Category Sea/Ocean

The giraffe is the world’s tallest living animal, stretching up to 6 m (20 ft) thanks to its long legs and extremely long neck. Typically, these fascinating animals roam the open grasslands in small groups of about half a dozen.

Bulls sometimes battle one another by butting their long necks and heads. Such contests aren’t usually dangerous and end when one animal submits and walks away.

The giraffe’s height also helps it to keep a sharp lookout for predators across the wide expanse of the African savanna.

The giraffe’s stature can be a disadvantage as well—it is difficult and dangerous for a giraffe to drink at a water hole. To do so they must spread their legs and bend down in an awkward position that makes them vulnerable to predators like Africa’s big cats. Giraffes only need to drink once every several days; they get most of their water from the luscious plants they eat.

Female giraffes give birth standing up. Their young endure a rather rude welcome into the world by falling more than 5 feet to the ground at birth. These infants can stand in half an hour and run with their mothers an incredible ten hours after birth.

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A female Goliath birdeater weighs about 170 g (6 oz), which is roughly the same weight as a medium-sized apple. The male is much smaller. Insects make up most of the Goliath diet, but frogs and rodents are on the menu too. Goliaths prowl the Amazon in northern South America. When a Goliath pounces on a mouse, for example, its inch-long fangs act like hypodermic needles, pumping neurotoxins into the hapless prey. The spider then drags the dying animal back to its burrow and begins the digestion process. Spiders can’t ingest solid material, so they first liquefy the prey’s insides, then suck it dry. Though they don’t spin webs to trap food, Goliaths do use their weaving skills in another way: to line their burrows under the forest floor.

It’s deadly to small creatures, but the Goliath’s venom is not lethal to humans. A bite would sting about as much as a wasp’s. The giant spider is a delicacy in some parts of South America—though its urticating hairs are carefully singed away before the spider is roasted in banana leaves.

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Dung beetles have dark, round bodies, six legs and long flying wings folded under hard, protective covers. Some male dung beetles have strong horns on their heads, too. Found worldwide on every continent except Antarctica, these brilliant bugs live in habitats ranging from hot, dry deserts to lush forests. There are three main types of dung beetle – rollers, tunnellers and dwellers – each named for the way the way the beetles use the poop they find. Rollers shape dung into balls and roll them away from the pile. They then burry the balls to either munch on later or to use as a place to lay their eggs. Tunnellers dive into the dung pile, usually working in a ‘male-female’ pair, and dig a tunnel beneath it. The female beetle then stays in the tunnel sorting out the dung brought down by the male. Dwellers, on the other hand, simply live inside the pooey pile. Female dwellers lay their eggs there, and when the larvae (or young) hatch them happily munch away on the food that surrounds them. The dung beetle can pull a weight that is 1,141 times heavier than its own body. That is the equivalent of a human pulling six buses at once.

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Cuvier’s have flipper pockets, a special adaption for diving which allows them to tuck their flippers in and make their bodies super-streamlined.

Cuvier’s beaked whales are amazing, but like so many species, they are vulnerable to human activities. They are especially vulnerable to intense noise created by military sonar. They suffer decompression sickness, or ‘the bends’, if they are frightened or panicked by man-made noise and surface too quickly.  Tragically, mass strandings of Cuvier’s beaked whales, some of whom were still alive, have occurred in places  around the world following naval sonar exercises.

 Cuvier’s beaked whale can dive to depths of almost 3 km (1.9 miles). One whale stayed underwater for a record 2 hours and 18 minutes.

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The snow leopard can leap as far as 15 m (50 ft) when chasing after prey such as wild goats. That is about 15 times its body length. They are insulated by thick hair, and their wide, fur-covered feet act as natural snowshoes. Snow leopards have powerful legs and are tremendous leapers, able to jump as far as 50 feet. They use their long tails for balance and as blankets to cover sensitive body parts against the severe mountain chill. Snow leopards prey upon the blue sheep of Tibet and the Himalaya, as well as the mountain ibex found over most of the rest of their range. Though these powerful predators can kill animals three times their weight, they also eat smaller fare, such as marmots, hares, and game birds. One Indian snow leopard, protected and observed in a national park, is reported to have consumed five blue sheep, nine Tibetan woolly hares, twenty-five marmots, five domestic goats, one domestic sheep, and fifteen birds in a single year.

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The sailfish can swim at a speed of 110 kph (68 mph) in short bursts. That means it can swim 10 times its body length 9 in 1 second. They are members of the billfish family, and as such, have an upper jaw that juts out well beyond their lower jaw and forms a distinctive spear. They are found near the ocean surface usually far from land feeding on schools of smaller fish like sardines and anchovies, which they often shepherd with their sails, making them easy prey. They also feast on squid and octopus. Their meat is fairly tough and not widely eaten, but they are prized as game fish. These powerful, streamlined beasts can grow to more than 10 feet and weigh up to 220 pounds. When hooked, they will fight vigorously, leaping and diving repeatedly, and sometimes taking hours to land.

Picture Credit : Google