Random Fact of the Day

Armadillos sleep an average of about 18 hours a day.

Zzz..

The Animal of the Month: The Tapir

The tapir, with its long nose, looks like a hippo/cow/horse/rhino, but is really related to the horse and rhinoceros family. They use their long trunks to pick tasty fruits off the trees, and clean themselves. Like hippos, tapirs often submerge in water to cool off. Tapirs are endangered herbivores that live in the forests and grasslands of Central and South America. Tapirs have been on Earth longer than humans, and scientists believe they have not changed much over the tens of millions of years they have been here. Below is a Malayan Tapir.



There are four types of tapirs-- Malayan Tapir, the Brazilian (or Lowland) Tapir, the Mountain Tapir, and Baird's Tapir. All four species of tapir are endangered. The Mountain tapir (below), or wolly tapir, is the smallest.


He looks like a small black bear with a big nose. You can see a Brazilian tapir below.


And last but not least, below is the Baird's tapir.


The Fast Facts
1. Size: weighs 500 to 800 lbs
2. herbivores
3. Protection Status: endangered
4. Group name: a candle
5. Did you Know? Tapirs have 14 toes!



Thanks for reading!
PawPrint


Thank you to National Geographic Animal facts

The Animal of October: the Coyote!

The coyote, with its keen hunting skills and cleverness, can be found in the continent's forests and mountains. This omnivorous member of the dog family will eat almost anything. They eat rabbits, fish, rodents, frogs, and even deer. They will also eat insects, fruits, snakes, and grass. Coyotes will also hunt livestock, sheep, and other pets, so they are considered pests to farmers.



Coyotes can run up to 40 mph when they are hunting. In the winter and fall, coyotes form packs to hunt more efficiently. Coyotes weigh 20 to 50 pounds.



Fast Facts
1. Omnivores
2. Weight: 20 to 50 lbs
3. Range: most of North America
4. Did you know? Coyotes are very good swimmers

Squirrels

Did you know that there are more than 200 species of squirrel that live all around the world? The squirrel is common to almost everyone. The squirrels that live in your back yard or in parks are usually tree squirrels. Like other rodents, squirrels have four front teeth that never stop growing so that they're teeth wont wear down from all of the gnawing. Squirrels eat nuts, leaves, roots, and other seeds.Squirrels are omnivores, and weigh anywhere from 0.5 to 4 lbs. A group of squirrels is called a scurry or dray.

The Animal of September: The Bottlenosed Dolphin!

With a familiar smile and a silly personality, the Bottlenosed dolphin is an intelligent aquatic mammal that can swim over speeds of 18 miles an hour. Dolphins are very social animals that live in groups known as pods. They communicate in various different sounds of whistles. Dolphins are carnivores, eating fish, shrimp, and squid. These sneaky critters are also seen sometimes following fishing boats to see if there is anything left over to eat.



Bottlenosed dolphins are found in the warm tropical waters all around the world. Dolphins were once hunted for meat and oil, but are now protected and dolphin fishing is limited. The average lifespan of a bottlenosed dolphin is 45 to 50 years. They can grow to be about 10 to 14 ft long, and weigh about 1,100 lbs. Dolphins can jump 16 ft out of the water and land with a big splash on their side or their back.



The Fast Facts
1. Carnivore
2. Average lifespan in the wild: 45 to 50 years
3. Weight 1,100 lbs
4. Group name: a pod
5. marine mammal

The Animal of August: The Mandrill!

Being the largest of the monkeys, the mandrill is a shy animal that live only in the rain forests of equatorial Africa. They are 3 ft tall omnivores, eating fruits, nuts, insects, amphibians, and reptiles. They weigh 77 pounds, and they live in troops. The troops are lead by males, and include a dozen or so females and their young. Mandrills have a way of being cute and creepy all at the same time!

Mandrills do not fall in the category of endangered, yet they are a threatened species. They are hunted for bushmeat, as many Africans consider them a delicacy.

Fast Facts!

1. Omnivores

2. Lifespan in the wild: 20 years

3. Group: troop

4. Size: 3ft tall, 77 lbs

5. Protection status: threatened

The Animal of July: The Sea Otter

The carnivorous aquatic member of the weasel family spends most of his time in the water. The sea otters will eat, rest, and socialize in the water. They live in groups in the water and are very playful. They eat things such as clams, shellfish, sea urchins, crab, squid, octopus, and fish. They weigh about 65 pounds, and live up to 23 years in the wild. Sea otters were once to the point of extinction in the early 20th Century, with only about 1,000 to 2,000 otters left. Now, with protection laws, there are about 100,000 to 150,000 otters in the wild.



Fast Facts
1. Carnivores
2. Weigh about 65 pounds
3. about 4 ft tall

Random Fact of the Day

American bison weigh about 2,200 pounds!

Animal of the Month: The Mountain Lion

The huge 136 pound mountain lion roams America. The mountain lion is also known as a puma, cougar, and catamount. Mountain lions are carnivores, preying on deer, porcupine, coyotes, and raccoons. They tend to prey at dawn or dusk.


Mountain Lions once roamed all of America, but that was reduced in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. Hunters treasured these mountain lions, while farmers despised them for killing their livestock. Does that sound familiar? Remember back in January, the animal of the month was the wombat. Farmers didn't like wombats for destroying their fields, and farmers don't like mountain lions for killing their cows.

Mountain lions are very quiet and shy animals, rarely seen by humans. They need a lot of space to roam and live. Now, based on that information, why do you thing mountain lions will sometimes attack humans?

If you live in Pleasanton, you might remember the mountain lion spotting near Mohr Elementary School back in 2006, and then again in 2009. This endangered species has no place to roam anymore, being forced into rural areas, which then leads them to be killed because of "threatening" people, while most of the time they don't even harm anyone. It's just wrong. Here is the link for PleasantonWeekly.com on the mountain lion spotting in 2009 http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/news/show_story.php?id=1959

Fast Facts!
1. Carnivore
2. They weigh 136 lbs
3. Endangered
4. Live in the Western parts of America






Thanks to National Geographic Animal Facts: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/mountain-lion/

Animal of the Month: The Elephant Seal!

The carnivorous elephant seal has two species: the northern and the southern seal. Southern elephant seals live in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters that contain brisk cold conditions but are rich in the fish, squid, and other marine foods that the seals enjoy. Southern elephant seals are the bigger of the two. Souther males can be up to 20 ft tall and weigh 8,800 pounds! Northern elephant seals can be found in California and Baja California, though they prefer to frequent offshore islands rather than the North American mainland. Elephant seals are sometimes called Sea Elephants. Sea elephants are interesting looking creatures...


Elephant seals were intensely hunted for their oil, and their numbers were once brought down to the brink of extinction. Fortunately, populations have come back and they are under legal protections. Southern elephant seals can dive over 4,921 ft deep and stay submerged for up to two hours! Below you can see a southern elephant seal. I think they're cute..:)

Now you can see a northern elephant seal.. :)


Fast Facts:
1. Carnivore
2. Weigh: Up to 8,800 lbs
3. Group: Colony
4. Lifespan in the Wild: 9 years for northern 20 to 22 years southern


National Geographic Animal Facts

Mini Quiz about Mammals

Think you can answer these questions? Give it a try!

1. What are most poisonous of the following?
a. Giraffes
b. Box jellyfish
c. Hippopotamus
d. Dog

2. Hippos weigh about....
a. 50 oz
b. 70 billion pounds
c. 8,000 lbs
d. 384,224,224,200,102,204,201 tons

3. A group of hippos is called a...
a. a school
b. a patch
c. Hippo town
d. cheese

4. Platypuses are...
a. marsupials
b. tacos
c. monotremes
d. Both A and C

5. The manatee...
a. Lives in water
b. is a mammal
c. is endangered
d. All of the above

6. What's your favorite animal?

(To answer, just comment with the letters. The Animal Society will respond with your score)

It's Me or the Dog

Whenever I'm flipping through T.V. stations when I'm lazy on the couch, I sometimes see a show called, It's me or the Dog. I never knew what that was, and I didn't realize that it was on Animal Planet. Well, it is, so I turned that on in curiosity. Here's what I found...It's a show about dog owners with horrible, stressful, vicious dogs on the brink of going to a shelter because of attacking people or other dogs. (It get's better, trust me.) Victoria, an amazing dog trainer, comes in and turns a killer dog into a sweet and "gentle giant." It's full of ways to train your dog.

"Thank you. You just saved my family," one man said in the episode I just watched. Victoria is a miracle worker. I encourage all dog owners to watch this show. If you have a stressful dog that you feel is "tearing your life apart" you must remember that help is out there. Just go to http://animal.discovery.com/tv/its-me-or-dog/ and learn how you can get help today.

"I know that dogs are more than just dogs. They're family," says Victoria. By the way, Victoria isn't just awesome because she's an amazing dog trainer, she's awesome because she is an amazing dog trainer in high heels. :)

Box Jellyfish

The box jellyfish's venom is the most deadly in the world, and it contains toxins that attack the heart, nervous system, and skin cells. They use their venom to kill their prey (like shrimp and fish) fast and easy so that they don't damage their delicate tentacles. The pain of a box jellyfish's sting is so intense that a person usually goes into shock and drowns before getting to shore. Box jellyfish are also called sea wasps and marine stingers. Box jellyfish live primarily in coastal waters off Northern Australia and throughout the Indo-Pacific.



Each of a box jellyfish's tentacles have about 5,000 stinging cells. These are triggered not by touch, but the presence of a chemical on the outer layer of its prey. However, an interesting fact is that sea turtles are unaffected by the sting of the box jellyfish and regularly eat them.

Fast Facts
1. They are invertebrate
2. Carnivore
3. Lifespan in the wild is less than a year
4. They are 10 ft long and weigh 4.4 lbs
5. A group is called a fluther or a smack

Animal of the Month: The Manatee!

Manatees are 440 to 1,300 pound sensitive mammals. They are very endangered, found in the shallow waters of Florida, Brazil, and some species in Africa and the Amazon river. They live about 40 years in the wild. They are herbivores.




They are endangered because when they come up for air, and gently let their backs float above the water, they get scrapped by boats. With big gashes, these animals are very soon extinct. Want to find ways to help? Go to http://www.savethemanatee.org/default.html Manatees are herbivores.



Info from http://www.savethemanatee.org/default.html
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/manatee.html

Random Fact of the Day

A group of hippos is called a school.

Animal of the Month: The Arctic Hare

How many of you like rabbits? Well, personally, I love rabbits, and Arctic animals, so, the animal of March is the Arctic hare. The arctic hare hops around the freezing arctic Tundra (click to see picture) with speeds of about 40 mph. Because the arctic hare has so many adaptations to the brisk conditions of the Tundra, it does not hibernate. In the winter, the hare is white, to blend in with the snow, and in the summer it turns a blue-ish brown color.

Fast Facts

1. Omnivore

2. Range/Habitat: Arctic Tundra

3. Weigh 6 to 15 lbs

4. They do not hibernate
5. Will huddle together for warmth

Thanks to National Geographic Animal Facts: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/arctic-hare/

Mallard Ducks

Mallard..the first thing I think of when I think of mallard ducks is...





Dr. Mallard (Ducky) from NCIS. However, I am here to talk about real mallards. Mallard ducks are omnivores, and weigh just about 2 to 3 lbs. There are from about 20 to 26 inches tall. Ducks live from about 5 to 10 years in the wild.

A group of flying ducks is called a sord. Above you can see a male.

Tree Kangaroos

Tree kangaroos are marsupials that are endangered. They live in the high trees of 70 to 100 ft above the ground in the tropical forests. They are very hard to research, because you need a small plane to fly on bumpy grounds, and even then you can't find them because their so high up. Tree kangaroos tend to hide behind the leaves of trees. Dr. Lisa Dabek studied tree kangaroos for more than 20 years. She worked with National Geographic to help her research them. They used a whole entire teams of a range of verternariens to the local land owners, who used to hunt them, but now help Dr. Dabek research them.



Finally, they watched as a tree kangaroo jumped down on to the ground, and they captured it. A veterinarian put a camera around his neck and released him back to the wild. What they found was amazing, "It actually brought tears to my eyes," says Dr. Dabek. They could see what he did; clean him self, eat, and simply just sniff around, looking out at the amazing view from he high trees.

Monkeys

There are so many different types of monkeys in the world. Including proboscis monkeys, spider monkeys, and marmosets. One of my favorites is the spider monkey. Spider monkeys are omnivores, found in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. A group of spider monkeys is called a troop, and they weigh just about 13 lbs. Their average lifespan is 22 years in the wild. Here you can see a spider monkey:



I also love proboscis monkeys. They are found only in Borneo, and are very hard to keep captive. The reason they are put in zoos is because it is very hard for proboscis monkeys to find leaves to eat, since the area where they live is mostly developed. There is estimated to be only a few thousand proboscis monkeys left in Borneo. Here you can see a proboscis monkey:


Here are some other monkeys. The Japanese Snow Monkey:



The Marmoset:


And so many more!

Random Fact of the Day

A group of sloth bears is called a Solitary.

Thought of Thursday (Instead of Wordless Wednesday)

The thought for this Thursday is-- We think that humans are the smartest animals on the planet, but if we were, we would be able to live and be happy without destroying our other animal neighbors, or our environment. So, birds, chipmunks, hippos, elephants, even lady bugs are smarter than us.

Random Fact of the Day

Humans are the most adaptable mammals on earth.

My Photography

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Random Fact of the Day

There are about 180 types of monkeys in the world. Including the snow monkey, the proboscis monkey, and so many more!