Animal Kingdom:
Who's the cleverest?
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This list of the most intelligent mammals is based on research carried out by Edward
O.Wilson, Professor of Zoology at Harvard. He defined intelligence on the basis
of how fast and how well an animal can learn a wide range of tasks. He also takes
into account the size of the animal's brain compared with its body.
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How many legs?
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Some animals have as few as two legs, others as many as 750. Some, such as snakes
and worms, have no legs at all! Most people think that centipedes have 100 legs
and millipedes 1,000. But centipedes, depending on their species, have anything
from 28 to 354 legs and millipedes up to 750.
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| Creature | No of legs |
| Birds | 2 |
| Mammals | 4 |
| Reptiles with legs | 4 |
| Insects | 6 |
| Spiders | 8 |
| Crabs, shrimps | 10 |
| Woodlice | 14 |
| Most caterpillars | 16 |
| Most millipedes | 30 |
| Centipede with most legs | 354 |
| Millipede with most legs | 750 |
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Bird's eggs
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The biggest ostrich eggs weight as much as 2.35kg, but they are not the largest
eggs of all time. The extinct elephant bird, Aepyornis maximus, of Madagascar
laid eggs that were up to 33cm long and contained 8.88 litres of liquid. This is
larger than the eggs of any dinosaur, seven times bigger than an ostrich egg, 180
times bigger than a chicken egg and over 20,000 times the size of a hummingbird's
egg!
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| Bird | Average weight of egg(g) |
| Ostrich | 1,600 |
| Albatross | 595 |
| Kiwi | 450 |
| Emperor penguin | 450 |
| Mute swan | 340 |
| Little spotted kiwi | 310 |
| Eagle | 145 |
| Snowy owl | 83 |
| Domestic hen | 65 |
| Mallard | 54 |
| Peregrine falcon | 52 |
| Sparrow | 3.0 |
| Wren | 1.3 |
| Goldcrest (smallest UK) | 0.6 |
| Vervain hummingbird | 0.375 |
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How long do they live?
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Who would have though that a sea anemone could live for 80 years? All these figures are the longest ever recorded.Most of these animals will have much shorter lives.
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| Animal | Longest life-span(Years) |
| Quahog (marine clam) | 200 |
| Gaint tortoise | 150 |
| Human | 122 |
| Killer whale | 90 |
| Sea anemone | 80 |
| Asiatic elephant | 78 |
| American alligator | 66 |
| Blue macaw | 64 |
| Horse | 62 |
| Chimpanzee | 56 |
| Hippopotamus | 54 |
| Slow-worm | 54 |
| Beaver | 50 |
| Bactrian camel | 50 |
| Grizzly bear | 50 |
| Blue whale | 45 |
| Boa constrictor | 40 |
| Domestic cat | 34 |
| Lion | 30 |
| Pig | 27 |
| Common rabbit | 18 |
| Queen ant | 18 |
| Gaint centipede | 10 |
| Millipede | 7 |
| House mouse | 6 |
| Bedbug | 6 months |
| Common housefly (male) | 2 weeks |
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How fast?
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Most of the creatures in this list can only keep up these speeds for a short time-not as long as an hour, The peregrine falcon achieves its record breaking speed as it dives through the air to catch prey-not in level flight.
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| Animal | Average speed(Km/h) |
| Peregrine falcon (diving speed) | 298 |
| Spine-tailed swift | 171 |
| Eider duck | 113 |
| Sailfish (fastest fish) | 110 |
| Cheetah (fastest on land) | 105 |
| Pronghorn antelope | 89 |
| Racing Pigeon | 80 |
| Lion (charging) | 80 |
| Brown hare | 72 |
| Ostrich (fastest flightless bird) | 72 |
| Blue shark | 69 |
| Horse | 69 |
| Greyhound | 68 |
| Killer whale | 56 |
| Death's head hawkmoth (fastest flying insect) | 53 |
| Guano bat (fastest flying mammal) | 51 |
| Butterfly | 48 |
| Dolphin | 40 |
| Fastest man over 100m | 37 |
| Gentoo penguin | 35 |
| Cnemidophorus lizard (fastest reptile) | 30 |
| Blue whale | 24 |
| Black mamba snake | 19 |
| Bumblebee | 18 |
| Rat | 9.5 |
| Tegenaria atrica spider | 1.8 |
| Common garden snail | 0.05 |
| Army ant | 0.032 |
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Big babies
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The African elephant has the longest pregnancy of any mammal. She carries her baby
for an average of 660 days. When the baby is born it weights 90-120kg. A baby blue
whale is even bigger. It weights 2,000kg and is 7m long. It puts on weight at the
astonishing rate of 90kg a day.
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Which bird's eye are larger than its brain ?Ostrich
The animal having blue colored bloodSnail
Which is largest animal in the world?Blue whale