| 2141/ Leukaemia
is a cancer of the blood-forming tissue called bone marrow.
A mutation occurs in a developing white blood cell, after
which the mutant cell begins dividing continuously. Before
long, a huge number of cancerous white cells have accumulated
in the bone marrow, leaving no room for normal blood cell
production. The number of normal cells in the blood begins
to fall and this eventually threatens the patient's life.
2142/ Leukaemia is the commonest
cancer affecting children.
2143/ The raccoon is a stocky
medium sized mammal with a broad head, pointed snout and bushy
tail. A raccoon is easily recognized by its black mask on
a whitish face and the four to seven dark rings on its tail.
Its gray to black pelage (fur) consists of long, moderately
coarse, white and black banded guard hairs and short, fine,
gray or brownish underfur. The belly is lighter colored. Their
finger-like toes are long, thin and flexible giving the raccoon
amazing dexterity.
2144/ Adult raccoons weigh from
10 to 30 pounds. Total body length, including the tail, of
an adult raccoon measures from 26 to 40 inches. Adult females
are usually smaller than adult males.
2145/ Cats are pure carnivores.
They need a high level of protein in their diets - around
30% - and lack the digestive equipment to do well on a diet
of grains, fruits or vegetables.
2146/ If left to her own devices,
a female cat may have three to seven kittens every four months.
This is why population control using neutering and spaying
is so important.
2147/ The gene in cats that causes
the orange coat color is sexed linked, and is on the X sex
chromosome. This gene may display orange or black. Thus, as
female cat with two X chromosomes may have orange and black
colors in its coat. A male, with only one X chromosome, can
have only orange or black, not both.
2148/ If a male cat is both orange
and black it is ( besides being extremely rare ) sterile.
To have both the orange and the black coat colors, the male
cat must have all or part of both female X chromosomes. This
unusual sex chromosome combination will render the male cat
sterile.
2149/ Cats lack a true collarbone.
Because of this lack, cats can generally squeeze their bodies
through any space they can get their heads through. You may
have seen a cat testing the size of an opening by careful
measurement with the head.
2150/ The basenji, an African wolf dog, is the only dog that
cannot bark.
2151/ A dog can hear sounds 250
yards away that most people cannot hear beyond 25 yards. The
human ear can detect sound waves vibrating at frequencies
up to 20,000 times a second. But dogs can hear sound waves
that vibrate at frequencies of more than 30,000 times a second.
2152/ Dogs cannot see as well
as humans and are considered colour blind. A dog sees objects
first by their movement, second by their brightness, and third
by their shape.
2153/ Americans will eat 25.9
million hot dogs in major league ballparks - that's enough
to stretch from Dodgers' Stadium in Los Angeles to Yankee
Stadium in New York City.
2154/ On the Fourth of July,
Americans will enjoy 150 million hot dogs!
2155/ In America, about one family
in three owns a dog.
2156/ Dogs are able to see much
better in dim light than humans are. This is due to the tapetum
lucidum, a light-reflecting layer behind the retina. Because
it functions like a mirror, it also accounts for the strange
shine or glow in a dog's eyes at night.
2157/ Some fleas can jump 150
times their own length. That compares to a human jumping 1,000
feet. One flea broke a record with a four-foot vertical jump.
2158/ The female flea can lay
2,000 eggs in her lifetime; if all 53 million dogs in the
U.S. each hosted a population of 60 fleas, we'd have more
than six trillion flea eggs surrounding our pets. Laid end-to-end,
those eggs would stretch around the world more than 76 times!
2159/ The female flea consumes
15 times her own body weight in blood daily
2160/ The largest recorded flea
is the North American Hystrichopsylla schefferi, measuring
12mm in length - almost 1/2-inch!
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