Helping you to improve your general knowledge, we share interesting facts with you on #DidYouKnowFridays. This week we look at a musk deer’s fangs, the difference between black and white rhinos, and why we can call an octopus Houdini.
Did you know?
Musk deer have fangs. And no, musk deer, also known as sabre-toothed deer, are not vampires. These herbivorous mammals are just a few of the sabre-toothed animals who have roamed the Earth. While some predators used their sabre teeth to kill prey, the musk deer use their fangs to fight with other males and to impress females. They mainly live in the Himalayas in southern Asia.
Musk deer are smallish buck, standing up to 70cm at the shoulder and weighing up to 17kg. They don’t have antlers or horns. While they were originally classified as deer, recent studies have revealed that they are more closely related to bovids, who include impala, buffalo, sheep, goats and cattle.
Did you know?
There are a couple of differences between the two rhinos found in Africa, the black and white rhino:
- The most notable difference between the two rhinos is their lips. While the white rhino has a flat, wide top lip, the black rhino has a pointed lip.
- The difference in their mouths is because the two rhinos prefer different menus. While the white rhino is a grass eater, the black rhino prefers fruit and leaves from trees, and his lips enable him to reach his food better.
- The white rhino is substantially larger than the black rhino, in weight and height.
- The white rhino’s back is relatively straighter than the black rhino’s, whose back arches inward.
- The black rhino’s ears are smaller and rounder than the white rhino’s ears.
- Their horn sizes differ as well – the white rhino has a longer front horn, but a shorter second horn.
- It is not only appearances that differ: they behave differently as well. The black rhino is much more aggressive.
Did you know?
A live octopus squeeze through a tiny hole? Have you seen the videos on platforms like Facebook, where a live octopus pushes himself through a minute hole in the side of a ship? No, the octopus is not a magician. He can simply push his eight legs, body and beak through just about anything that is big enough for his beak to fit through.
His secret is that his body contains no bones and consists of soft tissue. He has a beak, which he uses to break open clam shells. It looks similar to a parrot’s beak – the only thing that might stop him from fitting through the smallest of gaps.