Page 198 - Animal Facts

Oysters can change genders.

They do this at least once throughout their lives. They also have a strange way of taking care of their kids. When the water warms they reproduce by broadcast spawning, ejecting their sperm or eggs into the ocean, all over the place. When the eggs get fertilized to produce new oysters, their parents have nothing to do with them. No pregnancy, no child rearing, nothing.

You can eat oysters, but the food oysters and the ones used for pearls are not the same kind of animal. The food oysters (aka "true oysters" can produce pearls, but they are not even in the same family as the pear oysters. More oyster info at National Geographic.

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Birth control pills work on gorillas.

In 2007 at the Belfast Zoo in Northern Ireland, a gorilla named Delilah was put on birth control. The reason for the precaution was that at 44 years old, pretty old for a gorilla, she was still healthy enough to mate. She was at an age in which pregnancy could be potentially dangerous, especially because she has arthritis.

The full story" from BBC.

A species of ant can snap its jaws together at speeds of up to 145 miles per hour.

One of the fastest creatures on Earth, the trap-jaw ant can shut its jaws 2,300 times more quickly than the blink of an eye! When closing, these powerful jaws accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity and over 300 times the ant's own body weight.

Not only are they the fastest self-powered predator, these ants can also even evade predators by using their powerful bite to catapult into the air! By this method, the ant can propel itself over 3 inches into the air! This may not sound like much, but it would be equivalent to a 44-foot jump for the average human!
(source)

A chinchilla can jump 5 feet in the air.

That's over 10 times its own height! This is because chinchillas typically live in rocky, mountainous areas where it is often necessary to jump to high ledges. This jumping ability also comes in handy when avoiding predators such as hawks, skunks, and foxes!
(source)

One man has helped save the lives of over 2 million babies!

Meet James Harrison, an Australian man with a rare antibody in his blood that can cure a severe form of anemia, preventing babies from dying of Rhesus disease. Rhesus disease makes a baby's blood incompatible with that of their mother's and typically leads to death or severe brain damage.

At age 74, Harrison has been giving blood for 56 years, which makes for a total of 984 donations and counting! In that time, his efforts have saved the lives of over 2 million babies! When Harrison first began donating, his blood was considered to be so valuable that his life was insured for one million Australian dollars! It has also been used to develop a vaccine called anti-D.

The whole story.