Mammals Facts

Vampire bats adopt orphans, and are one of the few mammals known to risk their own lives to share food with less fortunate roost-mates.

The oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years.

Most mammals, regardless of size, have hearts that beat approximately 1 billion times over their lifetime.

The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.

The male platypus has poisonous spurs on its legs.

Lurch, a Watusi bull, had the largest horns in the world.

The Blue Whale's tongue weighs more than an adult elephant!

Giant Anteaters' front legs look like a panda.

In just about every species of mammal, the female lives longer than the male.

Caucasian Mountain Dog (aka Russian Bear Dog) males reach over 200lb and have historically been used to hunt bears.

Male monkeys lose the hair on their heads in the same way men do.

Koalas are not bears—they're marsupials more closely related to wombats and kangaroos.

The elephant is one of the few mammals that can't jump!

The raccoon dog is a wild animal in East Asia which looks like a raccoon but is actually a dog.

A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside!

On average, it takes 660 days from conception for an elephant to give birth.

An elephant's tooth can weigh as much as 12 pounds.

Large kangaroos can cover more than 30 feet with each jump!

A mole can dig a hole 300 feet deep in one night.

Prairie dogs affectionately greet each other with a 'kiss'.

A newborn Chinese water deer is so small, it can (almost) be held in the palm of a hand.

The difference between antlers and horns is that antlers are shed each year and are made of bone while horns are kept for life and are made of living tissue and bone with a sheath that is very similar to human finger nails.

Some bat species sleep up to 20 hours per day, making them among the longest-sleeping mammals on Earth.