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.

 

The Gnu Wooing

"The Gnus Who's Who"

 
The Gnu Wooing 

by Burges Johnson

There was a lovely lady Gnu
Who browsed beneath a spreading yew
Its stately height was her delight;
A truly cooling shade it threw.
Upon it little tendrils grew
Which gave her gentle joy to chew.
Yet oft she sighed, a-gazing wide,
And wished she knew another Gnu
(Some newer Gnu beneath the yew
To tell her tiny troubles to).

She lived the idle moments through,
And days in dull succession flew,
Till one fine eve she ceased to grieve
A manly stranger met her view.
He gave a courtly bow or two;
She coolly looked him through and through:
" I fear you make some slight mistake
Perhaps it is the yew you knew!"
(Its branches blew and seemed to coo,
" Your cue, new Gnu; it's up to you!") 

Said he: "If guests you would eschew,
I'll say adieu without ado;
But, let me add, I knew your dad;
I'm on page two, the Gnus' Who's Who."
"Forgive," she cried," the snub I threw!
I feared you were some parvegnu!
'Tis my regret we've never met
I knew a Gnu who knew of you."
(This wasn't true what's that to you?
The new Gnu knew; she knew he knew.)

"Though there are other trees, 'tis true,"
Said she, "if you're attracted to
The yews I use, and choose to chews
Their yewy dewy tendrils, do!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The end is easily in view:
He wed her in a week or two.
The "Daily Gnus " did quite enthuse;
And now, if all I hear is true,
Beneath that yew the glad day through
There romps a little gnuey new.

The two gnus meet and greet.