Part 7 (2/2)

For reasons known only to taxonomists the sloths in question are called 'two-toed' rather than 'two-fingered'. Both two-toed and three-toed sloths have three 'toes' on each foot. Two-'toed' sloths are distinguished from three-'toed' sloths by the fact that they have two 'fingers' on each 'hand', whereas three-toed sloths have three.

Despite their obvious similarities, three-toed sloths and two-toed sloths are not related to one another. Two-toed sloths are slightly faster. Three-toed sloths have nine bones in their necks; two-toed have six.

Three-toed sloths make good pets, but two-toed sloths are vicious. Three-toed sloths produce shrill whistles through their nostrils. Two-toed sloths will hiss if disturbed.

Sloths, generally, are the world's slowest mammals. Their top speed is slightly over 1.6 km (1 mile) an hour but they mostly inch along at less than 2 metres (about 6 feet) a minute.

They sleep for fourteen to nineteen hours a day and spend their entire lives hanging upside down in trees. They eat, sleep, mate, give birth and die upside-down. Some move so little that two species of algae take root on them, giving them a greenish tinge, which also acts as useful camouflage. Several species of moth and beetle also make their home in sloth fur.

Their metabolism is slow, too. It takes then more than a month to digest their food and they pa.s.s urine and faeces only once a week. They do this at the base of the trees they live in, these unsavoury piles being romantically known as 'trysting places'.

Like reptiles, they practise thermoregulation basking in the sun to warm up, creeping into the shade to cool down.

This slows down their complex and lethargic digestive rate. During the rainy season when they stay put under leaves to stay dry, some sloths perform the astonis.h.i.+ng feat of starving to death on a full stomach.

STEPHEN What is the most dangerous animal in the history of the world? What is the most dangerous animal in the history of the world?

JEREMY HARDY A sloth driving a petrol tanker A sloth driving a petrol tanker.

How many eyes does a no-eyed, big-eyed wolf spider have?

a) No eyes b) No eyes, but big ones c) One big eye that doesn't work d) 144 eye-like warts It has no eyes.

The blind arachnid was first discovered in 1973 and the entire population lives in three pitch-black caves on the volcanic island of Kauai in Hawaii.

Like other cave-dwelling beasts, it evolved without needing to see but, as it's a member of the big-eyed wolf spider family, it gets to call itself big-eyed (i.e. if it did have any eyes left, they'd be big ones).

It's about the size of a fifty-pence piece when fully grown. Its rooming buddy and main source of nourishment is the Kauai cave amphipod, a small crustacean that resembles a blind, semi-transparent shrimp.

How many p.e.n.i.ses does a European earwig have?

a) Fourteen b) None at all c) Two (one for special occasions) d) Mind your own business The answer is c c. The European or Black earwig carries a spare one in case the first one snaps off, which happens quite frequently.

Both p.e.n.i.ses are very brittle and relatively long; at just over a centimetre in length, they are often longer than the earwig itself. Two gentlemen at Tokyo Metropolitan University discovered this when one of them playfully pinched a male earwig's rear end during the act of s.e.xual intercourse. Its p.e.n.i.s snapped off inside the female, but miraculously it produced a back up.

Earwigs are named for the almost universal belief that they crawl into people's ears and burrow into their brain. The word earwig is Anglo-Saxon for 'ear-creature'. Their French name is perce-oreille perce-oreille ('ear-piercer'); in German it's ('ear-piercer'); in German it's ohrwurm ohrwurm ('ear-worm'); in Turkish ('ear-worm'); in Turkish kulagakacan kulagakacan ('ear-fugitive'). ('ear-fugitive').

Earwigs don't crawl into ears any more than any other insect but Pliny the Elder recommended that if one does do so, you spit in the person's ear until the earwig comes out again. They definitely do not burrow into brains.

An alternative suggestion for the name is that the pincers on the rear of an earwig resemble the tool once used for earpiercing.

This idea seems to have more appeal to Latins. The Spanish have two words for earwig: contraplumas contraplumas (which also means 'penknife'), and (which also means 'penknife'), and tijereta tijereta (which also means a 'scissor-kick'). In Italian, an earwig is (which also means a 'scissor-kick'). In Italian, an earwig is forbicina forbicina ('little scissors'). ('little scissors').

A giant species of earwig (8.5 cm, or 3.3 inches long) lived on St Helena, the South Atlantic island where Napoleon Bonaparte spent his final years in exile. They may still be living there, but the last one was sighted in 1967.

Nicknamed the 'Dodo of the Dermaptera' (the order to which they belong, meaning 'skin wing'), the slim hope that they may still exist was enough for environmentalists to prevent a new airport being built on the island in 2005.

Two species of Malayan earwig feed exclusively on the body oozings and dead skin of naked bats.

ALAN Have you snapped off a w.i.l.l.y Have you snapped off a w.i.l.l.y?

JO I snapped off my husband's last night. Another one didn't appear, I'm afraid, but a sandwich did, so that was all right. I snapped off my husband's last night. Another one didn't appear, I'm afraid, but a sandwich did, so that was all right.

[image]

Which animals are the best-endowed of all?

Barnacles. These una.s.sumingly modest beasts have the longest p.e.n.i.s relative to their size of any creature. They can be seven times longer than their body.

Most of the 1,220 species of barnacles are hermaphrodites. When one barnacle decides to be 'mother' it lays eggs inside its own sh.e.l.l and at the same time releases some alluring pheromones. A nearby barnacle will respond by playing 'male' and fertilise the eggs by extending its ma.s.sive p.e.n.i.s, releasing sperm into the cavity of the 'female'.

Barnacles stand on their heads and eat with their feet. Using a very strong glue, they attach themselves head-first to a rock or the hull of a s.h.i.+p. The opening we see as the top of the barnacle is actually the bottom; through it their long, feathery legs catch small plants and animals that float past.

Other well-endowed species are the nine-banded armadillo (its p.e.n.i.s extends to two-thirds of its body length) and the blue whale, whose p.e.n.i.s, despite a relatively modest proportion in comparison to size, is still the biggest physical organ of all, averaging between 1.8 and 3 metres (6 to 10 feet) in length and around 450 mm (18 inches) in girth.

A blue whale's e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e is estimated to contain about 20 litres (35 pints) based on its testes, which weigh about 70 kg (over 150 lb) each.

Whale's p.e.n.i.ses were useful. In Herman Melville's Moby-d.i.c.k Moby-d.i.c.k (1851), there is an account of how the outer skin can be transformed into a floor-length waterproof ap.r.o.n, ideal for protection when gutting the dead whale. (1851), there is an account of how the outer skin can be transformed into a floor-length waterproof ap.r.o.n, ideal for protection when gutting the dead whale.

Like most other mammals, whales have a p.e.n.i.s bone, the baculum baculum or or os p.e.n.i.s os p.e.n.i.s. These, along with the baculi baculi of walruses and polar bears, are used by Eskimo peoples as runners for their sleds or as clubs. of walruses and polar bears, are used by Eskimo peoples as runners for their sleds or as clubs.

Other uses for mammalian baculi baculi ('little rod' in Latin) are as tie-pins, coffee stirrers, or love-tokens. The bones are incredibly diverse in shape they are probably the most varied of any bone and are useful in working out the relations.h.i.+ps between mammalian species. Humans and spider monkeys are the only primates without them. ('little rod' in Latin) are as tie-pins, coffee stirrers, or love-tokens. The bones are incredibly diverse in shape they are probably the most varied of any bone and are useful in working out the relations.h.i.+ps between mammalian species. Humans and spider monkeys are the only primates without them.

Biblical Hebrew does not have a word for p.e.n.i.s. This has led two scholars (Gilbert and Zevit in the American Journal of Medical Genetics American Journal of Medical Genetics in 2001) to suggest that Eve was made out of Adam's p.e.n.i.s bone rather than his rib (Genesis 2: 2123). This would explain why males and females have the same number of ribs but the man has no p.e.n.i.s bone. in 2001) to suggest that Eve was made out of Adam's p.e.n.i.s bone rather than his rib (Genesis 2: 2123). This would explain why males and females have the same number of ribs but the man has no p.e.n.i.s bone.

The biblical account also states that afterwards 'the Lord G.o.d closed up the flesh', the suggestion being that this is the 'scar' (known as the raphe raphe) that runs down the underside of the p.e.n.i.s and s.c.r.o.t.u.m.

What's a rhino's horn made from?

A rhinoceros horn is not, as some people think, made out of hair.

It's made out of tightly packed strands of keratin fibres. Keratin is the protein found in human hair and fingernails as well as animal claws and hooves, birds' feathers, porcupine quills and the sh.e.l.ls of armadillos and tortoises.

Rhinos are the only animal to have a horn that is entirely made from keratin; unlike those of cattle, sheep, antelopes and giraffes they don't have any bone core. A dead rhino's skull shows no evidence that it ever had horns; in life they are anch.o.r.ed on a roughened b.u.mp on the skin, above the nasal bone.

A rhino's horn sometimes unravels if cut or damaged, but young rhinos can completely re-grow them if that happens. No one knows what their function is, though females with their horns removed fail to look after their offspring properly.

Rhinoceroses are endangered animals largely due to the demand for their horns. Africa's rhinoceros horns have long been in demand for both medicines and traditional dagger handles in the Middle East, especially Yemen. Since 1970 67,050 kg (nearly 150,000 lb) of rhinoceros horn have been imported into Yemen. Based upon an average horn weight of 3 kg (6.6 lb), this volume represents the horns of 22,350 rhinoceroses.

<script>