Record-Breaking Animals You Didn’t Know About

A few days ago, I read in the paper about the Saharan silver ant, which can run almost 20 times faster than Usain Bolt. While the Jamaican speedster clocks in 4 strides in a second, his Saharan counterpart can walk 47 strides per second.  

So this got me thinking. Which other animals hold world records? 

I did the research and here are the winners: 

• The North American brown bat is the longest sleeper in the world. It can sleep up to 19.9 hours in a day – that’s a lot longer than most animals. 

 

• On the flip side, the African bush elephant sleeps the least per day – just 2 hours. 

 

• The Arctic ground squirrel takes the cake (or in this case the cold) for having the coldest body temperature of any animal in the world. Their body temperature – a shocking -2.9°C. (To put it in perspective, us humans will get hypothermia if our temperature drops below 35°C )

 

• The prize for the largest rodent in the world goes to the capybara – it stands 130 centimetres long head-to-tail and is 50 centimetres tall. That’s as big as a border collie!

 

• The bee hummingbird is the smallest bird on the planet and stands at a minuscule height of 57 millimetres. It is also the lightest-weighing warm-blooded mammal in the world at 1.6 grams. 

 

• The sperm whale is the loudest animal on the planet and its voice can reach 230 decibels. (In comparison, a jet engine’s noise is just 120 decibels, the loudest speaker streams at 122 decibels, humans can speak at volumes as high as 129 decibels and a gunshot can be 140 decibels loud.) 

 

Now here are a few of the whackier winners: 

• A macaw named Skipper Blue from California has the record for being the parrot that has placed the most number of rings on a pole in one minute. His winning number – 19 rings. 

 

• Fellow Californian, a rabbit named Bini, has wiped the floor of competitors by being the rabbit to make the most number of basketball slam dunks in a minute – 7. 

 

• But Bini isn’t the only bunny to hold a world record. Finland based Taawi holds the record for being the rabbit able to perform the most magic tricks in under a minute – 20. 

 

• The Japanese Beagle Purin, too has cause for victory. She has the world record for catching the most balls with her paws in under one minute. Her unbroken record – 14. 

 

• Purin’s fellow species-mate, Neo the border collie from Somerset, holds the record for being the fastest dog in a hoop-jumping competition. His record time – 8.58 seconds/10 hoops. 

 

Crazy aren’t these? 

 

 

-Nisha Prakash 

 

5 Fun Facts About Termites

1. Termite bodies are made up of protein, calcium, iron and amino acids, making them really nutritious treats. In fact, many tribes in Africa, India and China eat termites as part of their daily meal to get the nutrition their bodies need.
2. Although the Queen is the leader of the mound, termites are one of the few eusocial (hierarchy-based) insects where Kings also play a role. Termite kings stay with their Queens for life, helping fertilize the eggs and raise young larvae.
3. Termite Queen faeces is fed to larvae to help them grow. Different kinds of faeces have different chemicals in them. The type of chemical fed to larvae determine what type of termite they grow to be – worker, soldier, nurse or future Queen.
4. Termite Queens can live up to 50 years and some Queens can produce up to 10 million eggs in their lifetime.
5. Termites are very clean insects and despite living underground their entire lives, they groom themselves most diligently. In fact, one of the jobs of the worker termites is to keep the mound and its members clean.

 

Bonus

There are over 2700 species of termites in the world and if you weighed the world’s entire termite population together, they’d weigh 445 million tonnes. In comparison, the world’s entire human population weighs north of 350 million tonnes.  

 

Video: How does a termite mound look from within?

 

 

Different types of termites

 

A termite surrounded by termite eggs

 

Only the King & Queen termites have wings and are able to fly

 

A termite mound. Some mounds can go up 30 feet high. As seen here, even the tallest animal in the world falls short in front of a termite mound. 

 

-NISHA PRAKASH