Furry or Hairy Things
Some unique aspects of mammals...who only came into prominence after the dinosaurs got bored and left...

• A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.
• A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.
• The first house rats recorded in America appeared in Boston in 1775.
• A zebra is white with black stripes.
• Animal gestation periods: the shortest is the American opossum, which bears its young 12 to 13 days after conception; the longest is the Asiatic elephant, taking 608 days, or just over 20 months.
• Rats can't throw-up. That’s why poison works so well on them.
• The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
• Camel milk does not curdle.
• Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.
• Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying members of their own species.
• Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range: between 14 and 35 hertz.
• Every year, $1.5 billion is spent on pet food. This is four times the amount spent on baby food.
• Infant beavers are called kittens.
• It takes 35 to 65 minks to produce the average mink coat. The numbers for other types of fur coats are: beaver - 15; fox - 15 to 25; ermine - 150; chinchilla - 60 to 100.
• Cojo, the 1st gorilla born in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo, in Ohio, in 1956 and weighed 3 1/4 pounds.
• Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump.
• Macaroni, Gentoo, Chinstrap and Emperor are types of penguins.
• A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.
• Some baby giraffes are more than six feet tall at birth.
• The 1st buffalo ever born in captivity was born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in 1884.
• The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in 1866.
• Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
• The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue.
• The elephant, as a symbol of the US Republican Party, was originated by cartoonist Thomas Nast and first presented in 1874.
• Moles are able to tunnel through 300 feet of earth in a day.
• The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 70 million years.
• The male penguin incubates the single egg laid by his mate. During the two month period he does not eat, and will lose up to 40% of his body weight.
• The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.