On this page you will find facts on:
Bottlenose dolphins
Australian animals
Chimpanzees
Classification of animals
Emperor Penguins
Hippopotamus
Koala Facts
Lyrebird
Australian Painted Lady Butterfly
Cassowary
Australian Emperor Dragonfly
Bottlenose Dolphin Facts
Bottlenose dolphins are marine mammals that live in tropical oceans around the world. They have a short thick beak (as their name suggests) and a curved mouth, giving the appearance that they are always smiling. Bottlenose dolphins are super swimmers, as they glide through the water using their curved dorsal fin on their back, a powerful tail and their pointed flippers. They can hold their breath underwater for around 7 minutes. Carnivores, our finned friends eat mostly fish but will also eat crustaceans such as shrimp and squid, too.
They live in some waters off the UK and Ireland. Bottlenose dolphins are very social creatures and usually travel in groups called a pod. A pod has around 10 – 15 dolphins in it. They are awesome acrobats and can be seen flipping (breaching) out of water. They can actually launch themselves up to 5 metres out of water before crashing back down with a splash! Bottlenose dolphins breathe through their blowhole, which is a hole at the top of their head. They can inhale and exhale out of this hole when above the surface and close the hole when under the water.
They are usually grey in color, and are around 2 – 4 meters long. They can swim as fast as 30km an hour and dive as deep as 250m below the surface. Bottlenose dolphins are great at communication! These magnificent mammals produce highpitched clicks to help them navigate and find food – a process called "echolocation". When the clicking sound hits an object in the water – such as a rock or fish – they bounce back to the dolphin as echoes. From this they can work out the location, size and shape of the object!
These dolphins like to play and hunt together, as well as cooperate to raise their baby dolphins (calves). Although they live underwater, the bottlenose dolphin must come up to the surface to breath air. They like to send message to each other in different ways – they squeak and whistle and also use body langage, leaping out of the water, snapping their jaws and even butting heads. Illegal hunting, fishing nets and pollution are threats to bottlenose dolphins.
Chimpanzee Facts
Chimpanzees are one of our planets 'great apes', along with gorillas and orangutans. Chimps laugh when they play, hug to show affection and are able to walk upright like humans. After humans, they are the most intelligent of our planet's primates and they’ve developed impressive ways of communicating. Grooming is a super important activity for chimpanzees – it not only keeps them clean, but helps them build friendships and strengthen bonds with each other too. Females generally give birth to a single chimp (or occasionally twins) every 5 to 6 years.
Chimpanzee's have long arms that extend below their knees, short legs and black hair covering most of their body. Today most of the chimpanzees are found in Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon. They talk to each other using different gestures, facial expression and sounds such as hoots, grunts and screams. When it comes to food, chimpanzees aren't very fussy. These apes are one of the few animals that actually se tools to help them get things done. They crack open nuts with rocks, fish out insects from nests and logs using sticks, and shelter themselves from rain by holding up leaves like umbrellas.
Chimpanzee's faces are flat with big eyes, a small nose and a wide mouth. Did you know Chimps have expressive faces, big toes and hands that can hold things. In the wild, they live in 'communities' made up of around 15-80 members. Their communities are led by a dominant alpha male. Chimpanzees are experts at grooming and spend a lot of their time running their fingers through each others hair to remove dirt, parasites and dead skin. Some types of chimps eat up to 200 different kinds of food. Today only 150 000 – 200 000 chimpanzee's remain in the wild. Due to habitat loss, hunting and capturing chimps for zoo's, circuses and medical research their population has gotten smaller.
Chimpanzee's live in tropical forests and woodland savannahs of West and Central Africa. In their communities they sleep, travel and feed in smaller sub-groups of up to ten. These sub-groups can be very flexible, with members changing quickly and regularly. Chimpanzees eat a lot of fruit but also eat leaves, flowers, seeds, bird eggs, insects and even other animals such as monkeys and wild pigs. For the first 6 months, the baby chimp clings to the fur on its mother's belly and then later rides around on her back until the age of two. After that the youngster will spend the next 7 to 10 years by its mothers side learning how to find food, use tools and build nests to sleep in.
Emperor Penguin Facts
Emperor penguins are beautiful birds. They are the largest of all the different kinds of penguins. Emperor penguins spend their entire lives in Antarctica – the Earth's southernmost continent – where temperature can drop to –60*C. Around April every year ( the start of Antarctic winter) they meet to breed on the thick Antarctic ice. As baby penguins grow up, their parents leave them in groups called 'creches' so they can go to the ocean and fish.
Adults have a white stomach and a black head, back, tail and wings. To survive in such low temperatures, these brilliant birds have special adaptations – they have large stores of body fat and several layers of scalelike feathers that protect them from icy winds. It takes 2 months for their eggs to hatch. The female feeds her baby (chick) by regurgitating (throwing up) the food in her belly and feeding it to them. Emperor penguins are super swimmers and impressive divers. Today, emperor penguins are threatened and their populations are dying. People fear that as the temperature rises due to global warming, that penguins won't able to breed like they used to.
Emperor penguins have a yellowygold marking on the sides of their heads and necks. They huddle close together in large groups to keep themselves warm. By the time the female lays her egg (usually around June), she has worked up a big appetite! She passes the egg to the male before journeying up to 80km to open ocean where she can feed her hungry tummy on fish, squid and krill. Emperor penguins can reach depths of over 500m when they swim and stay under water for up to 22 minutes. As people are overfishing and taking all the penguins food, people fear that they will get less food to eat in the future and die more quickly.
Emperor penguins are about 115cm tall – about the height of a 6 year old. When the male is in charge of the egg (when the female leaves to get food) he needs to keep it safe and warm. He does this by balancing the egg on his foot and covering it with feathered skin, called a 'brood pouch'. Once the female comes back to look after the baby, the male gets to head to the ocean to fish for his food. In December, the weather gets warmer and the ice begins to break apart. When this happens the water gets closer to the nesting site and the chicks are old enough to go to the ocean all by themselves to feed themselves.
Koala Facts
Koalas are found in eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia. When a baby koala (joey) is born, it immediately climbs up into it's mothers pouch. Koalas grow up to become big eaters, eating up to 1kg of eucalyptus leaves a day. They don't have much energy and when they are not eating leaves they spend their time sleeping on the branches of the trees. Koalas are protected by law however their habitat is in danger. Sadly around 80% of koala habitat has been lost to human homes, drought and forest fire.
Koalas have grey fur with a creamcolored chest, and strong, clawed feet, perfect for living in branches of trees. A joey (baby koala) is blind and earless when it is born and uses its strong sense of touch and smell, as well as natural instinct, to find its way. Koala's are fussy with their food, they only select the most nutritious and tastiest leaves from the trees to eat. They can sleep for up to 18 hours a day – which is 10 more hours than humans!
Koalas are about 6085cm long, and weigh about 14kg. Joeys grow and develop in their mothers pouch for about 6 months. Once they are strong enough, the youngster rides around on its mothers back for a further 6 months, only using the pouch to feed. Eucalyptus leaves (the food koalas eat) are actually super tough and poisonous so God created koalas with a special digestive organ called a cecum. The cecum allows their bodies to break down the leaves without making the koala sick!
Although some people call them koala 'bears' they are not related to bears at all! They are actually marsupials. Marsupials are a group of mammals and have pouches where their newborns develop. Koalas get their name from an Aboriginal term meaning 'no drink'. This is because koalas get almost all their moisture from the leaves they eat, and rarely drink water.
Hippopotamus Facts
Hippopotamus's are large semiaquatic mammals, with a large barrel shaped body, short legs, a short tail and an enormous head. These animals were once found throughout all subSaharan Africa. Sadly, populations have declined due to habitat loss and hunting. Hippo's live in groups (herds) of around 1020 individuals, led by one dominant male. The other members of the herd are females, their young and a few young nonbreeding males. In the wild hippo's live for around 40 years.
Hippo's have greyish to muddybrown skin, which fades to a pale pink color underneath. Their eyes, nose and ears are located on the top of their head, which means they can see and breathe whilst submerged in water. Hippo's are herbivores, and eat mostly grass – and a lot of it! In just one night, they can eat up to 35kg of grass. The dominant male in the herd are very protective over the group. To warn off enemy males, they open their huge mouths and display their long curved teeth! They also make loud grunts and aggressive splashes in the water.
Hippo's are considered the second largest land animal on Earth (behind elephants). To keep themselves cool in the blistering African heat, hippo's spend most of their day in rivers and lakes. Today hippo's are kept in protected areas in East African countries. Although they are enormous, they are great swimmers and can hold their breath for up to 5 minutes under water. Female hippo's are called cows and they give birth every two years, usually to one calf. In captivity hippo's live for up to 50 years.
Male hippo's can be up to 3.5m long and 1.5 tall, and can weigh up to 3200kg (about 3 small cars). Hippo's sweat an oily red liquid which helps protect their skin from drying out – and acts as a sunblock too. They are most active at night, when they are looking for food. When hippo's are completely under the water, their eyes and nostrils fold shut to keep water out. After a female gives birth, the mother and her baby join up with other cows and calves for protection against predators, such as crocodiles, lions and hyenas.
Australian Native Animals
Some animals can not be found any where else in the world, except for Australia. Some of these animals are dingos, koalas, kangaroos, emus, cockatoos, pink galahs, sugar gliders, goannas, and the platypus'.
In Australia we do not have elephants, bears, wolves, lions, monkeys or giraffes. These animals can be found in other continents like America or Africa.
· Lyrebirds can copy sounds from their environment.
· Habitat: live on the ground.
· Have strong legs and feet and short rounded wings.
· Live: Many lyrebirds live in Dandenong Ranges National Park (Victoria) and Kinglake National Park (near Melbourne, Victoria), the Royal National Park in Illawarra region (New South Wales), in many other parks along the east coast of Australia, and non-protected bushland.
· Females start breeding at the age of five or six, and males at the age of six to eight.
· Males defend territories from other males, and those territories may contain the breeding territories of up to 8 females.
· They sing throughout the year but mostly during breeding season from June to august. Sometimes they sing for 4 hours a day.
· They have very colourful tail feathers.
· They are poor fliers and rarely try to fly except when they are gliding downhill.
· They are shy.
· it is hard for scientists to observe their behavior.
· Food: eat stick insects, bugs, amphipods, lizards, frogs and occasionally seeds.
· They find food by scratching with their feet through the leaf-litter.
· The breeding cycle of this bird is long and they can live as long as 30 years.
· Males create mounds of dirt with soil and twigs to stand on.
· They copy sounds such as that of other birds, koalas and dingoes, human whistle, a chainsaw, car engine, car alarm, camera shutter, dogs barking, crying babies, music, mobile phone ring tone and many more.
· People used to call them peacock-wrens and Australian birds-of-paradise.
· Females are 74-84cm long and the males are a larger 80-98cm long.
· When they detect danger, they pause and look at their surroundings, sound an alarm and either run away on foot or seek cover and freeze.
· Firefighters who have been in mine shafts during bushfires have seen lyrebird come in to find shelter too.
· Male lyrebirds try and call females mostly during winter. They stand on the mound of dirt and sing and dance to attract a female.
· These birds are ancient Australian animals. The Australian museum has fossils of lyrebird going back to about 15 million years ago.
· Found: the rainforest in Victoria, New South Wales and south-east Queensland. It is also found in Tasmania where it was introduced in the 19th century.
· Diet: animals on the ground. Including insects such as cockroaches, beetles, earwigs, fly larvae, and moth larvae. They also eat centipedes, spiders, and earthworms.
· When breeding, the female will build a nest, in a gully where she lays a single egg. The egg is incubated over 50 days by the female and the female looks after the chick alone.
· Mostly lives in Australia.
· To find mates, male Australian painted ladies show territorial boss lady behavior.
· Males perch on vegetation in a sunny spot on a hilltop, waiting for females to fly by.
· Males and females look almost identical.
· Sometimes called the thistle butterfly because thistle plants are its favorite nectar plant for food.
· Can fly up to 1.5 kms a day during their migration period.
· Although it mostly lives in Australia, westerly winds and flow the insects to the islands east of Australia, including New Zealand.
· Body: dark brown, almost black all over except the tips of the antenna which are white.
· Lifecycle: lasts around 53 days in the summer.
· Females lay eggs in the centre of the leaf of food plants.
· Adults feed on the nectar of flowers.
· Scientific name: Vanessa cardui which means “butterfly of thistle”.
· Sizea: a medium size butterfly.
· Behaviours: when the weather is cloudy, you can find these butterflies on the ground, huddling together. On sunny days the butterflies prefer areas with colourful flowers.
· During Spring, adult butterflies migrate south in large numbers from northern Queensland and New South Wales.
· Wingspan: 5cm.
· Colours: The base of the wings are brown, which turn into a red brick colour and have stripes of black. Butterfly eggs are green and hatch in about 3 days.
· As a caterpillar: is only active at night and mostly feeds then.
· Flying speed: up to 50kms an hour.
· They do not like winter and often die once winter hits in really cold places.
· Colours on wings: four eyespots on its hindwings that are blue in colour. The underwings are almost identical to the upperwings, except the base of the underwings is a brick red rather than a brown.
· Behaviours: During the day, the caterpillar hides in a curled leaf or at the foot of a food plant. When it is in the pupa, it hangs from the underside of the lead of a plant for about 2 weeks.
· Food: typically uses the native daises as their food plant however it also feeds on several species including capeweed, scotch thistle and lavender.
· The painted lady caterpillar makes its covering out of silk
· Flightless bird.
· Smaller than the ostrich and emu.
· They usually stay away from humans unless they are provoked. Typically all cassowaries are shy birds that are found in the deep forest.
· Speed: run at up to 50 km/h
· Jump up to 1.5 m.
· Food: eat fallen fruit
· Found: tropical forests of New Guinea, East Nusa Tenggara, the Maluka Islands and northeaster Australia.
· They can be dangerous towards other creatures and humans.
· They do not have tail feathers.
· Wings: small wings with 5-6 large feathers.
· Behaviours: swim, walk.
· Looks like: they have a skin-covered casque (helmet) on their heads that grows with age. The shape as size of the casque depends on their species and can be up to 18cm. It may help their head from being hurt when they are running really fast through the forest.
· The cassowary breeding season starts in May to June.
· Females lay 3-8 large, bright green or pale green-blue eggs.
· Sometimes people call it the most dangerous bird in the world.
· Females are larger than males and more brightly coloured.
· Adult southern cassowaries are 1.5 to 1.8m tall, although some females may grow to be 2m tall.
· Cassowaries like to live alone except for when they want to find a mate.
· Their eggs are about 14cm by 9cm.
· The male sits on the eggs for 50-52 days, keeping the temperature good.
· Food: fruit. Some species are omnivorous and will take a range of other plant food, including shoots and grass seeds as well as fungi, invertebrates and small vertebrates.
· A claw is on each second toe (middle toe) of their feet. This claw may be 12cm long.
· Cassowaries sometimes kick humans and animals with their enormously powerful legs.
· They have three toed feet with sharp claws.
· They live between 40-50 years.
· Protective: The male defends the baby chicks against predators, including humans.
· The female does not care for the eggs or the chicks but moves on to lay more eggs in the nest of other males.
· Can grow up to 7cm long.
· Lives:urban areas, fresh water, forests and heath.
· Looks like: large, common, pale brown to yellow dragonfly with dark brown mottling and clear wings.
· Lives: throughout Australia and the South Pacific.
· A very large dragonfly.
· They fly over ponds.
· They are very common in Brisbane.
· During summer, you will see this dragonfly flying over water.
· black dots along its tail.
· To catch prey - uses a basket formed by its legs to catch insects while flying.
· They eat: gnats, mayflies, flies, mosquitoes and other small flying insects.
· They sometimes eat butterflies, moths and bees too.
· the largest dragonfly on the water and will chase away any flying object on its path.
· Looks like: the front of the wings (the costa) are a pale yellow.
· Lifecycle: lay its eggs in the plants under the water.
· Looks like: 2 wings which are about equal size.
· The wings have a pattern on them which are the veins crossing over.
· The pattern on the wings is helpful to identify the Australian Emperor Dragonfly apart from other species of dragonfly’s.
· It spends most of the time flying, defending its territory and hunting prey, not even resting on a sunny day.
· When it is flying it looks very yellow.
· During late afternoon, the dragonfly may rest on grasses and trees.
· The female dragonfly looks like the male.
· The wings are clear in colour.
· The Australian Emperor dragonfly is also known as the yellow emperor dragonfly.
· Its scientific name is Anax pauensis. It belongs to the Aeshnide family.
· They are carnivores.
· A young dragonfly is called a nymph.
· Nymph are born underwater in eggs.
· Nymphs are very fast swimmers and catch their prey very easily.
· Once they are ready to leave their aquatic home, they crawl above the water surface, molt to shed their skin one last time before they take to the skies like a dragonfly.
· At the end of the dragonfly’s abdomen there is a yellow spot called the ‘tail light’.
· If there is an intruder in its territory, it will always be driven away by a series of noise air battles.
· The breeding sites are ponds and slow running water with thick vegetation.
· Its wingspan is 11 cm wide.
· Males are very protective of females.
· Adult dragonflies are excellent hunters and mainly eat other insects.
As nymphs, the dragonflies eat mosquito larvae, other aquatic insects and worms, and even small aquatic vertebrates like tadpoles and small fish.
More websites with facts
National geographic animal facts for kids: https://www.natgeokids.com/au/category/discover/animals/
