Animals are amazing and kids love learning animal facts! Get your students hooked on all the fascinating and outrageous things about animals by sharing little known facts. For example, everyone knows that the cheetah is the fastest animal, but not everyone knows that a husky can run up to 20 miles per hour. Here are 100 more fascinating animal facts to get you started!

  1. Polar bears aren’t white. Their colorless fur reflects light, making it look white.
  2. Nine-banded armadillos give birth to four identical babies at a time.
  3. The Giant Tortoise from the Galapagos Islands can weigh as much as a brown bear – 550 pounds!
  4. A lion’s roar can be heard as far as three miles away.
  5. Wild Bactrian (two-humped) camels can drink as much as 88 pints of water at a time. That’s 11 gallons!
  6. The Regal Horned Lizard squirts blood out of his eyes when he feels threatened.
  7. An ostrich’s eyes are bigger than its brain.
  8. Koalas sleep for 18 to 22 hours a day.
  9. Sea turtles can live for up to 100 years.
  10. A grizzly bear’s bite is so strong that it can crush a bowling ball.
  11. Wombat poop is shaped like cubes.
  12. Panda bears are born pink and get their black and white color when they are about one month old.
  13. Newborn giraffes weigh 220 pounds.
  14. Bald eagles can dive at up to 100 miles per hour to pluck fish from the water.
  15. Flamingoes get their pink color from the shrimp that they eat.
  16. Otters hold hands while they sleep so none of them get lost.
  17. The mosquito is the deadliest animal in the world due to mosquito-borne diseases.
  18. The largest squid ever measured was over 50 feet long and weighed more than 2000 pounds.
  19. An octopus mother lays her eggs, and once they hatch, she dies.
  20. A garden snail can have up to 14,000 teeth.
  21. A blue whale’s tongue can weigh 6000 – 8000 pounds.
  22. There is enough toxin in a pufferfish to kill 30 adults.
  23. Humans can smell the spray of a skunk up to 3.5 miles away.
  24. Japanese spider crabs can have a leg span of up to 13 feet.
  25. A shoebill stork can swallow a baby alligator whole.
  26. The shock from an electric eel can knock out a horse.
  27. Bees have five eyes – two in the front and three small eyes on top of their heads.
  28. Adult cats don’t meow at other cats. They only meow at humans.
  29. Rats laugh when they’re tickled.
  30. Kangaroos cannot walk backward.
  31. Hippopotamus milk is pink.
  32. Butterflies taste with their feet.
  33. Bats have belly buttons.
  34. Emperor penguins can swim underwater for up to 27 minutes.
  35. A chameleon’s tongue is as long as its body.
  36. Some hummingbirds are so tiny that they weigh only two ounces, which is less than a penny.
  37. Gorillas burp when they are happy.
  38. Bats have thumbs.
  39. Walruses can sleep while underwater.
  40. Rhinoceros horns are made from compacted hair.
  41. Snakes can see with their eyes closed.
  42. In the one year that a ladybug lives, it will eat about 5000 aphids.
  43. Only female mosquitos bite.
  44. Newborn seahorses are about the size of an M&M candy.
  45. Meerkats leave their newborn pups with babysitters.
  46. Cockroaches can live for up to a week without their heads.
  47. Slugs have four noses.
  48. Cows can walk up the stairs but cannot walk down the stairs.
  49. Caterpillars have 12 eyes.
  50. Elephants are the only animals with legs that can’t jump.
  51. Snails can take very long naps – sometimes up to three years.
  52. Cat urine glows under black lights.
  53. Sea lions are the only animals that can learn to clap to a beat.
  54. Anteaters have no teeth.
  55. Baby elephants suck on their trunks like human babies suck on pacifiers.
  56. A butterfly can have up to 12,000 eyes.
  57. It takes two weeks for a sloth to digest its food.
  58. Monkeys can go bald in their old age – just like humans.
  59. A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
  60. A shrimp’s heart is in his head.
  61. Garfish have green bones.
  62. Woodpeckers can peck up to 20 times per second.
  63. A single elephant tooth can weigh as much as 9 pounds.
  64. Newborn kangaroos are the size of a bee.
  65. Prairie dogs kiss each other.
  66. Koala bears have fingerprints so close to human fingerprints that they could interfere with crime scenes.
  67. African grey parrots help each other find food.
  68. Ghost crabs have teeth in their stomachs, and they can use them to make growling sounds.
  69. Mantis shrimp can “punch” as fast as a .22 caliber bullet.
  70. Capuchin monkeys wash their hands with their own urine.
  71. Frogs can freeze without dying. When it warms up, they thaw back to life.
  72. Reindeer eyes change from gold to blue in the winter.
  73. Painted turtles can breathe through their butts.
  74. Elephants are pregnant for 22 months.
  75. Cows lay down when they feel a storm coming.
  76. Lobsters pee out of their faces.
  77. Snow leopards don’t roar but purr instead.
  78. Some worms can jump and detach their tails when they feel threatened.
  79. No two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.
  80. Squirrels help plant thousands of trees because they often forget where they hid their nuts.
  81. Gentoo penguins propose marriage using a pebble.
  82. Crows can play pranks on each other.
  83. A dog’s nose print is unique and can be used as identification.
  84. Honeybees flap their wings 200 times per second.
  85. Wild dolphins give each other names.
  86. Some frogs make their homes in elephant poop.
  87. The sound roosters make is so loud that if they don’t tip their heads back to crow, they will make themselves deaf.
  88. For every human on earth, there are one million ants.
  89. A flamingo can only eat when its head is turned upside down.
  90. Platypuses have spurs on their back feet that are filled with poison, making them one of the few venomous mammals on Earth.
  91. Toucans toss fruit back and forth to each other’s beaks.
  92. A narwhal’s horn is a tooth that grows outside their body.
  93. The blue-eyed black lemur is the only primate, besides humans, that can have blue eyes.
  94. Bearded dragons wave when they recognize something.
  95. Rabbits can hear sounds as far as two miles away.
  96. Bats give birth upside down and catch their newborns in their wings.
  97. Alligators like to ride on the backs of manatees.
  98. An octopus has nine brains.
  99. Vultures keep cool by pooping on their own feet.
  100. Leeches have three jaws, and each jaw has 100 teeth.

These are just a few of the amazing animal facts to share with your students. Have fun!

100 Fascinating Animal Facts to Wow Your Students