Most people may not even suspect it but a large number of the mammals, birds, reptiles and other animals that surround us possess remarkable abilities.
For example, the legendary poison in the scorpion's stinger is not the same across all species. Out of 1826 species of scorpions, only 20 have a potent enough poison to kill a human.
Scorpions are the only animals who commit suicide purposefully. In experiments it has been proven that if a scorpion is trapped in a jar, after a few unsuccessful attempts to get free, it will strike the lower part of its cephalothorax, considered to be its weakest point, with its poisonous stinger.
In birds it has been found that they crash into windows because they think their reflection to be hostile competition. So far there have been 225 species of birds documented that collide into windows on their own. In the US alone, over 1 billion birds are registered to die each year from window collisions.
Magpies are the only birds that organize funerals for the deceased of their kind. Whenever a magpie comes upon the corpse of another magpie, first it prods it to make sure that it's really dead, after which it places a blade of grass over the body of the dead bird.
Scientists have documented how several magpies gather around the corpse of one of their own, stare at it for a few seconds, then fly off.
In the animal kingdom, dolphins, gorillas and elephants also mourn their dead. The chimpanzee, dolphin and elephant are considered to be the most intelligent animals, with the pig, surprisingly, coming in right after them.
Lobsters are the only members of the animal world whose age cannot be determined with accuracy but only supposed by judging their size.
In these sensational animals, fertility does not diminish with age and in fact, the older representatives of the species are more fertile than the younger ones. Lobsters can live for hundreds of years without getting sick.
The shortest pregnancy among animals occurs in the American opossum - just 12 days. The longest pregnancy is in the African elephant - about 2 years.
