Zoology Facts for Kids

The fastest land animal by far is the cheetah, which can run at speeds of up to 113 kph. A peregrine falcon, however, can dive towards the ground at a whopping 389 kph!

Hummingbirds are among the world's tiniest birds. They're also the only birds that can hover in one place and fly backwards.

Baby goats have been called kids since the 13th century. Children on the other hand have only been called kids since the late 1500s.

Unlike all other species in the animal kingdom, in the case of seahorses (and their close relatives, pipefish and seadragons) it's the male that undergoes pregnancy and eventually gives birth.

The electric eel, Electrophorus electricus, can deliver a shock of up to 860 volts.

Horses and cows both sleep while standing up.

A polar bear's fur provides such effective insulation that they are nearly undetectable by heat-detecting infrared cameras.

Depending on the species, a cat's tail contains anywhere from 18-28 bones—about 10% of all of the bones in its body.

Polar bears have neither white fur nor white skin. They actually have two layers of clear fur and—believe it or not—black skin. Their fur appears white due to an optical illusion.

Horseshoe crabs have a total of ten eyes: three near their mouth, four on top of their shell, two on their underside, and one on their tail.

Platypuses and four different species of echidna (spiny anteaters) are the only living species of monotreme—mammals that lay eggs and have modified snouts or beaks.

A certain Central American salamander, Bolitoglossa dofleini, can flick out its tongue a distance of more than half its body length in 7 seconds. That's 50 times faster than the blink of an eye.

Although camels can drink about 8.5 liters of water in a minute, they don't store water in their hump. Instead, a camel's hump stores fat, which serves as a backup storage of energy.

Think birds are the only animals that can fly? Bats are actually mammals, like us.