Beaver: 12 Facts About

"As busy as a beaver." 

       The beaver is a small, furry animal, whose industry has passed into a proverb and has been the subject of many literary allusions. "As busy as a beaver" is a compliment to a man and a tribute to this little gnawing animal.

1. The beaver was once common in all northern latitudes, but trappers preyed incessantly upon it for its valuable fur, and it is now necessary to protect it by law in many places.
2. The beaver usually lives in North America, but it occurs solitary in central Europe and Asia.
3. It has short ears, a blunt nose, small forefeet, large webbed hind feet and a flat tail covered with scales on its upper surface.
4. The food of the beavers consists of the bark of trees, leaves, roots and berries. 
5. Their favorite haunts are rivers and lakes which are bordered by forests.
6. In winter they live in houses, about three feet high and seven feet across, substantially built of branches of trees and of mud, on the water's edge so that the entrance can be under water.
7. These dwellings are called beaver lodges, and each accommodates a single family.
8. The teeth of beavers are very strong, and they cut down quite large trees by gnawing around them.
9. Trees around them are felled for food, and also that their branches may be used in building their houses.
10. Beavers are most peculiar, in that sometimes many families work together in communities practically as one. If the stream on which they have located is not deep enough, or if the water does not cover land enough for them, the colony will unite and build an ingenious dam of wood, stones and mud across the stream.
11.  In the pond thus created, each member has its own home.
12. The beavers hold among animals somewhat the same position the bees have among insects, in this remarkable instinct of working in common.

More About Beavers From The Web:

• How Beavers Build Dams by PBS
• Rescue Beaver Loves Building Dams in His House
• Beavers As Engineers from the dollcoloringbook.blogspot

Baltimore O'riole

See the vivid colors of the o'riole from 

American Bird Conservancy

       Baltimore O'riole, Hangbird, Firebird, or Golden Robin, one of the most beautiful of the birds that nest in Northern United States, a relative of the blackbird. It is about seven inches long, has a black head and upper parts and brilliant orange under parts. It weaves a long, graceful, pouch-like nest, usually far out on the tip of a high limb, where it is shaded by overhanging leaves. The Baltimore oriole is a courageous bird, and is quite able to protect its nest from much stronger and larger birds. Its song is sweet and clear, and this, with its bright colors and its destructiveness to insects, makes it a great favorite with every one. It is called the Baltimore oriole because black and orange were the colors of Lord Baltimore.

More About Baltimore O'rioles From The Web:

• Wild Bird House - O'rioles Everywhere
• How to attract o'rioles
• Bird of the week: lcterus galbula or Baltimore o'rioles

Alpaca

The alpaca has soft silky wool.

        Alpaca, a cud-chewing animal of the camel tribe, a native of the Andes, especially of the mountains of Chile and Peru, and so closely allied to the llama that by some it is regarded rather as a smaller variety than a distinct species. It has been domesticated, and remains also in a wild state. In form and size the alpaca approaches the sheep, but it has a longer neck. It is valued chiefly for its long, soft and silky wool, which is straighter than that of the sheep, and very strong. The wool is woven into fabrics of great beauty. All of these are known as alpaca, and they are used for shawls, clothing for warm climates, coat-linings and umbrellas. The flesh of the alpaca is pleasant to eat and is wholesome. 

More About Alpacas From The Web:

• Cute Alpacas from The Cute Show
• Llamas vs. Alpacas by Wilderness Ridge Trail Llamas
• 8 Cute Alpaca Crafts from The Gingerbread House

Adder

       Adder a name given to certain poisonous vipers, as well as to certain harmless snakes. In the United States the term is applied to the copperhead and to the water moccasin, but in general, when the name is used without qualification, the adder of Great Britain, the only poisonous snake in the islands, is referred to.
       The puff adder or asp is a snake of South Africa whose bite is always fatal. The name is derived from the serpent's power of puffing out the upper part of its neck when irritated or alarmed. It is very thick and attains a length of four or five feet. The natives poison their arrows with its venom.

The Brave Crew teaches kids about the deadly puff adder!

Agouti

Agouti are found in South America and the West Indies.

       Agouti is the name of several rodents, forming a family by themselves. There are eight or nine species, all belonging to South America and the West Indies. The common agouti, or yellow-rumped cavy, is of the size of a rabbit. It burrows in the ground or in hollow trees, and lives on vegetables. It grunts like a pig, and is as greedy, so that where it is common it does much injury to crops. The agouti's flesh is white and palatable.

More About The Agouti From The Web:

• Meet The Agouti, The Giant Yet Lovable Rodent of The Amazon

Alligator: 14 Facts

Above are two crocodiles, American on top,
Chinese on bottom. 

The alligator a large reptile resembling the crocodile, dwelling in waters of tropical regions of the western hemisphere.

1. Alligators frequent swamps and marshes and may be seen during the day basking on the ground in the heat of the sun. 
2. Alligators are slow in growth and as they age, their growth rate slows down even more. Males are generally larger than females.
3. Nearly fifty years are required for them to reach their full, potential length.
4. They are active animals, and they prey upon whatever game comes their way. 
5. Whenever they have captured an animal, they take it into the water and eat below the surface. 
6. They are rather timid, in spite of their size, but defend themselves viciously if attacked. 
7. When on shore, they rush with open mouth at their enemies and thrash their powerful tails from side to side. 
8. The young are hatched by the sun from eggs, of which the female lays 200 or more in great heaps of vegetable matter.
9. The alligators of South America were very often called caymans. 
10. One species is known as the spectacled cayman, because of the high bony rim surrounding the orbit of each eye. 
11. In the United States the alligator is not often seen north of Florida, but at one time it was not uncommon from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico. 
12. There are several alligator "farms" in Florida. 
13. Millions have been killed for sport and because of their hide and ivory. 
14. The flesh of the alligator is often eaten, and the leather made from its hide is beautiful and costly.

More Alligator Facts From The Web:

• Gator Fact Sheet (pdf.) by Savannah River Ecology Labroratory
• Alligator vs. Crocodiles by What Lurks Below
• Crocodiles, Gavials, Caimans, and Alligators
• Everglades National Park
• Alligator Farming: regulations by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Supperclass Tetrapoda: Class II Reptilia

Albatross: 10 Facts About

The albatross is a large web-footed sea bird of which there are a number of species.

1. The bill of the albatross is straight and strong, the upper mandible hooked at the point and the lower one cut off squarely.
2. In color its upper parts are grayish-white and the belly white.
3. It is the largest sea bird known, some measuring seventeen and a half feet from tip to tip of their expanded wings.
4. The albatrosses are found at the Cape of Good Hope and in other parts of the southern seas, where they have been known to follow ships for whole days without ever resting.
5. They are met at great distances from the land, where they settle down on the waves at night to sleep.
6. Whenever food is abundant the birds gorge themselves to such a degree that they can neither fly nor swim.
7. Their food consists of small marine animals, carrion, fish spawn, etc. Only one large egg is laid, and that is placed in a rude nest made by scraping the earth into a ridge.
8. The young are entirely white and covered with beautiful woolly down.
9. Sailors regard the albatross with superstition and think that to kill one brings bad luck.
10. Coleridge used this belief as the foundation of his poem, The Ancient Mariner.

Learn More About The Albatross From The Web:

• The Amazing Albatrosses by Smithsonian Magazine
• 7 Ways You Can Help Albatrosses
• How to fold an origami albatross craft by Michael LaFosse
• A is for Albatross Preschool Animal Alphabet Craft
• The Albatross - idiom and mini doll sized book

Adjutant

The adjutant is a species of stork common in India, where it is protected by law because of its habit of destroying small noxious animals and acting as a scavenger. The adjutant has slate-colored back and wings, with white body and a nearly naked flesh-colored neck marked with black. It stands about five feet high, and has an enormous bill and an inflatable pouch under its neck. It was called adjutant bird because of the pompous airs it assumes, such as might be shown by a conceited army officer.

More About The Adjutant From The Web:

• The Fall & Rise of Greater Adjutant Stork by Wildlife Trust of India
• Mongooses vs. Giant Storks 
• Greater Adjutant Storks and Other Birds Forage at A Landill in Guwahati
• Birds of India - Greater Adjutant Nesting Colony by David Stanton
• Stork stories for children here

Addax

The horns of an addax are beautifully twisted.

Addax or Addas, a species of antelope of northeastern Africa. The horns of the male are about four feet long, beautifully twisted into a wide sweeping spiral of two turns and a half, with the points directed outward. The addax has tufts of hair on the forehead and throat, and large broad hoofs.

More About The Addax From The Web:

• The Addax Will Soon Be Extinct! 
• Read more about the Addax Conservation Fund
• Addax Calf Born at The Brookfield Zoo

Animal Adventure Park Teach About Addax Antelope

Aardwolf

An aardwolf resembles a hyena.

       An aardwolf is a South African carnivorous animal, fox-like in size and habit, but having longer ears and a less bushy tail. It resembles a hyena in its sloping back and in its color, the body being gray, irregularly striped with black, but it has five toes on the fore feet, and the head is much more pointed and civet-like. It feeds on carrion, white ants and the like, but not on living vertebrates. It is timid and nocturnal in its habits, social but quarrelsome in its life, and tolerably swift in its pace, though usually trusting rather to burrowing than to flight.

More About The Aardwolf From The Web:

• Proteles cristata aardwolf from Animal Diversity Web
• Aardwolf - Animal of the Week from Ben G. Thomas
• Meet the Aardwolf: a cute animal you never knew existed!

Aardvark

       An aardvark is an ant-eater found in South Africa. It is a stout animal, with long pig-like snout, tubular mouth, the usual termite-catching tongue, large ears, fleshy tail and short, bristly hair. The limbs are short and very muscular; on the fore feet are four, on the hind five, powerful claws, used in burrowing and in excavating the hills of the white ants on which it feeds. It is nocturnal in its habits and is very inoffensive and timid. When pursued, it can burrow itself out of sight in a few minutes, working inward with such rapidity as to make it almost impossible to dig it out. Its total length is about five feet, of which the tail is about one foot nine inches. Its dwelling is a burrow at a little distance from the surface, and thence it may be observed creeping at dusk. The flesh was considered a delicacy by indigenous peoples.

More About Aardvarks From The Web:

• View slideshow at National Geographic Kids
• See aardvarks at Animal Tales on YouTube
• See a 3D paper aardvark by Picaruelo
• The Anteaters

See the baby aardvark at the Cincinnati zoo.

The Ostrich

The ostriches dining on cucumbers and milk.

The Ostrich 

by Burges Johnson

A QUEERER bird has ne'er occurred
Than is the ostrich, so I've heard.
Though women flock from west and east
To pluck him for their finery,
He differs much from man, for he
Don't care for plucking in the least.
(His hide is thick, his speed is quick,
And jiminy! how he can kick!)

His special pride is his inside:
It's double-lined with Bess'mer hide.
He has no fear of golden bucks
Or other dainties of that ilk;
He laughs at cucumbers and milk
O'er pie and Neuburg gayly clucks.
(There is no strife in his home life
O'er biscuit builded by his wife.)

His motto is, "I mind my biz,
Whatever troubles have ariz."
When, overcome with shame, he tries
To shun the glaring public light,
He thinks he's wholly hid from sight
If he has merely shut his eyes.
(That frame of mind you'll often find
Has currency with humankind.)

Ostriches play hide and seek.