Animal Facts About Survival

The Kangaroo Rat can last longer without water than a camel.

To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.

Mike the Headless Chicken lived for 18 months after a Colorado farmer swung an axe in 1945. The axe missed his jugular vein and left most of his brain stem and one ear intact. Farmer Lloyd Olsen kept him alive by feeding him with an eyedropper. Scientists at the University of Utah examined Mike and confirmed the story was real. Fruita, Colorado still holds a festival in his honor every May.

The lungfish can live out of water for three years in a state of suspended animation.

Elephants are terrified of Bees and actually have a special, distinct vocalization for “Run away the Bees are angry”

A rat can fall from a five story building without injury.

More than 90% of shark attack victims survive.

A snail can enter dormancy for up to three years during drought conditions.

A cockroach will live nine days without it's head, before it starves to death.

In 2005, a 12-year-old Ethiopian girl was kidnapped by seven men trying to force her into marriage. When police found her a week later, three lions were standing guard around her. The kidnappers were gone. The lions turned and walked back into the forest as the humans approached.

Some birds in cities have learned to line their nests with cigarette butts in order to ward off parasites, as burnt nicotine works as an insecticide to ward off mites, lice, and fleas.

Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food.

Army ants are used as “natural sutures”. Their jaws are so powerful, natives staple wounds by forcing ants to bite them and break off the body.

Hippos secrete a red-pink fluid, dubbed "blood sweat", which acts as a skin moisturizer, water repellent, sunscreen, and antibiotic.

Some older/less efficient worker termites will develop 'backpacks' of toxic chemicals that explode when the termite is threatened. They are essentially used as suicide bombers when the colony is being attacked.

15% of snails survive digestion by birds and are found alive in their droppings, potentially leading to the spread of snail populations.

Parrotfish make themselves a kind of mucus 'sleeping bag' which masks their smell from predators and keeps parasites away.

In 2004, four lifeguards were swimming off Ocean Beach, New Zealand when a pod of seven dolphins suddenly herded them into a tight group and started circling. For 40 minutes, the dolphins swam inches from their bodies, slapping the water with their tails. When one swimmer tried to break away, two dolphins pushed him back. Only then did he spot the 9-foot great white shark circling two metres below them.

Valerie, a miniature dachshund, escaped her owners on Kangaroo Island, Australia and survived alone for 529 days among kangaroos, snakes, and heat waves. After 1,000+ hours of searching, she was finally caught using strips of her owner's worn shirt as bait. She came back 4 lbs heavier.

In August 1923, a 2-year-old Scotch Collie named Bobbie was separated from his family during a road trip through Wolcott, Indiana - 2,551 miles from home. Six months later, on February 15, 1924, he turned up at his family's door in Silverton, Oregon: gaunt, paws bloody, claws worn to nothing. He had crossed the Continental Divide alone, in winter. He came home.