By Sue Howell, werc@werc-ca.org

I enjoy reading “did you know …” fascinating facts on a variety of subjects. They are titillating tidbits of trivia that are mentally stimulating and food for thought. They can be serious or silly; it just depends what you are in the mood for. I like to learn something new every day so when I came across www.petandwildlife.com I was delighted to learn several new and fun tidbits. Here are a few from the site:

• Butterflies taste with their feet.

• Turtles can breathe through their butts.

• The flea can jump 350 times its body length. That’s comparable to a human jumping the length of a football field.
• The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
• The human eye contains one lens. The common housefly has 3,000. A dragonfly eye has 30,000 lenses.
• Cats always go to the person who likes them least because there is no eye contact made with them. It makes them feel less threatened and renders the person more approachable.
• The stomach of a fully grown polar bear can hold more than 150 lbs. of food.
• Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk right foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot, left foot.

• The bat is the only mammal that can fly.
• There are 233 species of primates alive in the world. One of those species is humans!

• All polar bears are left handed.

• It is possible for one female cat and her offspring to be responsible for the birth of 20,736 kittens in four years. Is this a good argument for spaying or what?