Facts About Happy Animals

Here are some facts that most people don’t know about their animals.

Some fish can recognize their owner’s face. There are tiny harvest mice that sleep in tulip petals. Bees can fall asleep in flowers and sometimes snuggle with each other. Giant pandas are no longer an endangered species. Their population has increased by 17% over a decade, downgrading their status to “vulnerable.” Your dog probably dreams about you. When a baby elephant is born, other mothers in the social group will trumpet to celebrate or announce the baby’s arrival. Dolphin mothers sing to their babies while they are in the womb. Dolphin mothers will make a "signature whistle" for the benefit of their calf while it’s in the womb. The whistle is thought to act as a sort of “name” for the mother, allowing the calf and mother to locate each other once it is born.

Cows have “best friends” and are happier when they are with them. Your dog actually loves you, not just because you give the food and walks. Studies that measured oxytocin levels, heart rates, and other biometrics showed that levels of bonding hormones rose, and heart rates fell in both humans and their dogs after interacting with each other. When you pet your dog, both of you produce more of the same hormone in your brain that makes you fall in love with people, and both of you relax more. Dogs can tell when you are due to come home by how much of your scent is remaining in the house. Bees make a “whoop” sound when they bump into each other or are startled. Chinchilla fur is so dense that it is very bad for them to get wet. Instead of bathing in water, they bathe in dust. Goats and cows have accents. Cows tend to moo differently depending on the region they live in. It is true for goats, but goats will also adopt a new “accent” if they hang out with new goats for a while. Hundreds of trees become seedlings every year because of squirrels who forgot where they buried their food. Baby elephants cannot control their trunks. They lack fine motor skills. Even if they can walk, they sometimes have trouble performing complex actions with their trunks, like squirting water into their mouths. Penguins are ticklish.