Nature Facts

The Saguaro Cactus, found in South-western United States does NOT grow branches until it is 75 years old.

The world's oldest crow was 59 years old. Its name was Tataji.

Research indicates that plants grow healthier when they are stroked.

Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet!

About 25% of Africa remains wilderness, compared to roughly 27% of North America—making them surprisingly similar despite very different development histories.

There is a giant mushroom in Oregon that is over 2,400 years old, covers 3.4 square miles of land, and is still growing!

The average ice berg weighs 20,000,000 tons!

The Niagara Falls moves upstream at an average rate of about 295ft a century!

Pollen never deteriorates. It is one of the few natural substances that lasts indefinitely.

It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up.

The most powerful electric eel is found in the rivers of Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, and Peru, and produces a shock of 400-650 volts.

The Giant South African Earthworm can grow up to 22 feet long and 1 inch in thick.

José Prudencio Padilla had 22 ships against Spain's 32 at Lake Maracaibo - and one secret weapon. The Catatumbo lightning strikes the same Venezuelan sky up to 28 times a minute, lighting up the Spanish fleet in the dark. Padilla's ambush secured Venezuela's independence in a single afternoon in 1823. This same storm still fires 260 nights a year - the most concentrated lightning on Earth.

All the swans in England are property of the Queen.

A full-grown bear can run as fast as a horse.

The 'Bicycle Tree', found near Brig o' Turk in Scotland, has consumed an entire bike that now hangs out of its bark.

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

At one 'feeding', a mosquito can absorb one and a half times its own weight in blood.

Over 90% of land plants are connected through underground fungal networks called mycorrhizae, which allow trees to share nutrients, water, and chemical signals with each other—a system scientists call the 'Wood Wide Web.'

A single weaver ant can pull 60 times its own body weight. But in a group of 15, each ant pulls 103 times its weight. Humans get lazier in groups. Ants get stronger.

A forest of 47,000 aspen trees in Utah is actually one single organism. Every trunk connects underground to the same root system. The colony is called Pando, and it covers 106 acres. It weighs an estimated 6,000 metric tons - one of the heaviest living things ever found. That root system may be up to 16,000 years old. One tree. 80 football fields.

The Coco de Mer grows the world's largest seed - up to 25 kg and half a metre long. For centuries sailors found the giant nuts drifting in the Indian Ocean with no tree in sight, so they decided it must grow on a tree on the seafloor. The palm grows wild on just two islands on Earth, and every nut now needs a government permit to leave.

Lake Natron in Tanzania is so alkaline (pH up to 10.5) and hot (up to 60°C / 140°F) that animals that die in it get preserved and coated in mineral salts - their calcified carcasses inspired Nick Brandt’s famous posed-statue photos. The twist: this same caustic lake is where 75% of the world’s lesser flamingos are born. The soda flats and toxic water keep predators out, making it the safest nursery on Earth.

Lemurs chew toxic millipedes and rub the secretions on their fur to repel mosquitoes, but the side effects accidentally send them to another dimension.