Thursday, January 28, 2010

Animals A-Z

So, I was sitting here trying to think of soemthing intresting to talk about, when I started thinking of Omaha, (where my Grandpa is currently undergoing surgery :'( he has blood clots in his legs!!) and I was thinking of all the things I LOVE about it! And BAM! It's was the zoo! So I thought I'd talk about all the cute animals that I love (and maybe hate) that start with every letter of the alphabet. I'll look up some intresting facts about them too so we can keep it pretty intresting too!

Here we goooooo!:)

Armadillo! This one's so cute! Did you know that "armadillo" is actually Spanish, meaning "little armored one." (Aww!) They also sleep about sixteen hours a day! Beluga Whale! Since beluga whales live in northern waters, their white color helps them blend in with icebergs as camoflauge from predators:)
Camel! Actually, camels don't store water in their humps, they store it in their blood, which allows them to go several days without water. Their hump is actually a resivoir of fatty tissue. Duck! (I just copied and pasted this one, I think it's so cute!!) "Did you know ducks are very social animals and suffer if they don't have companionship. If ducks have been raised alone they start to believe that they are part of the flock that is around them. This means that if a duck is raised by a human they start to believe that they to are human."Elephant! (My personal favorite!) Even though they are the biggest mammal on land, they have excellent balance. They usually sleep standing up, and sleep between 4-5 hours a night.
Flamingo! The average lifespan for flamingos is 20-30 years. They also have few netural preditors.Giraffes! (Another personal favorite!) Baby giraffes are approximately six feet tall and 150 pounds.
Hippopotamus! (I took this as a direct quote again...) "The hippo’s yawn is not a sign of sleepiness or boredom but is actually a threat gesture, displaying long, thick, razor-sharp canine teeth, or tusks, with which it is capable of biting a small boat in half." Scary huh? Ibis! (I've actually never heard of this animal, the name just sounded cool!) It is native to Africa and Asia, and migrated to Australlia and Southeastern America.
Jaguar! "Jaguar" means "a beast that kills its prey with a single bound." Kangaroo! There are over forty speices of kangaroos. Llama! (Another personal favorite...yet another direct quote). "Llamas are very easy to train and learn new skills readily. Llamas have excellent survival skills and their thick coats help them to thrive in extreme climates." Meerkat. Meerkats are naturally immune to scorpion and snake poison. Nene (yeah, I've never heard of it either). It's actually the Hawaiian Goose, but they eat: leaves, seeds, berries and flowers of grasses, herbs and shrubs. Ostrich! Since ostriches can't fly (scientists believe this is because their wings can't support their weight) they result to using their legs. They are actually one of the fastest animals on Earth. Penguin! (This one's for my sister...another direct quote...) They eat fish and krill. They don't drink water, but eat snow. They have a gland in their nose that takes the salt out of the ocean water. They swallow ocean water when they catch fish. Quahog! (A type of clam?) Also known as cherrystone, littleneck and hard-shell clam. They have a dingy white shell about 3 to 5 inches long. Rooster! Today nearly 6.5 billion chickens are raised each year in the United States alone. Seahorse! (YAY!) Seahorses differ in color, some are orange, red, yellow, green and even grey.
Zebra stripes and spots, are two patterns that seahorses come in.
Turtles! They live on every contient except Antarctica. North America contains a large variety of turtle species, but Europe contains only two species of turtle and three species of tortoise. Uromastyx spinipes! (I don't know what they are either...let's find out!) Also known as the Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard. (There's actually not a lot of cool facts about them...darn) Velvet Swimming Crab! It gets its name from the fine velvety texture of its carapace. The rear legs are flattened for swimming, but it is more typically found hiding in crevices. Wolf! There are 4-36 wolves in a pack and their territories can range from 130-13,000 km. You can tell wolves are friendly ,when they roll over and show their bellies. When they want to play, they put their paws down and wag their tail. When they want to fight, they show their fangs and start growling. When they want to stop they put their ears back and lay down. Xenopus! They are also known as African Clawed Frogs are one of the world’s most unusual amphibians. Unlike most of the world’s other amphibians, these aquatic animals are equipped with claws. They use these claws to tear apart large pieces of food. Yellow-tailed black cockatoo! is native to the south-east Australia and is the largest of the cockatoos and of Australian parrots. Zebra! Zoologists believe that the black and white stripes in zebras serve the purpose of camouflage. The color blind predators get confused between the stripes and the grass blades. Another reason is the personal identification, as the pattern of stripes in one zebra cannot exactly match the pattern of another one.

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