Tuesday Trivia

I haven't done Tuesday Trivia in nearly a month. What is wrong with me??

I don't want you to think I'm off the subject of my dog-family, so in keeping with the theme, here is a collection of trivia about ..... CRITTERS!!


ABOUT ANIMALS/CRITTERS IN GENERAL:

• Despite its hefty weight, a black rhinoceros is very agile and can gallop at 30 mph (48 km/h).
• Tarantula hawks are named for the fact that they hunt tarantulas as food for their larvae. It's sting is rated as one of the most painful in the world. One researcher described the sting as causing immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. The Tarantula Hawk is the official state insect of New Mexico. (and if you mess with us, we'll sic one on ya!!)
  
• The Deathstalker is a species of scorpion that is highly dangerous because of its venom. The venom is actually a powerful mixture of neurotoxins. Although, the poison would not kill a healthy adult, it could be fatal to kids and the elderly. Ironically, a component of the venom has the potential to cure human brain tumors while the other toxins may help against diabetes.
• A bite from a Bullet ant will not kill you, but you will never forget it. The Bullet ant (thus named because a bite feels like being shot) inflicts the most painful bite of any creature known to man. It is described as causing waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours.
• No one has ever been able to domesticate the African elephant. Only the Indian elephant can be trained by man.
• Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.
• Vampire and fruit bats can hear pitch as high as 210,000 hertz, ten times higher than humans. The dolphin's hearing is even more sensitive, with an acuity of 280,000 hertz.
• A goldfish has a memory span of about 3 seconds.
• The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.
• "Eat like a bird" is a popular saying meaning to eat very little. However, many birds eat twice their weight in food a day.
• The ancient Egyptians often named their children after animals-such as Gazelle, Monkey or Wolf.
• Ninety-nine percent of all lobsters die a few weeks after hatching. In fact, the odds are 10,000 to 1 against any larval lobster living long enough to end up as a lobster dinner.
• The dog on the Cracker Jack package is named Bingo.
• Beaver teeth are so sharp that Native Americans once used them as knife blades.
• An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mph.

ABOUT BEES:

• Between 20,000 and 60,000 bees live in a single hive. The queen bee lays 1,500 eggs a day and lives for up to 2 years. The drone, whose only job it is to mate with the queen bee, has a lifespan of around 24 days - they have no stinger. Worker bees - all sterile females - usually work themselves to death within 40 days in summer, collecting pollen and nectar. Worker bees fly up to 14km (9 miles) to find pollen and nectar, flying at 24km/h (15 mph).
• A worker bee communicates her floral findings by performing a dance on the honeycomb. The orientation of her movements and the frequency of her vibrations indicate the direction and distance of the flowers.
• Flowers are pollinated mostly by bees; up to one third of all plant pollination on earth are by bees. In short, this means that one in every three spoons of food you put in your mouth was a direct result of the work done by bees.
• Bees do not have ears, but they have an excellent sense of smell with chemoreceptors in their antennae. Bees see colors differently than we do. They are insensitive to red but detects ultraviolet light which is invisible to us.
• The worker bees defend the hive. The muscular barbed stinger quickly saw into the skin of the invader and the venom pouch begins to contract rhythmically to pump venom into the intruder.
• Bees can be used to detect landmines. Tiny radio plates the size of a rice grain will be attached to honey bees to detect antipersonnel landmines, of which there are about 100 million in 70 war-torn countries. The tiny radio plates are engraved with serial numbers to keep track of the bees, which are being conditioned to develop a preference in addition to nectar, in this case TNT, or any other material that releases metamphenamine. Special spectrometers that can "smell" TNT are placed in movable beehives to indicate landmines in specific areas. Bees that "smell" of explosives can then be tracked to the landmine. The bees won't detonate the landmines.

Whew! Lotsa stuff to make your mind whirl! Now go back to work and slow the brain down to its normal speed!! LOL!