Facts of the week

ystee loves to collect and share interesting facts with you. Here are some of them:-

• The way a person writes numbers can reveal how they feel about money. Carefully written numbers show that the person is careful about money
• Vampire bats do feed on blood but they won't attack a human and suck blood from  the neck.
• One of the most dangerous insects in the world is the common housefly. They carry and transmit more diseases than any other animal in the world.
• The Great Pyramids used to be as white as snow because they were encassed in bright limestone that has worn-off over the years.
• Australia has the world’s largest wild camel population.

• Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill.

• It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury their nuts and forget where they hid them.

• The Hinde's Babbler is a bird species endemic to Central Kenya. Owing to the reduction of the thickets they so love, their population is dwindling and·they are now listed among other vulnerable species.

• An eagle can stay aloft for hours, rarely moving its wings and riding wind currents.

• Many  albino’s in East Africa have been killed over the last few years because their body parts are believed to bring wealth and good-luck. This is a myth.
• Deserts occupy between 15-20% of the earth’s land. Sahara Desert in North Africa is the largest desert in Africa.

• It is estimated that one out of a thousand hatchlings (baby sea turtles) will survive to adulthood under natural conditions.

•  Several caterpillars are master disguise artists. When danger is near, they keep absolutely still and pretend to be twigs.

• The Namib Desert in Southern Africa is the world’s oldest desert
• Physical activity (or exercise) improves brain function allowing you to concentrate better and remember more.

•  A shrimp’s heart is in it’s head.
• When alarmed, the pancake tortoise flattens itself and fits into the narrowest of rock cracks thanks to its thin flexible shell.
• In Mpumalaga-South Africa, someone actually built their home in the shape of a shoe.

• Two-headed snakes in existence are merely conjoined twins-Submitted by Rubangakane Brian, Kiwafu Primary School, Entebbe-Uganda.

• Some beetles are much stronger than we are. They can lift more than 300 times their own weight or the same as a man lifting 20 cars.

• The spotted handfish has fins that look like hands which it prefers using to 'walk' on the sea floor instead of swimming.

• Many people thought that the famous Snowflake was a white Gorilla. he is infact the only known albino gorilla so far.

• Hummingbirds can fly backwards.

• A duck’s quack does not echo, and no one knows why 
• The Basenji, also known as the African  Barkless Dog,  is a dog that doesn’t bark 

• It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open

• An Ostrich’s eye is bigger that its brain

• The Japanese Spider crab, the biggest crab in the world, can for a century (100 years) or more

• A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to hold a child standing up

• A snail can sleep for as  three years continuously

• Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump

• Galileo Galilei discovered the four brightest moons about 400 years ago

• A person once hiccupped for 68 years

• It may take up to four hours for a pride of lions to finish eating

• Frogs can see forwards, sideways and upwards all at the same time. They never close their eyes,even when they sleep.

• The youngest male author ever published was Dennis Vollmer who wrote the story ‘Joshua Disobeys’ in 1987 at the tender age of 6

• All porcupines float in water