Fun Gorilla Facts for Kids

8) Fun Gorilla Facts for Kids

Gorillas are endangered species that are constantly under threat from disease and commercial hunting. Their importance is further enhanced by the fact that they are close relatives to humans, sharing around 98% of the same DNA. Learn more by reading our list of gorilla facts. There are only about 700 mountain gorillas and they live high in the mountains in two protected parks in Africa. Lowland gorillas live in central Africa. You may have seen baby gorillas being carried on the back of their mothers, but for the first few months after birth the mother holds the baby gorilla to her chest. An adult male gorilla is called a silverback because of the distinctive silvery fur growing on their back and hips. Each gorilla family has a silverback as leader who scares away other animals by standing on their back legs and beating their chest! Young male gorillas usually leave their family group when they are about 11 years old and have their own family group by the age of 15 years old. Young female gorillas join a new group at about 8 years old. Gorillas are herbivores. They spend most of their day foraging for food and eating bamboo, leafy plants and sometimes small insects. Adult gorillas can eat up to 30 kilograms of food each day. An adult gorilla is about 1 meter tall to their shoulders when walking on all fours using their arms and their legs. A gorilla can live for 40 – 50 years. Gorillas are considered to be very intelligent animals. They are known for their use of tools and their varied communication. Some gorillas in captivity at a zoo have been taught to use sign language. Gorillas are endangered animals. Their habitat is destroyed when people use the land for farming and the trees for fuel. Gorillas are also killed by poachers and sometimes get caught in poacher’s snares meant for other animal.

7) Giraffes Can last Longer Than Camels Without Drinking Water

Giraffes spend about 80 percent of their day eating and they are said to be able to eat up to 77 pounds (35 kilograms) of food a day. Their favorite tree is the thomy acacia, which provides them all the necessary nutrients they need. The high water content in the leaves and fruit they eat even make it so they don't need to drink water much at all as long as they're eating enough. Regardless, they can go weeks without drinking water, longer than even camels, which is just as well because they have to bend a long way down to get a drink and water holes can be dangerous places in the wild. When they do drink water, giraffes can guzzle about 12 gallons at one time.

6) The Difference Between Turtles, Tortoises, And Terrapins

All three animal come under the class of reptiles, in the taxonomic order of Testudines or Chelonia  (which comes from the greek word "kelone", meaning interlocking shields or armor).They all have the major characteristics of reptiles as they are cold-blooded (eco-therms), have scales, breathe air, and lay egg on land.The distinction between them comes mainly from what living habitat they are adapted for, though the terminology differs slightly in certain countries. For instance, in Australia, other than marine sea turtles is given to chelonians that live in or near water. That being said, in general there are a few commonly accepted distinctions between turtles, tortoises, and terrapins.

Turtles may be completely aquatic, like sea turtles; which rarely comes up onto land, except to lay eggs. Other types of turtles are semi-aquatic and live by fresh water ponds or lakes. They tend to swim, but also spend a lot of time on land, basking in the sun and occasionally burrowing in mud. Turtles have adapted to an aquatic life and are streamlined for swimming with webbed feet, or in the case of sea turtles, they may eat jelly-fish, small invertebrates, sea sponges or sea-vegetation. In the case of fresh water turtles, they may eat plants or insects and small fish.

Tortoises, on the other hand, are almost exclusively land-dwelling animal, usually with stubby feet, and aren't good swimmers. They occasionally enter water bodies to clean themselves off or drink water, but could easily drown in the deep or in strong currents. Their bodies are adapted to living on land and they aren't stream-lined like turtles, but rather display high domed shells and column shaped feet much  like that of elephants. They also sometimes have sharp claws for the most part herbivorous and primarily eat low-lying shrubs, cacti, grasses,weeds, fruit, and other forms of vegetation.

Lastly, the term terrapins is sometimes used for turtles that are semi-aquatic and live near brackish water or swampy regions. They're sort of like a mix between a turtle and tortoise, as they spend most of their time divided between water and land. They are also usually small and have a hard-shell that's shaped somewhere between a turtle's streamlined one and a tortoise's rounded dome shaped one.

 

5 ) A group of Cats is called a 'Clowder'.

The correct term for referring to a group of cats is 'clowder'. Interestingly, there are also two other valid ways to refer to a group of cats, other than just saying "group of cats" or "cats"; those other two terms being 'clutter' and 'glaring'.

In addition to this, if one wants to refer to a group of wild cats, he correct term are 'dowt' and destruction'. Who knew?

4) Honey bees know the world is round and can calculate angles

It turns out, scientists have figured out how to interpret a Honey Bee's dance; a Honey Bee uses its dance to communicate where to find food, a new home, and things of this nature. Using  this information, an experiment was  done where the only source of food for a colony was placed on the far side of  a mountain. The bees could not fly over the mountain. However, when they communicated where the food was to be found, they used the angle across the mountain, relative to themselves, even though it was an angle they had never flown to the food source, but rather would have  had to figure out in their head.

Further research has shown that they even have the ability to  take into account the roundness of the Earth and they include this in their typical food finding dance.In addition to knowing angles, they also communicate how far they need to go in each direction. So basically, bee's are tiny little math nerds with amazing time keeping abilities and ability to calculate distance without any discernible measuring device!

3) There Are No Terrestrial Snakes In New Zealand

According to New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries, which is in charge of Bio Security, there were and no native land snakes in New Zealand and they would like to keep it that way. For that reason, it it against the law not only to have a snake, but even to be aware of one and not report it to the authorities.

You won't see snakes in any New Zealand zoos, research establishments, or accompanying visiting entertainers. There are, however, two or more species of sea snakes that are sighted off New Zealand's shores, the yellow-bellied sea snake and the banded sea krait. Other snake-free regions include Greenland, Antarctica and some island in Hawaii.

2) Dolphins don't breathe automatically
 

Dolphins don't breathe automatically; rather, it is always consciously done.An interesting consequence of the fact that they need to be conscious to control their breathing is that they can never be truly unconscious; so when they sleep, they must still have some level of consciousness. However, being mammals, their brains do need to enter a type of unconscious state every now and again in order to continue to function properly.

How dolphins handle this is to put one half of their brain to sleep, while the other half is still conscious and functioning. They then alternate which side is sleeping periodically. They stay in this state approximately eight hours a day. This way, they are still conscious to control their breathing and periodically swim to the surface and get air, while still giving their brain the rest it needs.