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