold forests. There are five different kinds or subspecies of tiger alive in the world today. These tigers are called Siberian, South China, Indochinese, Bengal, and Sumatran. Tigers are an endangered species; only about 5,000 to 7,400 tigers are left in the wild. Three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years.
  6.  Depending on the subspecies, the head-body length of a tiger is about 41/2 to 9 feet (1.4-2.8 m). The length of the tail is 3 to 4 feet (90-120 cm). The foot pads vary in size with age, resulting in inaccurate estimates when used in censuring wild populations.
  7.  Tigers have round pupils and yellow irises (except for the blue eyes of white tigers). Due to a retinal adaptation that reflects light back to the retina, the night vision of tigers is six times better than that of humans.
  8.  Siberian tigers are the heaviest subspecies at 500 or more pounds (225 kg), with males heavier than females. The lightest subspecies is the Sumatran; males weigh about 250 pounds (110 kg) and females around 200 pounds (90 kg).
  9.  The size of a tiger's territory depends on the amount of food available, and usually ranges from about 10 to 30 square miles (26-78 sq. km). Siberian tigers sometimes have really big territories (as large as 120 square miles).
  10.  Although tigers usually live alone, tiger territories can overlap. A male tiger's territory usually overlaps those of several female tigers.
  11.  Tigers mark their territories by spraying bushes and trees with a special mixture of urine and scent gland secretions. They also leave scratch marks on trees.
  12.  Tigers can see in the dark six times better than humans can. They can also see in color.
  13.  The heaviest tiger recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records is a 1,025-pound male Siberian tiger.
  14.  Young tigers live with their mother until they are two to three years old, then they find their own territories.
  15.  Unlike some big cats like lions, adult tigers like to live alone (except for mother tigers with cubs). This is partly because in the forest, a single tiger can sneak up and surprise its prey better than a group of tigers can.
  16.  Most tigers have an orange coat with dark brown or black stripes accented with white. Tigers that live in cold climates (Siberian tigers) have thicker fur than tigers that live in warm climates.
  17.  A tiger's tail is 3 to 4 feet long, about half as long as its body. Tigers use their tails for balance when they run through fast turns. They also use their tails to communicate with other tigers.
  18.  No one knows exactly why tigers are striped, but scientists think that the stripes act as camouflage, and help tigers hide from their prey. The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes. Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints; no two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.
  19.  A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks.
  20.  Like domestic cats, tiger claws are retractable. Tiger scratches on trees serve as territorial markers.
  21.  They often carry the Chinese mark of Wang or King on the forehead.
  22.  The life span of tigers in the wild is thought to be about 10 years. Tigers in zoos live twice as long.
  23.  Tiger cubs are born blind and weigh only about 2 to 3 pounds (1 kg), depending on the subspecies. They live on milk for 6-8 weeks before the female begins taking them to kills to feed. Tigers have fully developed canines by 16 months of age, but they do not begin making their own kills until about 18 months of age.

10 Facts About the Titanic



In 1898 (14 years prior to the Titanic tragedy), Morgan Robertson wrote a novel called Futility. This fictitious novel was about the largest ship ever built hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic ocean on a cold April night. The fictional ship (named Titan) and the real ship Titanic were similar in design and their circumstances were remarkably alike. Both ships were labeled "unsinkable".
•RMS stands for Royal Mail Steamer. RMS, in formal terms, means "Royal Merchant Ship". However, the dual meaning was also "Royal Mail Steamer", because the Titanic carried mail under the auspices of His Majesty's postal authorities. At that time, all ships, military and civilian, that were under the British flag carried the distinction of "R.M.S." This, in effect, gave the ship the protection of the British Crown. An attack on an R.M.S. was considered an attack on the crown and an act of war.
•Two dogs were among the Titanic survivors.
•There were no cats on the Titanic. Cats were often brought on ships as a form of good luck. They also controlled rodents.
•The Titanic is about as long as the Empire State building is tall.
•The Tower Bridge, located in London England, is approximately the same length and height as the Titanic.
•Originally, the Titanic's design only included 3 funnels (smokestacks). The aftmost funnel (towards stern) was added to make the Titanic look more impressive-it gave the feeling of "power and grace". It only functioned as an air vent.


•No one ever claimed that the Titanic was "unsinkable". The quote, "practically unsinkable" was taken out of context. In 1911, Shipbuilder magazine published an article describing the construction of the Titanic. The article stated that when the watertight doors were closed, the ship would be "practically unsinkable".
•It was customary to break a bottle of champagne on the bow of a boat when launched. The Titanic launching did not include the traditional bottle-breaking.
•Many of the passengers were not originally suppose to be traveling on the Titanic. Due to a strike, coal was in short supply. This shortage threatened Titanic's maiden voyage and forced the White Star Line to cancel travel on the Oceanic and Adriatic and transfer their passengers and coal stocks to the Titanic.
•There were 13 couples on board celebrating their Honeymoons.
•Captain Smith was planning to retire after Titanic's maiden voyage.
•The Titanic had 4 elevators (3 in First class and 1 in Second class).
•At the time, Titanic's whistles were the largest ever made.
•Titanic's whistles could be heard from a distance of 11 miles.
•The Titanic carried 900 tons of baggage and freight.
•The Titanic used 14,000 gallons of drinking water every 24 hours.
•Coal consumption per day: 825 tons.
•Carried 20 lifeboats and 3560 life jackets. The life jackets were made of canvas and cork.
•More than 3 million rivets were used to build the Titanic.
•In a test done to determine stopping distance, the Titanic was accelerated to 20 knots and then the engines were reversed at full power. The distance required to stop the Titanic was about half a mile.
•The Titanic's radio call sign was: MGY.
•Port of Registry - Liverpool, England. Registry date: March 24, 1912.
•Official ship number: 131,428
•The number 3909 04 was NOT assigned to the Titanic as a hull number.


•The lookouts in the crow's nest did not have binoculars. Having binoculars might have prevented the Titanic tragedy.
•The time interval from first sighting of the iceberg to impact was a little over 30 seconds.
•The Titanic sank 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting the iceberg.
•It probably took Titanic about 15 minutes to sink to her final resting place on the ocean floor. That means that Titanic sank at a rate of 10 miles per hour (or 16 km per hour).
•The Titanic hit the iceberg on the starboard (right) side of the bow. It has been speculated that the Titanic may have suffered only minor damage and minimal loss of life had it hit the iceberg head-on. It has also been suggested that the Titanic may have completely avoided colliding with the iceberg had the bridge not requested that the engines be reversed ("Full Astern"), prior to steering the ship to the left ("Hard-a-starboard"). This action would have decreased the forward momentum of the Titanic causing it to turn at a slower rate.
•July and August are the only two months the weather permits expeditions to the Titanic wreck site.

Top 10 Interesting Taj Mahal Facts



1. One of the most interesting Taj Mahal facts  is that the building will appear to be a different color depending on what time of day it is, and whether or not there is a moon at night.

2. The Taj Mahal is one of the most popular Agra tourist attractions, and the building was started in 1631 by Shah Jahan.

3. No Golden Triangle tours in India would be complete without a visit to the Taj Mahal. This building is recognized by people all around the world, even those who have never been to India.

4. Taj Mahal facts which are fascinating include the fact that all of the artisans and skilled workers had their hands removed when the building was finally finished. This was to ensure no other structure could compare to the magnificent Taj Mahal.

5. The construction of the Taj Mahal took twenty two years to complete, and required more than twenty two thousand workers who were brought in from all over. There were more than one thousand elephants that were used just to haul the materials needed.

6. Interesting Taj Mahal facts include the symmetry of the structure, which is perfect except for the interior tombs. Tradition dictated that the tomb for the male must be larger than the one for the female.

7. There are many Agra tourist places, and a popular one is the black marble base. This base was intended as a mirror image of the Taj Mahal, except for black marble being used in place of white, but the structure was never completed.

8. The Taj Mahal has been designated as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and it draws people from everywhere on the globe.

9. One of the really fascinating Taj Mahal facts has to do with the exterior pillars. These were placed at an outward tilt, so if an earthquake occurred the fall of the pillars could be controlled.

10. One of the less common known Taj Mahal facts is that many jewels and semi precious gems were used to decorate the structure. Over the years and through a number of wars and pillages these jewels were removed, but you can still see where they were.

99 Fun Facts About Dogs!!!!!!



  1. All dogs can be traced back 40 million years ago to a weasel-like animal called the Miacis which dwelled in trees and dens. The Miacis later evolved into the Tomarctus, a direct forbear of the genus Canis, which includes the wolf and jackal as well as the dog.g
  2. Ancient Egyptians revered their dogs. When a pet dog would die, the owners shaved off their eyebrows, smeared mud in their hair, and mourned aloud for days.b
  3. Small quantities of grapes and raisins can cause renal failure in dogs. Chocolate, macadamia nuts, cooked onions, or anything with caffeine can also be harmful.c
  4. Apple and pear seeds contain arsenic, which may be deadly to dogs.c
  5. Rock star Ozzy Osborne saved his wife Sharon’s Pomeranian from a coyote by tackling and wresting the coyote until it released the dog.d
  6. Dogs have sweat glands in between their their paws
  7. Dogs have sweat glands in between their paws.e
  8. In 2003, Dr. Roger Mugford invented the “wagometer,” a device that claims to interpret a dog’s exact mood by measuring the wag of its tail.d
  9. Dogs have three eyelids. The third lid, called a nictitating membrane or “haw,” keeps the eye lubricated and protected.i
  10. A dog’s shoulder blades are unattached to the rest of the skeleton to allow greater flexibility for running.e
  11. Puppies are sometimes rejected by their mother if they are born by cesarean and cleaned up before being given back to her.c
  12. The phrase “raining cats and dogs” originated in seventeenth-century England. During heavy rainstorms, many homeless animals would drown and float down the streets, giving the appearance that it had actually rained cats and dogs.d
  13. During the Middle Ages, Great Danes and Mastiffs were sometimes suited with armor and spiked collars to enter a battle or to defend supply caravans.h
  14. Pekingese and Japanese Chins were so important in the ancient Far East that they had their own servants and were carried around trade routes as gifts for kings and emperors. Pekingese were even worshipped in the temples of China for centuries.b
  15. The shape of a dog’s face can help predict how long a dog will live
  16. The shape of a dog’s face suggests how long it will live. Dogs with sharp, pointed faces that look more like wolves typically live longer. Dogs with very flat faces, such as bulldogs, often have shorter lives.d
  17. After the fall of Rome, human survival often became more important than breeding and training dogs. Legends of werewolves emerged during this time as abandoned dogs traveling in packs commonly roamed streets and terrified villagers.d
  18. During the Middle Ages, mixed breeds of peasants’ dogs were required to wear blocks around their necks to keep them from breeding with noble hunting dogs. Purebred dogs were very expensive and hunting became the province of the rich.d
  19. The most dogs ever owned by one person were 5,000 Mastiffs owned by Kubla Khan.d
  20. The American Kennel Club, the most influential dog club in the United States, was founded in 1884.e
  21. The most popular male dog names are Max and Jake. The most popular female dog names are Maggie and Molly.d
  22. Some scholars speculate that Dorothy’s dog, Toto, may represent the Egyptian god of death, Anubis
  23. Scholars have argued over the metaphysical interpretation of Dorothy’s pooch, Toto, in the Wizard of Oz. One theory postulates that Toto represents Anubis, the dog-headed Egyptian god of death, because Toto consistently keeps Dorothy from safely returning home.d
  24. Weird dog laws include allowing police offers in Palding, Ohio, to bite a dog to quiet it. In Ventura County, California, cats and dogs are not allowed to have sex without a permit.d
  25. The first dog chapel was established in 2001. It was built in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, by Stephan Huneck, a children’s book author whose five dogs helped him recuperate from a serious illness.c
  26. Those born under the sign of the dog in Chinese astrology are considered to be loyal and discreet, though slightly temperamental.h
  27. In Iran, it is against the law to own a dog as a pet. However, if an owner can prove the dog is a guard or hunting dog, this restriction doesn’t apply. Muslim reticence concerning dogs is perhaps due to the fact that rabies has always been endemic in the Middle East.d
  28. The Mayans and Aztecs symbolized every tenth day with the dog, and those born under this sign were believed to have outstanding leadership skills.d
  29. The ancient Mbaya Indians of the Gran Chaco in South America believed that humans originally lived underground until dogs dug them up.b
  30. Plato once said that ”a dog has the soul of a philosopher”
  31. Plato once said that “a dog has the soul of a philosopher.”d
  32. French poodles did not originate in France but in Germany (“poodle” comes from the German pudel or pudelhund, meaning “splashing dog”). Some scholars speculate the poodle’s puffs of hair evolved when hunters shaved the poodle for more efficient swimming, while leaving the pom-poms around the major joints to keep them warm.b
  33. The name of the dog on the Cracker Jacks box is Bingo. The Taco Bell Chihuahua is a rescued dog named Gidget.d
  34. The first dogs were self-domesticated wolves which, at least 12,000 years ago, became attracted to the first sites of permanent human habitation.f
  35. Dachshunds were bred to fight badgers in their dens.d
  36. Laiki, a Russian stray, was the first living mammal to orbit the Earth, in the Soviet Sputnik spacecraft in 1957. Though she died in space, her daughter Pushnika had four puppies with President John F. Kennedy’s terrier, Charlie.d
  37. Dalmatians are completely white at birth.d
  38. The term “dog days of summer” was coined by the ancient Greeks and Romans to describe the hottest days of summer that coincided with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius.b
  39. Alexander the Great is said to have founded and named a city Peritas, in memory of his dog.b
  40. In ancient Greece, kennels of dogs were kept at the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus. Dogs were frequently sacrificed there because they were plentiful, inexpensive, and easy to control. During the July 25 celebration of the kunophontis (“the massacre of dogs”), dog sacrifices were performed to appease the ancestors of Apollo’s son, Linos, who was devoured by dogs..g
  41. Dog trainers in ancient China were held in high esteem. A great deal of dog domestication also took place in China, especially dwarfing and miniaturization.d
  42. The ancient religion Zoroastrianism includes in its religious text titled the Zend Avesta a section devoted to the care and breeding of dogs.b
  43. The earliest European images of dogs are found in cave paintings dating back 12,000 years ago in Spain.g
  44. The dog was frequently depicted in Greek art, including Cerberus, the three-headed hound guarding the entrance to the underworld, and the hunting dogs which accompanied the virgin goddess of the chase, Diana.b
  45. During the Renaissance, detailed portraits of the dog as a symbol of fidelity and loyalty appeared in mythological, allegorical, and religious art throughout Europe, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Diego Velázquez, Jan van Eyck, and Albrecht Durer.b
  46. A puppy is born blind, deaf, and toothless.c
  47. The Basenji is the world’s only barkless dog
  48. The Basenji is the world’s only barkless dog.e
  49. A dog most likely interprets a smiling person as baring their teeth, which is an act of aggression.f
  50. The origin of amputating a dog’s tail may go back to the Roman writer Lucius Columella’s (A.D. 4-70) assertion that tail docking prevented rabies.d
  51. One of Shakespeare’s most mischievous characters is Crab, the dog belonging to Launce in the Two Gentlemen of Verona. The word “watchdog” is first found in The Tempest.d
  52. President Franklin Roosevelt created a minor international incident when he claimed he sent a destroyer to the Aleutian Islands just to pick up his Scottish Terrier, Fala, who had been left behind.d
  53. Within hours of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, specially trained dogs were on the scene, including German Shepherds, Labs, and even a few little Dachshunds.d
  54. It costs approximately $10,000 to train a federally certified search and rescue dog.d
  55. The smallest dog on record was a matchbox-size Yorkshire Terrier. It was 2.5" tall at the shoulder, 3.5" from nose tip to tail, and weighed only 4 ounces.d
  56. Hollywood’s first and arguably best canine superstar was Rin Tin Tin, a five-day-old German Shepherd found wounded in battle in WWI France and adopted by an American soldier, Lee Duncan. He would sign his own contracts with his paw print.d
  57. At the end of WWI, the German government trained the first guide dogs for war-blinded soldiers.d
  58. A dog can locate the source of a sound in 1/600 of a second and can hear sounds four times farther away than a human can.c
  59. Touch is the first sense the dog develops. The entire body, including the paws, is covered with touch-sensitive nerve endings.e
  60. Eighteen muscles or more can move a dog’s ear.e
  61. The names of 77 ancient Egyptian dogs have been recorded. The names refer to color and character, such as Blackie, Ebony, Good Herdsman, Reliable, and Brave One.d
  62. In Egypt, a person bitten by a rabid dog was encouraged to eat the roasted liver of a dog infected with rabies to avoid contracting the disease. The tooth of a dog infected with rabies would also be put in a band tied to the arm of the person bitten. The menstrual blood of a female dog was used for hair removal, while dog genitals were used for preventing the whitening of hair.h
  63. In early Christian tradition, Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, is sometimes depicted with a dog’s head.g
  64. The oldest known dog bones were found in Asia and date as far back as 10,000 B.C. The first identifiable dog breed appeared about 9000 B.C. and was probably a type of Greyhound dog used for hunting.g
  65. There are an estimated 400 million dogs in the world.d
  66. The U.S. has the highest dog population in the world. France has the second highest.d
  67. Dog nose prints are as unique as human fingerprints
  68. Dog nose prints are as unique as human finger prints and can be used to identify them.c
  69. Bloodhound dogs have a keen sense of smell and have been used since the Middle Ages to track criminals.e
  70. It is much easier for dogs to learn spoken commands if they are given in conjunction with hand signals or gestures.a
  71. Dogs in a pack are more likely to chase and hunt than a single dog on its own. Two dogs are enough to form a pack.a
  72. Dogs can see in color, though they most likely see colors similar to a color-blind human. They can see better when the light is low.c
  73. Studies show that petting a dog lowers blood pressure
  74. Petting dogs is proven to lower blood pressure of dog owners.a
  75. Dogs have lived with humans for over 14,000 years. Cats have lived with people for only 7,000 years.h
  76. Zorba, an English mastiff, is the biggest dog ever recorded. He weighed 343 pounds and measured 8' 3" from his nose to his tail.d
  77. The average dog can run about 19 mph. Greyhounds are the fastest dogs on Earth and can run at speeds of 45 mph.c
  78. One female dog and her female children could produce 4,372 puppies in seven years.c
  79. The most popular dog breed in Canada, U.S., and Great Britain is the Labrador retriever.d
  80. Greyhounds appear to be the most ancient dog breed. “Greyhound” comes from a mistake in translating the early German name Greishund, which means “old (or ancient) dog,” not from the color gray.g
  81. The oldest dog on record was an Australian cattle dog named Bluey who lived 29 years and 5 months. In human years, that is more than 160 years old.d
  82. Most experts believe humans domesticated dogs before donkeys, horses, sheep, goats, cattle, cats, or chickens.h
  83. A person standing still 300 yards away is almost invisible to a dog. But a dog can easily identify its owner standing a mile away if the owner is waving his arms.i
  84. Dogs with big, square heads and large ears (like the Saint Bernard) are the best at hearing subsonic sounds.c
  85. Dogs can smell about 1,000 times better than humans. While humans have 5 million smell-detecting cells, dogs have more than 220 million. The part of the brain that interprets smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.a

  86. Studies show that some dogs can detect cancer by smelling a person's breath
  87. Some dogs can smell dead bodies under water, where termites are hiding, and natural gas buried under 40 feet of dirt. They can even detect cancer that is too small to be detected by a doctor and can find lung cancer by sniffing a person’s breath.c
  88. Dogs have a wet nose to collect more of the tiny droplets of smelling chemicals in the air.i
  89. Dogs like sweets a lot more than cats do. While cats have around only 473 taste buds, dogs have about 1,700 taste buds. Humans have approximately 9,000.a
  90. Different smells in the a dog’s urine can tell other dogs whether the dog leaving the message is female or male, old or young, sick or healthy, happy or angry.a
  91. Male dogs will raise their legs while urinating to aim higher on a tree or lamppost because they want to leave a message that they are tall and intimidating. Some wild dogs in Africa try to run up tree trunks while they are urinating to appear to be very large.a
  92. In Croatia, scientists discovered that lampposts were falling down because a chemical in the urine of male dogs was rotting the metal.a
  93. Dogs are about as smart as a two- or three-year-old child. This means they can understand about 150-200 words, including signals and hand movements with the same meaning as words.a
  94. Countess Karlotta Libenstein of Germany left approximately $106 million to her Alsatin, Gunther III, when she died in 1992.d
  95. A lost Dachshund was found swallowed whole in the stomach of a giant catfish in Berlin on July 2003.d
  96. In Australia, a man who was arrested for drug possession argued his civil rights were violated when the drug-sniffing dog nuzzled his crotch. While the judge dismissed the charges, they were later reinstated when a prosecutor pointed out that in the animal kingdom, crotch nuzzling was a friendly gesture.d
  97. The Beagle came into prominence in the 1300s and 1400s during the days of King Henry VII of England. Elizabeth I was fond of Pocket Beagles, which were only 9" high.d
  98. Golden Retrievers may improve a person’s chance of attracting a date
  99. The best dog to reportedly attract a date is the Golden Retriever. The worst is the Pit Bull.d
  100. The Akita is one of the most challenging dogs to own. Some insurance companies have even characterized it as the #1 “bad dog” and may even raise an Akita owner’s homeowner insurance costs.d
  101. The Beagle and Collie are the nosiest dogs, while the Akbash Dog and the Basenji are the quietest.d
  102. One survey reports that 33% of dog owners admit they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on answering machines while they are away..d
  103. Thirty percent of all Dalmatians are deaf in one or both ears. Because bulldogs have extremely short muzzles, many spend their lives fighting suffocation. Because Chihuahuas have such small skulls, the flow of spinal fluid can be restricted, causing hydrocephalus, a swelling of the brain.d
  104. Intense grief over the death of a pet dog is normal and natural
  105. The grief suffered after a pet dog dies can be the same as that experienced after the death of a person.a
  106. There are almost 5 million dog bites per year; children are the main victims. Dog bites cause losses of over $1 billion a year.d
  107. A person should never kick a dog facing him or her. Some dogs can bite 10 times before a human can respond.d
  108. The most intelligent dogs are reportedly the Border Collie and the Poodle, while the least intelligent dogs are the Afghan Hound and the Basenji.d