221 Facts Tell Me Why

‘Bird song’ is actually the birds’ conversation with one another. Just like humans have their own languages with words and sentences, likewise birds have their own chorus of complex sounds involving a series of calls, melodies and songs. Just like the human has a voice box, larynx, the bird has a special vocal organ called […]

Some stones sparkle because some of them are smooth as a mirror. Even if it might look very coarse, some parts of the stone are flat and smooth. When the light hits something flat, some of the light bounces back. Think about how light is reflected in the mirror. The flatter the points in the

Just like humans use their sight to see the world around them, dogs use their powerful sense of smell to recognize other animals, other dogs, foods and much more. Their sense of smell is much greater than a human’s sense of smell. This area of the canine brain that is devoted to analyzing scent is

Birds don’t get electrocuted when they sit on electrical wires because they are not good conductors of electricity. They sit on only one wire and do not complete the ‘circuit’, that is touching both the positive wire and a negative or neutral wire. They would get electrocuted if they were touching the ground. The ground

Unlike the stars, the moon has no light of its own. We see it because of the sun’s light that it reflects. Whenever the moon reflects the sun’s light, we see it, irrespective of the time of the day. When the sun, the earth and the moon align correctly, enough light is reflected off the

‘Wet’ is just a word that we apply to the description of our experience of water. Water, by itself, is not wet, because it is a liquid, but whatever it touches, it can make that wet. When something feels ‘wet’, it is because that water on evaporating makes the surface of the object cold. Therefore,

The scarlet kingsnake uses mimicry to dupe predators, such as red-tailed hawks. The scarlet king-snake is a small king-snake that is seldom found in the open, except at night after heavy rains. It is found under logs, mostly in pine forests. It is a non-poisonous snake. Its skin has a red, black-and-white pattern with yellow

The male weaver birds are extremely hard-working. They will build extensive nests with reeds, grass, leaves or palm blades. The male weavers work so industriously in building the nest that they will lose half of their body- weight in the process. The nest has large round entrances on one side as well as a separate

Beavers are known to be the most well-known animal architects. These prolific builders cut trees and gather sticks and mud to construct dams with their front teeth, which create ponds that offer protection from predators and easy access to food during winter. The front teeth of the beaver never stop growing. Beavers’ constant gnawing on

The superb lyrebird is a natural mimic. It can mimic sounds from Nature. It is commonly found in the Australian forests and it can imitate complex sounds like camera shutters, other birds, especially the laughing kookaburras and interestingly, the wing beats of small birds. Although not much is known about the bird yet its hearing

Snow leopards have beautiful thick white fur, with ringed spots of black or brown that act as an excellent camouflage. Snow leopards are extremely elusive by Nature, and live among the Himalayan peaks. They live and travel in solitude over vast distances of isolated and rugged mountain ranges. Interestingly, although they are big cats like

These rare, large owls mainly live in the Arctic in open, treeless areas called ‘tundra’. One of the largest species of owls, it makes its nest on the ground. These beautiful birds have white and dark brown feathers covering their bodies that camouflage them in their usually snowy habitat. They are well equipped for hunting

Stick insects look like twigs of sticks and are practically invisible from almost anywhere. They are herbivorous and spend their life on trees where they also get their food. Their brown, thin-shaped bodies make them invisible to their enemies. They can also be green in colour. They tend to freeze when threatened and may even

Tigers have stripes because they live in thick jungles and hunt alone, mainly at night. The stripes provide them with excellent camouflage allowing them to blend in the background. The lion, on the other hand, lives in grasslands; therefore, stripes will not allow it to blend in the background.

Zebras live in grasslands and their wavy lines of black-and-white coat blend in with the waving grass around them. This makes it difficult to spot. Moreover, the lion which is its biggest predator, is colour-blind. If the zebra stands perfectly still, a lion will not be able to make out that it is there at