Wander Lord

Interesting on art, nature, people, history

Category Archive: Animals

Ocelot – Spotted American Cat

Ocelot - Spotted American Cat

Ocelot – Spotted American Cat

The ocelot is a wild cat, about twice the size of a housecat. It is found in the Western Hemisphere, from Texas in the southwestern United States down to Argentina in South America. It lives in tropical forests, grasslands, and brush. Its scientific name is Leopardus pardalis. It is also known as the dwarf leopard.
An adult animal is about 71 to 89 centimeters long and weighs about 11 to 16 kilograms. Females are usually smaller than males.
Its fur is yellowish gray with small black spots on the head, two black stripes on each cheek, and black stripes along the neck. The coat helps the animal to hide.
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Eagles – Riders of the Wind

Eagle – Riders of the Wind

Eagles – Riders of the Wind

Eagles are members of the same family as hawks and Old World vultures. They are found throughout the world, except for Antarctica. This bird is called the “king of birds” because of its majestic appearance and power of flight. They have excellent eyesight.
There are more than 50 species of eagle. The main groups of eagles are sea eagles, booted eagles, forest eagles, and serpent eagles. Their feet are large and strong, armed with sharp claws, and are well-suited for grasping prey.
The bald eagle is one of North America’s largest birds of prey with a wingspan of up to 2.3 m. They feed primarily on fish, but also eat rodents, other small mammals and carrion. They are solitary birds that typically mate for life and build huge platform nests in tall trees or cliff ledges. A female usually lays 2 to 3 eggs once a year.
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Chinchilla – rodent with soft fur

Chinchilla - rodent with soft fur

Chinchilla – rodent with soft fur

Chinchilla is a nocturnal rodent with soft fur, large ears, and a bushy tail. There are two species of chinchilla – short-tailed and long-tailed. The long-tailed chinchilla often kept as a pet.
An average chinchilla has a head and body length between 23 and 38 centimeters and a tail length between 7.5 and 15 centimeters. Males are smaller than females. Their silky fur is mostly gray in color. A female chinchilla may give birth to up to six infants at a time.
Their diet includes leaves, seeds, fruits, and other vegetation.
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Bear – mighty beast

Bear – mighty beast

Bear – mighty beast

Bears are large, powerful mammals related to dogs and raccoons. There are several species of bear. They are the polar bear, the brown bear, the black bear, the Asiatic black bear, the sun bear, the spectacled bear, and the sloth bear. Bears live in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Arctic. They first appear in the fossil record of about 27 million years ago.
The Kodiak bear is the largest bear. It may weigh 780 kilograms.
The grizzly bear, a subspecies of the brown bear, is one of the largest land mammals in North America. An average male grizzly has a head and body length of 1.8 to 2.4 meters and may weigh up to 360 kilograms. They are omnivores (eat both plants and animals). They also eat ants and other insects.
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Starfish – star animal

Starfish – star animal

Starfish – star animal

Starfish are animals that live in all the world’s oceans. They look like stars and have five arms. Their eyes are located at the tip of each arm. But they are not fish because they do not have backbones. There are about 1,800 species of starfish. They can be of many colors: brown, red, orange, pink, blue, purple, yellow. They are 20 to 30 centimeters across and are covered with short spines. Starfish eat clams, oysters, and snails.
Starfish grow another arm if they lose one.
Acanthaster (the crown-of-thorns starfish) has become famous for the damage it does to coral reefs, moving over the reef and stripping it clean of coral polyps.
The sense of smell is quite sensitive.
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Scorpion – poisonous animal

Scorpion – poisonous animal

Scorpion – poisonous animal

Scorpions are small animals with a curved tail that can deliver a poisonous sting. About 25 of 1,400 species of scorpion can kill people with their poison. They are members of arachnids and are relatives of spiders. These animals are found throughout the world except in Antarctica. Many of them live in the desert, but they also can be found in grasslands, in caves, and in forests.
Scorpions have four pairs of legs, claws, and a sharp, hollow stinger on the tip of the tail.
Scorpions eat at night and hide for much of the day. They feed on insects and spiders, but larger species may eat lizards, snakes, mice, and other scorpions. The scorpion, of course, does not hunt people and sting only if the person disturbs it. Hedgehogs, mongooses and some species of lizards are insensitive to their poison. Scorpions are also eaten by snakes, birds, bats, large spiders and phalanges.
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Raccoon – Masked Bandit

Raccoon - Masked Bandit

Raccoon – Masked Bandit

The raccoon is a smart and curious mammal of the Americas. They have a pattern of dark fur around their eyes that looks like a mask. There are seven species of raccoon. Several species are found on various islands in the Caribbean.
They are 75 to 90 centimeters long from the nose to the tip of the tail and weigh about 10 kilograms. Raccoons have “hands” rather than paws on their front feet. Their flexible fingers are able to make delicate manipulations.
They are nocturnal animals, sleeping in the daytime. They eat many different kinds of foods (crabs, frogs, fishes, rodents, birds’ eggs, nuts, fruit, and plants, including crops) and often search in shallow water for frogs and crayfish. So, people believe that raccoons washed their food.
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