• Dogs have superior hearing than humans, capable of hearing sounds four times better. • Dogs have a remarkable sense of smell, they are capable of differentiating odors in concentrations nearly 100 million times lower than humans can. • Polar Bears are nearly undetectable by infrared cameras, due to their transparent fur. • Butterflies taste with their hind feet and their taste sensation works on touch – this allows them to determine whether a leaf is edible. • 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. • 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. • 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. • An elephant can use its tusks to dig for ground water. An adult elephant needs to drink around 210 liters of water a day. • Elephants have large, thin ears. Their ears are made up of a complex network of blood vessels which with regulating an elephants temperature. Blood is circulated through their ears to cool them down in hot climates. • Female elephants are called cows. They start to have calves when they are about 12 years old and they are pregnant for 22 months. • Elephants have no natural predators. However, lions will sometimes prey on young or weak elephants in the wild. The main risk to elephants is from humans through poaching and changes to their habitat. • Earth is referred to as the blue planet…this is because from space, the oceans combined with our atmosphere make our planet look blue. • The saltiest sea in the world is the Red Sea with 41 parts of salt per 1,000 parts of water. • The Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world’s highest waterfall (979 meter), three times the size of the Eiffel Tower. • The Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia is the largest cave in the world; it is 701 meters long, 400 meters wide, and more than 70 meters high.
