143 Fun Facts About Animals

What is the largest living species of lizard?

The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard; it ambushes deer and even water buffalo, and can eat up to 80% of its body weight in one meal.

Which bird is known for its ability to mimic human speech?

The African grey's gift for talking made it a pet-trade favourite: nearly 360,000 wild-caught birds were exported between 1994 and 2003.

In which animal does the male carry the eggs in a pouch and give birth to the young?

The male seahorse's brood pouch can hold over a thousand eggs, and when the young are ready he gives birth with powerful muscular contractions.

Which mammal is known for having the longest gestation period?

The African elephant carries its calf for about 22 months, and other females in the herd then help raise it, a shared care called allomothering.

What is a group of wolves called?

A group of wolves is a pack, typically a breeding pair and their offspring from the last few years; packs cooperate to bring down prey as large as moose.

Which ocean creature has three hearts?

Octopuses have three hearts, and their blood is blue because it carries oxygen with copper-based haemocyanin rather than iron.

What is the fastest land animal?

The cheetah is built for sprinting, not fighting, so lions and hyenas routinely steal the prey it has just caught.

Which animal produces the loudest sound in the animal kingdom?

The sperm whale's clicks are focused by the waxy spermaceti in its head, which early whalers mistook for sperm, giving the whale its name.

What is the primary diet of a koala?

Koalas eat almost only eucalyptus leaves, which are toxic to most mammals; a young koala first eats pap, a soft dropping from its mother thought to supply the gut bacteria to digest them.

Which is the only penguin species found north of the equator?

The Galápagos penguin can live at the equator because cold, nutrient-rich currents such as the Cromwell Current cool the water and bring it food.

What is the name for a baby kangaroo?

A newborn joey is only a few centimetres long, yet it crawls through its mother's fur and into her pouch on its own.

Adult salmon find the exact stream where they hatched mainly by using which sense?

Smell: a young salmon imprints on its home stream's scent before heading out to sea, and as an adult it follows that odour back to spawn.

Along with the bonobo, which primate is one of humankind's two closest living relatives?

In 1960 Jane Goodall watched a chimpanzee shape a twig to fish termites from a mound, a find that forced scientists to rethink what makes humans unique.

What is the largest species of bear?

The polar bear is the largest bear species, and it isn't really white: its skin is black and its hairs are clear, looking white only because they scatter light.

What is the only mammal capable of true sustained flight?

Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight, and vampire bats even regurgitate blood to feed their roost-mates.

What is the largest animal known to have ever existed?

The blue whale, the largest animal known, lives almost entirely on krill, tiny crustaceans, and eats several tonnes of them a day.

What is the largest living fish in the world?

The whale shark is the largest living fish, growing up to 40 feet or more in length. Despite their enormous size, whale sharks are filter feeders that eat plankton, fish eggs, and small fish.

Which Australian marsupial produces cube-shaped droppings, which it uses to mark its territory?

The wombat's intestine has stiff and stretchy sections that shape its droppings into cubes, which are thought to roll away less when it marks its territory.

Where are a cricket's ears located?

Crickets hear through eardrums on their front legs, and a parasitic fly, Ormia ochracea, homes in on a male's song to drop its larvae on him.

Which seabird's yearly round trip from the far north to waters around the South Pole is the longest migration known?

The Arctic tern breeds in the Arctic summer and then flies to Antarctica for a second summer, so it sees more daylight than any other animal.

Which bird feeds with its head held upside down in the water?

The flamingo's bill works upside down: comb-like plates called lamellae along its edges filter food from the water as the bird pumps it through.

What is the largest species of penguin?

The emperor penguin is the largest penguin; the male balances the egg on his feet through the Antarctic winter, fasting for months until it hatches.

Sharks sense hidden prey through the ampullae of Lorenzini, organs of which sense?

Electroreception lets sharks feel the weak electric fields other animals' muscles make; great hammerheads sweep their heads over the seabed to find stingrays buried in sand.

Which animal can rotate its head almost 270 degrees?

Owls' eyes are fixed in their sockets and can't swivel, so an owl turns its whole head to look around instead.

Which species of whale is known for its complex, haunting songs?

Humpback males sing complex songs in the breeding season, and all the whales in an area sing virtually the same song, which slowly changes over time.

What structure do birds have instead of teeth for grinding food?

Birds grind their food in the gizzard, a muscular stomach, and many swallow gravel that does the work teeth would do.

Which endangered great ape is found only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra?

The orangutan's name is Malay for 'person of the forest', and it builds a fresh nest of branches in the trees every day to sleep in.

What is the hard outer covering of insects called?

Insects have an exoskeleton of tough chitin, and because it cannot grow with them, they must moult it and form a new one to get bigger.

What is the primary reason flamingos are pink?

Pigments from their diet: carotenoids in the algae and small crustaceans flamingos eat colour their feathers, and captive birds fed without them fade to pale pink.

Which Australian bird incubates its eggs in a large mound of rotting leaf litter?

The malleefowl lays its eggs in a big compost mound, and the male adds or removes material to regulate the heat while they develop.

Which deep-sea creature glows to attract prey in the dark?

The anglerfish's glowing lure, the esca, sits on a modified dorsal-fin spine and draws prey close enough to be snatched.

Which animal has the thickest fur of any mammal?

Sea otters have the densest fur of any animal and, unlike most marine mammals, no layer of blubber, so they rely on that fur alone to keep warm.

What is the name for the phenomenon where certain species of cuckoo lay their eggs in other birds' nests?

Brood parasitism is a reproductive strategy where the cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of other bird species, tricking them into raising the cuckoo's young. The cuckoo chick often pushes the host's eggs out of the nest.

What is a baby deer called?

A baby deer is a fawn; its mother hides it in cover for hours while she feeds, and its spotted coat keeps it camouflaged.

Ticks are most closely related to which animals?

Spiders and ticks are both arachnids, yet a newly hatched tick larva has only six legs and gains its fourth pair when it moults.

Which animal plucks leaves with a tongue about 45 cm long?

The giraffe's tongue is dark, and that colour is thought to protect it from sunburn as it reaches up to feed.

Which crustacean smashes prey with club-like appendages that hit hard enough to crack aquarium glass?

The mantis shrimp's club moves so fast that bubbles form and collapse in the water, hitting prey with a second shock.

Which bird has the greatest wingspan of any living bird?

The wandering albatross can glide for hours without flapping its wings, riding the winds over the Southern Ocean.

Which organ lets rattlesnakes sense the body heat of warm-blooded prey?

The loreal pit lets a rattlesnake sense the heat of warm-blooded prey, so it can strike accurately even in complete darkness.

Which insect was the first animal shown to orient itself by the Milky Way?

Dung beetles climb on top of their dung balls to do an orientation dance, then use the Milky Way's glow to roll the ball in a straight line.

Which marine animal stores the stinging cells of the Portuguese man o' war it eats for its own defence?

The blue dragon sea slug keeps its prey's stingers so well that picking one up can give a painful sting, much like the man o' war's own.

Which vertebrate has the longest known lifespan, estimated at 272 to 510 years, and only reaches maturity at around 150?

Scientists aged Greenland sharks by radiocarbon dating the lens of the eye, whose centre keeps the tissue laid down before the shark was born.

Which bird carves hooked tools out of forked twigs?

The New Caledonian crow can use a short tool to fetch a longer one and then use that to reach food, a feat once seen only in primates.

Which deep-sea fish has a transparent head and looks upward through its skull?

The barreleye, Macropinna microstoma, has tubular eyes inside a transparent fluid-filled dome; they normally point upward but can swivel forward, and the dome may shield them from siphonophore stings.

Which animal's stripes are thought mainly to deter biting flies rather than to camouflage?

Zebra stripes seem to confuse biting flies: in experiments, horseflies landed far less often on zebras and on horses wearing striped coats.

The Komodo dragon is native to a handful of islands in which country?

Komodo dragons live wild only on a few islands of Indonesia, and so few remained that the Dutch colonial government soon moved to protect them.

Which garden creature is really a crustacean, not an insect?

The pill bug is a woodlouse with 14 legs, and it dries out so easily that it must keep to damp places to survive.

What is a group of lions called?

A group of lions is a pride, built around related females and their cubs, with one or a few adult males who must fight to keep their place.

Which bird is the fastest animal on Earth when diving?

The peregrine falcon is widely reckoned the fastest diver; it strikes birds in mid-air with a clenched foot, then kills with a notched beak that severs the neck.

Which life-cycle feature do amphibians have that reptiles lack?

Metamorphosis from gilled larvae turns tadpoles into air-breathing adults, though the axolotl never completes it and keeps its gills for life.

Which mammal delivers a painful venom through a spur on the male's hind foot?

The male platypus's hind-foot spurs inject a venom painful enough to injure humans, and males use them as weapons against rivals in the breeding season.

What is the largest living species of reptile?

The saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile, and it rides ocean currents to travel long distances along coasts and between rivers.

Which flightless bird lays an egg that can weigh a fifth of the mother's body weight?

The kiwi is also the only bird with nostrils at the tip of its bill, which it uses to sniff out worms underground.

Which of India's 'Big Four' snakes warns off threats with a sizzling sound, like water on a hot plate?

The saw-scaled viper makes that sound by rubbing its serrated scales together, and it is quick to strike when provoked.

Which grazing animal shares a cow's four-chambered stomach and chews the cud?

Sheep are ruminants like cows: they swallow grass quickly, then rest and bring it back up as cud to chew again.

What unusual defence does the Texas horned lizard use?

The Texas horned lizard squirts blood from its eyes by raising the pressure in its head until tiny vessels around the eyes burst and spray attackers.

Which ant farms a fungus on the vegetation it carries home?

Leafcutter ants don't eat the leaves they cut: they use them to grow a fungus that the whole colony, larvae included, feeds on.

Chironex fleckeri, whose sting can kill a person within minutes, is what kind of animal?

Chironex fleckeri is a box jellyfish, and unlike most jellyfish it has eyes with lenses and swims actively rather than drifting.

Adélie penguins build their rough nests out of what material?

Adélie penguins build nests of small stones, and the parents take turns sitting on the two eggs while the other goes to sea to feed.

Which animal can regenerate its entire body from a tiny fragment?

A planarian flatworm regrows lost parts from stem cells spread all through its body, so even a small piece can become a new worm within a week or two.

Which is the only primate known to be venomous?

The slow loris licks a gland on its arm and mixes the oily secretion with its saliva, turning its bite toxic.

Which primate is famous for 'stink fights' between rival males?

Male ring-tailed lemurs rub secretions from scent glands onto their long tails, then waft the tails at rivals to settle disputes.

Sharks have no swim bladder; which oil-rich organ gives them buoyancy instead?

A shark's big, oily liver makes it lighter in the water in place of a swim bladder, and swimming gives it the extra lift it needs.

Able to sprint at about 70 km/h, which is the fastest bird on land?

The ostrich sprints at about 70 km/h, the fastest of any bird on land; it is also the heaviest living bird and lays the largest egg of any living bird, though relative to body size that egg is the smallest.

What is the world's smallest mammal by weight?

The Etruscan shrew weighs about 1.8 g, and its racing metabolism keeps it hunting almost constantly, eating more than its own weight each day.

Which bird is the only one whose bill is longer than its body?

The sword-billed hummingbird's long bill lets it drink from long, tubular flowers that other hummingbirds can't reach.

What adaptation allows the wood frog to survive being frozen solid?

Glucose floods its tissues and limits ice forming inside its cells, so the wood frog survives the winter frozen, with no heartbeat or breathing.

What is the only snake that builds a nest for its eggs?

The king cobra is the only snake known to build a nest: the female rakes dry leaf litter into a mound, lays inside it and guards it through incubation, leaving just before the eggs hatch.

Which animal has horizontal, rectangular pupils?

Goats have horizontal, rectangular pupils that widen their field of view, helping a grazing animal spot predators while it feeds.

Which of these animals is an invertebrate?

The starfish is an echinoderm with no backbone, and it eats by pushing its stomach out of its body to digest prey on the spot.

Which animal can survive in the vacuum of space?

Tardigrades dry out into a barrel-shaped 'tun' that can ride out vacuum and radiation, and they can go years without water.

Which great ape did Dian Fossey spend nearly two decades studying in Rwanda?

Dian Fossey ran anti-poaching patrols to protect Rwanda's mountain gorillas, and she was buried at Karisoke beside Digit, one of the gorillas she studied.

Which amphibious goby uses its pectoral fins to crawl across tidal flats and climb low branches?

Mudskippers breathe through their skin and the lining of the mouth and throat, which is why they must stay wet and keep to humid shores.

Which rainforest mammal's shaggy fur can turn green from the algae growing in it?

Sloth hair has grooves or cracks where algae grow, and the green tint is widely believed to camouflage the animal in the forest canopy.

Which crustacean has the greatest leg span of any arthropod, up to about 3.7 m?

Japanese spider crabs hide from predators when young by attaching other living things to their shells as a disguise.

Which is the longest-lived mammal, with individuals estimated at over 200 years?

Old harpoon tips found in hunted bowhead whales show they can live well over a century, and research suggests some pass 200 years.

Which insect undergoes incomplete metamorphosis, skipping the pupal stage?

The grasshopper hatches as a small wingless nymph that moults several times, and when crowded some species change colour and behaviour and become swarming locusts.

Which bird can fly backwards?

Hummingbirds burn energy so fast that to get through the night they can drop into torpor, a hibernation-like state that lowers their metabolism.

What is the name for a group of crows?

A group of crows is a murder; most such collective nouns come from fanciful 15th-century lists of hunting terms, notably the Book of St Albans of 1486.

What is Turritopsis dohrnii, a hydrozoan that can revert to its juvenile polyp stage, nicknamed?

Turritopsis dohrnii, the immortal jellyfish, can revert to a polyp colony when stressed or injured, in effect starting life over, though most in the wild die from predation or disease first.

Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, wear what on their snouts while rooting for food?

The dolphins wear a marine sponge over the snout to protect it while probing the sandy seabed, one of the few known cases of tool use in marine mammals.

Which mammal is often called the world's most trafficked?

Pangolins are poached for scales used in traditional medicine, yet the scales are only keratin, the same material as human nails.

Which reef fish's breeding male turns into a female when the breeding female dies?

Clownfish are all born male, and when the breeding female dies her mate turns female while the largest non-breeder becomes the new breeding male.

What does the red 'blood sweat' that hippos ooze actually do?

Acts as a sunscreen: the secretion is colourless at first, then turns red-orange, and its acidic compounds absorb ultraviolet light and also fight germs.

What is the term for animals that are most active during twilight hours (dawn and dusk)?

Crepuscular animals such as rabbits and domestic cats are most active at dawn and dusk, which can help them avoid predators and the heat of the day.

Which African animal is the closest living relative of whales?

The hippopotamus split from whales about 55 million years ago, so its Greek name, 'river horse', points to the wrong relative.

The narwhal's spiralled tusk, up to three metres long, is actually what?

The tusk is a protruding left canine tooth packed with nerve endings, and drone footage has shown narwhals using it to tap and stun Arctic cod.

Which South American semiaquatic herbivore is the largest living rodent?

The capybara can stay underwater for up to five minutes to hide from predators, and it eats its own droppings to help digest tough grasses.

How does the archerfish catch insects perched on overhanging leaves?

It spits jets of water to knock them down, correcting its aim for the way light bends at the water's surface.

Which fish is really a knifefish rather than a true eel?

The electric eel defends itself by leaping out of the water to shock an animal it sees as a threat.

The aye-aye of Madagascar taps on wood and then extracts grubs using which unusual feature?

The aye-aye taps wood with a long, thin middle finger, gnaws in with ever-growing teeth and hooks grubs out, yet many Malagasy kill it on sight as a bad omen.

The bombardier beetle defends itself by ejecting a chemical spray heated to nearly what temperature?

Near the boiling point of water: the beetle mixes hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide and fires the scalding spray in rapid pulses, about 500 a second.

Which burrowing African mammal can't keep a steady body temperature and can live about 30 years?

The naked mole-rat lives in colonies where only one female, the queen, breeds, and it keeps warm by huddling with its colony mates.

The humps on a camel's back go limp and droop as the animal uses up its store of what?

Fat, not water, fills a camel's humps. It is a calorie reserve for times when food is scarce, and the old tale of a built-in water tank is a myth.

Which protein, the same material as human hair and fingernails, makes up a rhinoceros's horn?

Keratin is all a rhino's horn is, so taking powdered horn as medicine has been compared to drinking fingernail clippings in water.

Which insect kills more people each year than any other animal by spreading diseases such as malaria?

The mosquito kills not with its bite but with the parasites and viruses it passes on, and females take blood mainly to get protein for making eggs.

Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth aboard the Soviet craft Sputnik 2, was what kind of animal?

A dog found as a stray on the streets of Moscow, Laika was chosen because strays were thought to be used to extreme cold and hunger.

Which animal, a national symbol of Canada, is shown sitting on a rock on Canada's five-cent coin?

The beaver on Canada's nickel has a famous bite: its front teeth are orange because iron compounds colour their thick enamel.

Which arachnids glow blue-green under ultraviolet light, which helps researchers find them at night?

Scorpions glow because of fluorescent chemicals in their tough outer cuticle, and the glow gets stronger each time a young one moults.

Which fish is served in Japan as the risky delicacy fugu?

Pufferfish carry tetrodotoxin, a poison with no known antidote, so in Japan only chefs with three or more years of training may prepare fugu.

What is the usually infertile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse called?

A mule inherits 32 chromosomes from its horse mother and 31 from its donkey father, and that odd total of 63 usually leaves it unable to breed.

Which flexible tissue, about half as dense as bone, makes up the skeleton of sharks and rays?

Cartilage, the bendy tissue also found in human ears and noses, trims the weight of a shark's skeleton and saves the fish energy as it swims.

Which marine hunter, found in all the world's oceans, is the largest member of the dolphin family?

The orca, also called the killer whale, lives in family pods whose hunting tricks and calls are handed down the generations like a culture.

Which rodent is said to predict six more weeks of winter if it sees its shadow on February 2?

The groundhog inherited the job from the badger: German tradition watched for a badger's shadow at Candlemas, and Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought the idea over.

Which North American mammal is famous for feigning death when threatened, sometimes for hours?

The opossum gave English the phrase 'playing possum', and as the northernmost marsupial in the world it ranges as far as southern Canada.

Which flightless bird of Mauritius died out within a century of Dutch sailors first recording it?

The dodo vanished so fast that it became the first famous warning that people could wipe out an entire species, a danger nobody had recognised before.

Which insect flashes light from organs in its abdomen at twilight to attract a mate?

The firefly makes a 'cold light' with no infrared in it, using an enzyme, luciferase, that is now put to work in forensics and medicine.

Which antelope, over a million strong, dominates the yearly Great Migration around the Serengeti?

The wildebeest herds loop clockwise from Tanzania's southern Serengeti up to Kenya's Masai Mara and back, calving early in the year when rain has ripened the grass.

Which small mongoose of southern Africa posts upright sentries to watch for danger while others forage?

The meerkat on sentry duty lets the rest of the group dig for food in peace, and members take turns at the job, as they do at minding the pups.

Which Australian bird's call, much like human laughter, is used in films as a stock jungle sound effect?

The kookaburra's laugh is a territorial call, often given by several birds at once, and the bird itself is a large kingfisher.

Which North American bird of prey builds the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal?

The bald eagle reuses a nest for many years and adds new material each season, and its name comes from an old sense of 'bald' meaning white-headed.

Which bird stands opposite a red kangaroo as a shield bearer on the coat of arms of Australia?

The emu also appears with the arms on Australia's 50-cent coin, and when it has to it can sprint at 48 km/h.

What is a female fox called, the mate of a male known as a tod or reynard?

Vixen began as the Old English 'fyxen'; its 'v' comes from a south-western English habit of turning an initial 'f' into 'v'.

Which plant-eating marine mammal, nicknamed the sea cow, has been linked to folklore about mermaids?

The manatee cannot cope with cold, so in winter Florida's animals crowd into warm spring-fed rivers and even the warm-water outflows of power plants.

Which bristly plates hang from the upper jaws of the largest whales, filtering food from seawater?

Baleen was long sold as 'whalebone', and its springy strength went into collar stiffeners, buggy whips and parasol ribs.

Which Australian marsupial, known for its loud screech, is threatened by a contagious facial cancer?

The Tasmanian devil became the world's largest carnivorous marsupial after the thylacine died out in 1936, and for its size it has one of the strongest bites of any land predator.

Which South American constrictor, which spends most of its time in water, is the world's heaviest snake?

The green anaconda outweighs every other snake, but it is not the longest: that record belongs to Asia's reticulated python.

Which lizards have toe pads that let them climb smooth vertical surfaces and even cross indoor ceilings?

Geckos are also unique among lizards for their voices, chirping and clicking to each other in calls that differ from species to species.

Which carrion-eating birds have stomach acid corrosive enough to digest carcasses infected with anthrax?

Vultures have another hygiene trick: New World species urinate down their own legs, and the uric acid kills bacteria picked up from carcasses.

Which seabird's large, colourful bill has earned it the nicknames 'sea parrot' and 'clown of the sea'?

The puffin is noisier than it looks: inside its nesting burrow it makes a growl like a chainsaw being revved up.

What is a young swan called, the offspring of a male known as a cob and a female called a pen?

Cygnet means 'little swan': it is a diminutive of the Old French cigne, which goes back to the Latin cygnus and the Greek kyknos.

What is a group of geese on the ground called, as opposed to a skein when the birds are flying?

A gaggle that takes off can also be called a team or a wedge, and geese flying close together are known as a plump.

What are the male bees in a honey bee colony called, whose only role is to mate with a new queen?

Drones have no stinger, and because each one grows from an unfertilised egg, a male honey bee has a mother but no father.

Which insects built the roughly 1.1 million active mounds found in the north of Kruger National Park alone?

Termites are not ants at all but highly derived cockroaches, and unlike ants their colonies are founded by a king and queen that pair for life.

Which sap-sucking insects, among the worst pests of cultivated plants, are hunted by predatory ladybugs?

Aphids have bodyguards: so-called dairying ants tend them for their sugary honeydew and protect them from predators in return.

Which tiny animals built Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the biggest single structure made by living things?

Corals in their billions have been raising the present reef for only about 6,000 to 9,000 years, yet it can already be seen from outer space.

Which Australian songbird was filmed imitating a chainsaw, a car alarm and camera shutters?

The lyrebird copies sounds so accurately that even the birds it imitates can be fooled, and mimicry makes up 70–80% of a male's song.

Which sea turtle, the largest of all living turtles, has no bony shell and can weigh 500 kilograms?

The leatherback is named for the flexible, leathery skin that covers its back, and it is the heaviest living reptile apart from the crocodilians.

Which North American insects spend 13 or 17 years underground before emerging together in huge numbers?

Cicadas of this kind spend about 99.5% of their lives below ground as nymphs sipping fluid from tree roots, then die within two months of surfacing.

Cher Ami, awarded France's Croix de Guerre for service in World War I, was what kind of animal?

A homing pigeon, Cher Ami is said to have got word through about the trapped 'Lost Battalion' despite being shot in the breast and losing a leg.

Which insects live for months or years as water-dwelling nymphs yet as adults cannot feed and soon die?

Mayflies are the only insects in which a winged form moults again, and the adults' unused digestive systems are simply filled with air.

Which sense, shared with most bats, lets toothed whales find prey they cannot see?

Echolocation is not only for mammals: two groups of cave-dwelling birds, the cave swiftlets and the oilbird, use a simpler form of it.

Which nocturnal New Zealand bird is both the world's heaviest parrot and the only one unable to fly?

The kakapo is also the only parrot that breeds in leks, where males gather and court females with deep booming calls.

Which Central American lizard can run across the surface of water on its hind legs to flee predators?

The basilisk is nicknamed the 'Jesus Christ lizard' for the feat: youngsters can cover 10 to 20 metres, but adults sink after only a few.

Which venomous lizard of the southwestern United States has venom that led to a class of diabetes drugs?

The Gila monster is the only venomous lizard native to the United States, and it makes its venom in glands in the lower jaw, not behind the eyes as snakes do.

Which monkey of west-central Africa, the largest of all monkeys, has red and blue skin on its face and rear?

The mandrill lives in groups called hordes that can number in the hundreds, and the dominant males wear the most vibrant colours.

Which animal is the fastest land mammal in the Americas?

The pronghorn pairs speed with stamina: it can keep up 56 km/h for about 6.5 kilometres, far longer than a sprinting predator can last.

Which fish, thought extinct for about 66 million years, was found alive off South Africa in 1938?

The coelacanth's living genus, Latimeria, is named after Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, who discovered that first specimen.

Which New Zealand reptile looks like a lizard but is the only survivor of an order from the age of dinosaurs?

The tuatara's relatives were the world's dominant small reptiles in the Jurassic and spread worldwide before dying out everywhere but New Zealand.

Which bird, often labelled the world's most dangerous, kicks with a dagger-like claw up to 125 mm long?

The cassowary also wears a helmet: a skin-covered casque on its head that keeps growing with age and can reach 18 cm.

Which long-legged bird of prey of sub-Saharan grasslands hunts on foot, often killing prey by stomping on it?

The secretarybird may owe its name to the quill-like feathers behind its head, which reminded one 18th-century naturalist of a scribe's pen tucked behind the ear.

Which bird feeds, drinks and even sleeps on the wing, with some going ten months without landing?

The common swift never settles on the ground by choice, because there it would be easy prey, and it lives in the air except when nesting.

Which marine mammal of the far north uses its long tusks to pull itself out of the water onto ice?

The walrus's genus name, Odobenus, means 'tooth-walker' in Greek, and both males and females grow tusks that can reach a metre long.