Monitor Diaries
May 20, 2016

Wild Animal Facts

Do you enjoy wild animal facts? Here are a few fascinating factoids about some of everyone's favourite wild African animals.

Elephants have the largest ears of any animal in the world. All the better to hear you with? Not quite. They radiate huge amounts of heat from the network of blood vessels in their ears to keep the giant mammals cool.

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Baby Elephant - Wild Animal Facts

From the album: "Best Picks from the Camera Traps"[/caption]

Despite resembling dogs, hyenas are more closely related to cats! They live in clans of up to 80 individuals.

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Linda Cockburn Hyena - Wild Animal Facts

Photo by Linda Cockburn[/caption]

Impala are champions of the high jump – being able to clear 3 meters in height as well as leap about 10 meters forward!

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Wild Animal Facts Impala

Photo credit: africageographic.com[/caption]

Leopards are the strongest of the big cats pound for pound.

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Wild Animal Facts Leopards

Image property of Panthera Cats[/caption]

A giraffe’s tongue can be as long as 50 centimetres (20 inches) and is blue-black in colour to prevent it getting sunburnt.

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Wild Animal Facts Giraffes

Photo credit: animalpicturesociety.com[/caption]

A zebra’s stripes are as unique as a human fingerprint. They also form the animal's camouflage in a strategy called “disruptive colouration” – meaning that, in a herd, it is harder to be individually picked out by predators.

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Photo Credit: Homage by Graham Springer - Wild Animal Facts

Photo Credit: Homage by Graham Springer[/caption]This final, rather stunning image is from a hard-copy book called Homage by hyper-talented photographer Graham Springer. Compiled over the course of more than a decade, Homage celebrates the wonder and beauty of wild Africa.Graham is not only offering all Wildlife ACT supporters a 10% discount on this amazing book, but has also pledged 25% of the cover price towards Wildlife ACT’s endangered species work.

To get your hands on a discounted copy of Homage, visit www.africanarteditions.com

Wild Animal Facts Text by Galen Schultz