Effects of Secondhand Smoke

By now, it's become very clear that smoking is bad for your health. The government, American Lung Association, and a variety of other health organizations have launched campaign after campaign to illustrate the grim repercussions (from lung cancer to heart disease) of lighting up and to encourage Americans to kick the habit.

What may be less obvious is the effect smoking has on those who are exposed to it secondhand. That exposure can be significant, especially for those who live or work with a smoker. In reality, most of the smoke from a burning cigarette doesn't get sucked down into a smoker's lungs -- it escapes into the air, where it can be inhaled by anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby.

In an effort to protect the health of nonsmokers, many states have passed laws outlawing smoking in public places such as restaurants, bars, airplanes, and offices. Yet there are still many people who can't escape secondhand smoke, especially the children of smokers, who regularly breathe in the toxic fumes from their parents' cigarettes and cigars. Even smokers who try to be careful about where they light up may not be doing a good enough job of protecting those around them.
What Is Secondhand Smoke?

When you breathe in smoke that comes from the end of a lit cigarette, cigar, or pipe (sidestream smoke) or that is exhaled by a smoker (mainstream smoke), you're inhaling almost the same amount of chemicals as the smoker breathes in. Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 different chemical compounds, more than 50 of which are known to cause cancer. These are just a few of the chemicals that float into your lungs when you are exposed to secondhand smoke:


Hydrogen cyanide -- a highly poisonous gas used in chemical weapons and pest control
Benzene -- a component of gasoline
Formaldehyde -- a chemical used to embalm corpses
Carbon monoxide -- a poisonous gas found in car exhaust

A 2006 surgeon general's report confirmed that secondhand smoking (also called involuntary or passive smoking) can kill, and it concluded that there is no amount of exposure to secondhand smoke that is safe. The more secondhand smoke you breathe in, the more your health risks increase.

Here are a few statistics on the effects of secondhand smoke exposure:

*126 million nonsmoking Americans are exposed to secondhand smoke at home and work.
*Secondhand smoke exposure causes nearly 50,000 deaths in adult nonsmokers in the U.S. each year.
*Nonsmokers increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20% to 30% and heart disease by 25% to 30% when they are exposed to secondhand smoke.
*About 3,000 deaths from lung disease in nonsmokers each year are caused by secondhand smoke exposure.
*An estimated 46,000 nonsmokers who live with smokers die each year from heart disease.
*Between 150,000 and 300,000 children under the age of 18 months get respiratory infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) from secondhand smoke; 7,500 to 15,000 of them must be hospitalized.
*More than 40% of children who visit the emergency room for severe asthma attacks live with smokers.

Secondhand smoke can have a number of serious health effects on nonsmokers, particularly cancer and heart disease.

 http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/effects-of-secondhand-smoke

Natural Tips to Fade Acne Scars

Scars are permanent. Old ones will remain there forever. But, you can try to fade with these easy tips.

1. Honey is great for skin and wonderful for scars. Apply honey to acne scars and leave it for about 10 minutes.

2. A rich source of vitamin A, tomatoes have excellent healing properties to reduce the appearance of scars. Eat fresh raw (cooked are fine too) tomatoes everyday.

3. Aloe Vera is a great remedy to all skin problems.

4. Drink lemon juice (unsweetened) everyday for a few days. Alternate with mosambi, orange or tangerine.

5. Regular application of ice cubes can give favourable results in the long run. Apply ice cubes on acne scars for at least 10 to 15 minutes everyday.

Since they are all non-chemical based, why not try it?

 

Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan now officially holds the Guinness World Record for the most credits in one movie and the most stunts by a living actor.

 

 guinnessworldrecords.com

Top 10 Most Evil Humans

Top #10
Delphine LaLaurie

LaLaurie was a sadistic socialite who lived in New Orleans. Her home was a chamber of horrors. On April 10, 1834, a fire broke out in the mansion’s kitchen, and firefighters found two slaves chained to the stove. They appeared to have started the fire themselves, in order to attract attention. The firefighters were lead by other slaves to the attic, where the real surprise was. Over a dozen disfigured and maimed slaves were manacled to the walls or floors. Several had been the subjects of gruesome medical experiments. One man appeared to be part of some bizarre sex change, a woman was trapped in a small cage with her limbs broken and reset to look like a crab, and another woman with arms and legs removed, and patches of her flesh sliced off in a circular motion to resemble a caterpillar. Some had had their mouths sewn shut, and had subsequently starved to death, whilst others had their hands sewn to different parts of their bodies. Most were found dead, but some were alive and begging to be killed, to release them from the pain. LaLaurie fled before she could be bought to justice – she was never caught.

Top #9 
Ilse Koch

Known as The “Bitch of Buchenwald” because of her sadistic cruelty towards prisoners, Ilse Koch was married to another evil Nazi, who served in the SS, Karl Otto Koch, but outshone him in the depraved, inhumane disregard for life which was her trademark. She used her sexual prowess by wandering around the camps naked, with a whip, and if any man so much as glanced at her she would have them shot on the spot. The most infamous accusation against Ilse Koch was that she had selected inmates with interesting tattoos to be killed, so that their skins could be made into lampshades for her home (though, unfortunately, no evidence of these lampshades has been found). After the war she was arrested and spent time in prison on different charges, eventually hanging herself in her cell in 1967, apparently consumed by guilt.

Top #8
Shirō Ishii

Ishii was a microbiologist and the lieutenant general of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was born in the former Shibayama Village of Sanbu District in Chiba Prefecture, and studied medicine at Kyoto Imperial University. In 1932, he began his preliminary experiments in biological warfare as a secret project for the Japanese military. In 1936, Unit 731 was formed. Ishii built a huge compound — more than 150 buildings over six square kilometers — outside the city of Harbin, China.

Some of the numerous atrocities committed by Ishii, and others under his command in Unit 731, include: vivisection of living people (including pregnant women who were impregnated by the doctors), prisoners had limbs amputated and reattached to other parts of their body, some prisoners had parts of their bodies frozen and thawed to study the resulting untreated gangrene. Humans were also used as living test cases for grenades and flame throwers. Prisoners were injected with inoculations of disease, disguised as vaccinations, to study their effects. To study the effects of untreated venereal diseases, male and female prisoners were deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhea via rape, then studied.

Having been granted immunity by the American Occupation Authorities at the end of the war, Ishii never spent any time in jail for his crimes and died at the age of 67, of throat cancer.

   

Top #7
Ivan IV of Russia

Ivan IV of Russia, also know as Ivan the Terrible, was the Grand Duke of Muscovy, from 1533 to 1547, and was the first ruler of Russia to assume the title of Tsar. In 1570, Ivan was under the belief that the elite of the city of Novgorod planned to defect to Poland, and led an army to stop them, on January 2. Ivan’s soldiers built walls around the perimeter of the city in order to prevent the people of the city escaping. Between 500 and 1000 people were gathered every day by the troops, then tortured and killed in front of Ivan and his son. In 1581, Ivan beat his pregnant daughter-in-law for wearing immodest clothing, causing a miscarriage. His son, also named Ivan, upon learning of this, engaged in a heated argument with his father, which resulted in Ivan striking his son in the head with his pointed staff, causing his son’s (accidental) death.

   

Top #6
Oliver Cromwell

The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–53) refers to the re-conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The consequence of this conquest (in order to displace Catholic authority) was 200,000 civilian deaths from war-related famine and disease, and 50 thousand Irish being taken as slaves. Cromwell considered Catholics to be heretics so the Irish conquest was a modern day Crusade for him. The bitterness caused by the Cromwellian settlement was a powerful source of Irish nationalism from the 17th century onwards. He died in 1658, and was so hated that, in 1661, he was exhumed from the grave and given a posthumous execution – his corpse was hung in chains at Tyburn, and he was later dismembered and his remains thrown into a pit, with his head being displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall for the next twenty-four years.

  

Top #5
Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing was the wife of Mao Tse-tung, the Communist dictator of China. Through clever maneuvering, she managed to reach the highest position of power within the communist party (short of being President). It is believed that she was the main driving force behind China’s Cultural Revolution (of which she was the deputy director). During the Cultural Revolution, much economic activity was halted, and countless ancient buildings, artifacts, antiques, books and paintings were destroyed by Red Guards. The 10 years of the Cultural Revolution also brought the education system to a virtual halt, and many intellectuals were sent to prison camps. Millions of people in China, reportedly, had their human rights annulled during the Cultural Revolution. Millions more were also forcibly displaced. Estimates of the death toll – civilians and Red Guards – from various Western and Eastern sources are about 500,000 in the true years of chaos of 1966—1969, but some estimates are as high as 3 million deaths, with 36 million being persecuted.

 

Top #4
Pol Pot

Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge and the Prime Minister of Cambodia, from 1976 to 1979, having been de facto leader since mid-1975. During his time in power, Pol Pot imposed an extreme version of agrarian communism where all city dwellers were relocated to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labour projects. The combined effect of slave labour, malnutrition, poor medical care and executions is estimated to have killed around 2 million Cambodians (approximately one third of the population). His regime achieved special notoriety for singling out all intellectuals and other “bourgeois enemies” for murder. The Khmer Rouge committed mass executions in sites known as the Killing Fields. The executed were buried in mass graves. In order to save ammunition, executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks.

Pol Pot retreated into Thailand with the remnants of his Khmer Rouge army and began a guerrilla war against a succession of Cambodian governments lasting over the next 17 years. After a series of internal power struggles in the 1990s, he finally lost control of the Khmer Rouge. In April 1998, 73-year-old Pol Pot died of an apparent heart attack following his arrest, before he could be brought to trial by an international tribunal for the events of 1975-79.

Top #3
Vlad III of Romania

Vlad III of Romania (also known as Vlad the Impaler) was Prince of Wallachia three times between 1448 and 1476. Vlad is best known for the legends of the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign and for serving as the primary inspiration for the vampire main character in Bram Stoker’s popular Dracula novel. In Romania he is viewed by many as a prince with a deep sense of justice. His method of torture was a horse attached to each of the victim’s legs as a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled, and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp; else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Wikipedia has an article that describes, in great details, the methods of Vlad’s cruelty. The list of tortures he is alleged to have employed is extensive: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to animals, and boiling alive. There are claims that on some occasions ten thousand people were impaled in 1460 alone.

Top #2
Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, becoming “Führer” in 1934 until his suicide in 1945. By the end of the second world war, Hitler’s policies of territorial conquest and racial subjugation had brought death and destruction to tens of millions of people, including the genocide of some six million Jews, in what is now known as the Holocaust. On 30 April, 1945, after intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet troops were spotted within a block or two of the Reich Chancellory, Hitler committed suicide, shooting himself while simultaneously biting into a cyanide capsule. Hitler ranks over Himmler merely for the fact that it was in his power to prevent Himmler’s policies being implemented.

   

The Most Evil Man in History (Top #1)
Josef Stalin

Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee, from 1922 until his death, in 1953. Under Stalin’s leadership, the Ukraine suffered from a famine (Holodomor) so great it is considered by many to be an act of genocide on the part of Stalin’s government. Estimates of the number of deaths range from 2.5 million to 10 million. The famine was caused by direct political and administrative decisions. In addition to the famine, Stalin ordered purges within the Soviet Union of any person deemed to be an enemy of the state. In total, estimates of the number murdered under Stalin's reign, range from 10 million to 60 million.

  

Dark alien planet discovered by NASA?

Scientists are unsure what causes the planet to be so dark, but they believe it could be 'a chemical we haven't even thought of yet.'

An alien world blacker than coal, the darkest planet known, has been discovered in the galaxy.

The world in question is a giant the size of Jupiter known as TrES-2b. NASA's Kepler spacecraft detected it lurking around the yellow sun-like star GSC 03549-02811 some 750 lightyears away in the direction of the constellation Draco.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/dark-alien-planet-discovered-by-nasa

How white holes might be created.

www.cosmonline.co.uk/how-white-holes-might-be-created/

Golden Glittering POOP

"Gold pills" are being sold for $425 each that will turn your poop into glittering gold.

HAND of Hope

It should be "The Picture of the Year," or perhaps, "Picture of the Decade". It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the U.S. paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it..

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb.

Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta.

She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, "HAND OF HOPE"

The text explaining the picture begins, "The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life"

Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for days" when they saw the picture. She said, "The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person "Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful.

  Credit to:ProGood

Did you know?

That, the temperature inside The Great Pyramid remains constant at 68 degrees F, the same as earth’s internal temperature.

Why Hippos Milk is Pink

The reason why it is pink is that hippo secretes two kind of unique acids called “Hipposudoric acid” and “Norhipposudoric acid“. The two acids got their names from the word Hippopotamus.

The Hipposudoric acid is reddish in color and often known as, “Blood Sweat” (hipposudoric, referring to hippo sweat), although its neither blood nor sweat. While the other, Norhipposudoric acid is bright orange. Both these acids are strong enough to minimize the growth of the bacteria on the Hippo’s skin. These acids also act as a sunscreen for the Hippo’s skin as they absorb the UV rays that destroy the skin cells. In a milking Hippo the two acids get combined with the white milk and thus pink colored milk is ejected. So the formula is simple:

White + Red = Pink

Hippos are the only mammals that produce pink milk; there were many who believed that Yak’s milk is also pink but the fact is that when a Yak gives birth to a calf, the first milk produced contains blood that gives it a pink color and is known by the name of “Beastings”. After some time the milk turns back to the usual white color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AHippopotamus

Puffer Fish

Pufferfish are generally believed to be the second most poisonous vertebrates in the world, after the golden poison frog. Certain internal organs, such as liver, and sometimes the skin, are highly toxic to most animals when eaten; nevertheless, the meat of some species is considered a delicacy in Japan when prepared by chefs who know which part is safe to eat and in what quantity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraodontidae

The Blue Bar Grizzle Frillback Pigeon

The Frillback is a breed of fancy pigeon developed over many years of selective breeding.Frillbacks, along with other varieties of domesticated pigeons, are all descendants from the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia). The breed is known for the frill or curls on the wing shield feathers. The feather curl should also be present at the ends of the foot feathers or muffs.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frillback

Did you know?

That, 'EUNOIA' is the shortest English word containing all FIVE main vowel. It means "well-mind" or "beautiful thinking."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunoia

Did you know?

That, a Swedish coupled named their kid "brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116." And it is pronounced as "Albin."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_law_in_Sweden

Did you know?

That, Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand whilst drawing with the other.

Top 10 Largest Felines

10. Domestic Cat

Scientific Name: Felis catus
Body size: 0.75 meters
Body weight: 4.5 kilograms

The typical house cat sleeps about 16 hours per day. The word 'catnapping' obviously comes from this statistic. A cat's brain stays aware of sounds and danger during sleep.

Typical house cats' backbones are connected by muscle, not ligaments like humans. This makes cats superior in flexibility. When a cat stretches, he is really toning muscle comparative to humans performing isometric exercises.

Experts traditionally thought that the Egyptians were the first to domesticate the cat, some 3,600 years ago. But recent genetic and archaeological discoveries indicate that cat domestication began in the Fertile Crescent, perhaps around 10,000 years ago, when agriculture was getting under way.

Some notable people who disliked cats: Napoleon Bonaparte, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adolf Hitler, Justin Bieber.

Cats lived with soldiers in trenches, where they killed mice during World War I.

 
9. Serval

Scientific Name: Leptailurus serval
Body size: 0.8 meters
Body weight: 13.5 kilograms

It is also known in Afrikaans as Tierboskat, "tiger-forest-cat" is a medium-sized African wild cat.

There are 19 subspecies of servals.

The serval is nocturnal, and so hunts mostly at night, unless disturbed by human activity or the presence of larger nocturnal predators. Although the serval is specialized for catching rodents, it is an opportunistic predator whose diet also includes birds, hares, hyraxes, reptiles, insects, fish, and frogs.

Like many cats, the serval is able to purr. The serval also has a high-pitched chirp, and can hiss, cackle, growl, grunt, and meow.

Life expectancy is about 10 years in the wild, and up to 20 years in captivity.

 

8. Ocelot

Scientific Name: Leopardus pardalis
Body size: 1.1 meters
Body weight: 13.5 kilograms

The ocelot also known as the dwarf leopard.

The ocelot is similar in appearance to a domestic cat. Its fur resembles that of a clouded leopard or jaguar and was once regarded as particularly valuable. As a result, hundreds of thousands of ocelots were once killed for their fur. The feline was classified a "vulnerable" endangered species from 1972 until 1996, and is now rated "least concern" by the 2008 IUCN Red List.

The ocelot is mostly nocturnal and very territorial. It will fight fiercely, sometimes to the death, in territorial disputes.

Ocelots hunt over a range of 18 km2 (6.9 sq mi), taking mostly small animals, including mammals, lizards, turtles, and frogs, crabs, birds, and fish. Studies suggest that it follows and finds prey via odor trails, but the ocelot also has very good vision, including night vision.

Ocelots live for up to 20 years in captivity.

Ocelots only inhabit areas with relatively dense vegetation cover, although they may occasionally hunt in more open areas at night. They are found in tropical forest, thorn forest, mangrove swamps and savanna, at elevations ranging up to 1,200 meters (3,900 ft).

7. Eurasian Lynx

Scientific Name: Lynx lynx
Body size: 1.2 meters
Body weight: 30 kilograms

It is also known as the European lynx, common lynx, the northern lynx, and the Siberian or Russian lynx.

They have been observed to mew, hiss, growl, and purr, and, like domestic cats, will "chatter" at prey that is just out of reach. Mating calls are much louder, consisting of deep growls in the male, and loud "meow"-like sounds in the female.

Lynx preys largely on small to fairly large sized mammals and birds. Among the recorded prey items for the species are hares, rabbits, marmots, squirrels, dormice, other rodents, grouse, red foxes, wild boar, foxes, chamois, moose, roe deer, red deer, reindeer and other ungulates.

Lynx was featured in the Soviet postage stamp on 1988.

6. Cheetah

Scientific Name: Acinonyx jubatus
Body size: 2 meters
Body weight: 46 kilograms

The cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world. They can reach a top speed of around 113 km per hour.

A cheetah can accelerate from 0 to 113 km in just a few seconds.

Cheetahs are extremely fast however they tire quickly and can only keep up their top speed for a few minutes before they are too tired to continue.

Cheetahs are the only big cat that cannot roar. The can purr though and usually purr most loudly when they are grooming or sitting near other cheetahs.

While lions and leopards usually do their hunting at night, cheetahs hunt for food during the day.

A cheetah has amazing eyesight during the day and can spot prey from 5 km away.

Cheetahs cannot climb trees and have poor night vision.

Cheetahs only need to drink once every three to four days.

5. Leopard

Scientific Name: Panthera pardus
Body size: 2 meters
Body weight: 63 kilograms

Leopards are well known for their cream and gold spotted fur, but some leopards have black fur with dark spots. These black leopards are often mistaken for panthers.

Adult leopards are solitary animals. Each adult leopard has its own territory where it lives and, although they often share parts of it, they try to avoid one another.

A leopard’s body is built for hunting. They have sleek, powerful bodies and can run at speeds of up to 57 kilometres per hour. They are also excellent swimmers and climbers and can leap and jump long distances.

A leopard’s tail is just about as long as its entire body. This helps it with balance and enables it to make sharp turns quickly.

Leopards are mostly nocturnal, hunting prey at night.

Leopards protect their food from other animals by dragging it high up into the trees. A leopard will often leave their prey up in the tree for days and return only when they are hungry!

Some people believe that the bones and whiskers of leopards can heal sick people. Many leopards are killed each year for their fur and body parts and this is one reason why the leopard is an endangered animal. While they were previously found in the wild in a number of areas around the world, their habitat is largely restricted to sub-Saharan Africa with small numbers also found in India, Pakistan, Malaysia, China and Indochina

4. Puma

Scientific Name: Puma concolor
Body size: 2.27 meters
Body weight: 86 kilograms

Pumas are predators who eat a wide variety of prey where they live including deer, pigs, capybaras, raccoons, armadillos, rabbits, and squirrels.

The puma can kill and drag prey up to seven times its own weight.

The puma can be found from northern Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes. They are found in almost every type of habitat from lowlands to forests.

The Puma holds the Guinness record for the animal with the highest number of names. It has more than 40 names in English.

Kittens or cubs have camouflaging spots and rings around their tails that fade as they mature.

The puma is more closely related to domestic cats than true lions.

Pumas don’t really roar even though they are big cats. They prefer to make a series of sounds similar to whistles, squeaks and purrs.

The puma is the actual logo of the sports brand "Puma" itself.

3. Jaguar

Scientific Name: Panthera onca
Body size: 2.7 meters
Body weight: 100 kilograms

The jaguar has a compact body, a broad head and powerful jaws. Its coat is normally yellow and tan, but the color can vary from reddish brown to black. The spots on the coat are more solid and black on the head and neck and become larger rosette-shaped patterns along the side and back of the body.

Jaguars are known to eat deer, peccary, crocodiles, snakes, monkeys, deer, sloths, tapirs, turtles, eggs, frogs, fish and anything else it can catch.

The jaguar has become a symbol of power, strength, and beauty.

The jaguar once worshipped as a god, the jaguar's name comes from a native American word meaning “the killer that takes its prey in a single bound.”

Jaguars make a variety of sounds, including roaring, mewing, and grunting. They are excellent swimmers, and they enjoy being in the water.

2. Lion

Scientific Name: Panthera leo
Body size: 3 meters
Body weight: 180 kilograms

The lion is a magnificent animal that appears as a symbol of power, courage and nobility on family crests, coats of arms and national flags in many civilizations.

Lions are found in savannas, grasslands, dense bush and woodlands.

Lion is also known as the "King of the Jungle".

Lions are the laziest of the big cats. They usually spend 16 to 20 hours a day sleeping and resting, devoting the remaining hours to hunting, courting or protecting their territory.

The largest lion was recorded to be nearly 700 pounds and nearly 11 foot long.

The oldest lion on record was nearly 29 years old.

A lion's eyesight is five times better than a human being.

A lion can hear prey from a mile away.

Lions can smell nearby prey and estimate how long it was in the area.

A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away.

When males join a pride, they usually kill other cubs.

Lions can go four days without drinking.

There is less than 50 000 lions in the world today.

The gestation period is about 110 days.

A lion can drink for as long as 20 mins after eating

A male eats first, even if the female catches the prey

Lions rarely eat an entire prey, leaving the rest for other animals such as vultures

The average lifespan is 13 years

1. Tiger

Scientific Name: Panthera tigris
Body size: 3 meters
Body weight: 200 kilograms

You can hear a tiger roar over a mile away!

A tiger can eat 100 pounds of meat a night! Compare that to 400 hamburgers! They need a lot of food because they go days between meals.

Tigers have been called man eaters, yet they eat frogs, monkeys, porcupines fowl, and tortoises, especially when a good deer is hard to find.

Tigers have eyes that are the brightest of any other animal in the world. At dusk, or in the beam of a torch, they blaze back the ambient light with awe-inspiring intensity.

They live in steamy hot jungles as well as icy cold forests. There are five different kinds or subspecies of tiger alive in the world today. These tigers are called Siberian, South China, Indochinese, Bengal, and Sumatran. Tigers are an endangered species; only about 5,000 to 7,400 tigers are left in the wild. Three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years.

Tigers have round pupils and yellow irises (except for the blue eyes of white tigers). Due to a retinal adaptation that reflects light back to the retina, the night vision of tigers is six times better than that of humans.

Although tigers usually live alone, tiger territories can overlap. A male tiger's territory usually overlaps those of several female tigers.

Tigers mark their territories by spraying bushes and trees with a special mixture of urine and scent gland secretions. They also leave scratch marks on trees.

Tigers can see in the dark six times better than humans can. They can also see in color.

The heaviest tiger recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records is a 1,025-pound male Siberian tiger.

Young tigers live with their mother until they are two to three years old, then they find their own territories.

Unlike some big cats like lions, adult tigers like to live alone (except for mother tigers with cubs). This is partly because in the forest, a single tiger can sneak up and surprise its prey better than a group of tigers can.

Most tigers have an orange coat with dark brown or black stripes accented with white. Tigers that live in cold climates (Siberian tigers) have thicker fur than tigers that live in warm climates.

No one knows exactly why tigers are striped, but scientists think that the stripes act as camouflage, and help tigers hide from their prey. The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes. Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints; no two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.

A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks.

Like domestic cats, tiger claws are retractable. Tiger scratches on trees serve as territorial markers.
They often carry the Chinese mark of Wang or King on the forehead.

The life span of tigers in the wild is thought to be about 10 years. Tigers in zoos live twice as long.