What Is A Pangolin?

Pangolin

Pangolin (pronounced pang GOH lin) is a strange animal inhabiting the warm parts of Asia and Africa.

Pangolin is perhaps better known as “scaly ant-eaters,” for they are just that.  Its body is covered with sharp, horny scales that give the animal the appearance of a large pine cone.  

The pangolin wanders about at night in search of anthills and termite nests, which it rips open with its strong, sharp claws.

Then it pushes out its sticky, wormlike tongue which may be a foot long.  It licks up the ants if uncovers and slurps the ants into its toothless mouth.  It may eat many thousands of ants at one meal.

When danger threatens the pangolin rolls itself up into a tight ball so heavily armored that few enemies can harm it.  When rolled up, the pangolin is almost impossible to straighten out.  Pangolins may grow to be from 3 to 5 feet long. - Dick Rogers

Do Bumblebee Make Honey?

Bumblebee

The bumblebee is a large, black and yellow bee that buzzes loudly when it flies.  Its name comes from the old word “bumblen,”  meaning “humming.”  

Like honeybees, bumblebees, too, make hone.  But we do not eat their honey.  Bumblebee nests are very different from those of honeybees.  They do not build hives of honeycombs.

Bumblebees may make their nests in an abandoned mouse nest, thick tuffs of grass, or in hoes in the ground.  

Inside the nest, the queen bumblebee stores honey inside a waxen cell called a “honeypot,”  which serves her as a reserve food supply during cold and rainy weather.

Bumblebee honey is almost as thin as nectar and will soon sour if not eater.  Bumblebees are helpful to man – they carry pollen from one flower to another.  Only the young queen bumblebees live through the winter to start new colonies. - Dick Rogers

Why Do Cow’s Chew Their Cuds?

Cow

A cow’s stomach has four parts.  It must chew its food twice before the food can be thoroughly digested.

You eat your food only once, but a cow eats the same food two times.  That is because the cow has an odd way of digesting its food – it has what amounts to four stomachs!

While the cow is grazing it swallows its food whole.  The first stomach just collects the quickly swallowed food.  The second part of the cow’s stomach softens the food and forms it into a ball called a cud.  

Later, while the cow is resting, the cud moves back up into the cow’s mouth where it is chewed thoroughly.  This time, when the food is swallowed, it goes into the third and fourth parts of the stomach, where real digestion takes place.  

Chewing a cud is called ruminating, and cud-chewer are called ruminants.  Sheep, deer and giraffe are ruminants.  In the wild, many of the ruminants must be prepared to eat quickly and run for safety.  When the animal reaches safe place, it can chew its food in peace. - Dick Rogers

What Is An Abalone?

Abalone

An abalone is a kind of sea snail useful for its meat and colorful shell.

It is a kind of sea snail that can be found living in most mild seas.  In many places abalones are known as “ear shells” because their single flattened shell somewhat resembles a human ear.

The abalone spends most of its life clinging to submerged rocks with its flat muscular foot.  It can fasten itself to a rock so tightly that only a knife can pry it loose.

It feeds on the plants that it can scrape off the rocks with its rasp like tongue.  Its hard shell, which may grow from a few inches to nearly a foot long, protects the abalone’s soft body.

Abalone steak, the snail’s large foot, is a popular seafood dish in many countries.  The pearly inner lining of the shell, called “mother-of-pearl,” is used in making buttons and other ornaments.  The abalone builds its shell out of lime from the water.  The shell grows as the abalone grows. - Dick Rogers

What Are Barnacles?

Barnacle

A barnacle is a short salt water shellfish that attaches itself to ship hulls, rocks, docks and other underwater objects.  Anyone who goes to the seashore is likely to see barnacles.

A barnacle hatches from an egg as a tiny, free-swimming creature.  But soon it fastens itself to any convenient object, such as the hull of a ship, pilling, rock, or even a passing whale.

Once attached, a hard, limy shell grows around the barnacle.  The barnacles stay for the rest of its life in the place where it settles.

It eats by waving its feathery legs through an opening in the shell to pull tiny sea creatures and plants into its mouth.  The shell has a lid that can be closed in case of danger.

To sailors the barnacle is a trouble.  Masses of them clinging to a ship’s hull reduce the ship’s speed.  The only way to remove barnacles’ shell is to put the ship in dry dock and scrape its bottom. - Dick Rogers

How Did The Secretary Bird Get Its Name?

Secretary Bird

The quills on the secretary bird’s head make it look like an old-time secretary with quill pens stuck behind his ears.  The odd-looking secretary bird is a South African bird of prey.

The reason for this bird’s name is easy to guess because of the tuft of long, stiff feathers that stick out from the back of its head.  The tuffs resemble the quill pens that old-time secretaries and clerks once carried behind their ears.

The secretary bird has a long neck and very long legs.  It is about four-feet tall and its plumage is gray and black.  It usually prefers to run instead of fly and is the only bird of prey that hunts on foot.

An inhabitant of Africa’s grassy plains, the secretary bird feeds chiefly on snakes, which it kills by stamping on the snake with its strong  feet and biting it with its hooked bill.  In their native home, farmers often tame secretary birds and keep them to kill rats and mice.  Another name for the secretary bird is “serpent eagle.”-Dick Rogers

What Bird Is The Greatest Traveler?

Greatest Traveler

The arctic tern is the greatest bird traveler.  It migrates farther than any other bird.

The arctic tern is a graceful black and white sea bird with a forked tail and long wings.  During the summer the arctic tern nests in the arctic.  

In the fall it begins a long journey to the most southern parts of the world, the Antarctic!  And arctic tern’s round trip journey may e as long as 22,000 miles.  Birds that travel are called “migrants”, and their journeys are called “migrations.”

Scientists learn how far birds travel when they migrate through bird banding.  The birds are captured in a trap and aluminum bands are fastened around their legs.  Then they are released unharmed.

When caught again at a different place, code numbers on the bands show how far they have traveled from the place where they were banded. In this way the route of the arctic tern was discovered. - Dick Rogers

How Do Canaries Learn To Sing?

Canary Bird

Young canaries learn to sing by taking, “Singing Lessons” from older birds.  People keep canaries for their songs, and because they make cheerful pets.

Young canaries are given singing lessons.  People who raise canaries take great care in training them to sing.  The male canary is the best songster.  

The young canaries imitate the songs of other birds, so they learn by listening to older birds that sing especially well.  Besides, music is played for them.

Sometimes canaries can even be taught to sing like nightingales by playing those records of nightingale songs.

Canaries are named for the Canary Island, the home of their wild ancestors,  Long ago, when Spanish explorers landed on one of their island homes, they found many wild dogs.  So they named the Island “Canaries,”  which means “isle of Dogs,” and canaries got their name from the Island.  There are still wild canaries on this island.

Wild canaries can sing, but their songs are not nearly as beautiful as those of the tame birds which have been bred for many generations for the quality of their songs. – Dick Rogers

What Is A Marten?

Pole Cat

Marten are slim, weasel-like animals that live in the Northern forests around the world.  Martens are small, weasel-like animals with slender bodies and long, bushy tails.

One of the best-known martens is the American martens, often called the American sable.

The American marten is found only in the denser forests of North America.  It is about the size of the house cat and has soft, golden-brown fur.  Its favorite den is a mosslined hollow, high up in a tree.  But a rock pile or hollow log will often do as well.

This agile animal is an expert tree climber.  It chases squirrels through the treetops, leaping easily from one branch to another.  On the ground, it hunts mice, rabbits and other small animals.

Unfortunately for the little marten it, too, is hunted.  Its rich, lustrous fur is prized for coats, flats, and muffs.  Its chief enemies, besides man, are the horned owl and the lynx.  Because they have become quite rare, martens are protected by law in many of our states. – Dick Rogers

What Are Aphids?

Aphids

Aphids are tiny soft-bodied insects that such the juices of plants.  During the summer, you may find the stems and leaves of you garden plants crowded with tiny pear-shaped insects called aphids.  Another name for them is “plant lice.”

Aphids are among the most common insect pests of plants.  The aphid lives only to eat.  Its mouth is shaped into a sharp beak with which the insect pierce the plant’s leaf or stem and greedily sucks up the sap.

Aphids multiply so rapidly that hardly a green plant on earth would not be infested by them if the insects were not gobbled up in great numbers by such aphid enemies as ladybird beetles and aphid lions.  While aphids are harmful to plans, they are useful to many ants.

Most aphids produce a sweet liquid called honeydew which some ants love to eat.  By gently storing the aphid’s back with its antennae, the ant coaxes the aphid to give off droplets of honeydew, which are lapped up by the ant.–Dick Rogers

What Is A Kinkajou?

Kinkajou

A Kinkajous (pronounced KINK  kuh joo) is a small animal that lives in the forests of Central and South American.

The kinkajou is about the size of a cat and somewhat resembles a monkey.  It has large eyes, soft, woolly, yellowish-brown fur, and a long grasping tail that can be used to hold on to limbs.

The native regard the kinkajou as a kind of monkey, but the paws are paws, not hands, and they are armed with sharp claws, not nails.

Kinkajous spend most of their lives in trees.  They hide in tree during the day and feed at night on fruits, insects, and honey.  When feeding, they call to each other in a shrill scream.  It is so loud that it can be heard nearly a mile away.

A kinkajou litter usually consists of one or two young.  By the time the cubs are seven weeks old they can hang by their tails.  Young kinkajous raised in captivity become very tame and are said to make delightful pets.–Dick Rogers

Why Are Dalmatians Called Fire Dogs?

Dalmatian

The Dalmatian has been traditionally the pet of firemen, and was once kept as a companion to race alone with the horse-drawn fire engines. 

The Dalmatian is a large, white-spotted dog that looks a pointer.  Dalmatian are popularly known as fire dogs and are often found today as pets of firemen at fire station. 

Another  name for the Dalmatian is the coach dog.  These dogs were once used to run along with horse-drawn coaches to protect them from highwaymen.  At the end of the journey they stood guard over the coach. 

When early-time firemen began  using horses to pull their fire engines, they adopted the Dalmatian as a companion to run along with fire horses. 

Later, when fire engines became motorized, the Dalmatian was still kept as a mascot.  Dalmatian are not born with a spots.  Dalmatian puppies are pure white when they are born.  The black or brown spots appear after about three weeks.  Dalmatian were named for Dalmatia, in Yugoslavia, where they were ones raised as watchdogs.–Dick Rogers

What is a GNU?

Gnu

Gnus are large, ox-like African antelopes.  A gnu (pronounced noo) is a large, ox-like African antelope with high shoulders, a pushy, horse like tail and a long, sad-looking face.  

Long, thin legs and a tuft or chin whiskers add to its queer appearance.  There are two kinds of gnus – the silvery-gray brindled gnu and the smaller dark-colored white-tailed gnu.  Brindled gnus are found living on the open grassland of Central Africa.  

When frightened, the gnu prances about leaps into the air and kicks its heels, then dashes away with a toss of its head.  Like other antelopes, gnus are fast runner and can run a speed up to 40 miles an hour to escape an enemy.

The white-tailed gnu is nearly extinct.  Once found in vast herds roaming the plains of South Africa, white-tailed gnus today are kept and protected in zoos and in special parks so they won’t disappear from the earth.  Gnus are also known as wildebeests.–Dick Rogers

What Does The Sawfish Use Its Saw For?

Sawfish

The sawfish uses its saw like snout mainly to attack other fish to catch its food.  A sawfish looks like a big shark with a long, flat, saw like snout.

The “saw” of an adult sawfish is often 5 feet long, and is armed with sharp feet.  The sawfish uses its saw like snout mainly to catch it’s prey.

To get food, it attacks whole schools of fish, slashing left and right with its fearful weapon as it goes.  It then feasts upon the victims at its leisure.  The sawfish also uses its toothy snout to defend itself against strong enemies. 

And the saw can also be used as a shovel for digging up shellfish and other food in the muddy sea bottom.  Because of its wicked snout, the sawfish is one of the most dangerous of all sea fish.  Even very young sawfish are dangerous.

Another interesting fish, also named after its long beak, is the swordfish.  The swordfish used its sword in much the same manner as the sawfish uses it saw.–Dick Rogers

What Is A Snapping Turtle

Snapping Turtle

The common snapping turtle of North America is a large bad tempered turtle having a powerful jaws which snap with great forces.  This tells us how the snapping turtle gets its name.

Snapping turtles live in muddy streams and swampy ponds.  A full-grown “snapper” may weigh 30 pounds and have a shell a foot long.

It may look clumsy, but it can move quickly on land and can make short leaps on its strong legs to snaps its food.  When this turtle is attacked, it snaps with lightning speed, its strong, sharp-edged jaws can inflict dangerous bites.

A close relative of a common snapper is the big alligator snapping turtles that lives in the rivers of the gulf states.  They are the biggest snappers of all.  A big one can weigh 140 pounds or more.  A snapping turtles shell can be 2 feet long and is covered with rows of bumps, much like the skin of a real alligator.–Dick Rogers

What Kind Of Cat Is A Manx?

Manx 

Manx cats are the only cats born without tails.  They run with a hopping, rabbit like gait, because of their long hind legs. 

Have you ever seen a cat running with no tail and a sort of hopping like a rabbit?   Such a cat is the Manx.  The Manx cat is very strange one as it is the only cat born without a tail.

Its hind legs are longer than the front ones, giving it a hopping gait when running.  A Manx can run faster than most other kinds of cats.

The ancestors of the Manx can came from the Isle of Man, a British Island in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland.  The first cats on the Isle of Man swam ashore from sinking Spanish ships some 400 years ago.

Many says that the story of how they got to be tailless.  One says that these cats loitered on the way into the Ark, and Noah slammed the door on their tails.  Another says that a Manx is the result of a rabbit mating with a cat.  The truth is most likely that this cat lost their tails as a result of a quirk of nature.–Dick Rogers

What Is A Brahman Cattle?

Brahman Cattle

The Brahman is a breed of hump-shouldered cattle with drooping necks and large, floppy ears.  

In the United States, Brahmans are sometimes called Brahmas.  In other countries, they are known by the common name of zebu (pronounced ZEE boo).

Brahman’s hump is mostly a large, fatty growth that rises above the shoulders.  Brahmans were brought to the United States from India.  Because they are able to tolerate heat and refuse to accept insects and disease better than other cattle.

Brahmans are often crossed with other cattle to create new kinds of cattle that need these behavior.  Brahma bull-riding is a popular event at a rodeo.  The only equipment is a loose rope around the bull’s shoulders and a clanging bell attached below.  The rider must hold on with only one hand in his wild ride.–Dick Rogers

Why Does A Peacock Raise Its Feathers?

Peacock

The handsome peacock spreads his feathers into a gorgeous fan when he courts the female, or peahen.  A peacock is a bird with beautiful, rainbow-colored feathers.  Its range is really “peafowl”.

The male bird is called a peacock.  It is about as large as a turkey and has a long train or greenish feathers brilliantly spotted with bronze blue, green and gold.  A crest adorns his head.

The feather which grow from the back (and not the tail), are spread out into a gorgeous fan as the bird struts back and forth, “proud as a peacock ,” for all to see.

His majestic parade of flashing colors is actually a courtship display to charm the female, or peahen, and persuade her that he is the most handsome peacock.  The peahen is less brightly colored and has no train of feathers.

As you might imagine, the peacock’s magnificent plumage has made it a favorite parts of the world.  A peacock’s call is so loud it can be heard far away.  It sounds like a human screaming.-Dick Rogers

What is a Cassowary?

Cassowary

The cassowary is a large, odd-looking bird that lives in the thick forest of Australia and New Guinea.  A fully grown cassowary may be five feet tall and weigh two pounds or more.

Like the African relative the ostrich, the cassowary cannot fly.  All that remains of its flight feathers are a few spiny quilts, but it can sprint at speeds of at nearly 40 miles per hour for its long powerful legs, when it danger.

A bony helmet on its featherless head  helps it butt through the heavy underbrush.  Tough bristle like feathers that cover it body serve as a form of armor as it crashes headlong the forest.

A threatened cassowary can be a dangerous foe.  All three of the toes on each foot are armed with knife-sharp claws which can be a deadly weapon in a flight.  Usually, these shy birds are  heard more often than soon in their dense forest home.  They call by snorting and bellowing. - Dick Rogers

What is a crayfish?

Crayfish

Crayfish are small fresh-water shell fish that look like miniature lobsters.  

If you have ever played by the bank of stream or pond, you may have seen a small animal that looked like a miniature lobster living at the bottom of the water near the shore.

What you saw was a fresh water shell like known as a crayfish.  It is easy to see that the crayfish, sometimes called crawfish or crawdad, and the saltwater lobster are close relatives.  Both have 10 legs.  The front legs end in large pincers.  

These pincers are used to catch any prey that comes near,  as well as for defense.  The four other pairs of legs are used for walking.  The crayfish escapes from danger by swimming backward through the water with quick flips of its fan-like tail.

Like the lobster, the crayfish hatches from an egg.  A hard shell covers its soft body like a suit of armor.  Several times before it is fully grown, the crayfish must shed its outgrown shell and grow a new and larger one. - Dick Rogers

What is a starfish?

Starfish

A starfish is a star-shaped animal that lives on the bottom of the sea in bays and shallow water.  Starfish eat clams and other shellfish by pulling the shells apart and pushing their stomach into the shells to digest the food.

Starfish have a peculiar way of eating.  The common starfish feeds mostly on shellfish, it especially likes to eat clams, oysters, and mussels.

To open a clam shell, the starfish wraps its arms around it.  Under each arm are rows of tube like feet that stick to the shell like suction cups.  The starfish then pulls the two section of the clam’s shell assist with its powerful arms.

A starfish’s mouth is under its body.  As soon as a starfish has pulled open the clam, it opens its mouth, turns it stomach inside out and pushes it inside the clam’s shell and digests the clam’s soft body.

Once the meat is finished, the starfish pulls back its stomach, leaving only an empty clam shell behind.  Most starfish have five arms, but some have seven arms or more.  If a starfish loose an arm, it can grow another. - Dick Rogers

What are puffins?

Puffin

Puffins are comical-looking sea birds of the North Atlantic Ocean.  Puffins are sometimes called sea parrots, these plump, short-winged sea birds are one of the world’s oddest-looking birds.

A white face with blue lines around the eyes and a comical waddle make the common puffin look like a circus clown.  

Its enormous beak, colored with red, blue, and yellow bands, is nearly as large as its head.  The gaudy colors of the male puffin’s beak are just for show.  

They are really colored growths that drop off after the nesting season.  Despite its comical appearance, the puffin is an expert flier and swimmer.  Puffins can actually swim underwater in pursuit of their prey.  

A puffin can catch several fish, one after another, and carry them dangling crosswise in its beak to its nestling.  Puffins nest in large colonies on rocky coasts.  One white egg island in a burrow or crevice in the rocks at nestling time.-Dick Rogers

How are oysters born?

Oyster

Oysters are hatched from eggs.  An oyster spends all except the first few weeks of its life fastened to a rock or other hard object in the water.

Along the world’s seashores there are many kinds of sea animals with shells to rocks and other hard objects in shallow water near the shore.

A baby oyster is hatched from an egg laid by the mother oyster.  When first hatched, the baby oyster is about the size of a pinpoint and has no shell.  Its shell begins to form when it is a day old.

The baby oyster spends the first two weeks of its life swimming about freely.  Then it fastened itself so something hard, perhaps a rock or the piling of a wharf, or even to the shell of another oyster.

It remains fastened to the same spot for the rest of its life, feeding on tiny plants and animals carried to it by the current.  The oyster grows about an inch a mouth until fully grown.  Oysters are one of the most popular foods that we take from the sea.-Dick Rogers

How does a snail grow its shell?

Snail

The shell grows in an ever-widening spiral as the snail continues to add new shell material to its shell during its lifetime.  

You have probably seen a common garden snail peeking out of its shell as it slowly creeps along on a slick pathway of ooze.  Where did the snail get its shell?  It was born with a tiny shell just the right size for its body.  

The shell serves as a suit of armor to protect the snail’s soft body.  As the snail grows, it oozes a slimy shell liquid that hardens into shell, and so the shell grows with the snail.  The snail gets its shell-building materials from its food.

There are many kinds of snails, in almost every part of the world.  Some live only on land, some live in lakes and ponds, and others live deep in the ocean.  The most snails are hatched from tiny eggs and look very much like their parents when they are born.

Most snail shells are shaped like coiled spirals.  Some are brightly colored with gray stripes.  Some snails grow shells that are no bigger than a pinhead.  But the biggest shells belong to the sea snails called conchs.  Their shell grows to be more than a foot long.-Dick Rogers

What Are Jellyfish?

Jellyfish

Jellyfish are unusual sea animals that have jellylike bodies and stinging tentacles, with which they capture their food.  The jellyfish is among the strangest of sea creatures.

It is not even a fish, but a very simple kind of sea animal that has no skeleton.  The main pair of the jellyfish’s body looks like an umbrella, and it is made up of two thin layers of tissue with jellylike materials between them.

Around the rim of the umbrella are usually a number of simple eyes, and in the center of the body underneath is the mouth.

Hanging down from the edge are string like tentacles, armed with batteries of stinging cells filled with paralyzing poison.  If a small bumps into the jellyfish’s tentacles, it gets stung and captured for food.  If you touch these tentacles, you may get stung, too!

A jellyfish swims by folding and unfolding its body—much like closing an umbrella.  Mostly, it floats along with the current.  Some jellyfish are no larger than a pea.  Other may be two feet or more in diameter.–Dick Rogers

Is the wise old owl really wise?

Owl

Although its big, staring eyes make the own look like it is thinking very hard, it is really no smarter than other birds.  Owls look wise because their big, staring eyes and thoughtful air give the appearance that they are thinking very hard.  

Actually, the “wise old owl” is really no smarter that other birds.    In fact, geese, crows, and ravens are all smarter than the owl.  A person can recognized an owl at once by its large, broad face with a fur of feathers around the large eyes.  

Unlike the eyes of most birds, the owl’s eyes are in front of its head and point forward.  But to see in another direction, the own must turn its whole head.  Persons walking around a perched owl are often amused at the way it seems in danger of twisting its head off while watching them.

The owl comes out at night to hunt for mice and other small creatures.  Its large eyes can see in the dimmest light.  But the owl does not depend on its eyes alone for hunting.  Its keen ears can hear the faintest sound and its cry startles small animals into revealing their location.  The owl’s soft feathers allow it to swoop down silently on its prey.-Dick Rogers

What are ladybirds?

Beetle

Ladybirds are really small, spotted beetles with a rounded body shaped like half a pea.  The polka-dotted ladybird, or ladybug, is really  small beetle with a round body shaped like half a pea.  

The most familiar ladybirds are shiny red with black spots. But some are black with red spots.  Still others are yellow with black of red spots.

These gaily colored insects live in a orchards, gardens, and fields, where they eat great number of aphids and other plant-harming bugs.

In order times, farmers burning off their fields fretted about harming the helpful ladybird, giving rise to the children’s verse:  “ladybird, ladybird, fly away home.  Your house is on fire and your children are gone.”

To “fly away home,” a ladybird first raises its hard wing covers and then unfolds it flying wings.  The lady bird beetle got its name during the Middle Ages, when the insect was associated with the Virgin Mary by such names as creatures of Our Lady and Animals of the Virgin.–Dick Rogers

Why Do Woodpeckers Peck On Wood?

Woodpecker

When a woodpecker pecks, it may be searching insects for food that are living in the back of the tree, it may be digging out a nest, or it may be drumming out a “song” to its mate.

Most kinds of woodpeckers are our good friends.  They eat insects that harm trees.  Using its strong, sharp bill, the woodpecker digs out insects that are living in the cracks in the bark of trees.

In the springtime a woodpecker calls to its mat by drumming out a tattoo on a dry limb or the roof of a house with its strong bill.  Woodpeckers make holes in the trunks of trees for their nests.  They leave chips of wood on the bottom to cushion the white eggs.

The California woodpecker stores acorns in holes that it drills.  The woodpecker is not storing the acorns to eat.  A small worm has bored into each acorn.  Later, the woodpecker will return to feast on the fattened worms.

Only a few woodpeckers sometimes harm trees.  The unwelcomed ones are the sapsuckers.  As their name indicates, the drill rows of holes in the bark of trees and drink the sap as it drips from the holes.–Dick Rogers