45 interesting facts about your favourite animals

Why would any animal need multiple hearts and brains? We can find out by studying these tentacled dwellers of the deep, which have three hearts – two to pump blood to its gills and one to pump blood to the remainder of its body. And also an astounding nine (!) brains – one that serves as its central control station, and eight others that are actually “large ganglion[s] at the base of each arm which control…movement,” explains the Daily Catch.

Literal freezing is definitely not recommended for humans or other mammals, since it leads to, well, death. But for a species of Alaskan wood frog, freezing (mostly) solid, with two-thirds of their bodies turning to ice, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, allows them to withstand brutal winters and live until the spring. At which point, they thaw and carry on with their existence. Head here to find out how to choose the perfect pet for your family.

The common household nuisance (Musca domestica) may not have any vocal cords (actually, no insects do). But that doesn’t mean it can’t make any noise. By flapping its wings 190 times per second it makes a sound at a frequency that “the human ear interprets…as a pitch along the F major scale.” Check out these 13 tricks to keep bugs away from picnics.

It turns out, giraffes aren’t the only large natives of the African continent that require protection from the powerful rays of the sun. Hippos do, too. And they actually have their own cooling system. Known as “blood sweat” (although it’s not actually blood or sweat, according to Scientific American), this oily secretion evaporates as it dries, lowering a hippos temperature. Why the name? It appears red in the sunlight.

Ever wonder why zebras have those vivid black and white stripes – since they couldn’t possibly serve to make them inconspicuous out on the Ethiopian grasslands? Oddly, the stripes do actually make these ungulates harder to see in the tall green and yellow grass. But those black and white zags have another function – they deter nasty biting horseflies, according to research published in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

Tiny, iridescent hummingbirds sure move fast, darting from flower to tube-shaped flower in your backyard garden so fast you can hardly see them. But their wingbeats – of 40 to 80 every second – don’t just propel them forwards. They also help them move backward, which is a feat that no other bird can accomplish without help from the wind.

It’s a strange but true animal fact that bears repeating, just because it’s so darn cool: Famously pink flamingoes aren’t pink. They’re actually born grey. And they’d stay that way, too, if it weren’t for their highly specialised diet of shrimp and blue-green algae. According to BBC’s Science Focus, these foods contain a natural dye called canthaxanthin, which causes flamingo feathers to gradually turn pink over time.

Speaking of shrimp, they are uniquely odd little critters, anatomically speaking. They’ve got ten legs instead of a backbone and all of their vital organs – not just brain but heart, stomach, ovaries, and testicles – are located inside their heads. And although the words “shrimp” and “prawns” are often used interchangeably, scientifically speaking, they’re members of different suborders.

Able to survive and thrive only in the cleanest, clearest, fast-moving fresh water, caddisflies are mothlike insects that have an enviable ability: They can make their own protective houses. Using the same “silk” they produce to make cocoons as larvae, they stick together tiny bits of river detritus like pebbles, pine needles, and leaves which they fashion into tubelike caves, reports the Hitchcock Center. They add on to these portable homes as they grow bigger.

They moo. They chew grass. They make milk. And they also…make friends?! You heard that right. According to an article in Frontier magazine, scientists have discovered that bovines can have besties and just being around them causes them to feel relaxed and free of stress.