It has a long neck, A name of a bird, Feeds on cargo of ships, It's not alive,

What is it?

A four-digit number (not beginning with 0) can be represented by ABCD. There is one number such that ABCD=A^B*C^D, where A^B means A raised to the B power. Can you find it?

Five thieves looted a bank and they ran away in a car. The bank staff informed the police and they began the search of their car in their jeep. They found them on a road and chased them eventually catching them. The light that is used to fill the number plate was broken on the thieves' car. Also, the headlights of the jeep police were not working. How were the police able to catch the thieves then?

John is on an island and there are three crates of fruit that have washed up in front of him. One crate contains only apples. One crate contains only oranges. The other crate contains both apples and oranges.

Each crate is labelled. One reads 'apples', one reads 'oranges', and one reads 'apples and oranges'. He know that NONE of the crates have been labeled correctly - they are all wrong.

If he can only take out and look at just one of the pieces of fruit from just one of the crates, how can he label all of the crates correctly?

Two guards were on duty outside a barracks. One faced up the road to watch for anyone approaching from the North. The other looked down the road to see if anyone approached from the South. Suddenly one of them said to the other, "Why are you smiling?"

How did he know his companion was smiling?

The horse jumps over the king.
Strangely there is absolutely no scratch on him.

Can anyone explain, how is this possible?

What does an Island and the letter T have in common?

I have feet, but no legs. Which animal Am I?

It is always ahead of me yet I can never see it. What is it?

Find the next number in the series

12, 20, 40, 72, 116, 172 ?