Hyenas Can Be Pests

Hyenas are famous scavengers, but they actually kill and eat several birds, lizards, snakes and insects. In Africa, hyenas and humans come in contact so frequently that the Maasai people actually leave their dead to be eaten by hyenas. However, the hyenas also raid food stores and crops and often kill livestock and sometimes even humans. Because of these incidents, the hyena is thought of as a pest. While many think that the hyena is related to the dog, it's actually more closely related to the cat. Read more!

Falcons Swoop Fast

Peregrine falcons are one of the world's most common birds of prey, living on all continents except Antarctica. They hunt from the sky, and after seeing their prey, they drop down at 200 miles an hour to swoop up their next meal. Read more!

Diving Seals Take A Nap

When elephant seals migrate from California to the mid-Pacific and around Alaska, they can spend two to eight months without stopping. Because there's no land to bask in the sun on and the seabed is miles below the surface, scientists didn't know how they slept during this period. However, a new study shows that elephant seals may use their long dives — sometimes up to 984 feet — to take a little nap. During the dives, they lay back and allow themselves to sink. Read more!

Arctic Foxes Survive Everyday Blizzards

The Arctic Fox can survive in some of the harshest climates, as cold as –58°F (-50°C). Its white coat camouflages well against any arctic tundra. In the summer, its coat changes to a brown or gray color to adapt to the fox's surroundings. In order to stay out of blizzards, the arctic fox lives in burrows; however, sometimes it creates tunnels in the snow for shelter. Read more!

Ferrets Sleep the Day Away

Black-footed ferrets sleep up to 21 hours a day, and mostly hunt during the night. They mainly prey on prairie dogs, hunting them in burrows and taking their shelter. Due to a government-assisted wipeout of prairie dog towns in the 20th century (because their underground burrows are destructive to farmers' fields), the black-footed ferret also suffered from lack of food and shelter. As a result, the animal is still endangered. Read more!

Hear Tigers Roar

At one point, there were eight tiger subspecies, and now there are only five. In the last 100 years, tiger populations have gone from hundreds of thousands to around 1,500. All of the remaining five subspecies are endangered because of hunting and deforestation issues.

Bonus Fact: A tiger's roar can be heard as far as 2 miles away.

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Butterflyfish Camouflage With Patterns

There are over 114 species of butterflyfish. Most of them have intricate patterns with beautiful colors. These patterns work to their advantage too. Many have dark bands near their eyes, and dots on their flanks that make it hard for predators to figure out which end is their face. At night, butterflyfish stay in dark crevices where their colors camouflage with the natural reef surroundings. Read more!

The Pesty Cane Toad

The venomous cane toad was originally let out into the Australian wild in 1935 because scientists believed that they could help control the destructive cane beetle population. Unfortunately, the toads weren't very good at controlling beetles; however, they were quite good at reproducing themselves. When they were first released, there were about 3,000 of them; now there are over a million. Today they are considered pests, and the Australian government encourages the collection and disposal of them. Their venom can be painful, but very rarely does it kill humans. Read more!

Pandas Love Bamboo

The giant panda loves bamboo. On average, a single panda eats up to 28 pounds a day. It often takes them 12 hours to do so, and because of all that eating, the panda also spends a lot of time relieving itself — more than a dozen times a day. Talk about a feeding frenzy! Read more!

Porcupines have soft hair, but they have sharp quills mixed in on their back, sides and tail. The quills of Africa's crested porcupine can even grow up to a foot long. Read more!