216 Fun & Interesting Animal Facts For Kids

Are you ready to go on a wild adventure and learn some amazing facts about animals for kids from all around the world? Animals are super cool and can do some pretty incredible things. From the deepest oceans to the highest mountains, animals come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. So, let’s jump right in and discover some fun facts about these fantastic creatures!

First up, did you know that elephants are the largest land animals in the world? That’s right! They have big ears that look like huge fans and long trunks they use to pick up food and splash water. But that’s not all; their trunks are so strong they can even lift a heavy log. Imagine having a nose that powerful!

Next, let’s talk about the fastest animal on land – the cheetah. Cheetahs are like the superheroes of the animal kingdom because they can run faster than any other animal. They can reach speeds up to 75 miles per hour! That’s faster than a car on most roads. Cheetahs use their incredible speed to catch their food in the blink of an eye.

And have you ever heard of animals that can glow in the dark? Some jellyfish and fireflies have special parts in their bodies that create light, making them glow beautifully at night. This cool trick is called bioluminescence, and they use it to attract food or communicate with each other. It’s like having a built-in flashlight!

Are you excited to learn more amazing facts about animals for kids? From the giant elephants to the speedy cheetahs and glowing jellyfish, the animal kingdom is full of surprises. Let’s keep exploring and uncover all the incredible things that make animals so fascinating and fun to learn about!

For more fun facts, check out our facts about monkeys and cats!

Animal Facts for Kids

1. A grasshopper can leap 20 times the length of its own body.
2. Horses and cows sleep while standing up.
3. Sea Otters hold hands when sleeping, so they don’t drift apart.
4. A group of owls is called a parliament.
5. Cows can walk upstairs but not downstairs.
6. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
7. A herd of sixty cows is capable of producing a ton of milk in less than a day.
8. The female lion does ninety percent of the hunting.
9. There are an average of 50,000 spiders per acre in green areas.
10. Most chipmunks live in underground burrows, although some make their nests in logs or bushes.
11. Male seahorses have pouches on their stomachs which carry up to 2,000 babies at a time.
12. Bumblebees have hair on their eyes.
13. Cats only meow because it’s a way of communicating with humans.
14. You can hypnotize a frog—just place it on its back and gently stroke its stomach!
15. Unlike many felids, tigers are strong swimmers and often deliberately bathe in ponds, lakes, and rivers as a means of keeping cool in the heat of the day.
16. All geckos lack eyelids. Instead of blinking, they clean their eyes with their tongue!
17. Dolphins ‘deliberately get high’ on puffer fish nerve toxins by carefully chewing and passing them around.
18. Camel kidneys and intestines reabsorb so much water that camel urine comes out as a thick syrup, and camel feces are dry enough to be used as fire fuel.
19. Gibbons are among the fastest, non flying animals in the forest canopy, but are less graceful on the ground. Their awkward bipedalism is may be similar to that of our primitive ancestors.
20. Polar bears use nose-to-nose greetings as a way to ask other bears for something, like food. Bears who use proper manners like this are often allowed to share.
21. A duck’s quack doesn’t echo.
22. Cheetahs can sprint for about 17 seconds straight. After that, they have to stop because they generate so much heat from the exertion that if they continued running they would literally cook their own brains.
23. A tarantula spider can go as long as 2 years without food.
24. Goats were the first animal to be domesticated by man, in 10,000 B.C.
25. Sharks have been around for over 400 million years. 
26. Most mammals have seven neck vertebrae, but both the manatee and the sloth have just six. This means that manatees can’t turn their heads.
27. In the wild, some reindeer travel more than 3000 miles in a single year.

1. Male reindeer have louder calls than females. Males use a small pouch under the skin of their throats which they inflate to blast out a loud bellow.
2. Sloths really are slow. So slow, in fact, that in the humidity of their native climate an algae actually grows on their fur. This gives them a greenish hue, which acts as camouflage.
3. Black Howlers get their name because they have enlarged throats and extra large voice boxes which allow them to howl.
4. Rats have shown signs of empathy by freeing other rats from cages without a reward. They also freed other rats first when a second cage with chocolate chips was available.
5. Cheetah is the fastest land animal, reaching speeds between 112 and 120 km/h (70 and 75 mph) in short bursts covering distances up to 460 m (1,500 ft).
6. Pandas have very sensitive hearing, even being able to hear ultrasonic sounds.
7. When Snow Leopards sleep they often use their tails to cover their faces for extra warmth.
8. Female llamas do not go into heat. Instead, the act of mating causes the ovary to release an egg to be fertilized. This is called induced ovulation.
9. The famous Pokemon character Pikachu is based on Pika, which is a small mammal related to the rabbits, having rounded ears, short limbs, and a very small tail, found mainly in the mountains and deserts of Asia.
10. Gorillas have unique nose prints, much like human fingerprints, which can be used to identify individuals.
11. There are 338 species of hummingbirds. They are all native to the Western hemisphere.
12. Red pandas have an enlarged papillae underside of the tip of their tongue, which is used to inspect scents.
13. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
14. It can take up to a month for a sloth to digest one leaf. Some sloths have a bowel movement once a week!
15. When kangaroos are first born, they are only 1 inch long–no bigger than a bumblebee!
16. Baby porcupines are born with soft quills but they eventually harden within a few days.
17. Snakes are carnivores, which means they only eat animals, often small ones such as insects, birds, frogs and other small mammals.
18. On average, dogs have better eyesight than humans, although not as colorful.
19. An anteater is nearly 6 feet long, yet its mouth is only an inch wide.
20. A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21 inch tongue.
21. Hummingbirds can’t walk.
22. There is one species of bird that can fly for 6 months without landing.
23. Honey bees can recognize human faces.
24. About 50% of orangutans will have fractured bones due to falling out of trees.
25. Unlike other big cats, cheetahs can’t roar. However, they can purr on both inhale and exhale, like domestic cats!
26. A butterfly has about 12,000 eyes.
27. Grizzly bears can run faster than any horse (28 mpg/45 kmh) and they can keep running indefinitely.

1. In England, hedgehogs are considered an endangered species.
2. The eyes of a giant squid can be as large as a dinner plate.
3. Blue-eyed lemurs are one of two (non-human) primates to have truly blue eyes.
4. Hares can run up to 45 miles per hour!
5. At birth, a baby panda can be smaller than a mouse.
6. Despite being the largest animal to have ever lived on planet Earth, the Blue Whale is known to feed on some of the smallest marine animals: tiny shrimp called krill!
7. The Patas Monkey (Erythrocebus patas) are also known as Hussar monkeys, military monkeys and dancing red monkeys.
8. It is against Swiss law to keep guinea pigs alone. A service even exists that provides a guinea pig companion to keep a lonely guinea pig company should its partner die.
9. Sloths cannot shiver to stay warm, and so have difficulty maintaining their body temperature on rainy days.
10. Narwhals live in the Arctic waters of Greenland, Norway, Canada and Russia.
11. Manatees use their flippers to walk along the bottom of the body of water, feeling for food. When they find it, they scoop it up toward their mouths with their flipper.
12. Most sharks live around 25 years but some can live as long as 100. 
13. The shape of a hammerhead shark’s head actually improves their vision. 
14. A cat can’t climb head first down a tree because every claw on a cat’s paw points the same way. To get down from a tree, a cat must back down.
15. Male kangaroos fight with each other for the attention of female kangaroos.
16. Bald eagles are not bald, but their feather pattern will change over time. As the eagle gets older, the crown changes from a dark brown to a bright white.
17. Albatrosses form breeding pairs that last for life.
18. The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), also known as the American polecat or prairie dog hunter, is a species of mustelid native to central North America.
19. The ancient Egyptians venerated the hedgehog as a symbol of rebirth. It is autumnal hibernation and spring awakening made it a natural for such idealization.
20. A shark is the only known fish that can blink with both eyes.
21. Kangaroos can’t fart.
22. A woodpecker can peck 20 times per second.
23. Cows can have best friends.
24. Chipmunks can gather up to 165 acorns in a single day. To temporarily store their food, they use their cheek pouches, which can expand up to three times the size of their head.
25. Canis lupus lupus is the scientific name for a gray wolf.
26. A pet hamster can run up to 8 miles a night on a wheel.
27. A duck can’t walk without bobbing its head.

1. The average fox weighs 14 pounds.
2. Cows have one large stomach that is divided into four compartments to go through the different stages of digestion.
3. The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed.
4. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
5. 15,000-20,000 new animal species are discovered every year.
6. Sloths only poop once a week, but the turd can be 1/3 of their body weight.
7. There are pigs in China that can grow up to the size of a bear.
8. After eating, a housefly will puke up its food and then eat it again. Ew ew ew.
9. The chicken is the closest living relative to the T-Rex.
10. The leg bones of a bat are so thin that out of the 1,200 species of bats, only 2 can walk on ground. These are the Vampire bat and the Burrowing bat.
11. Even a small amount of alcohol placed on a scorpion will make it go crazy and sting itself to death!
12. Pigs can’t look up into the sky – it’s physically impossible.
13. Cats spend 66% of their life asleep.
14. A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
15. Birds can not live in space – they need gravity or they can not swallow.
16. Cats can’t taste sugar.
17. In general, owls are viewed as harbingers of bad luck, ill health, or death. The belief is widespread even today.
18. The peregrine falcon is the fastest aerial animal, fastest animal in flight, fastest bird, and the overall fastest member of the animal kingdom.
19. Two of the raccoon’s most distinctive features are its extremely dexterous front paws and its facial mask, which are themes in the mythology of many Native American groups.
20. The color of a male lion’s mane varies from blond to black, generally becoming darker as the lion grows older.
21. Dogs sneeze when they play-fight to show they are playing and don’t wanna hurt you!
22. There is a species of fish, known as a garfish, that has green bones.
23. Donkeys’ eyes are placed on their body in a way so that they can see all 4 of their legs.
24. Squirrels often forget where they plant their nuts, and it is estimated that millions of trees in the world have been accidentally planted by them!
25. Pear and apple seeds contain arsenic, which may be deadly to dogs.
26. Kangaroos can’t walk backwards.
27. Giraffes and rats can last longer without water than camels.

1. Alpacas are known to spit when they get annoyed.
2. When hunting, Meerkats communicate with purring sounds!
3. Tapirs have been around for quite awhile. Scientists believe that these animals have changed little over tens of millions of years.
4. Penguins seem to have no special fear of humans, and have approached groups of explorers without hesitation. This is probably because penguins have no land predators in Antarctica or the offshore islands they naturally inhabit.
5. Sloths usually mate and give birth while hanging in trees. Mothers will birth their babies either on the ground or upside down in a hanging position. After it is born the infant grabs onto the mother’s fur and makes its way to her chest to nurse.
6. In warmer months, reindeer feast on grasses, mushrooms and plants. In the winter they feast mainly on moss and lichen.
7. Reindeer have a strong sense of smell, which helps them sniff out food underneath layers of snow.
8. Catfish have 100,000 taste buds all over their body.
9. Hippopotamus milk is pink.
10. Baby elephants suck their trunks—like human babies suck their thumbs.
11. Crows have been known to visit their aging parents even after they’ve left the nest.
12. Horses use facial expressions – particularly the eyes and ears – to communicate with each other.
13. Squirrel monkeys have the largest groups of any other New World monkey, with as many as 100 monkeys in a given band.
14. Elephas maximus is the Latin name for the Asian Elephant. Asian Elephants are smaller than African Elephants.
15. Cows don’t have four stomachs. They have one stomach with four compartments: the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum, with the rumen being the largest compartment.
16. The Pokemon character Charmander is based on Salamander, a newt-like amphibian that typically has bright markings, once thought able to endure fire.
17. Baby Japanese Macaques make snowballs. They do not use them for any survival purposes, they just like to have fun.
18. The quokka, which lives in southwest Australia, is one of the few Australian animals that don’t pose threats to humans.
19. It takes 2 weeks for a sloth to digest its food.
20. There are roughly 24,000 species of butterflies.
21. Seahorses are the only species where the male experiences pregnancy and gives birth to their young.
22. Manatees live in the water but they need air to survive. They surface every few minutes when active and can stay under for as long as 20 minutes if still.
23. Male rabbits are called “bucks,” females are “does.”
24. Australia has the most number of reptiles in the world (over 750 different species!)
25. Gorillas sleep 14 hours a day.
26. Dolphins have been known to rescue humans from danger.
27. The bat is the only mammal that can fly.

1. Reptiles, birds, and fish have been known to swallow rocks to help them digest their food.
2. An octopus has 3 hearts.
3. Squirrels will adopt another squirrel’s baby if its parents die or are unable to care for it
4. Cassowaries can grow to be over six and a half feet tall (2 m), can run over 30 mph (48 km/h), and feature a five inch (13 cm) dagger-like middle toe.
5. Hebridean sheep, a rare breed, sometimes have more than two horns.
6. African elephants are larger than Asian elephants and have larger ears that are shaped like the continent of Africa.
7. Squirrel Monkey births coincide with the time of greatest rainfall.
8. In many cultures, reindeer are used to pull sleds and sleighs. There’s evidence of this dating back 7,000 years ago in Siberia!
9. Sloths see better at night than in the day and they have very poor hearing. They rely on their sense of smell to locate food and other sloths.
10. No two tigers have the same stripe pattern.
11. Baby elephants don’t know how to use their trunks to drink water. By nine months, mouth, trunk and foot coordination is perfected.
12. Because raccoons wash their food, they are known as ‘washing bears’ in German and Dutch, and ‘washing rats’ in French.
13. Black Howlers get their name because they have enlarged throats and extra large voice boxes which allows them to howl.
14. Besides the dugong, the manatee’s closest living relative is the elephant.
15. Elephants have a gestation period (the time when the fetus is growing in the mom) for 22 months—the longest of any mammal.
16. There are more than 470 species of sharks. 
17. While Sloths are very quiet in general, if scared they will hiss or moan.
18. The Patas Monkey’s habitat is brush and grass savannas of Central Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia and south to Tanzania.
19. Cows from different regions have different “moo” accents.
20. Ducks are found everywhere in the world except Antarctica. It is too cold for them there.
21. Cats can hydrate themselves by drinking seawater.
22. In Malay, orang means “person” and utan is derived from hutan, which means “forest.” Thus, orangutan literally means “person of the forest.”
23. Dogs feel most vulnerable when pooping so they look to their owners for protection, which often results in awkward staring.
24. The arctic fox is the only land mammal native to Iceland.
25. Snakes can burp fire—only if the decomposing animal they eat bursts with methane and hydrogen while being digested.
26. Koalas sleep up to 22 hours a day.
27. An elephant’s trunk has 15,200 muscles in it.

1. No 2 tigers have the same stripes.
2. Elephants only eat plants, so they are herbivores. They eat grasses, bamboo, flowers, seeds, fruits, leaves and other plant matter. 
3. The tusk can grow as long as 10 feet. A narwhal can be 17 feet in length (plus the tusk!).
4. Sloths are good swimmers, especially the backstroke.
5. Black Howler Monkeys do not have opposable thumbs. 
6. Marine iguanas sneeze frequently to expel salt from glands near their noses. The salt often lands on their heads, giving them a distinctive white wig.
7. Red fox body language consists of movements of the ears and tail coupled with postures that use body markings to emphasize certain gestures.
8. River otters can stay underwater for up to eight minutes and can close their ears and nostrils to keep water out.
9. Monkeys can go bald in old age, just like humans.
10. Hippos attract mates by urinating and pooping. Ew.
11. There is a species of frogs that stay in their dads’ vocal sacs, and he will cough them up when they are old enough.
12. At birth, baby kangaroos are only about an inch long – no bigger than a large water bug or a queen bee.
13. The largest living animal is the blue whale, which can measure as much as 100 feet.
14. If a Donkey and a Zebra have a baby, it is called a Zonkey.
15. Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backward.
16. A blue whale’s heart is so large that a human child could swim through the veins.
17. The gecko can turn the stickiness of its feet on and off at will.
18. Almost half the pigs in the world are kept by farmers in China.
19. Lobsters pee out of their faces. 
20. Bats droppings (guano) can be used to make gunpowder.
21. You can identify the gender of a turtle based on the sound it makes — males grunt, females hiss.
22. There is a species of mouse that defends its territory by howling.
23. Seahorses travel by holding each others’ tails.
24. An octopus has 9 brains.
25. Penguins “propose” with each other with pebbles.
26. The world’s smallest dog was a Yorkshire Terrier, which weighed just four ounces.
27. 99% of a panda’s diet is bamboo

1. Sloths spend most of their lives living in a tree (about 98%).
2. Slugs have teeth.
3. Snails can sleep for up to three years.
4. Wombat poop is a shaped like a cube
5. Polar bears touch noses with one another when they greet each other. How cute!
6. Goats do not have upper front teeth but instead use their tongue, lips, gums and lower teeth to pull vegetation into their mouths.
7. Sloths change trees up to four times a day.
8. Some sharks can swim up to 40 MPH. 
9. Adult Patas monkeys have white mustache and whiskers and the males have mane-like hair.
10. Jellyfish are made up of 95% water.
11. Capuchin monkeys wash their hands and feet in urine.
12. Gorillas are so much stronger than the average man that they can bend iron bars and even uproot an entire tree just for some fruit.
13. In Alaska it is illegal to whisper in someone’s ear while they’re moose hunting.
14. Animals generate 30 times more waste than humans which is 1.4 billion tons every year.
15. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
16. Koalas sleep around 18 hours a day
17. During World War II, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs.
18. Zebra stripes are a bug repellent, so if you paint a cow with black and white stripes like a Zebra, the flies will stay away from it.
19. A grizzly bear’s bite is so strong it can break a bowling ball! 
20. Orangutans are more solitary than other apes. Males are typically loners.
21. The Patas is large and slender, usually reddish gray, white or pale pink, with a long tail that is dark above and light underneath.
22. For almost all kinds of reindeer, both male and female reindeer have antlers. Females shed their antlers when they give birth in the spring.
23. Manatees can actually swim up to 20 MPH.
24. A lion’s roar can be heard up to 5 miles (8 km) away.
25. 10% of the bones in a cat are located in its tail.
26. If you tickle a rat, it will laugh.
27. A swan has over 25,000 feathers on its body.

Do you have even more interesting facts about animals for kids? Share them with us in the comments!