Sometimes I come across odd little facts about things in the garden and in Nature in general. This thread is started by a chap that is bored and has too much time on his hands...that is obvious. Well, be that all as it may....bored is as bored does-- so lets get to it...and why start small. 1,000,000-- During the toad migration in my country 1,000,000 toads are run over by road traffic. This period begins around the end of march and what happens is this--the toads get the urge...the urge to mate. They then leave the area where they spent the winter and migrate to various bodies of water where they mate. This means that they sometimes must cross roads or streets. There are large numbers of volunteers that work with nets and place them in buckets and then take them to the various "Ponds of Romance" and release them. It is a intensive nocturnal job and must continue until the migration has ended. Right then. If you have any nature/garden related numbers please feel free to post therm here. I am always interested in Natural Numbers and plan to post new numbers from time to time.
The Eurasian Harvest Mouse (Micromys minutus) is the smallest rodent in Europe. This animal gets to be 5 - 8 cm long. Its tail is 5 - 7 cm long, almost as long as its body. The long prehensile tail gives it good balance and helps it hold on when climbing. It weighs 4 - 11 grams. It weaves grass to make a nest between a couple of sturdy plant stalks well above ground level.
9-- "The Southern Ground Hornbill is a gigantic bird (sometimes referred to as a Turkey Buzzard – although it is neither a turkey nor a buzzard), and is the largest of the hornbill species. Southern Ground Hornbills are charismatic and highly intelligent birds but are also endangered. Their main threats are the loss of suitable habitat and trees for nesting as well as secondary poisoning. To make matters worse, they breed at a mature age of 8 years and older and on average they only raise one chick to fledgling every 9 years. They lay 2 eggs but raise only one. The social structure of these large, carnivorous ground birds is interesting, with groups of 2 to 11 individuals usually having only one breeding pair per group. With a population that is now estimated at around 1500 in South Africa, the species is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List."
Great posting, 102-- I sure hope that others will follow your lead. That Ground Hornbill is not a bird that I know or have ever seen, so it is interesting to me. Thanks for the posting.
20 - The average length of a giraffe’s tongue is 20 inches. And they can grab things with it. Their tongues are black in color to prevent them from geting sunburnt. Its tongue also features a thick, tough layer that protects it from being cut by the thorns of the Acacia tree. A giraffe can clean its ears with its tongue, and there are plenty of examples clearly showing this weird and unsociable behavior. But not only can and do giraffes clean their own ears with their tongues, they also clean their noses with the same said tongue.
33,000. 33,000 foxes live in English cities. They like it fine and dandy. It is estimated that some 10,000 live in London alone. There are plenty of hiding places for them and they are opportunistic diners, taking what they find. They the make rounds of trash bins at night.
70 In the hole of a Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus) there was once 70 mice found. These birds stash caught prey in holes, broken-off tree trunks as well as tree branch forks throughout the whole year. During harsh winters the frozen corpses of the prey is placed under the tummy and breast feathers of the owl and they will warm in only 20 minutes, after which the owl eats them.
500,000 That's the number of people visiting Geiranger every year, mostly in summer. Geiranger is a small village with a population of 260 people at the bottom of a fjord not far from where I live. The fjord's on the Unesco Wold Heritage list and is quite spectacular as fjords go.
Texas had camels. When Jefferson Davis (later president of the Confederate States of America) was Secretary of War, he imported camels for the southwestern territories in the 1850's.. The camels were to be used in the Indian Wars. When the camels turned out to be too cantankerous for the calvary to use, they were turned loose, and even into the 1920's there were camel sightings in south and western Texas.
17 species of hummingbirds breed in the U.S. Allen's Anna's Berylline Black-chinned Blue-throated Broad-billed Broad-tailed Buff-bellied Calliope Costa's Lucifer Magnificent Ruby-throated Rufous Violet-crowned White-eared Xantus' These are the ones that breed in Idaho. Black-chinned, Rufous, Calliope, Broad-tailed, Anna's, Broad-billed. I have only seen Calliope and Broad-tail at my feeders.
5,000 Hedgehogs are a fasirly common visitor to gardens in neighbourhoods. They are not so common in lotties, because we have fences around our gardens to protect our plants from rabbits. A hedgehog has 5,000 "quills". In moments of danger, he has special muscles that he uses to make them stand out...and at the same time, he tucks his head in and rolls up making himself difficult for a predator to deal with.
