Cats started being domesticated from the time of the ancient Egyptians and in Cyprus 10,000 years ago, but are believed to descend from the Fertile Crescent and the "Near Eastern wildcat" 70-100,000 years ago.
A female is a "Molly" or "Queen" while a male is a "Tom". Domestic cats can see around six times better than humans at night, while we hear frequencies from 64Hz-23,000Hz, cats range from 45Hz-64,000Hz and they can smell around 14 times better!
The other animal in our household is the goldfish, which has been around my house for close to 15 years and is a member of the Carp family.
Goldfish originated in China around 1,000AD.
There are a few things people think they know about Goldfish but the main one - their short memory (we're talking seconds here, folks) has been proven incorrect.
Their memory is at least a couple of months long, maybe more. Goldfish don't have a stomach and they sleep with their eyes open. Spooky!
We don't have to look far outside the family home, to find the next animal in our roulette. Bats.
Most of us know they do not see well and combine that with hunting at night and they should have a problem. I would be a bit groggy after sleeping upside down in a cave all day/
But if evolution has taught us anything, it is that every species adapts (maybe not always successfully but back on topic). Bats use sonar to get around, they emit pulses of sound and navigate by the timing and direction echoes that bounce back from objects in their path. Some insects emerge at night due to less predators, meaning the bat has more than enough to feed on.
Kangaroo fart.
Exactly, an attention-grabber if there ever was one. From outside the home to the other side of the world. A certain TV show once broadcasted that Kangaroos cannot or do not fart/trump.
A little look into this and maybe my memory has let me down and they can pass wind but it is nowhere near as harmful to the environment as the methane passed out by cattle and sheep. Some articles say they can and others say they cannot.
Scientists in late 2007 were reported to be looking at using bacteria found in a Kangaroos stomach, transmitting it to cattle and sheep in the hope it would cut down on their Greenhouse Gas production. No news as yet as to whether this worked or not/is still in progress/was abandoned.
There are 25 "Quite Interesting" facts about animals posted on the Telegraph website from an extract of a "Quite Interesting" book.
An example from the above link: Spiders' silk is five times stronger than steel and 30 times more stretchy than nylon. An average spider will spin more than four miles of silk in a lifetime and this can be collected and woven into garments.
An octopus has three hearts, nine brains and eight tentacles and can change colour depending on emotion. Like a Chameleon, who do not change colour to match backgrounds, it is a reaction based on their emotional state.
My above synopsis and the 25 or even 100 in the book will hardly begin to scratch the surface of how amazing and diverse a planet we live in with regards to all creatures great and small. I am growing to embrace every crumb of knowledge, as I know I will never be able to obtain the loaf.
But we are ignorant and take for granted the majority of other species we share this earth with. Hopefully, just for a moment we can appreciate just how wonderful (and weird) this life is.
SOURCES: http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/HearingRange.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070628-cat-ancestor.html
http://www.happy-goldfish.com/blog/10-goldfish-facts/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812332,00.html
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/blogs/109/Kangaroos-dont-fart.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3634153/Gorillas-can-talk...-and-24-other-QI-facts.html
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