Animals

They were a team of horses that once pulled a load of 52,000 pounds. This is the world’s record for a team of two horses, and it was set during the summer of 1979 in Hillsdale, Michigan, by a pair of Belgian draft horses. Belgians, Percherons, and Clydesdales are breeds of draft horses descended from … Read more

The narwhal is a toothed whale that lives year-round in the Arctic. The narwhal is the rarest of all species of whale, and scientists know very little about them. They do know that there are about 20,000 to 30,000 of them and that they cruise the waters of the Arctic Ocean far from shipping lanes … Read more

A Burro is a small Donkey, and is the Spanish word for the animal. This extremely intelligent animal, which lives in herds and wanders freely in many national parks, is quite a character. Many of the herds that live in Death Valley enter the campgrounds of visiting tourists and turn on the water faucets. They … Read more

Anting is the name given to the habit certain birds have of putting live or crushed ants into their feathers. It is believed that birds do this to get rid of the lice and mites that get into their feathers and bite and irritate them. Over 200 different kinds of birds are said to practice … Read more

The full-grown African elephant carries a big set of tusks, which it uses in several ways. One of the most unusual of these is a digging tool to get at water the elephant knows lies just beneath the surface of the ground. Tusks are also used to debark trees, to dig into baobab trees to … Read more

Before eating its meal, the bee-eater removes the sting by hitting the insect on a hard surface. During this process, most of the venom is extracted. Areas of Africa where there are few trees or bushes is the native habitat of the bee eater. It spends time riding around on the backs of other animals … Read more

Heron Island is part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is also the location of a hotel that is popular with people who like to snorkel, scuba dive, or just walk among the reefs. Heron Island is also one of the egg laying grounds of the green turtle, that 350-pound giant of the … Read more

To find and catch prey, insect eating bats use a technique called echolocation. They emit a series of ultrasonic sounds and detect flying insects by the echoes reflected back to them. Some of these sounds are beyond the range of human hearing. Many species of animal transmit sound signals as a way of “seeing” in … Read more

An alligator doesn’t bury her babies, she buries the eggs from which they will eventually emerge. Alligators make homes, or dens, for themselves underground. These are always partially filled with water. When it is time to lay the eggs, the female alligator makes a large pile of mud, leaves, and grass, usually about seven feet … Read more

When two lovebirds appear to be kissing, they are actually grooming each other. Male and female lovebirds groom each other with their bills to keep each other clean and neat. It is also a way of showing affection. Other species of birds have interesting ways of caring for one another. During the mating season, bluejays … Read more

The black necked cobra is able to spit venom on their prey or if threatened. It is one of several species of cobra that have specially adapted fangs that permit it to spray venom into the eyes of its victim. The poison causes blindness, enabling the snake to kill a predator or intended dinner with … Read more

Bees build their hives near good sources of the flowers that produce the pollen and nectar they need. When the conditions are good, with plenty of warm weather, rain, and sunshine, distances between the hive and flowers are short. In early spring or late fall, when flowers are scarce, bees have to fly long distances … Read more

The yearly return of the buzzards to this small Ohio town began in 1815 when a group of local farmers killed hundreds of groundhogs, foxes, gophers, and other “varmints” that were attacking their crops and stock. The huge birds picked up the scent of the dead and came to town in large numbers. Every year … Read more

Monkeys can indeed make tools. The chimpanzee uses a primitive homemade tool when it wants a dinner of termites. First, it must find a branch that is straight. It strips all the leaves and twigs of the branch so that it is smooth and will slide in and out of a small hole. Now, the … Read more

It has been widely accepted that the Giraffe evolved a long neck that enables it to reach vegetation other animals are not able to, giving it an advantage. A recent theory suggests that the long necks evolved as a secondary sexual characteristic used to attract female Giraffes. Adult male giraffes bang their long necks together … Read more

The stone with the big surprise is a fish that lives off the coast of Australia. It is called the stonefish. The surprise is that the stonefish is the most poisonous fish in the world. Until very recently, to step on a stonefish meant death. But the Australian government has developed a special medicine for … Read more

Nobody likes to think that something as beautiful as a bird can also be a thief, but it is true. Many birds steal food from other birds. Quite a few different kinds of birds steal from other birds. In fact, a good part of the food that a bird needs for survival is obtained by … Read more

Rabbits and foxes have lived very close to each other. This has been known to happen when a rabbit’s home is very close to the home of a fox. Few animals hunt for food near home. Most have an area they use as a regular feeding ground, and it is always a considerable distance from … Read more

The sea snakes are the most poisonous snakes in the world, but they are so gentle toward people that fishermen frequently take them out of their nets with their bare hands! Sea snakes use their venom to kill the fish and eels they eat. They have a truly wonderful tail for swimming. It is flat, … Read more

To catch it, of course. At least, that’s the way the Maori tribesmen of New Zealand do it. It is one of the oldest and most successful ways they know. In the streams and lakes of New Zealand, fish swim in and out of the clumps of coral or rock. Sometimes, they pause for a … Read more

In the summer of 1844, the Mormon people of Salt Lake City, Utah, thought their troubles were over. They had left the East to come out to the West, where they could practice the Mormon religion without anyone bothering them. They had planted their crops, and the weather was good. It looked as though there … Read more

The upside-down catfish swims upside down because its mouth is under its head. If it wants to eat food that is floating on the surface, it has to swim upside-down. It swims that way a good deal of the time, but when it is feeding at the bottom of a river, it can swim and … Read more

A cat by the name of Napoleon Shields could predict the weather. This amazing animal was owned by Mrs. Fanny Shields of Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1930’s. It seems that Baltimore was suffering a terrible dry spell, and everyone was praying it would rain. Unfortunately, all the weather experts said there was no rain in … Read more

For many years naturalists thought so. Or they thought the eels were made in some mysterious way from a batch of fresh dew on a May morning. Until recently, scientists were puzzled by this eel. They never could find any eggs from which the eels might have been born, nor could they find a mother … Read more

Moray Eels are not considered dangerous. They will only attack when provoked. It is a scary-looking eel though. These flat, green fish look like a very long belt. They like to hide in cracks or crevices in a coral wall with just their head and a few inches of their body sticking out. They look … Read more

Flying Fish “fly” the same way a glider does, by gliding through the air. Therefore, they can only fly for a limited distance. It used to be thought that they flap their fins very rapidly in order to stay up in the air. But with high-speed photography it was learned that they hold their fins … Read more

The threespine stickleback is always as much of a bully as a four-inch fish can be, but in the spring it turns a brilliant red and becomes more of a bully than ever. It is time for it to build a nest and rear some babies. It gathers algae and scraps of plants and begins … Read more

Grouse are heavily built game birds that are similar to chickens. The female Grouse chooses its mate from a selection of males who put on a display during courtship. Birds that find mates this way are called “arena birds.” The male arena birds start the process by finding a spot to gather. The American grouse … Read more

The real heroes of the Pony Express were the California mustangs, the horses that carry their riders so fast that not even the fastest Indian pony could catch them. Had it not been for these wonderful horses, the Pony Express could never have made a single trip through territory often controlled by hostile Indians. The … Read more

The toadfish is never happier than when it is living among the things man throws out, such as an old shoe or a broken bottle. They often hide in rock crevices from which they ambush their prey. It will come out of its home to cruise along the sandy bottom looking for small shellfish, little … Read more

In 1869, a swarm of locusts flew over the sea from Africa to England, a distance of 1,200 miles. Locusts are actually grasshoppers in a different stage of their life cycle. They are called grasshoppers when they live alone, are green or brown in color, and are wingless. During this time of their lives, if … Read more

Fire ants are social insects that nest in the soil in large colonies that contain tens of thousands of ants. This tiny ant, only one-quarter of an inch long, got its name because of its reddish color. It is considered one of man’s worst enemies. The fire ant lives in most of the southern states … Read more

The biggest sea turtle in the world is the Leatherback Turtle, which can be found in most of the oceans of the world. These monsters are sometimes eight feet long and can weigh as much as 1500 pounds. This huge turtle has a smooth, leathery skin to which hard, bony “armor” is attached. They spend … Read more

Starfish like to live on the bottom of the ocean, and they don’t care if that means three feet deep or 20,000 feet deep. Starfish are also called sea stars, and while most of them have five arms, which make them look exactly like stars, others have as many as sixteen arms. Some of these … Read more

There is a small shrimp that can make a noise that sounds exactly like a firecracker. It is the Pistol Shrimp, also called the Snapping Shrimp, and it lives in the Atlantic Ocean from Virginia all the way down to Brazil. This character is only 1.75 inches long, but one of its claws is very … Read more

The barnacle is a shelled fish, called a crustacean, that spends its life attached to a hard surface. It fastens itself securely and feeds on plankton that drift along with the ocean currents and waves. There are many types of barnacles, but it is the goose barnacle that causes the worst problems for ships. The … Read more

The emperor penguin, which always looks like it is dressed up to go to the opera, loves to go tobogganing. This delightful bird likes the snow and the ice and usually waddles along standing erect. Nature has given the penguin strong wings covered with scale-like feathers. The penguin uses these as flippers when swimming. These … Read more

Yes, there are, although there used to be quite a few more than there are now. Bobcats and mountain lions both have become rare. They have been hunted and almost wiped out because they were known to attack cattle and sheep. This is too bad, because although the large cats have been known to attack … Read more

The record for the biggest Lobster in the world was 34 pounds in 1992. When you remember that the average size is between 1.5 and 2 pounds, you realize how big that is. Most people think that all lobsters are a dull green, but they aren’t. Sometimes the American lobster is a bright blue or … Read more

This figure can only be guessed at. Most scientists agree with the bird expert James Fisher, who estimates that there are about 100 billion birds. Of that number, about 6 billion are said to make their home in the United States. When scientists try to estimate how many different kinds of birds there are, they … Read more

The average speed of a bird’s flight is difficult to determine. One robin can be a much faster flier than another. Some birds fly faster on long journeys than on short flights, and other birds do just the opposite. The figures we have for the speeds birds fly are not as accurate as scientists would … Read more

The octopus does not attack humans unless provoked. The octopus has eight arms, but it is a gentle and timid. It is almost impossible to get one to try to bite you, and it is not at all interested in trying to strangle any human beings. For centuries, people have found the octopus unpleasant to … Read more

Not all birds flap their wings at the same speed when they fly. Certain birds have more flaps per second than others. Different conditions can also make a bird change the speed of its wing flaps. A bird that is being chased by another, or one that is doing the chasing, will flap more often … Read more

Not all birds fly at night when they migrate. Some birds do most of their flying at night, while others get most of their traveling done in the daytime. Scientists believe that stronger birds prefer the day journey and weaker birds feel safer at night. Most of the daytime fliers are birds that capture their … Read more

Birds fly in a V formation because it is more aerodynamic than flying in a scattered formation. When a bird flies, the flapping of its wings disturbs the air, creating an upward current. A bird can use this “updraft” by positioning itself in just the right position behind another bird. Thus it can take advantage … Read more

The hermit crab is famous for never being satisfied with his home and they do not live in the same shell forever. Of course, it really isn’t his home. It is somebody else’s home that he keeps trying to move into. The hermit crab has a hard shell that protects everything but his soft stomach. … Read more

Surprisingly enough, most birds return to the same nesting area each year. This rule holds true for those birds that build their own separate homes, as opposed to those birds that live in apartment-like structures and those that nest in blocks. Many of these birds even come back to exactly the same nest, year after … Read more

There are some birds that are able to use tools to find food. The Egyptian vulture uses stones to smash open ostrich eggs. Some birds, such as seagulls, drop clams from a great height to open them, but the Egyptian vulture has a better way. The vulture picks up a rock in its beak and … Read more

The lung fish is one fish that can live out of water. Over the centuries, nature has equipped these strange creatures with both gills and lungs. They are a species of fish that has changed very little in 390 million years. A long time ago, when streams and ponds started to dry up, the lung … Read more

The Puffer Fish, or Blowfish blows itself up to defend itself against its enemies. When it is threatened, the Puffer Fish will turn itself into a large ball covered with sharp spines. Hopefully, the enemy is unable to swallow the inedible ball and swims off. The spines stick out of its body only when it … Read more

Incredible as it may seem, there was such a town built by animals. It was in the state of Texas. The early settlers discovered this amazing place and wrote about it. It was a prairie dog town. Prairie dogs are small rodents. They are about the size of a squirrel, but they don’t have fluffy … Read more

The information scientists have about how many miles a bird flies in a day comes from birds that have been banded or tagged. This banding usually takes place when birds are migrating from one place to another. A bird is caught at some point on its journey, and a metal band is fitted around its … Read more

The biggest egg In the world was laid millions of years ago by a flightless bird sometimes called the Roc, or the elephant bird, of Madagascar. No one has ever seen one of these eggs whole, but pieces have been found permitting scientists to make an accurate estimate of their size. This great egg is … Read more

When it swims with jet-propelled speed by clapping its shell open and shut, it is called a scallop. Other types of clams swim only at very early stages of their lives. Scallop shells are beautiful. The Shell Oil Company uses a scallop shell as its symbol. Most scallops are only two to three inches across. … Read more

Blue jays certainly do. They take seeds or chunks of suet off into the woods to hide them and can’t seem to remember the hiding places a few days later. The Swedish nuthatch, on the other hand, is just the opposite. These birds rarely forget where anything is hidden. They make up caches of food … Read more

Everybody knows that birds hear much better than humans do, and a long time ago this helped the ancient Romans very much, and the wonderful hearing of the geese saved the city from attack. The Romans kept geese as domesticated animals. In the middle of the night, an army of Goths approached the city. Although … Read more

Not all birds build nests in trees. Certain birds wouldn’t even consider building a nest in a tree. There are quite a few birds that nest in underground burrows and cracks in rocks. Birds that like this type of home often use the abandoned tunnels of moles and rats. Some birds that will nest only … Read more

The fiddler crab can’t play the violin, but it can grow a new claw when it loses one of its own. Fiddlers are from one to three inches across, and they have one large claw and another much smaller one. The crab can use the big claw to defend itself against attackers. It is also … Read more

Legend has it, almost a thousand years ago, a shepherd named Kali was grazing his flock in the high, almost barren hills of what is now Yemen in the Middle East. He was surprised to see his sheep running and playing. This was unusual because his animals were usually too busy trying to find grass … Read more

The Guanaco is the largest mammal in South America and the Llama’s closest relative. Although related, Guanacos are wild animals while Llamas are domesticated. The Guanaco’s wool is prized for its soft warm feel and is found in luxury fabric. When they are babies, two youngsters run toward each other until their puffed out chests … Read more

The Hammerhead shark is indeed one of the few animals that can get a tan from being in the sun. Tanning occurs when Hammerheads swim close to the water surface for long periods. During mating season, the Hammerhead shark, with its unique extended head, joins other members of its species in an unusual, silent parade. … Read more

They aren’t real boots, but the guanaco of South America has pads on its feet that work like boots do to keep their feet from burning on desert sand or freezing in mountain snow. Did you know that the guanaco, the vicuna, the alpaca, and the llama are all related South American animals and that … Read more

The fox seems to have the uncanny ability to tell the difference. Though they are an extremely shy and cautious animal, foxes will often approach a person if the person is well-meaning and remains still. However, there has not been one instance of someone who was hunting ever having been approached by a fox. A … Read more

There have been many reports of foxes traveling along with herds of grazing cattle and sheep. These reports tell of how the small foxes, which don’t even reach the knee of a cow, romp playfully within the herds and very gently nip at the cows’ legs and flanks. This causes the larger animals to move … Read more

Scientists once watched a nesting falcon who was furious because a human had come too near its nest. The falcon wanted to attack the human but was too frightened to do so. Instead, it took its anger out on birds nearby. It flew into a tree and attacked peaceful birds. Science calls this type of … Read more

Penguins are similar to Dolphins when they are “porpoising.” Most people are used to seeing dolphins perform wonderful leaps in and out of the water. They seem to be pretending that they are a roller coaster. Penguins are capable of doing the same thing, but they do not leap up as high or dive as … Read more

Although there were paintings of dodos, apparently done from life, there were never any bones or fossils of this extinct creature to be found. Over a period of years, people began to believe that the dodo, like the unicorn, was just a fanciful legend. One individual who didn’t feel this way was George Clark, a … Read more

The Seahorse is a very special fish because its head is attached to its body similar to the way a mammal’s is. This, plus the shape of its head, makes it look like a horse. Adult Seahorses frequently use this to advantage, using their “chins” to pull themselves forward through weeds. These delightfully unusual creatures … Read more

Vultures are big birds and are primarily scavengers that live on the remains of dead animals, vultures are extremely valuable because they clean the land and keep it free from disease. When soaring high in the sky, vultures may be identified by the way they hold their large wings in a deep “V” shape. They … Read more

To find his dinner. This amazing little bird will dive right into a stream and walk in water over its head hunting for food. When the dipper does this, it is protected from enemies, although the bird does have to come up for air every minute or so. The dipper has another very interesting habit. … Read more

Many woodland mammals eat plants during the warm months. When winter comes, these plants die or are covered with snow, and the animals have nothing to eat. But nature has provided them with a way to survive the I winter. It’s called hibernation, from the Latin word that means “winter.” Animals that hibernate eat much … Read more

There are many animals without teeth, but almost every animal has some kind of jaws it can open and close to take in food. Except the anteater! This strange-looking creature from South America appears to have no mouth, for his snout is shaped like a tube and contains neither teeth nor jaws. Then how does … Read more

We eat every day, but some animals can go for so long without a meal that it might seem they never eat. A snake often eats only once in two weeks or longer, penguins sometimes go a month without eating, salmon don’t eat for long periods of their life, and snails have been known to … Read more

This animal is known to most people because aardvark is the first word in many dictionaries. But do you know what an aardvark actually is? The aardvark is a strange creature indeed. It’s about the size of a hog, with a long, pig-like snout and thick, gray-brown hair. It has long ears like a rabbit, … Read more

It’s almost impossible for you to fall asleep while standing. The moment you began to doze, you’re likely to fall down. But horses often seem to sleep while they’re standing up, and they do! When a horse stands perfectly still and relaxes, joints in his legs lock into position, holding the horse up even if … Read more

The average dog lives for about 15 years. Some dogs show signs of age at six years old, while others remain active and youthful until they are ten or more. The oldest dog on record was a Labrador who died in 1963, at the age of 27 years and three months. However, some people have … Read more

It may be hard to believe, but the largest dogs on earth are almost 300 times as Davy as the smallest dogs! The breed of dog with the largest average size is the St. Bernard. Full-grown St. Bernards may weigh more than 250 pounds, and the heaviest St. Bernard, the heaviest dog of kind ever … Read more

If you thought yes, you’re way off. The most common domesticated animal on earth is, by a long shot, the chicken. Although this familiar bird is the descendant of a jungle fowl from Asia that wasn’t domesticated until about 1500 B.C., there are now some four billion chickens on earth, about the same number as … Read more

If we use the word “cattle” not only for the cow and steer, but for other members of the cattle family, such as the yak and buffalo, then cattle are by far the most important domesticated animals on earth. This single creature provides man with his number one work animal, half of all his meat, … Read more

Because many people think that lions and tigers both live in Africa, they may wonder which of these giant cats proves the strongest when they tangle. But there isn’t a single wild tiger in Africa! Tigers are native to Asia, with one kind living in the hot regions of India, and another kind inhabiting the … Read more

All tamed animals are not domesticated animals; it takes many centuries after an animal that has been taken from its wild state and tamed before it changes completely into a domesticated animal, one that has been tamed by man and raised to provide him with food, clothing, transportation, or friendship. Once an animal is domesticated, … Read more

Dogs often whimper and whine, and appear to be crying, while hyenas and some birds can sound as if they’re laughing. But no creature besides man is capable of really crying or laughing. Dogs and other animals have tear ducts, but their tears are used only to moisten their eyes, not to express sadness. And … Read more

If you were to guess what an animal called the camelopard might look like, you’d probably say it resembled a camel and a leopard. And you’d be right! A camelopard has a long neck like a camel, and spots like a leopard. You say you’ve never seen such a beast? Sure you have. Camelopard is … Read more

The koala is a small mammal that looks something like a cute little teddy bear. It lives only in Australia, and even if a few of these animals were brought to America, they wouldn’t live very long. The koala can eat only the leaves of the eucalyptus tree, which grows almost entirely in Australia. The … Read more

We really should call the flying squirrel the “gliding squirrel,” as no mammal except the bat is really capable of flying. The flying squirrel doesn’t have wings, but it does have thin flaps between its front and back legs. When a flying squirrel wants to move from one tree to another, it spreads its legs … Read more

The jackal is a member of the dog family that lives in parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Because it can eat rotting meat, the jackal is known as a scavenger. But the jackal prefers to eat animals it has killed itself, and so hunts at night for small mammals and birds. Sometimes, a pack … Read more

The chimpanzee, the most intelligent of all animals besides man, is even more clever than scientists had once thought. Trained chimps have shown that they can be taught to use a form of silent language to “speak” with their trainers. First, the chimps learned symbols for a number of simple words. These symbols were contained … Read more

The hippopotamus, the second largest land animal after the elephant, spends most of its time partly submerged in a river. When the hippo does climb out of the water, its skin often secretes drops of a bright red liquid that looks just like blood. Some circuses used to claim that they had “blood-sweating hippos” on … Read more

Some mammals utter sounds so rarely that people used to think they had no voices. Scientist once believed that giraffes, rabbits, and mice had no voices, but they now know that these creatures do have voices and occasionally utter sounds. Giraffes and rabbits make a variety of sounds. We don’t hear a lot of mouse … Read more

The mouse is a rodent, and most rodents prefer a diet of vegetables and grains. But mice and many other rodents will also eat insects and animal flesh. In fact, a hungry mouse will eat just about anything, including cheese.