On November 28, 1942, hundreds of British seamen and Italian prisoners of war were killed by sharks when a German U-boat sank the steamer Nova Scotia off the coast of South Africa.
Nine hundred men were on the ship when it sank; 192 were left when a rescue ship arrived.
Termites clear fallen timber and stumps from forests more efficiently than any other wood-eating creature. They can clear vast quantities of wood that otherwise would be left to rot. This makes termites beneficial in ecosystems such as forests.
The scales provide the best clue to telling the age of a fish. Scaleless when born, fish grow scales under their outer layer of skin to provide waterproofing. As they age, most species add growth rings, that is, increase the size of their scales to cover their larger bodies. With a very old fish, however,…
Bulls do not charge because a cape is red. They charge because of the movement of the cape. It does not have to be red or any other bright color.
The world record for a jump by a frog is 33 feet 5.5 inches over the course of three consecutive leaps. It was achieved in May 1977 by a South African sharp-nosed frog called Santjie.
The alligator is a subspecies of the crocodile, part of the family Crocodylidae. The alligator’s snout is rounded; the crocodile’s comes to a point. Both prefer shallow, swampy water, but the crocodile is generally more aggressive than the alligator. Incidentally, a crocodile, not an alligator, appears on the Izod Lacoste polo shirt.
It depends. The Italian species of wolf spider first given the name tarantula (from the town of Taranto) catches its prey by pursuit. In the American Southwest, tarantulas live in burrows; they eat anything from insects to toads and mice. However, certain South American tarantulas do build large webs; their diet includes small birds.