Dogs are capable of understanding up to 250 words and gestures and can count up to five.

Eating grass rids a cats' system of any fur and helps with digestion.

A male rabbit is called a buck and the female is a doe; a young rabbit is a kitten or kit.

Guinea pigs commonly live up to 7 years old – this is much longer than many other small pets.

Mice have great balance and can walk along very thin pieces of rope or wire.

If you hear the call of a morepork (ruru), it actually sounds as if it is calling out the word ‘morepork’.

Male hedgehogs begin hibernation in winter much earlier than females.

Rats have been proven to make a laughter-like noise (unable to be heard by the human ear alone) when tickled.

Young female chickens are called pullets and young male chickens are called cockerels.

Cows are social animals, and form close friendships. Cows will usually choose to spend much of their time with their favourite cow friends and may dislike particular cows.

Horses have bigger eyes than any other mammal that lives on land.

Pigs make great pets for people with allergies as they have no fur.

Goats can be picky eaters – they’ll only eat the best plants they can find!

Sheep can see behind them without turning their heads around. They have excellent peripheral vision, but poor depth perception.

A female bird is called a “hen” and a male bird is called a “cock”.

Of all the parrot species in the world, kākāpō are the heaviest.

The rarest native fish in New Zealand is the lowland longjaw galaxias.

Māui dolphins are the smallest species of dolphin in the world.

Alpaca are called modified ruminants, or pseudoruminants, as their stomach has three chambers, while ruminants have four.