For crocodiles an ordinary rubber band should be sufficient for you to make your escape. The muscles that close the jaws of a crocodile or alligator are strong. They have the same downward force of a truck falling off a cliff. But the muscles that open their jaws are weak enough for you to hold their mouths shut with one hand. The technical difference between alligators and crocodiles is that crocs have a longer, narrower snout, eyes further forward.

Also, some crocodiles live in salty water. Alligators generally live in fresh water. Crocodile means lizard. Neither animal cries as it savages you to death. Crocodile tears are a myth from medieval times. The origin of the legend may be in the proximity of the throat to the glands which lubricate the eye. These can cause the eye to water a little from the effort of swallowing something large or reluctant. They can’t smile either: crocodiles and alligators have no lips.

Until fairly recently, it was a mystery how certain large bees, bumblebees in particular, were able to fly. To scientists who study the physical laws of flight a bee’s body seemed too heavy and its wings too small for it to become airborne and remain so. Bees “can’t” fly... but do. The mystery became so intriguing that a few scientists decided to study it.

Most insects fly by using muscles that flap their wings with great speed. For example, the locust beats its wings at a rate of about 20 times per second to fly. Other flying insects have to beat their wings even faster — some as rapidly as 100 times per second.

But bees must work extra hard to become airborne. Honeybees, for instance, must beat their wings about 200 times a second to fly. Yet larger bees — like bumblebees — whose bodies are heavier, wider, and longer — have to do even better.

The idea of storing food in tin cans was developed in England in the early 19th century. A British merchant named Peter Durand is responsible for this idea. The main market for canned food at that time was the British Army and Royal Navy, but it is known, that Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, first tried and enjoyed canned beef in 1813. It is interesting that no one invented a can opener until fifty years later. For a long time, British soldiers tore open canned food with pocket knives. They were even known to shoot the cans open. The can opener that we use today was invented about 1870. It had a cutting wheel that rotated around the can’s edge. It was immediately popular and it has been changed only once. In another 55 years, a special wheel was added. This was called the “feed wheel” and it made the can rotate against the cutting wheel.

Yasnaya Polyana is the country estate where the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy lived, wrote and spent most of his long life. He was born here in 1828 and he was buried here in 1910. It was in Yasnaya Polyana that Tolstoy wrote many of his great novels. Many of Tolstoy's famous contemporaries visited him in Yasnaya Polyana. Writers, composers, painters, political leaders – eminent figures from the arts, social thought, politics and also workers, peasants and students came to see him.

Life on the estate and the beauty of the countryside are reflected in many of his writings. Constant contact with the local peasants was a source of Tolstoy's knowledge of the life of common people. His own life as a thinker and a writer inspires people all over the world with a desire for truth, goodness and justice. In his writings, Leo Tolstoy gave the world a unique picture of Russian life.

When you hear the word “panda”, Kung Fu Panda is the first thing that comes to your mind. Pandas are an extremely popular animal. They look nice. Even small children recognize a panda when they see it. Still, most present-day toddlers know about pandas from movies and not books. Pandas are also called “panda bears”. The general life span of a panda is 20 years if they are wild. It can be up to 25 years if they are captive and protected. There is an interesting thing about the eye patch of the panda. When a panda is a cub, it is circular in shape. Along its life journey it changes to the shape of a teardrop. Pandas are only found in China. For quite a while now, Chinese people have used panda as a symbol of peace. In ancient times, a white flag with a picture of panda was raised in order to declare peace during wars.

Because birds have such fine eyesight, they are hard to approach. Bird watchers use binoculars to study birds. One way to watch them up close without using binoculars is to go to a place they go to often. Sit still, keep quiet, and wait until they come. Soon they will be doing things all around you.

You may get too close to the animals you are watching. Always stay at a distance that is easy for them and for you. Do not disturb nesting birds. And never approach an animal that is with its young. Wild animal parents can be very protective. If you come upon a baby animal that looks like it’s alone, let it be. Mother may be watching you from a hiding place nearby.

Do not touch or corner a wild animal. Never follow an animal into places you don’t know. There is no such thing as a tame wild animal.

The hippopotamuses are most dangerous for humans. Unfortunately hippos like to hang out near slow-moving fresh water. Most accidents occur because people are out walking at night, just the time when hippos leave the water to graze. Being trampled by a startled hippo is not a dignified way to die. Hippopotamuses, once believed to be members of the pig family but now shown to be most closely related to whales, are divided into two species. The common hippo is the third largest land mammal after the African and Asian elephants.

They are very irritable beasts, especially when they have young. They dispose of lions by plunging them into deep water and drowning them, crocodiles by biting them in half, and sharks by dragging them out of the water and trampling them to death. However, they are strict vegetarians, so their aggression is mostly to do with self-defence. Hippos mainly eat grass.

Camels don’t store water, but fat, which is used as an energy reserve. Water is stored throughout their bodies, particularly in the bloodstream, which makes them very good at avoiding dehydration. Camels can lose 40 per cent of their body-weight before they are affected by it. When they do drink, they really go for it – up to 225 litres at a time. Here are a few quite interesting facts about camels, which have nothing to do with their humps. Before elephants acquired their reputation for long memories, the ancient Greeks believed it was camels that didn’t forget.

Camel-racing in the United Arab Emirates has started to use robot riders in place of the traditional child jockeys. The remotely operated riders were developed following a ban on the use of jockeys under sixteen years of age. The only qualifications needed to become a jockey are not to weigh much and be able to scream in terror.

Charles Darwin was driven by gastronomic, as well as scientific, curiosity and once ate an oil. While reading Divinity at Cambridge University, he became a member of the Glutton club which met once a week and actively sought to eat animals not normally found on menus. Darwin’s son commenting on his father’s letters, noted that the Glutton club enjoyed, among other things, hawk and bittern.

Over the years, Darwin sharpened up considerably in the academic arena and lost his faith in God, but he never lost his taste for the allure of an interesting menu. In the Galapagos, Darwin wolfed down a few helpings of giant tortoise. Not realising the importance of giant tortoises to his later evolutionary theory, forty-eight specimens were loaded aboard the Beagle. Darwin and his shipmates proceeded to eat them, throwing the shells overboard as they finished.

St Bernards have never carried brandy barrels. The dog’s mission is entirely different – apart from anything else giving brandy to someone with hypothermia is a disastrous mistake – but tourists have always loved the idea, so they still pose wearing them. Before they were trained as mountain rescue dogs, they were used by the monks at the hospice to carry food, as their large size and docile temperament made them good pack animals.

The brandy barrel was the idea of a young English, who was much favoured by Queen Victoria. He was a renowned painter of landscapes and animals, best known for his painting The Monarch of the Glen and for sculpting the lions around the base of Nelson’s Column. Originally, St Bernards were known as Barry hounds, who rescued forty people but was unfortunately killed by the forty-first, who mistook him for a wolf.