ANIMALS BUSY YAWNING

The mouth of this yawning baby orangutan seems almost toothless

but adult Orangutans have 32 permanent teeth (the same amount as

humans) including sharp canines that the males use for threat

display and fighting. They don’t need them for eating because up to

90% of their diet consists of fruit.

Owls are mostly nocturnal birds so they probably yawn a lot during the

day. Owls have forward-facing eyes that give them binocular vision, just

like humans, but since they cannot turn their eyes, they rotate their

heads instead. They can turn their heads up to an incredible

270 degrees.

Similarly to domestic cats, tigers spend a great part of their time sleeping

or resting. Every day, an average tiger spends as much as 20 hours just

lying, which is why seeing a yawning tiger is actually a very common thing.

Despite being a feared predator, their hunt successfulness is usually only

about 7% so they cannot afford to waste their energy.

There are several different reasons why horses yawn. The most common

is the same like with people – drowsiness, but horses also often yawn

when stretching after a long rest or when something caused a sudden

fright and then things get back to normal again.

If there is an animal particularly known for its laziness, it is a sloth.

In several languages, sloth even has the word “lazy” included in its

official name. Sloths were considered one of the most somnolent animals

in the world, believed to sleep up to 18 hours a day but recent studies

have shown that their “sleepy” reputation is undeserved. The studies

indicate that sloths sleep less than 10 hours daily, which is considerably

less than in many other animals in this list.

Every cat owner knows that resting, yawning and stretching account

for a significant part of the cat´s daily routine. Cats yawn for the same

reasons like we do except for yawning out of boredom so don’t take it

personally if your cat yawns while in your presence.

Yes, even fish can yawn! It might be difficult to recognize that but

scientists figured out fish yawn when suffering from a lack of

oxygen or excessive heat. In fact, there is even a fish species called

the yawning fish (officially Poromitra oscitans), found in tropical and

subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific region.

The mouse is primarily a nocturnal animal which can be rarely seen

during the day and if you do see one, it is usually moving so fast

you can hardly recognize what species it was. Therefore, watching a

mouse yawning is something you will probably never experience but

this picture proves that these tiny rodents indeed yawn.