Beaver – skillful builder

Beavers are skillful builders. They use branches, stones, and mud to build dams that block the flow of water and create a large pond. Beavers live in dome-shaped lodges built in the still waters of these ponds. Beavers use their teeth to cut down young trees and work in groups to build dams. Some dams can be hundreds of feet long, and several feet high. Their dams are the only structure built by animals that can be seen from space.
They are rodents and are related to mice, squirrels, and muskrats.
There are two species of beaver. The American beaver is found in North America. The Eurasian beaver lives in parts of Europe and Asia.
These animals live in rivers, streams, and lakes, but they also spend some time on land. Beavers can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes. The nostrils and ears have skin flaps that serve as valves to keep water out.
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Albatross – Forever Gliding

Albatrosses are the largest of all flying birds. They can weigh as much as 11 kilograms. There are more than 10 species of albatross. It has a big head, a hooked bill, and webbed toes.
The albatross spends most of its life soaring above the water. This amazing seabird goes ashore only when it lays eggs and raises chicks. Albatrosses build nests on isolated Antarctic islands and lay a single egg. Both parents guard and incubate the egg for two to three months until it hatches. It takes at least four months for a young albatross to develop all the feathers. Adults feed their chicks a rich meal of oil, procured from their fishy diet. As a result, albatrosses have been called the “oil tankers” of the bird world.
Albatrosses have an elaborate courtship ritual that includes dancing, stamping, and special greeting calls.
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Chipmunk – cute rodent

Chipmunks are rodents that are closely related to squirrels. However they are smaller than squirrels. Chipmunks have stripes on their back.
There are 25 species of chipmunk. North America is home to 17 species, 16 in the West and only one, Tamias striatus, the eastern chipmunk, in the East. Asiatic chipmunk is found in northern Asia and eastern Europe. Chipmunks live in woodlands, mountains, and plains.
The eastern chipmunk is 12 to 17 centimeters long. Its bushy tail is more than half as long as its body. It weighs only about 70 to 140 grams. The western and Asiatic chipmunks are smaller. They have stripes on their face and along the length of their body. Their vision is excellent, and whiskers give them a well-developed sense of touch. They have pouches inside their cheeks, just like hamsters. The Siberian chipmunk can carry more than a quarter of an ounce of seed for half a mile.
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Wolf – Noble Hunter

Wolves belong to the canine family. Their relatives include jackals, coyotes, dingoes, New Guinea singing dogs, wild dogs of Africa, and the domestic dogs.
Wolves are very intelligent animals. They are also quite social, living and hunting in family packs. The dominant male and female are both called alphas. The alpha female has the dominant role in the pack. Wolves communicate with fellow pack–mates and other wolf packs through facial and body postures, scent markings and vocalizations. Packs have 7 to 30 members, depending on how much prey is available.
Wolves feed on a variety of mammals from large hoofed animals such as elk and deer to smaller animals such as beavers and rabbits. Wolves hunt by using their keen senses and group cooperation. Wolves help control the numbers of rodents and deer.
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Owl – Nighttime Hunter

Owls are birds of prey. They are nocturnal birds and they are very helpful to people. Owls eat rodents, such as mice, gophers, and rats. Some owls eat insects or fish. Owls sleep during the day, hidden among tree branches. They live around the world in almost every kind of habitat.
These birds have a large head, a flat face with large eyes, a hooked beak, and sharp claws. Owls have excellent eyesight and hearing. Because of their soft feathers, owls fly silently and almost always surprise their prey. Owls catch their prey and swallow it without chewing.
Owls cannot move their eyes, but they can turn their heads to the left or the right almost all the way around. The head snaps back so quickly that people think owls can turn their heads all the way around.
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Hydra – tiny animal

A hydra is a tiny animal that lives in water. They can regrow parts of their bodies. These animals were named after an imaginary creature from Greek mythology, the nine-headed hydra. According to the myth, it could grow two new heads for each head that was cut off.
The real hydra is only about 3 centimeters long. It has a thin body with an opening at the top which is used to eat food and to get rid of waste. Long tentacles grow around this opening. The hydra uses its tentacles to sting and paralyze its food – tiny animals.
The hydra can reproduce in two ways: release eggs, which are then fertilized in the water, and reproduce by budding. A small extension of the parent animal forms on the body wall. As this grows, a separate mouth and set of tentacles develops until eventually a replicate daughter cell of the parent hydra is produced. When the young animal has fully developed, the two separate and the young hydra drifts off in the current to become established elsewhere. (from Gale Encyclopedia of Science)
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Platypus – enemy of evolution

As mentioned in a famous movie, God definitely has a sense of humor. Just look at the platypus. This funny creation is made of three different representatives of fauna – birds, reptiles and mammals.
Paleontological research shows that fossil platypus is not much different from modern animal. Platypus peacefully lived in Australia. They have not many natural enemies – monitor lizards, pythons and sometimes leopard seals.
At the end of the XVIII century Europeans came to Australia and were surprised by a strange animal that had duck’s beak, beaver’s tail and webbed feet. Later it turned out that the animal laid eggs! Scientists were confused. When the first platypus was sent to England, scientists thought it was a fake.
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