Daily facts, Amusing, Fun, Funny Daily Facts

What can i say? Funny, funny, funny, funny facts!

So, these facts are funny, oh, i forgot, you’ve already must have seen the title of this post, hehe. So here you go! Enjoy!
The yo-yo was originally a weapon used in the Philippine jungles.
Males, on average, think about sex every 7 seconds.
Every 5 seconds a computer gets infected with a virus
Coca-cola was originally green.
Most gemstones contain several elements. Except the diamond it’s all carbon.
A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why
Kermit the Frog has 11 points on his collar around his neck.
The average life of a taste bud is 10 days.
The average human will eat 8 spiders while asleep in thier lifetime.
It is illegal to hunt camels in Arizona.

Had enough fun with the funny facts of dailyfacts.org? There’s plenty more where these came from.

Daily Facts

Automobile or simply Car Facts

How many of you drive? I think a lot! I thought it’s worth to know the history of cars, i was interested in it since i am a driver myself. Enjoy reading.

motor car (usually shortened to just car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods. However, the term is far from precise.

As of 2002, there were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car for every eleven people).

History
Karl Benz
Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1885

History of the automobile

Some sources suggest Ferdinand Verbiest, whilst a member of a Jesuit mission in China, may have built the first steam powered car around 1672. François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine which was fuelled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and used it to develop the world’s first vehicle to run on such an engine. The design was not very successful, as was the case with Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir who each produced vehicles powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.

In November 1881 French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.

An automobile powered by an Otto gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885 and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie. which was founded in 1883.

Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz is generally credited as the inventor of the modern automobile.[5] In 1879 Benz had been granted a patent for his first engine, which he designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle and in 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal combustion flat engine.

Approximately 25 of the Benz vehicles were built and sold before 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.

Daimler and Maybach founded DMG, Daimler Motor Company, in Cannstatt in 1890 and under the brand name, Daimler, sold their first automobile in 1892. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and Daimler seem to have been unaware of each other’s early work and worked independently.

Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Wilhelm Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes that was used in a special model ordered and specified by one customer, Emil Jellinek. Two years later, a new model DMG automobile was produced and named Mercedes after the engine. Mayback quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.

Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later and in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, sales, and advertising—marketing their automobile models jointly—although keeping their respective brands. On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929.

In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the motor industry in France. The first American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine supposedly was designed in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent on an automobile in 1879. In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860. Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894 followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs. The first production vehicles came from the Daimler Motor Company, founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, and making their first cars in 1897.

In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel got a patent for a “New Rational Combustion Engine”. In 1897 he built the first Diesel Engine.[5] In 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent(U.S. Patent 549,160 ) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hinderd more than encouraged development of autos in the United States. Steam, electric, and gasoline powered autos competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.
Ransom E. Olds.

The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in 1902. This assembly line concept was then greatly expanded by Henry Ford in the 1910s. Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world’s attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910-1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.

Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda’s version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.
Ford Model T, 1927, regarded as the first affordable automobile

Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans have often heavily influenced automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one company, so buyers could “move up” as their fortunes improved. The makes shared parts with one another so larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; the LaSalle of the 1930s, sold by Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by the Oldsmobile division.

Design

Automotive design

The 1955 Citroën DS; revolutionary visual design and technological innovation.

The design of modern cars is typically handled by a large team of designers and engineers from many different disciplines. As part of the product development effort the team of designers will work closely with teams of design engineers responsible for all aspects of the vehicle. These engineering teams include: chassis, body and trim, powertrain, electrical and production. The design team under the leadership of the design director will typically comprise of an exterior designer, an interior designer (usually referred to as stylists), and a color and materials designer. A few other designers will be involved in detail design of both exterior and interior. For example, a designer might be tasked with designing the rear light clusters or the steering wheel. The color and materials designer will work closely with the exterior and interior designers in developing exterior color paints, interior colors, fabrics, leathers, carpet, wood trim, and so on.

In 1924 the American national automobile market began reaching saturation. To maintain unit sales, General Motors instituted annual model-year design changes (also credited to Alfred Sloan) in order to convince car owners they needed a replacement each year. Since 1935 automotive form has been driven more by consumer expectations than engineering improvement.

There have been many efforts to innovate automobile design funded by the NHTSA, including the work of the NavLab group at Carnegie Mellon University. Recent efforts include the highly publicized DARPA Grand Challenge race.

Acceleration, braking, and measures of turning or agility vary widely between different makes and models of automobile. The automotive publication industry has developed around these performance measures as a way to quantify and qualify the characteristics of a particular vehicle. See quarter mile and 0 to 60 mph.

Fuel and propulsion technologies
The Henney Kilowatt, the first modern (transistor-controlled) electric car.
2007 Tesla Roadster

Alternative fuel vehicle

Most automobiles in use today are propelled by gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel internal combustion engines, which are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[11] Increasing costs of oil-based fuels and tightening environmental laws and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for automobiles. Efforts to improve or replace these technologies include hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles.

Diesel

Diesel engined cars have long been popular in Europe with the first models being introduced in the 1930s by Mercedes Benz and Citroen. The main benefit of Diesels are a 50% fuel burn efficiency compared with 27%[12] in the best gasoline engines. A down side of the diesel is the presence in the exhaust gases of fine soot particulates and manufacturers are now starting to fit filters to remove these. Many diesel powered cars can also run with little or no modifications on 100% biodiesel.

Gasoline

Gasoline engines have the advantage over diesel in being lighter and able to work at higher rotational speeds and they are the usual choice for fitting in high performance sports cars. Continuous development of gasoline engines for over a hundred years has produced improvements in efficiency and reduced pollution. The carburetor was used on nearly all road car engines until the 1980s but it was long realised better control of the fuel/air mixture could be achieved with fuel injection. Indirect fuel injection was first used in aircraft engines from 1909, in racing car engines from the 1930s, and road cars from the late 1950s. Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) is now starting to appear in production vehicles such as the 2007 BMW MINI. Exhaust gases are also cleaned up by fitting a catalytic converter into the exhaust system. Clean air legislation in many of the car industries most important markets has made both catalysts and fuel injection virtually universal fittings. Most modern gasoline engines are also capable of running with up to 15% ethanol mixed into the gasoline - older vehicles may have seals and hoses that can be harmed by ethanol. With a small amount of redesign, gasoline-powered vehicles can run on ethanol concentrations as high as 85%. 100% ethanol is used in some parts of the world (such as Brazil), but vehicles must be started on pure gasoline and switched over to ethanol once the engine is running. Most gasoline engined cars can also run on LPG with the addition of an LPG tank for fuel storage and carburetion modifications to add an LPG mixer. LPG produces fewer toxic emissions and is a popular fuel for fork lift trucks that have to operate inside buildings.

Electric

The first electric cars were built in the late 1800s, but the building of battery powered vehicles that could rival internal combustion models had to wait for the introduction of modern semiconductor controls. Because they can deliver a high torque at low revolutions electric cars do not require such a complex drive train and transmission as internal combustion powered cars. Some are able to accelerate from 0-60 mph (96 km/hour) in 4.0 seconds with a top speed around 130 mph (210 km/h). They have a range of 250 miles (400 km) on the EPA highway cycle requiring 3-1/2 hours to completely charge. Equivalent fuel efficiency to internal combustion is not well defined but some press reports give it at around 135 mpg.

Steam

Steam power, usually using an oil or gas heated boiler, was also in use until the 1930s but had the major disadvantage of being unable to power the car until boiler pressure was available. It has the advantage of being able to produce very low emissions as the combustion process can be carefully controlled. Its disadvantages include poor heat efficiency and extensive requirements for electric auxiliaries.

Gas turbine

In the 1950s there was a brief interest in using gas turbine (jet) engines and several makers including Rover produced prototypes. In spite of the power units being very compact, high fuel consumption, severe delay in throttle response, and lack of engine braking meant no cars reached production.

Rotary (Wankel) engines

Rotary Wankel engines were introduced into road cars by NSU with the Ro 80 and later were seen in several Mazda models. In spite of their impressive smoothness, poor reliability and fuel economy led to them largely disappearing. Mazda, however, has continued research on these engines and overcame most of the earlier problems.

Future developments

Much current research and development is centered on hybrid vehicles that use both electric power and internal combustion. Research into alternative forms of power also focus on developing fuel cells, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), stirling engines, and even using the stored energy of compressed air or liquid nitrogen.

Safety

Car safety and Automobile accident

Result of a serious automobile accident.
Result of a serious automobile accident.

Road traffic injuries represent about 25% of worldwide injury-related deaths (the leading cause) with an estimated 1.2 million deaths (2004) each year.

Automobile accidents are almost as old as automobiles themselves. Early examples include Mary Ward, who became one of the first documented automobile fatalities in 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland, and Henry Bliss, one of the United State’s first pedestrian automobile casualties in 1899 in New York.

Cars have many basic safety problems - for example, they have human drivers who make mistakes, wheels that lose traction when the braking, turning or acceleration forces are too high. Some vehicles have a high center of gravity and therefore an increased tendency to roll over. When driven at high speeds, collisions can have very serious or fatal consequences.

Early safety research focused on increasing the reliability of brakes and reducing the flammability of fuel systems. For example, modern engine compartments are open at the bottom so that fuel vapors, which are heavier than air, vent to the open air. Brakes are hydraulic and dual circuit so that failures are slow leaks, rather than abrupt cable breaks. Systematic research on crash safety started[citation needed] in 1958 at Ford Motor Company. Since then, most research has focused on absorbing external crash energy with crushable panels and reducing the motion of human bodies in the passenger compartment. This is reflected in most cars produced today.
Airbags, a modern component of automobile safety
Airbags, a modern component of automobile safety

Significant reductions in death and injury have come from the addition of Safety belts and laws in many countries to require vehicle occupants to wear them. Airbags and specialised child restraint systems have improved on that. Structural changes such as side-impact protection bars in the doors and side panels of the car mitigate the effect of impacts to the side of the vehicle. Many cars now include radar or sonar detectors mounted to the rear of the car to warn the driver if he or she is about to reverse into an obstacle or a pedestrian. Some vehicle manufacturers are producing cars with devices that also measure the proximity to obstacles and other vehicles in front of the car and are using these to apply the brakes when a collision is inevitable. There have also been limited efforts to use heads up displays and thermal imaging technologies similar to those used in military aircraft to provide the driver with a better view of the road at night.

There are standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests. There are also tests run by organizations such as IIHS and backed by the insurance industry.

Despite technological advances, there is still significant loss of life from car accidents: About 40,000 people die every year in the United States, with similar figures in European nations. This figure increases annually in step with rising population and increasing travel if no measures are taken, but the rate per capita and per mile traveled decreases steadily. The death toll is expected to nearly double worldwide by 2020. A much higher number of accidents result in injury or permanent disability. The highest accident figures are reported in China and India. The European Union has a rigid program to cut the death toll in half by 2010, and member states have started implementing measures.

Automated control has been seriously proposed and successfully prototyped. Shoulder-belted passengers could tolerate a 32 g emergency stop (reducing the safe inter-vehicle gap 64-fold) if high-speed roads incorporated a steel rail for emergency braking. Both safety modifications of the roadway are thought to be too expensive by most funding authorities, although these modifications could dramatically increase the number of vehicles able to safely use a high-speed highway. This makes clear the often-ignored fact road design and traffic control also play a part in car wrecks; unclear traffic signs, inadequate signal light placing, and poor planning (curved bridge approaches which become icy in winter, for example), also contribute.

Economics and Impacts

The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.
The hydrogen powered FCHV (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle) was developed by Toyota in 2005
The hydrogen powered FCHV (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle) was developed by Toyota in 2005

Cost and benefits of ownership

Economics of automobile ownership

The costs of automobile ownership, which may include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, repairs, maintenance, fuel, depreciation, parking fees, tire replacement, taxes and insurance, are weighed against the cost of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits - perceived and real - of vehicle ownership. The benefits may include personal freedom, mobility, independence and convenience.

Cost and benefits to society

Effects of the automobile on societies

Similarly the costs to society of encompassing automobile use, which may include those of: maintaining roads, pollution, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life, can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that automobile use generates. The societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation, of automobile production and maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability for humans to move rapidly from place to place has far reaching implications for the nature of our society. People can now live far from their workplaces, the design of cities can be determined as much by the need to get vehicles into and out of the city as the nature of the buildings and public spaces within the city.

Impacts on society

Transportation is a major contributor to air pollution in the United States, according to the Surface Transportation Policy Project, and nearly half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air. Their study showed air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has got worse over the last decade. In the United States the average passenger car emits 11,450 lbs (5 tonnes) of carbon dioxide, along with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen. Residents of low-density, residential-only sprawling communities are also more likely to die in car collisions, which kill 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number. Sprawl is more broadly a factor in inactivity and obesity, which in turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of diseases.

Improving the positive and reducing the negative impacts

Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, car designs (e.g. hybrid vehicles) and the development of alternative fuels. High fuel taxes may provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, or to not drive. On average, today’s automobiles are about 75 percent recyclable, and using recycled steel helps reduce energy use and pollution. In the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger car standards have not risen above the 27.5 miles per gallon standard set in 1985. Light truck standards have changed more frequently, and were set at 22.2 miles per gallon in 2007. Alternative fuel vehicles are another option that is less polluting than conventional petroleum powered vehicles.

Future car technologies

Automobile propulsion technologies under development include hybrid cars, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, and various alternative fuels. New materials which may replace steel car bodies include duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes.

Alternatives to the automobile

Established alternatives for some aspects of automobile use include public transit (buses, trolleybuses, trains, subways, monorails, tramways), cycling, walking, rollerblading and skateboarding. Car-share arrangements are also increasingly popular – the U.S. market leader has experienced double-digit growth in revenue and membership growth between 2006 and 2007, offering a service that enables urban residents to “share” a vehicle rather than own a car in already congested neighborhoods. Bike-share systems have been tried in some European cities, including Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Similar programs have been experimented with in a number of U.S. Cities. Additional individual modes of transport, such as personal rapid transit could serve as an alternative to automobiles if they prove to be socially accepted.

Daily Facts

Zebra Facts

Zebras, horses and wild asses are all equids, long-lived animals that move quickly for their large size and have teeth built for grinding and cropping grass. Zebras have horselike bodies, but their manes are made of short, erect hair, their tails are tufted at the tip and their coats are striped.

Three species of zebra still occur in Africa, two of which are found in East Africa. The most numerous and widespread species in the east is Burchell’s, also known as the common or plains zebra. The other is Grevy’s zebra, named for Jules Grevy, a president of France in the 1880s who received one from Abyssinia as a gift, and now found mostly in northern Kenya. (The third species, Equus zebra, is the mountain zebra, found in southern and southwestern Africa.)

Physical Characteristics
The long-legged Grevy’s zebra, the biggest of the wild equids, is taller and heavier than the Burchell’s, with a massive head and large ears.

Zebras have shiny coats that dissipate over 70 percent of incoming heat, and some scientists believe the stripes help the animals withstand intense solar radiation. The black and white stripes are a form of camouflage called disruptive coloration that breaks up the outline of the body. Although the pattern is visible during daytime, at dawn or in the evening when their predators are most active, zebras look indistinct and may confuse predators by distorting true distance.

The stripes on Grevy’s zebras are more numerous and narrow than those of the plains zebra and do not extend to the belly. In all zebra species, the stripes on the forequarters form a triangular pattern; Grevy’s have a similar pattern on the hindquarters, while others have a slanted or horizontal pattern.

Habitat
Burchell’s zebras inhabit savannas, from treeless grasslands to open woodlands; they sometimes occur in tens of thousands in migratory herds on the Serengeti plains. Grevy’s zebras are now mainly restricted to parts of northern Kenya. Although they are adapted to semi-arid conditions and require less water than other zebra species, these zebras compete with domestic livestock for water and have suffered heavy poaching for their meat and skins.

Behavior
Family groups are stable members maintaining strong bonds over many years. Mutual grooming, where zebras stand together and nibble the hair on each other’s neck and back, helps develop and preserve these bonds. Family members look out for one another if one becomes separated from the rest, the others search for it. The group adjusts its traveling pace to accommodate the old and the weak.

The females within a family observe a strict hierarchical system. A dominant mare always leads the group, while others follow her in single file, each with their foals directly behind them. The lowest- ranking mare is the last in line. Although the stallion is the dominant member of the family, he operates outside the system and has no special place in the line.

Diet
Zebras are avid grazers. Both Burchell’s and Grevy’s zebras are in constant search of green pastures. In the dry season, they can live on coarse, dry grass only if they are within a short distance (usually no farther than 20 miles away) of water holes.

Caring for the Young
When a foal is born the mother keeps all other zebras (even the members of her family) away from it for 2 or 3 days, until it learns to recognize her by sight, voice and smell.

While all foals have a close association with their mothers, the male foals are also close to their fathers. They leave their group on their own accord between the ages of 1 and 4 years to join an all-male bachelor group until they are strong enough to head a family.

Predators
Zebras are important prey for lions and hyenas, and to a lesser extent for hunting dogs, leopards and cheetahs. When a family group is attacked, the members form a semicircle, face the predator and watch it, ready to bite or strike should the attack continue. If one of the family is injured the rest will often encircle it to protect it from further attack.

Did you know?

• Romans called Grevy’s zebras ‘hippotigris’ and trained them to pull two-wheeled carts for exhibition in circuses.
• At first glance zebras in a herd might all look alike, but their stripe patterns are as distinctive as fingerprints are in man. Scientists can identify individual zebras by comparing patterns, stripe widths, color and scars.

Daily Facts

Wildebeest Facts

There is no other antelope like the wildebeest. It looks like it was assembled from spare parts – the forequarters could have come from and ox, the hindquarters from an antelope and the mane and tail from a horse. The antics of the territorial bulls during breeding season have earned them the name “clowns of the savanna.”

The species that forms the large herds of the Serengetis-Mara ecosystem of Tanzania and Kenya is variously known as the brindled, blue- or white-bearded gnu. Scientists do, however, make a distinction and list the blue as a separate race restricted to southern Tanzania. The wildebeest described here is the white-bearded of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania.

Physical Characteristics

The head of the wildebeest is large and box-like. Both males and females have curving horns, that are close together at the base, but curve outward, inward and slightly backward. The body looks disproportionate, as the front end is heavily built, the hindquarters slender and the legs spindly.

The wildebeest is gray with darker vertical stripes that look almost black from a distance. This species has a dark name and a long tail. Newborns are a yellowish-brown, but change to adult color at about 2 months.

Habitat
Large herds of wildebeest are located in the plains and acacia of eastern Africa.

Behavior
In the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem the animals make a migratory circle each year of 500 to 1,000 miles. The migration starts after the calving season in January and February on the short grass plains in the southeastern Serengeti. Wildebeests move west toward Lake Victoria, across the grass savanna to the open woodlands, then turn north into the Mara. They then begin the return trip to the south. They are relentless in their advance and will swim rivers and lakes in such huge masses that many are injured, lost (especially in the case of calves) or killed.

Wildebeest are continually on the move as they seek favorable supplied of grass and water. Active both day and night, they often string out in long single columns when on the move. They also cover long distances at a slow rocking gallop but can run fast when necessary. Zebras and Thomson’s gazelles, and some of their many predators, accompany the migrating wildebeests.

During mating season smaller breeding groups of about 150 animals form within the massive herds. In these small groups, five or six of the most active bulls establish and defend territories that females wander through. The bulls go through all kinds of antics, galloping and bucking around their territories. They paw the ground and rub their heads on it, spreading secretions produced by the preorbital and interdigital glands. They also urinate and defecate in a certain spot and toll in it to signal to other bulls to stay away.

When neighboring bulls meet at the edges of their territories they go through a highly ritualized “challenge” in which they paw the ground, buck, snort and fight. They typical combat position in on their knees, facing one another, with their foreheads flat on the ground – they knock heads and hit at the base of the horns but seldom injure one another. Some scientists believe these challenges may increase hormone levels, as the nonterritorial bulls in the bachelor herds are very placid.

Diet
Strictly grazers, wildebeest prefer short grass. They are unable to go without water for more than a few days.

Caring for the Young
Wildebeest females give birth to a single calf in the middle of the herd, not seeking a secluded place, as do many antelopes. Amazingly, about 80 percent of the females calve within the same 2- to 3- week period, creating a glut for predators and thus enabling more calves to survive the crucial first few weeks. A calf can stand and run within minutes of birth. It immediately begins to follow its mother and stays close to her to avoid getting lost or killed by waiting predators. Within days, it can run fast enough to keep up with the adult herd.

A calf eats its first grass at about 10 days, although it is still suckled for at least 4 months. Even after weaning, it will remain with the mother until the next year’s calf is born. At that time the young males are driven away, but the females often remain in the same groups as their mothers.

Predators
Wildebeest are the preferred prey of lions and spotted hyena. Although the animals have no camouflage coloring, they get some protection from gathering in large herds. (If a calf loses its mother it will imprint on and follow whatever is closest – a car, a person or occasionally even a predator, but in the later case, probably not for long.)

Did you know?

• The wildebeest is one of the few African antelopes to have extended its range in the last 50 years. They numbered about 250,000 in 1960 and are thought to number 1.5 million today.
• Wildebeest, or gnus, (pronounced ‘news’), are noisy. They constantly emit low moans and if disturbed, snort explosively.

Daily Facts