Facts: Polnado Warning
Photo: Dr. Pol and Charles examine a horse (View larger version)
- Out of 275 cattle breeds acknowledged worldwide, only 5-10 breeds are prominent in beef production.
- Although cows have poor depth perception, they can see almost 360 degrees around them, and can distinguish between many colors.
- On average, a U.S. dairy cow will yield more than 2,275 gallons of milk a year, or about 6.2 gallons a day.
- There is only one species of domestic horse, but around 400 different breeds that specialize in everything from pulling wagons to racing.
- Animal behaviorists have observed compulsive behaviors in domestic horses that feral horses do not exhibit; these include headshaking, weaving, stall-circling, striking or kicking the wall, as well as biting or kicking themselves. The researchers theorize that isolating these animals and keeping them in stalls has contributed to these behaviors.
- Although they are much smaller, miniature horses should be vaccinated with the same dose size as standard-sized horses.
- Sheep hooves contain two digits and grow like human fingernails. They should be trimmed every couple of months or so to maintain normal shape and structure.
- Sheep can communicate emotions and messages based on the sounds, pitch and variance of their bleat; a young sheep can identify its mother by the sound of her bleat.
- Livestock are dehorned to reduce the risk of injury to other animals and humans and to reduce the amount of space needed at feed troughs.
- Like adolescent humans, male and female dogs mature at different rates; in larger breeds males may take a year longer to mature than females.
- Dogs rely on their noses as their keenest sense; a dog's nose contains more than 220 million olfactory receptors. This is over 40 times as many as humans, who have just five million receptors.
