Page 199 - Animal Facts

The world's largest frog is nearly as big as a housecat.

The goliath frog is native to the rainforests of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea in western Africa. This titanic amphibian measures up to 12.5 inches in length and can weigh up to 7.2 pounds. These frogs have actually roamed the Earth for 250 million years - before the dinosaurs! And in case you were wondering, goliath frog tadpoles are no larger than regular ones - they just grow a lot larger and longer than a typical frog!

There really aren't very many goliath frogs anymore. They are now endangered, mostly due to human activity. Since they are so large they make an excellent source of food. It's against the law to hunt goliath frogs, but people still do it anyway. The larger fully-grown adult frogs are the ones that are hunted the most, which has contributed to lower birth rates.

More information on the goliath frog.

There's another primate besides humans that can have blue eyes.

This is the blue-eyed black lemur. Both the male and female of this species have blue eyes. This is an extremely rare quality among primates, with human beings being one of the only other blue-eyed species. Blue-eyed lemurs are also rather unique among primates because the males and females are different colors! Males are completely black, while females grow fur that is a reddish-brown hue. (More info on blue-eyed black lemurs).

Most primates (chimps, macaques, orangutans, and other lemurs) have dark eyes. Strangely enough, the genes that result in the rare condition of blue eyes in lemurs are not the same as those that cause blue eyes in humans! (More info on blue eyes)

Koalas sleep almost all day long.

On average, a koala sleeps somewhere between 18 and 22 hours every day. This means that they are only awake for a couple of hours, maybe four at most! And to top it all off, most of their waking hours are spent either eating or grooming themselves. What an exciting existence...at least they're really cute!

Of course, while they tend to be very docile animals, during mating season they become very aggressive and hostile. They bite and swat at each other, and they even grunt loudly at each other, which you probably wouldn't expect.

This is from an interview with a zoo keeper from Zoo Miami.

Tigers can eat up to 80 pounds of meat in one sitting.

That's nearly one quarter of their total body weight! As carnivorous hunters, this ability definitely comes in handy because predators never know when their next meal will be. Surprisingly, their rate of hunting success is typically around one kill for every ten attempts!
(source)

A thirsty camel can drink 35 gallons of water in just six minutes.

Camels conserve water so well that they can lose up to 40% of their body weight and still live. They can even go as long as six whole months without water. One particularly thirsty individual was able to gulp down over 50 gallons in one day!
(source)