Bottlenose Dolphins
Bottlenose dolphins send messages to one another in different ways. They
squeak and whistle and use body language—leaping as high as 20 feet (6
meters) in the air, snapping their jaws, slapping their tails on the surface of
the water, and even butting heads.
So what are they trying to tell each other? They can alert each other to
possible dangers, let others know there is food nearby, and keep track of
others in the group. Nasal sacs inside the dolphin’s head make it possible
for the dolphins to “talk.” Blowholes located in their heads open and close,
allowing the dolphins to breathe. (Dolphins are mammals, so they have to
come to the water’s surface to breathe, just like you.)
Each individual dolphin seems to have its own “whistle,” but the sounds we
can’t hear may be the most important. Dolphins also produce high
frequency clicks, which act as a sonar system called echolocation (ek-ohlow-KAY-shun). When the clicking sounds hit an object in the water, like a
fish or rock, they bounce off and come back to the dolphin as echoes.
Echolocation tells the dolphins the shape, size, speed, distance, and
location of the object.
Bottlenose dolphins also have a sharp sense of hearing. Scientists believe
that the sounds travel through the dolphin’s lower jaw to its inner ear and
then are transmitted to the brain.
Can we talk with these animals? Scientists don’t think so but continue to
monitor “dolphin talk” as a way to better understand what makes
bottlenose dolphins tick (and click!).
-Text by Marion McGrath
Polar Bear
Polar bears live along shores and on sea ice in the icy cold Arctic. When sea
ice forms over the ocean in cold weather, many polar bears, except
pregnant females, head out onto the ice to hunt seals. Polar bears have been
spotted on sea ice hundreds of miles from shore. When the warm weather
causes the sea ice to melt, polar bears move back toward shore.
In fall pregnant polar bears make dens in earth and snow, where they’ll stay
through the winter and give birth to one to three baby bears (cubs). In
spring the mother emerges from her den followed by her cubs. Generally,
she will nurse them for two and a half years. During that time she will
protect them and teach them how to hunt.
Polar bears primarily eat seals. Polar bears often rest silently at a seal’s
breathing hole in the ice, waiting for a seal in the water to surface. Once the
seal comes up, the bear will spring and sink its jagged teeth into the seal’s
head.
Sometimes the polar bear hunts its prey. It may see a seal lying near its
breathing hole and slowly move toward it, then charge it, and grab it with
its massive claws. A polar bear may also hunt by swimming beneath the ice.
The U.S., Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the Soviet Union signed an
agreement in 1973 to protect polar bears. Each of these countries either
banned hunting or established rules for how many polar bears could be
hunted within its own countries. These rules help keep polar bear
populations stable. Today, 25,000 to 40,000 polar bears live in the Arctic.
Coyote
While populations of many animals decrease, coyote populations increase.
Coyotes once lived only in prairies and deserts of the western United States
and in Mexico. Now they live everywhere in North America.
A coyote is naturally adaptable because it eats such a wide variety of food. If
it can’t find mice to eat, lizards, insects, or even garbage will do. It can
easily change its behavior to survive in a new place.
In Native American stories coyotes are clever and tricky. This reputation is
based on fact. Coyotes may look at the sky for ravens, or black birds, flying
in circles. Coyotes know that the birds often hover over a dead animal, so
finding the birds can lead to finding a free meal.
Coyotes are clever enough to trick other animals. A coyote might jump
crazily near a group of birds to distract them, and then its partner might
surprise the birds and get a few of them for dinner.
People have helped coyotes to spread across North America. How? By
killing off the coyote’s number one natural competitor: the wolf. Wolves eat
many of the same small animals that coyotes do. And like many other
predators, wolves know how to kill coyotes. With the wolf practically gone
in many areas, the coyote has quickly moved in.
Some coyotes kill calves and lambs on people’s ranches and farms. For a
century people have tried to kill coyotes by using poison, traps, and guns.
Still coyotes continue to thrive.
- by Christina Wilsdon
Gorilla
For a long time the image most people had of a gorilla included chest
pounding, roaring, charging, and big, bared teeth. But researchers studying
gorillas show a very different picture of mountain gorillas. The animals are
peaceful, gentle, social, and mainly vegetarian creatures. The occasional
ferocious-looking, impressive displays are generally from a male gorilla
protecting his family group.
The biggest and strongest mature male gorilla leads a group. He’s called a
silverback because the hair on a male’s back turns from black to silvery gray
as he matures. This happens when he is between 11-13 years old. A group
normally includes a young male or two and a few females and their young.
Mountain gorillas wander around a home area of up to 15 square miles (39
square kilometers). They spend much of their time eating. Their food
includes a variety of plants, along with a few insects and worms. At night
the animals make a nest to sleep in. Many lightweight gorillas nest in trees,
making beds of bent branches. The heavy individuals may nest in grasses
on the ground. Babies sleep with their mothers at night.
Life for mountain gorillas isn’t all peaceful. They are endangered,
threatened by war in a small area of Africa where they live. Hunters kill
them for food or trophies. Their forests are chopped down for farmland,
fuel, and housing. But many people are working hard to protect mountain
gorillas, their forests, and their way of life in the mountains.
-Text by Catherine D. Hughes
Brown Bear
As winter approaches, brown bears—often called grizzly bears—prepare for
a long hibernation. During the fall, a brown bear eats all the time, stocking
up for the 4-7 months when it will have to live off stored body fat. A grizzly
may eat 90 pounds (40 kilograms) of food each day.
As winter comes, the fattened bear goes into a den like a cave or one it dug
out in between the roots of a tree. It falls asleep and all the bear’s body
functions slow down. Its heart beats 8 times a minute instead of 40.
The female brown bear enters her den pregnant with one ( or sometimes 23) baby bears. If she found enough food to have a lot fat stored in her body,
the embryo, or tiny developing baby bear, continues to develop and is born
after a few months. If the mother didn’t fatten up, the baby might die.
The “Mama bear” doesn’t even wake up as her cub is born. The cub is blind
and hairless and is born midwinter. The tiny bear, about the size of a
mouse, moves into a position where it can nurse and drink its mother’s
milk. A female brown bear’s milk has a lot of fat and calories, so the cub
grows quickly. By the time the mama grizzly wakes up in the spring, her
baby is strong enough to follow her out of the den.
Nearly half of all brown bear cubs born die before they’re a year old.
Disease, starvation, and predators such as wolves, mountain lions, and
adult male bears—even a cub’s own father—are threats. But mother brown
bears are very protective, so many cubs do survive. They live with their
mothers for up to 3 years, and then they’re ready to face life on their own.
-Text by Catherine D. Hughes
Emperor Penguins
Emperor penguins are the largest
of the 17 kinds of penguins, and
they spend their entire lives on
the cold Antarctic ice and in its
waters. They survive by relying on
a number of clever adaptations.
Emperors stand together in a
huge circle. They take turns
moving to the inside of the group,
where they’re protected from the
cold temperatures and wind.
Once they’ve had a chance to warm up, they take their turn back on the
circle’s edges, giving other penguins time in the warmer center.
The emperor penguin is the only animal that spends the winter on the ice of
Antarctica. These birds have babies in the winter (unlike most birds, which
breed in the springtime). After a being together with a male penguin of
several weeks, a female emperor penguin lays one egg then leaves! Female
emperors go to the sea to feed. They travel up to 50 miles (80 kilometers)
across the ice.
Each father keeps the egg the mother left on his feet and covers it with a
very warm layer of feathered skin under his stomach, called a brood pouch
to keep it warm. The males stand in icy temperatures, winds, and storms
for 65 days. And they eat nothing that whole time! They can’t leave the egg.
After about two months the females return from the sea, bringing food to
feed the now hatched chicks. The males leave to go fish, and the mothers
take care of the chicks. The youngsters stay sheltered in their mother’s
brood pouch for two months. If a young chick falls out of that warm spot, it
can freeze to death in less than two minutes.
As the young penguins grow, adults leave them in groups of chicks while
they leave to fish. They return with food for their young. In December,
when the weather has warmed, the ice begins to break up. This brings water
closer to the nests. Now the chicks are old enough to swim and fish for their
own food.
-Text by Catherine D. Hughes
Red-Eyed tree Frog
A rain forest teems with life—
birds chirp, monkeys chatter,
snakes slither, and frogs croak.
The warm air is heavy with
moisture. Leaves on bushes and
trees sag, weighed down by
drops of water.
On a leaf in this rain forest, there is a special treasure. A female red-eyed
tree frog lays her eggs on it. She chose the spot carefully—the leaf hangs
over a pond, for a special reason.
When the eggs are ready to hatch, the tadpoles (baby frogs) inside start
swimming around vigorously. The activity breaks each egg open, freeing
the little tadpoles. All the tadpoles wash down the leaf in a little stream of
moisture from the hatching eggs, and they land in the pond below.
Feeding on tiny insects, the tadpoles live in the water they fell into until
they metamorphose, or develop, into little brown baby frog. At this point
they leave the water and climb up nearby trees to live as tree frogs. By the
time they’re adults, the frogs have turned bright green, with blue-andyellow striped sides, orange or red feet, blue on their legs, and big red eyes.
Being green helps the red-eyed tree frog blend in with tree leaves. This
keeps it hidden from both the insects it eats and the predators that want to
eat it. Red-eyed tree frogs are nocturnal, or active at night. During the day
they rest. When one of these tree frogs sits still on a green leaf, legs tucked
in and eyes shut, it is practically invisible.
The brightly colored bodies and huge red eyes are a defense mechanism. If
the green camouflage fails a predator is often so surprised by sudden
flashes of color from the eyes or legs of the frog that it is confused and
hesitates. And while it does, the frog has a split second to make its escape!
-Text by Catherine D. Hughes
Great White Shark
When a great white shark is
born, along with up to a dozen
siblings, it immediately swims
away from its mother. Baby
sharks are alone right from the
start, and their mother may see
them only as prey. At birth the
baby shark is about 5 feet (1.5
meters) long already; as it grows
it may reach a length three
times that.
The pup (which is what a baby shark is called) will live its life at the top of
the ocean’s food chain. As the largest predatory fish in the ocean,
great white sharks are the top predators of the sea. But before it
grows larger, the pup must avoid predators bigger than it is—including
other great white sharks. Many baby sharks do not survive their first year.
Young great white sharks eat fish (including other sharks) and rays. As it
grows, the shark’s favorite prey becomes sea mammals, especially sea lions
and seals.
Sharks use surprise to help them hunt. When they see a seal at the surface
of the water, sharks will swim underneath the seal. Then they swim upward
quickly, bursting out of the water in a leap, and falling back into the water
with the seal in their mouths.
Sharks don’t chew their food; they rip off pieces of meat and swallow them
whole. After eating a seal or a sea lion the great white shark can survive a
month or two without another big meal.
Female great white sharks usually have their first babies when they are 12
to 14 years old. And if the pups survive their youth, they, too, become
predators at the top of the food chain.
-Text by Catherine D. Hughes
Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees live in central Africa. They can hit tree trunks and use their
voices with a mix of grunts and barks to communicate to other members of
their community, some as far as two miles (three kilometers) away!
Chimpanzees are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals—
they feed on fruit, leaves, seeds, buds, bark, stems, insects, and occasionally
the meat of small mammals such as young baboons.
Young chimpanzees learn from watching their mothers and other adults
which foods are safe to eat and where ripe food is located. For the first few
months of its life a baby chimp clings to the hair of its mother’s stomach as
she travels with it everywhere. After that, young chimpanzees will spend the
next seven to ten years at their mothers’ sides learning how to groom, make
nests in trees, find food, and use tools.
In the wild a chimpanzee may live to be 50 years old and weigh up to 121
pounds (55 kilograms). They live in Africa’s dense rain forests, open
woodlands, and broad grasslands.
No other animal uses so many different objects as tools. For example,
chimps often fish for termites using a long piece of grass. The chimp sticks
the grass into the entrance of a termite nest, moves it around, then slowly
withdraws it—without losing any tasty termites attached to the grass stem.
The chimp eats the insects quickly. Chimpanzees also sometimes use stones
and sticks as missiles or clubs, and in West Africa chimps use stones as
hammers to open hard-shelled nuts.
-Text by Michaela Ahern
Lion
Lions are family animals and
social in their own community.
They usually live in groups of 15
or more animals called prides.
Prides can be as small as 3 or as
big as 40 animals. In a pride,
lions hunt prey, raise cubs, and
defend their territory together.
In prides the females do most of the hunting and cub rearing. Usually all
the lionesses in the pride are relatives—mothers, daughters, grandmothers,
and sisters. Many of the females in the pride have babies at about the same
time. A cub may nurse other females as well as its mother.
Each pride generally will have no more than two adult males. While the
females usually live with the pride for life, the males often stay for only two
to four years. After that they go off on their own or are evicted by other
males who take over the pride.
When a new male becomes part of the pride it is not unusual for him to kill
all the cubs, insuring that all future cubs will be his. The main job of males
in the pride is defending the pride’s territory. A male’s loud roar, usually
heard after sunset, can be heard five miles (eight kilometers) away! The
roar warns off intruders and helps find stray members of the pride.
Hunting generally is done in the dark by the lionesses. They often hunt in
groups of two or three, using teamwork to stalk, surround, and kill their
prey.
Lionesses aren’t the most successful of hunters, because they usually score
only one kill out of several tries. After the kill the males usually eat first,
lionesses next—and the cubs get what’s left.
Males and females fiercely defend against any outside lions that attempt to
join their pride.
-Text by Marion McGrath
Tigers
Easily recognized by its coat of
reddish-orange with dark
stripes, the tiger is the largest
wild cat in the world. The big cat
weighs up to 720 pounds (363
kilograms), stretches 6 feet (2
meters) long, and has a 3-foot(1-meter-) long tail. The
powerful predator generally
hunts alone, able to bring down
prey such as deer and antelope.
Tigers wait until dark to hunt. Once a tiger has seen its prey, it sneaks as
close as possible to its victim. Then the tiger runs quickly to the
unsuspecting animal, usually pulling it off its feet with its teeth and claws.
If the prey animal is large, the tiger bites its throat to kill it; smaller prey is
usually killed when the tiger breaks its neck.
Tigers have been known to eat up to 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of meat in
one night, but more often they consume about 12 pounds (5 kilograms)
during a meal. It may take days for a tiger to finish eating its kill. The cat
eats until it’s full, and then covers the carcass with leaves and dirt. When
it’s hungry again, the tiger comes back to feed some more, until the meat is
gone.
Unlike most members of the cat family, tigers seem to enjoy water. They
swim well and often soak in streams or pools of water to cool off.
Some tigers live where it gets very cold—in parts of North Korea, eastern
Russia, and China. Other tigers live where the climate is generally warmer—
in India and parts of southeast Asia. The whole species is endanger. Tigers
have been hunted for their fur as well as for other body parts that many
people use in traditional medicines. Tigers’ habitat has also dwindled
seriously as humans have used land for farming and logging.
-Text by Catherine D. Hughes
Dog Facts for Kids
Did you know?

Light-coloured dogs can get sunburn.

The average lifespan of a giant dog breed is only half as long as the
average lifespan of small-to-medium dogs.

Early spay and castration surgery, in addition to helping control the
pet population, benefits dogs by protecting against certain cancers
and reproduction organ infections later in life.

Basenji breed dogs are called "barkless" dogs because they cannot
produce a true bark. They can make other sounds including gurgles,
yodels and yowls.

The canine species has the greatest variation in size, lifespan and
body type between different breeds. Think Chihuahua versus a
Scottish Deerhound. This is due to centuries of careful selective
breeding that carried out by humans to make over 150 breeds of
dogs.

Dogs are omnivores like people and pigs. This means that they can
get their nutrition from food of both animal and plant origin. Dogs do
not digest raw fruit and vegetables very well, but in small amounts,
these act as laxatives.

Raw meat and fish are a potential source of harmful germs and
parasites, so dogs should have their meat cooked.

Over 25 per cent of pets in North America are overweight (obese).

Chocolate is toxic to dogs and can be deadly if fed in large amounts.

Feeding bones is not good for dogs. Hard bones can break off teeth,
and bone slivers, splinters and chips can get caught in the digestive
system, causing punctures or blockages.

Human toothpaste is not tasty for dogs, and some ingredients can
cause them to feel ill. Pet toothpastes are available and should be
used to brush your pets’ teeth. Tasty varieties such as tuna, beef and
seafood are available.

Dogs cool themselves through their tongues, and sweat only through
their nose and footpads.

When dogs are hot, they pant and their tongues may swell two to
three times its normal size to help release excess body heat.

Never buy dog toys that look like “off limits” household items. For
example, shoe-shaped chewies should be avoided.

Guide dogs should not be petted without permission from their
handler/trainer.

If consumed in large amounts, onions can be toxic to dogs.

The dog was first domesticated 10,000 years ago!

The proper scientific term for the domestic dog is Canis familiaris.

Puppies are attracted to and love to play with electrical cords.
However, electrical cords can cause shocks and electrical burns and
should be kept out of a puppy’s reach.

Fleas can jump 150 times their height. If we could jump that far, it
would be 650 feet or a few hundred metres!

Normally dogs shed spring and fall, but the electric lighting in our
homes causes indoor dogs to shed year round.
Did you know?

Light-coloured cats can get sunburn, especially on their nose and ear
tips.

Cats do not always land on their feet if they fall, but they do have a
strong reflex that helps them to right themselves most of the time.
This righting reflex is well developed in animals that climb trees.

Black cats do not bring bad luck, good luck or any kind of luck!

Almost all calico (orange, black and white) cats are female. This is
because the gene coding for this type of colour pattern is on the
female chromosome (the X chromosome).

The normal heart rate of cats is about 2 times the normal adult
human heart rate.

The Turkish van is a breed of cats that loves water and swimming. A
lot of cats don’t like water.

Early spay and castration surgery, in addition to helping control the
pet population, benefits cats by protecting against certain cancers and
reproduction organ infections later in life.

When a cat’s hair stands on end, it appears bigger than it really is, and
this helps to keep potential enemies away. Foes will generally back off
at the sight of such a big, tough looking kitty!

Cats are pure carnivores. This means that they must eat a meat diet
to obtain proper nutrition.

Raw meat and fish are a potential source of harmful germs and
parasites, so cats should have their meat cooked. Cats fed raw liver or
fish diets risk vitamin imbalance.

Over 25 per cent of pets in North America are overweight or obese.

Cats do not have a sweet tooth.

Feeding bones is not good for cats. Hard bones can break teeth, and
bone slivers, splinters and chips can get caught in the digestive
system, causing punctures or blockages.

Human toothpaste is not tasty for cats, and some ingredients can
cause them to feel ill. Brush your pet’s teeth with pet toothpaste,
available in tasty varieties such as tuna, beef and seafood.

Kittens need to learn how to hunt rats and mice from their mothers.
This is not an inborn behaviour.

Purring occurs when a cat is happy. However, fear and illness can also
be associated with purring.

Cats sleep almost all of the time! They are awake about 4 or 5 hours
every day.

Cats sweat through their noses and paw pads.

Cats eat grass, and though it is not part of their normal diet, it may be
important to help them bring up parasites, or help them vomit
hairballs.
Some cats are born with one or more extra toes. This is called
polydactyly.


Kittens are attracted to and love to play with electrical cords. To avoid
shocks or electrical burns to your kitten’s tongue and mouth, keep
electrical cords out of reach.

Fleas can jump 150 times their height. If we could jump that far, it
would be 650 feet or a few hundred metres!

Next time "Kitty" rubs its whiskers against you or scratches a surface,
be aware that pheromones are being left behind to tell everyone just
who is king or queen of your household!

Though cat eyes appear to glow in the dark, the glow is just the
reflection of the light going into the eye through their large pupils and
hitting the back of the eye (retina) and bouncing back to our eyes.