Snipfact:

  Silk comes from the silkworm, the caterpillar of the silkmoth, Silkworms eat a ton of mulberry leaves to make 5 kg (11 lb) of silk

  Wool is shorn from live sheep, which then regrow their costs. The fur and leather of many other animals can be taken only after the animal has been killed. Cattle, goats, rabbits, mink, seals, wolves, foxes, kangaroos, big cats such as leopards, and alligators and snakes are among the many animals that have been used in this way. There are some very special uses for animal skin: for example, medieval manuscripts were written on vellum, made from calfskin.

  Humans have always hunted and eaten wild animals. Milk from such animals as cows, goat, sheep, camels, buffalo, reindeer, Ilamas, and yaks in drunk, used in cooking and made into butter and cheese. The eggs from birds such as hens, ducks, geese and quail are another important food. Honey has long been taken from the hives of wild bees, and now from domesticated bees kept in articial hives.

  A tigress known as the Champwat maneater, after the part of India in which she lived, killed a record of 436 people over five years. She was shot in 1907 by British big-game hunter Colonel Jim Corbett (1875-1955)

  There are about 1,101,639,064 sheep in the world – an average of one sheep for every six people. In some countries there are more sheep than humans. Falkland Islands 690,000 sheep, 3,060 people = 225 sheep per person New Zealand 40,106,800 sheep, 4,121,662 people = 10 sheep per person Australia 100,100,00 sheep, 20,245,629 people = 5 sheep per person Mongolia 12,884,500 sheep, 20,245,629 people = 5 sheep per person Uruguay 9,712,000 sheep, 3,383,284 people = 3 sheep per person Mauritania 8,850,000 sheep, 3,022,150 people = 3 sheep per person

  Teddy bears are named after US president Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt. The story began when the president refused to shoot a young bear while on a hunting trip. This incident appeared in a cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman, published in the Washington Post on 16 November 19002. Soon after, Morris Michtom, a New York shopkeeper, started making stuffed bears and advertising them as “Teddy’s Bears” with Roosevelt’s permission. At about the same time. Margarete Steiff, a German toymaker, started making her first toy bears and exported them to the USA to meet the demand created by Teddy’s Bears. In 1903 Steiff’s factory produced 12,000 bears. By 1907, the figure had risen to 974,000. Steiff teddy bears, with a distinctive tag on their ear, are still made and are sold internationally. Early examples are prized by collectors.

  Fleas are perhaps the most dangerous creatures of all – they were the carriers of the deadly bubonic plague that killed millions of people in medieval times

  Ticks can carry diseases such as encephalitis and Lyme disease. Mites and chiggers (baby mites) cause skin diseases and may transmit typhus.

  Some of the tiny creature that feed on us may also transmit diseases. Tsetse flies carry African sleeping sickness. Mosquitoes can infect humans with diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever when they bite. Malaria has killed more people in human history than any other disease.

  Follicle mites are in everyone’s hair, even among our eyelashes. They were first described by 19th-century scientist Richard Owen (the man who first named dinosaurs), but are so tiny that few people have ever seen them or even aware that they are there.

  Parasites such as roundworms, hookworms, flukes and tapeworms – which can grow as long as 9.75 m (32 ft) – can live inside our bodies. They may cause such diseases as elephantiasis, in which the patient’s limbs swell to gigantic sizes. Head lice live on human heads and feed on blood. The lice lay little white eggs, called nits, which cling to individual hairs.

  As many as 1000 trillion viruses and bacteria live on each of us. However much we wash, there are always ten million or so bacteria on every square centimetre of our skin. There are also many tiny creatures called parasites, which can live inside or on the human body, feeding on our blood.

  The smelliest frog is the Venezuela skunk frog, Which was discovered in 1991. It warns off its enemies by releasing a bad-smelling chemical identical to the one produced by skunks.

  The poison-arrow frogs of Central and South America are the mostly deadly. The world’s most poisonous amphibian is the golden poison-arrow frog of western Colombia. One adult contains enough highly toxic poison in its skin to kill 1,000 people.

  The green toad has been seen at 8,000 m (26,247) in the Himalayas and toads have been discovered more than 3,048 m down a coal mine

  The marine toad lays 35,000 eggs a year, but the Cuban arrow-poison frog lays only one egg.

  In 2006, 20 previously unknown frog species were discovered in an expedition to Indonesia including a tiny microhylid frog that measures less than 14 mm

  The smallest frog and the world’s smallest amphibian is the Eleutherodactylus limbatus frog, which measures only 8.5–12 mm.

  The world’s largest toad is the South American marine toad. It can have a body length of over 23 cm and weigh up to 1.2 kg

  The largest tree frog is Hyla vasta, which lives only on the island of Hispaniola. It is more than 12 cm long and has huge round finger an toe disks which grip like superglue.

  The world’s largest known frog is the goliath frog, which lives in central Africa. It measures up to 87.63 cm long and weighs as much as 3.66 kg.

  An amphibian is a vertebrate animal that spends at least some of its life in water. Its skin is not scaly. There are about 5,578 species of amphibian, divided into: Frogs and toads 4,896 species Newts and salamanders 517 species Caecilians (legless amphibians) 165 species

  The thread snake is rarely longer than 108 mm. The spotted dwarf adder is the smallest venomous snake at 22.r cm long.

  Many people believe that the South American anaconda is the largest snake. There are reports of anacondas up to 36.5 m long, but this has never been proved. The reticulated or royal python is probably the longest snake up to 10.7 m, but the anaconda may be the heaviest at up to 230 kg.

  Crocodile (India, Sri Lanka) 4–5 m (13.1–16.4 ft) Saltwater crocodile (Southeast Asia, Australia) 6–7 m (19.7–23 ft) Cuban crocodile (Cuba) 3.5 m (11.5 ft) Saimese crocodile (Southeast Asia, very rare) 3–4 m (9.8–13.1 ft) African dwarf crocodile (Central and West Africa) 1.9 m (6.2 ft) False gharial or gavial (Southeast Asia) 5 m (16.4 ft) Indian gavial or gharial (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal) 5–6 m (16.4–19.7 ft)

  American alligator (southern USA) 4–4.5 m (13.1–14.8 ft) Chinese alligator (China) 2 m (6.6 ft) Spectacled caiman (South America) 2–2.5 m (6.6–8.2 ft) Broad-snouted caiman (South America) 2 m (6.6 ft) Yacare caiman (South America) 2.5–3 m (8.2–9.8ft) Black caiman (South America) 4–6 m (1(13.1 19.7 ft) Cuvier’s dwarf caiman (South America) 1.5–1.6 m (4.9 – 5.2 ft) Schneider’s or Smooth-footed caiman (South America) 1.7–2.3 m (5.6–7.5 ft)

  American crocodile (southern USA, Mexico, Central and South America) 5 m (16.4 ft) Slender-snouted crocodile (West Africa) 2.5 m (8.2 ft) Orinoco crocodile (northern South America) 6 m (19.7 ft) Australian freshwater crocodile (Australia) 2.5–3 m (8.2–9.8 ft) Philippine crocodile (Philippines) 3 m (9.8 ft) Morelet’s crocodile (Centrel America) 3 m (9.8 ft) Nile crocodile (Africa) 5 m (16.4 ft) New Guinea crocodile (New Guinea) 3.5 m (11.5 ft)

  The crocodile family contains 23 species, including alligators, caimans and gavials. All are large reptiles with long bodies and short legs. most crocodiles have wider, U-shaped snouts. The gavial has long slender jaws – just right for catching fish. In alligators and caimans the teeth of the lower jaw fit into pits in the upper jaw and cannot be seen when the mouth is closed. In crocodiles the fourth tooth on each side of the lower jaw firs into a notch on the upper jaw, so they are always visible. Crocodiles are generally bigger and more aggressive than alligators.

  The coastal taipan of Australia injects the most venom per bite with 120 mg (0.004 oz). Just 1 mg (0.00004 oz) would be enough to kill a person. The common krait’s venom is even more dangerous – only 0.5 mg (0.00002 oz) can be fatal.

  Crocodiles and their relatives spend time on land and in water. There are more than 8,000 species of reptiles, which are divided into the following groups. Lizards 4,765 species Snakes 2,978 species Turtles and tortoises 307 species Amphibaenians (worm lizards) 165 species Crocodiles, alligators, caimans 23 species Tuataras 2 species

  A reptile is a vertebrate animal with a body covered in tough scales. Most reptiles live on land, but turtles and some kinds of snake live in water.

  Queen bees can lay two or three thousand eggs a day – as many as 200,000 eggs a year. They may live as long as five years, so can produce a million eggs.

  Some people are allergic to bee stings, which can even be fata. In 1962 in Rhodesia, Johanne Relleke was stung 2,243 times by wild bees, but survived!

  1.3 million tonnes of honey are produced worldwide every year. China is the main producer with 276,000 tonnes, followed by the USA with 82,000.

Honeybees’ wings beat 11,400 times a minute. These wing movements make the bees’ familiar buzz.

  One beehive may contain 50,000 worker bees – these are the bees which collect nectar from flowers to make honey.

  The smallest bee is the Brazilian Trigona duckei at 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) long.

  Honeybees visit up to five million flowers to make 1 kg (2.2 lb) of honey. In doing so,  they fly a total distance equal to  flying four times round the Earth.

  Wallace’s giant bees are the world’s largest at up to 4 cm (1.6 in) long. They were first found in Indonesia in 1858 but were then thought to have become extinct. In 1981 the bees were rediscovered

  There are about 20,000 types of bee. The best known is probably the honeybee, but not all bee live in colonies like the honeybee. Many live alone and build their own nests. Honeybees are the only insects that make food which humans eat. Bees make honey to feed the inhabitants of their hives during winter. The honey they do not eat is harvested by beekeepers. Bees also make beeswax which is used for making candles and furniture polish.

  A species called Patu marplesi from western Samoa is the smallest known spider. It is only 0.46 mm (0.018 in) long.

  The goliath bird-eating spider, which lives in South American rainforests, has legs up to 25 cm (9.8 in) long.

  There are at least 35,000 species of spider. Most are harmless but a few can be deadly. The banana spider of Central and South America produces enough venom to kill six adults. Other daily spiders are the funnel-web, which lives in Australia, and the wolf spider of Central and South America. The black widow and various tarantulas are also dangerous and can kill.

  Spiders are not insects. They belong to a separate group called arachnids, which also includes scorpions. A spider’s body is divided into two parts linked by a narrow waist. It has four pairs of legs tipped with claws, but no wings. All spiders can make silk but not all spin webs.

  Jewel beetle larvae, or young, may live inside timber for up to 30 years or more before emerging and turning into adult insects.

  The wings of a battledore wing fairy fly, which is a kind a parasitic wasp, measure only 0.21 mm (0.008 in).

  The wings of the female Queen Alexandra birdwing butterfly of Paupa New Guinea measure 28 cm (11 in) across.

  Stick insects have the longest bodies. Some measure up to 51 cm (20.07 in) long, including their legs.

  Insects called springtails live in topsoil all over the world. There are probably as many as 600 million per hectare (1.5 billion per acre). Together , they weigh more than the entire human race.