Do you know which where the term chicken
pox came from? How about which farm animal is the closest living
relative to the Tyrannosaurus Rex or what mental disease causes
a man to think he is an ox? You can find the answer below as well
as some other amazing facts that you might not have known about
pigs, horses, cattle, chickens, turkeys, and sheep.
1. The tongue of a pig has
six thousand more taste buds than a human's. Humans have 15,000
while pigs only have 9,000.
2. Pigs and light-colored horses
are the only two mammals besides humans that can get sunburned.
3. Pigs have been rated as
the fourth most intelligent animal in the world, and are believed
to be as smart if not smarter than dogs.
4. In truth, "to sweat
like a pig" would mean that you do not sweat at all. Pigs have
no sweat glands.
5. If a pig was able to fly,
other pigs would be unable to see him. Pigs are incapable of looking
up.
6. The average horse eats seven
times its own weight in food each year.
7. Horses live about thirty
years. However, an English barge horse named "Old Billy"
was sixty-two years old when he died and is the oldest recorded
horse.
8. If a female horse and a
male donkey mate, the offspring is known as a mule. If a male horse
and a female donkey mate, the offspring is known as a hinny. Both
mules and hinnies are usually sterile.
9. The number of hooves raised
on a horse statue does not indicate how the rider died. The common
belief was that two legs raised indicated the person died in battle,
one leg raised indicated the person died from wounds they received
in battle, and no legs raised indicated the person died from natural
causes. However, this belief can be applied to most of the statues
located at Gettysburg National Park.
10. In Columbia, a cow once
committed murder after it stepped on a loaded rifle and shot another
cow in the head.
11. Cows are color blind. Bulls
charge a matador's cape because it is moving, not because it is
red.
12. There are more cows in
the United States than people. New Zealand has more sheep than people.
They have 70 million sheep but only 40 million people.
13. Cows produce about thirty
percent of the methane in the atmosphere.
14. Twelve or more cows are
known as a fink.
15. A cow's glands are located
in its nose.
16. Boanthropy is a rare mental
disorder that causes a person to think he is an ox. One of the first
recorded cases is in the book of Daniel (4:33), which tells about
Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king who would eat grass.
17. Because of the way a cow's
legs bend, they are incapable of walking downstairs. However, they
can walk upstairs.
18. During her lifetime, a
cow will produce about 200,000 glasses of milk. Cows will produce
more milk when they are listening to music.
19. A donkey's eyes are placed
so that it is able to see all four of its feet no matter which way
it looks.
20. More people are killed
annually by donkeys, on average, then die in plane crashes.
21. Russian breeders once claimed
that they had produced a sheep with blue wool.
22. Chickens are not very good
at flying. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is only thirteen
seconds. The longest recorded distance flown by a chicken is 301.5
feet.
23. Scientists believe that
the closest living relative to the Tyrannosaurs Rex is the chicken.
24. There is approximately
the same amount of chickens as there are people with the most of
each species living in China, which has about three billion chickens.
The U.S. has only about 450 million chickens.
25. An egg's shell is determined
by the breed of chicken. Not all chicken eggs are white or brown;
some chickens, such as the Ameraucana and the Araucana, produce
blue and green eggs. The color of the yolk, however, can be affected
by the chicken's diet. Feeding certain dyes to chickens can cause
them to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.
26. The term "chicken
pox" comes from the Old English term "gican pox,"
which referred to an inching pox, not because people believed the
illness was caused by chickens.
27. Chickens and turkeys are
capable of crossbreeding. When they do, they produce offspring that
are known as turkins.
28. Although the turkey originated
in North and Central America around 10 million years ago, it was
mistakenly named after what was believed to be its country of origin.
29. Most domestic turkeys are
incapable of flying. Wild turkeys can, however, and are capable
of reaching speeds of fifty-five miles per hour for short distances.
They can also run up to twenty-five miles per hour.
30. Equinophobia is the fear
of horses; alektorophobia is the fear of chickens; and taurophobia
is the fear of bulls. There is no official term for the fear of
cows or pigs.
Knowing all this puts a new light
on Old McDonald's farm now, doesn't it? Of course, you rarely heard
about the turkins, hinnies, or modern dinosaurs there.- Darcy Logan
WEIRDO>-(
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That would give humanimals more, not pigs...!