The Tibetan loach. This fish is found in water at an altitude of 5,200 m (17,060 ft) in the Himalayan mountains.

France, the largest country in Western Europe has many very famous wine-growing regions, including Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. France is also well-know for it’s good food, particularly cheese such as Brie and Camembert, and goat’s cheese.

The badger, a member of the weasel family, lives in sett. It uses its strong claws to build the tunnels of the sett in the side of a bank or among tree roots. Over the years more tunnels are added. A large sett may be 100 years old.

New Zealand is the nation, which have 20 times more sheep than people. New Zealand is the world’s leading exporter of lamb and dairy produce, and is the second largest exporter of wool.

Sherman Adams was a daring Boston broker who in 1924 introduced the world’s first mutual fund, the MIT Fund, or Massachusetts Investors Trust Fund. By investing in the MIT Fund, customers could buy or sell their shares whenever they wanted, rather than tie their money up for a set number of years. After the MIT Fund survived the stock market …

True flapping flight, almost as proficient as that of the birds, has been achieved by only one group of mammals, the bats. Bats probably evolved from a group of early insectivores that fed by leaping from the branches of trees to catch passing insects. It is interesting that bats fly by cupping their wings in front of the body and …

Mammals are creatures who give birth to their young ones as opposed to other animals who lay eggs. Birds, reptiles and insects lay eggs. But as with every other rule, this one has an exception too. An exceptional exception The duck-billed platypus of Australia walks out of fresh waters to build its nest on the ground. But it has retained …

Venice, a beautiful city was built on 118 islands. It is linked to the mainland by a causeway, but most people travel by gondola or motorboat on the network of canals.

The sleepiest animal, considered by the average number of hours of sleep a day is the koala, an arboreal animal with the scientific name Phascclarctos Cinerus, found only in Australia. Though it resembles a teddy bear, scientifically it is close to kangaroos, because it carries its young in a pouch. It lives mostly on eucalyptus trees, sleeping in the fork …

There are several species of bird which are extremely rare, but the rarest may well be the Hawaiian Oaaa bird, which, in 1977, had a world population of just two! It is not known whether this pair has managed to breed since then. If they have not, it is very likely that the species is now extinct.