The Green List
May 2007

1. Even inside its egg, an unhatched baby octopus can squirt ink.

2. There are roughly 2,400 species of snakes in the world.

3. Three countries without any snakes: Iceland, Ireland and New Zealand.

4. Frogs live on all continents except Antarctica.

5. The average temperature in the Antarctic is -49 °C. Because it receives less than 10" of precipitation annually, the continent is technically a desert.

6. U.S. researchers have recently found a way to measure the temperature 3,000km beneath the earth’s surface, where the core and the mantle meet. It’s about 3,700 degrees Celsius!

7. Why do we call them koala bears, if they aren’t bears? Koalas are actually members of the marsupial family, like kangaroos. Like all marsupials, mother koalas carry their babies in protective pouches until they are ready to care for themselves.

8. Koalas sleep between 19 and 20 hours a day. Teenagers all over the world are jealous.

9. Talk about knuckle draggers! Orangutans' arms are one-and-a-half times longer than their legs and reach nearly 8 feet from the fingertip of one to the other.

10. A single roost containing over 28,600 Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni) and 16,000 African Swallow-tailed Kite (Chelictinia riocourii) was discovered in Senegal.  Though the existence of communal roosts during the non-breeding season is not uncommon in Western Africa, this roost of some 45,000 insectivorous raptors is considered to be one of the largest bird of prey roosts ever found.

11. Lesser Kestrels winter in Africa and Pakistan. Though the number of kestrels  found in the super roost may seem very high, the South African wintering population has seen a 50 per cent decline since 1971.

Turkey Vulture. Credit: Larry Master

12. Wonderful manners! Turkey vultures will lead one another to food, and should they come across another vulture feeding they will politely wait their turn to eat.

13. Ontario’s Eastern Ratsnake is the largest snake in Canada, growing up to 1.5-1.8 metres long.

14. They’re awfully cute…if you can see one! Canada’s woodland vole is one of the smallest rodents in North America, measuring 10 to 13 cm in length and weighing 20 to 37 g. Rarely appearing above ground, this vole prefers the tunnels, nests and burrows it makes in soft, sandy soil beneath tree roots and leaf litter.

15. Hagfish – blind, jawless, finless bottom dwellers often mistaken for eels – secrete slime from over 200 slime glands when attacked. The slime absorbs with seawater to form a giant slime ball that coats the gills of the attacking fish and sometimes suffocates it!

16. The Blackpoll Warbler of Canada’s Boreal region travels almost 3,400 km over the Atlantic Ocean on its way to wintering grounds in South America.

17. Twenty-six million waterfowl – that’s 80% of North America’s waterfowl species – breed in the Boreal Forests of Northern Canada.

18. Only 8% of the Boreal is protected from development.

19. The Galapagos tortoise is the largest living tortoise. It can weigh over 500 pounds and measure 6 feet from head to tail.

20. The world’s smallest turtle is the southern speckled padloper of Southern Africa. They can be just 4 inches long and weigh only a few ounces.

21. A is for Aardvark. While many animals use tools or beaks to get bugs for meals, the aardvark takes advantage of its tapered, sticky, extendable 12-inch tongue to get termites from their mounds.

22. Another fabulous aardvark feature is its ability to close its nostrils and fold its ears to keep termites from getting in.

23. Not all birds build nests. Andean Condors lay eggs on cave floors high in the mountains.

24. Not all birds sit on their eggs either! Brush Turkeys bury their eggs in mounds of decaying plant material, allowing the heat of the organic decomposition warm the eggs.

25. Prairie dogs live in underground communities called towns. Their tunnel systems can cover 100 acres or more!

Prairie Dogs. Credit: Jeff Nadler

26. Prairie dogs aren’t really dogs at all. They are one of about 2,000 rodent species that live on earth. 

27. Large molars – useful for eating plants – are found in all bears except the polar bear, making it a true carnivore; the only bear that depends primarily on animal food.

28. Some animals, such as dogs and cats, walk on their toes (digitigrade); others, such as humans and bears, walk on the soles of their feet (plantigrade).

Antlers, horns, what's the difference?

29. Antlers, horns, what’s the difference? Antlers are bony, branched structures that are shed annually. Horns are unbranched, and permanent.

30. A rhinoceros horn is made of compressed keratin fibers, the same material that makes up fingernails and hair.

31. To assist in flight, a bird’s reproductive organs (testes, ovaries and oviducts) remain tiny for most of the year, then grow considerably just in time for breeding season.