10 amazing facts about animals

We should never forget how amazing animals are. Here are 10 of the most interesting facts!
Always prepared! Humans aren't the only ones that need to worry about sunburn and nasty tan lines. Hippos too can fall victim to the harsh rays, however, unlike us, hippos produce a thick, red, mucus-like sweat that serves as a sunscreen.

When a mama bear gives birth to two or more cubs, each cub can have a different father? Litters of bear cubs (2 cubs or more), are fraternal rather than identical multiple births. Each ovulation in a female bear produces but one ovum, several copulations are required to stimulate the release of the eggs and fertilize them. Source: http://breiterphoto.com/books

Researchers have found that a dogs tail may reveal how he or she is feeling. Happy dogs wag their tail to the right while dogs that are sad, nervous or anxious wag their tails more to the left, and this subtle clue is something other dogs pick up on as well. Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/pets/10418004/How-your-dogs-wagging-tail-can-reveal-its-emotions.html

Sleep. Eat. Mate. Repeat. Male lions snooze for 20 hours a day, with the rest of their time spent walking around and eating. Since female lions do the majority of hunting, typically the only hunting a male does occurs at night. So it turns out that not only do lions not sleep in the "mighty jungle," "tonight" is also the time they are least likely to be sleeping. Source: http://qi.com/infocloud/lions

Moose can feel flies on their antlers. Those big, impressive antlers of a moose are actually quite sensitive. So much so that they can actually feel a fly landing on them. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose

All polar bears today share a surprising ancestor: a mama brown bear that lived in Ireland during the last Ice Age, some 20,000 years ago. Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/23/138640834/todays-polar-bears-trace-ancestry-to-ireland

Like us, cows are pretty complex creatures! Research has shown that cows show emotion and suffer humiliation when humans laugh at them, so be nice to cows! They also form close friendships with other cows and choose to spend the majority of their time with 2-4 individuals. Also just like us, cows 'moo' in accents specific to their region. Source: http://www.onekind.org/be_inspired/animals_a_z/cattle/

Ear Between Legs A praying mantis, while it has two large eyes, only has a single ear, which is located between its legs on the underside of its belly. Due to the ears positioning, it cannot discriminate direction or frequency of sound, but instead detects sound produced by echolocating bats. This ear makes the praying mantis skilled at evading bats. Source: http://www.softschools.com/facts/animals/praying_mantis_facts/125/

Pigs Can Play Video Games We've known for a long time that pigs are smart, but finally pigs have a video game to prove it. The game Pig Chase is a design of the Playing with Pigs project, which researches the relationship between humans and pigs. This first of its kind game created a new form of human-pig interaction and aims to create the opportunity for consumers and pigs to experience the cognitive abilities of each other. Source: http://www.playingwithpigs.nl

Sharks Go Into a Trance When Flipped on Their Backs Sharks enter tonic immobility, which is a natural state of paralysis or hypnosis, when they're flipped over on their backs and, to a certain degree, when their noses are massaged. Source: http://io9.com/5737269/how-to-hypnotize-a-shark-and-other-tales-of-animal-mind-control