How does a turtle get into its shell?

Everyone knows a turtle when he sees one.  Turtles are easy to recognize by their shells.  A baby turtle is born with a shell just the right size for its body.  As the turtle grows, its shell grows too.

The hard shells of most turtles are made up of a “bony box”  covered by horny plates.  A turtle can’t crawl out of its shell.  The shell makes up much of a turtle’s skeleton, and is firmly attached to its body.  Turtles are well-protected by their shells.  Some turtles, such as the box turtle, can pull their heads, tails, and legs into their shell when frightened.  Then, very few enemies can get at them.

All turtles hatch from eggs.  The mother turtle lays the eggs in a hole she has dug.  She then leaves them.  The sun’s warmth hatches the eggs in about two months.  As soon as the baby turtles are hatched, they are on their own.  They must be able to tend for themselves. - Dick Rogers

What is a quetzal?

The quetzal is a brilliantly plumed bird of Mexico and Central America, and sacred bird of the Aztec.

The quetzal is pronounced ket SAHL.  The male, hardly larger than a dove, has glittering, emerald green-and-crimson feathers, with graceful tail streamers over three feet long.

This inactive bird sits quietly for long periods on a perch in the dense forest, darling off only to capture insects.  The ancient Mayas and Aztecs found the quetzal so impressive that no one was allowed to harm it.

They used the long tail feathers (plucked without harm to the living bird) as symbol of authority and religion.  Only chiefs and priests were allowed to wear them.

Today the quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, where it appears on postage stamps, coins and on the state seal.  Guatemala is sometimes called the “Land of the Quetzal.” - Dick Rogers

What are musk oxen?

Musk oxen are shaggy-haired mammals which resemble a small buffalo.  They line in the arctic barrens of North America.

The musk ox, is an odd-looking animal that resembles a small, shaggy-haired buffalo. A fully grown musk ox may be little over four feet high at the shoulders and weight 700 pounds.

The musk ox is not really as ox.  It is a relative of goats and antelopes. The first part of the animal’s name is also inaccurate – it has no musky odor, as was once believed.

In the wild, must oxen are found on the treeless tundra and snowfields of Canada and Greenland. They travel in small herds.  When threatened by wolves that, prey upon them, the herd forms a protective circle around the young.  No wise wolf would attack such a fortress of tossing honors!

Once united almost to extinction, the now-protected musk oxen are being raised much like sheep for the silky wool, called “quiviut” that grows underneath their shaggy coats. Garments made of quiviut are very warm and tight in weight. - Dick Rogers

How did the secretary bird get its name?

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 is a Yak?

Yak

The yak is the shaggy-coated wild ox of Asia. There are not many places that are less pleasant to live in than the high, windswept plateaus of Tibet.

The winters are bitterly cold and food is scarce.  Yet this bleak land, in which few other animals can endure, is the home of the yak.  The wild yak may stand over 6 feet high at the shoulders and weigh more than 1,000 pounds.

Its thick, woolly hair may grow so long that it may even drag on the ground.  Its heavy coat is good protection against the cold. Despite its large size, the yak is as sure-footed as a goat on the sleep mountain-sides.

Some yaks have been tamed.  Tibetan people depend on the yak for their meal, drink their pink milk, and weave their long hair into ropes and cloth and use yaks for pack animals.  

Domesticated yaks are sometimes called “grunting oxen” because they grunt when overloaded. - Dick Rogers

How did the pack rat get its name?

A wood rat is popularly called “pack rat”  because of its habit of stealing and “packing off” shiny objects, such as buttons, bottle tops or other bright objects with which to decorate its nest.

Sometimes the rat will trade a pebble or something equally useless it is carrying for a more attractive ring or coin.  For this reason it is also called a “trade rat.”

The wood rat is native to the Western world.  It looks much like the common house rat, but its tail is furry, instead of naked and scaly.

Unlike most rats, the wood rat does not live in sewers and garbage dumps.  It makes its home mostly in wooded country and on rocky hillside and builds its nest in a large heap of twigs.

Its home may tower three to four feet high and resemble a badly-made beaver lodge.  The pack rat goes out only at night to look for berries and other plant food, or any nice, shiny object it can “pack off” to its nest. - Dick Rogers

What are barnacles?

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