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Reaching up to 13 feet (4 meters) long and weighing as many as 1,300 pounds (600 kilograms), West Indian manatees look more like small cars than people. Despite their large size, manatees are graceful swimmers. Although they usually move along in slow motion, they can also cruise, or swim at a steady pace, at five miles (eight kilometers) an hour. In short bursts they can even top 15 miles (24 kilometers) an hour! While cruising, manatees push themselves forward by moving their strong tails up and down. They steer with the help of their flexible flippers. When in shallow water, manatees use their flippers to walk, slowly placing one in front of the other. Like whales and dolphins, manatees are mammals. Although they live in water, they have to surface frequently to breathe air. While swimming, manatees take in air every three or four minutes. When they are resting, they can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes. Manatees are gentle animals. They rarely fight, and they have no natural enemies. Subsisting on water plants and plants that grow at the water’s edge, a manatee takes in up to 1 pound (0.5 kilogram) of food for every 10 pounds (5 kilograms) it weighs.
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Hedgehogs have prickly spines everywhere except on their face, legs, and bellies. By curling into a tight ball and tucking in their heads, tail, and legs, they protect the parts of their bodies that do not have stiff, sharp spines. Often compared to pincushions, hedgehogs depend on their spines for defense—both while they sleep and when they face enemies. The head and body of adult hedgehogs range from 5 to 12 inches (13 to 30 centimeters) long and their tail can add 1 to 2 inches (3-5 centimeters). When hedgehogs are born—up to seven in a litter—their spines are soft and short. Soon after birth, their spines harden, becoming stiffer, sharper, and longer. Babies stay in the nest until they’re about three weeks old. By that time, their eyes are open, their spines are effective, and they can safely follow their mother outside the nest as she looks for food. Top on the hedgehog’s menu are insects, followed by small mice, snails, lizards, frogs, eggs, and even snakes. Hedgehogs sometimes add extra protection to their spines by „self-anointing.“ Immune to poisons in some plants, hedgehogs sometimes eat those plants and then make a frothy saliva in their mouths. The hedgehogs then lick their spines, spreading the saliva with the plant’s poison all over the spikes. Though hedgehogs mainly stay on the ground, they swim quite well and even climb trees.
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A bald eagle’s white head may make it look bald. But actually the name comes from an old English word, „balde,“ meaning white. These graceful birds have been the national symbol of the United States since 1782. Bald eagles were on the brink of extinction because of hunting and pollution. But laws created almost 40 years ago have helped protect them, and they’ve made a comeback. Female bald eagles are a bit bigger than males. Their bodies can be three feet (one meter) long, and their wingspan can be eight feet (2.4 meters) across. That’s about the distance from the floor to the ceiling! Eagle nests are called aeries (AIR-ees). Bald eagles build their nests at the very top of tall trees so the eggs will be safe. Some parents come back year after year to the same nest, adding more sticks, twigs, and grass each time. Babies, called eaglets, are born light gray then turn brown. When they are four to five years old, they develop their normal white heads and tails. In the wild, they can live to be 35 years old or more. Bald eagles can soar over 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) high, and their great eyesight lets them see fish up to a mile (1.6 kilometers) away. When they attack, they drop down at up to 100 miles (161 kilometers) an hour! Then they glide just above the water, snag a fish with their feet, and fly off to eat it.
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Koalas are marsupials, related to kangaroos.
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Spider monkeys have long, thin arms with hooklike hands that allow them to swing through the trees. They do not have opposable thumbs. The brown-headed spider monkey has a prehensile tail, which means it can grasp and can be used like a fifth limb to grab trees. During the day, the spider monkey searches for fruit, which makes up the main part of its diet. They will also eat flowers, seeds, bark, leaves, and small insects during the dry season when fruit isn’t available. They spend most of the daylight hours climbing and swinging through the high canopy of trees. The brown-headed spider monkey lives in a large community of about 20 to 100 male and female monkeys. They split into smaller groups for feeding. Females usually give birth to only a single baby each year or two. Young monkeys are carried on their mothers‘ stomachs until about 16 weeks old. Then they are strong enough to ride on their mothers‘ backs. All brown-headed spider monkey infants are born with a pink face and ears. Spider monkeys hug each other and wrap their tails around each other. They are very intelligent and have robust memories. They were named spider monkeys because they look like spiders as they hang upside down from their tails with their arms and legs dangling. Their genus name is Ateles, which means “imperfect.” This refers to the fact that they don’t have thumbs. Hunting the brown-headed spider monkey is now prohibited in Ecuador, but humans have killed them for their meat for hundreds of years. Text by Anne A. McCormack / NGS Staff
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Although native to Europe, earthworms are found throughout North America and western Asia. They do not live in deserts or regions where there is permafrost or permanent snow and ice. Typically only a few inches (7 or 8 centimeters) long, some members of this species have been known to grow to a snakelike 14 inches (35 centimeters). Earthworms‘ bodies are made up of ringlike segments called annuli. These segments are covered in setae, or small bristles, which the worm uses to move and burrow. These terrestrial worms typically dwell in soil and moist leaf litter. Their bodies are characterized by a „tube within a tube“ construction, with an outer muscular body wall surrounding a digestive tract that begins with the mouth in the first segment. As they burrow, they consume soil, extracting nutrients from decomposing organic matter like leaves and roots. Earthworms are vital to soil health and to plants growing in it because they transport nutrients and minerals from below to the surface via their waste. An earthworm can eat up to a third of its body weight in a day.
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Giraffes grow about 4 feet (1.2 meters) in their first year of life. A newborn giraffe is about 6 feet (1.9 meters) tall at birth and weighs about 150 pounds (68 kilograms). Many young giraffes, called calves, die from lion attacks during their first year of life. Once a giraffe reaches adulthood its height is often enough to protect it from lions. Adult giraffes, however, must still be careful of lions when they are bending down to drink water or rest. Usually giraffes will drink or rest in shifts so that at least one giraffe is always on the lookout for approaching predators. The giraffes‘ height and excellent vision give them a wide view of the grasslands where they live, making it easy to spot predators from a distance. Some scientists believe that other animals—such as zebras, antelope, and wildebeests—often congregate near giraffes to take advantage of their ability to see danger from a distance. The giraffe could be considered the early warning system of the African grasslands.
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Chipmunks are part of the squirrel family, and while they look similar to their bushy-tailed cousins, chipmunks are actually smaller, with alternating light and dark stripes along their cheeks and backs. There are 25 species of chipmunk, 24 of which live in North America. Chipmunks are excellent tree climbers and swimmers who live in a variety of habitats, including plains, mountains, forests, and deserts. Chipmunks like to live alone in holes or burrows called dens. Chipmunks hibernate in cold weather, which means they spend most of the winter sleeping in their dens. One chipmunk can gather up to 165 acorns in a day. In just two days, a chipmunk can collect enough food to last an entire winter, although chipmunks typically hoard much more food than necessary. Chipmunk young are born in late spring, and stay in the nest for up to six weeks. Female chipmunks have one or two litters per year, each with four or five babies. Chipmunks are 7.2 to 8.5 inches (18.5 to 21.6 centimeters) long including their tails, which can account for nearly half of their length.
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If you live in the contiguous United States, you’ve almost certainly seen (or heard!) an American crow. Crows range from southern Canada throughout the United States. As an adult, this bird is entirely black from bill to tail, except for its brown eyes. Adult crow feathers have a glossy sheen. These noisy birds are often recognizable by their distinctive, loud cry, called a caw. They are often mistaken for the common raven, but ravens are larger, have differently shaped bills, pointed wings and tails, and hoarser cries. American crows often live in family groups. Both members of a breeding pair help build the nests, and the female crow usually lays four or five eggs in the spring or summer. After about five weeks in the nest, the young birds begin learning how to fly and catch prey. Crows sometimes stay near the place where they were born to help raise other young crows. Crows gather in large groups during the winter. They congregate late in the day in areas with large trees. This behavior is known as winter roosting. Crows will eat almost anything, from insects and small animals such as frogs to fruit and nuts. They prefer open areas with access to trees and can sometimes be found around vegetable gardens. Crows also frequently live in suburban neighborhoods and in parks. Crows are considered to be very intelligent birds. Text by Sara Zeglin / NGS Staff
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Duck-billed platypuses are small, shy animals. They have a flattened head and body to help them glide through the water. Their fur, dark brown on top and tan on their bellies, is thick and repels water to keep them warm and dry even after hours of swimming. Their head and body grow to about 15 inches (38 centimeters) and their tail about 5 inches long (13 centimeters). Their most remarkable feature is their amazing snout. It looks like a duck’s bill, but is actually quite soft and covered with thousands of receptors that help the platypus detect prey. Males are also venomous. They have sharp stingers on the heels of their rear feet and can use them to deliver a strong toxic blow to any foe. Platypuses spend most of their time alone, sleeping or eating. These mammals are bottom feeders. They scoop up insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms in their bill along with bits of gravel and mud from the bottom. All this material is stored in cheek pouches and, at the surface, mashed for consumption. Platypuses do not have teeth, so the bits of gravel help them to „chew“ their meal. Platypuses are long-lived, surviving 20 years or more in captivity and up to 12 years in the wild. Scientists think these fascinating creatures are the earliest relatives of modern mammals. Recent studies show that they first evolved more than 112 million years ago, well before the extinction of the dinosaurs.
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