Amazing Animals of the World Pt. 3

 
Alright folks, it’s Friday again, so we all know what that means. Amazing Animals of the World Part 3! This series is getting pretty good, we’ve gone over a lot of really cool animals so far, and this week I’ve got a great line up for you.

We’ll talk about skydiving birds, a sweeping retriever, daredevil monkeys, a horse with a mustache and a runaway horse. Sound interesting? You bet it is, read on to find out some cool stuff about these amazing animals.
 

Skydiving Birds

The Gannet is a black and white bird that has a yellow head. In a way they look similar to a long beaked pigeon They are more common in the North Atlantic region and have a wingspan of over six and a half feet. These awesome birds will dive headfirst into the ocean at speeds approaching 90 mph! Once they’ve plunged into the ocean they may reach depths of 30 feet or more below the surface. They have an extra thick skull which acts as a helmet in order to protect them from the impact with the water. Here’s the weird part, they have a type of inflatable pouch in their throat that will expand with air to help protect their bodies during their dive.
 

The Sweeping Retriever

In the Changchun, Jilin Province in China there’s a golden retriever that takes to the streets with a special made broom. While his owner Xu Ming takes him for a walk, the dog will sweep the streets clean acting on instructions given by his owner. He will run in a zig zag pattern in order to sweep away the dust and debris from their streets. Now that’s definitely a trick worth teaching, if all pets would do this, the world would be a much cleaner place.
 

Daredevil Monkeys

The macaques monkeys in Jaipur, India will climb to the top of a 12 ft. lamppost and then dive off landing in a shallow trough of water. There’s no evidence to support they are doing this for any reason other than fun. City officials even covered the lamppost in barbed wire to try and stop these antics, but it did not work. They quickly learned how to scale around the wire in order to keep the fun going. These monkeys are actually one of the few primates that aren’t scared of water, they love it!
 

Horse with a Mustache

In Bristol, England there’s a black shire horse by the name of Alfie that has a huge blonde mustache. It is not uncommon for a horse to grow a mustache, but normally they are shaved every six months or so. But not Alfie, he’s been growning his mustache for over five years. He simply won’t let the stable workers get close enough to shave it off. I’m sure he doesn’t want them to cramp his style.
 

The Runaway Horse

In Meppen, Germany, a camera set up to capture speeders collected an unusual image in July of 2011. The camera captured an image of an escaped horse that was galloping down one of the busy main roads heading into town. As for the driver that actually set off the camera, his defense was that he was in fact speeding in an attempt to get away from the run away horse!
 

Cycloptic Swimmer

Ok, I wanted to throw this one in as a bonus, it’s too good to pass up. An unusual specimen was pulled from the waters of Mexico. A local fisherman landed a 286 lb. bull shark that happened to be pregnant. After filleting the catch, her ten pups were discovered. Here’s the amazing part, one of those pups was an albino shark with only one eye that was centrally located above the mouth. It was centered so perfectly on it’s head that it looked as though it was right where it should be.

Well that’s all I’ve got for this weeks post in the Amazing Animals of the World series, but the series is far from over. So be sure to check back every Friday for a new episode and discover something cool and interesting in the animal kingdom. Until then, feel free to comment on any of the episodes that are available so far…
 
If you’ve missed any of the previous episodes, feel free to check them out at Amazing Animals.