Butterflies and moths are insects, and like all insects they have three pairs of legs. Their bodies are divided into three sections: head, thorax, and abdomen. Most butterflies are active during daylight, while moths are mostly nocturnal.
Butterflies live throughout the world, except in Antarctica.
Nectar from flowers is an important part of their diet. Some will eat mosses and ferns. Others like cones, fruits, and seeds, but some do not eat at all and live for only a short time!
Butterflies and moths change form completely over the course of their lives. This change is called metamorphosis. First, they hatch from an egg as a larva, or caterpillar. Caterpillars have no wings, and they often look like fat worms. Some kinds are hairy.
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Scientists believe that there are about 2,700 kinds of snakes.
Snakes are cold blooded; it means that their body temperature is determined by the environment.
The eyes of a snake are always open. This is because it has no eyelids. Instead its eyes are covered by transparent scales, or ‘spectacles’, which protect them from grass, rocks and sand. The ‘spectacles’ are renewed about four times a year when the snake sheds its skin.
Snakes eat only animal food and swallow their food whole. After a snake has swallowed an animal, it hides away and digests its meal. This may take a few days or a week.
Their forked tongues are not poisonous. A snake also hears with its tongue, which feels vibrations from the smallest sound.
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Zebras are mammals that are known for their black and white stripes. These stripes actually have important survival value for zebras, for when they are in a herd, the stripes tend to blend together in the bright African sunlight, making it hard for a lion or other predator to concentrate on a single individual and bring it down.
There are three species of zebra: Burchell’s zebra, Grevy’s zebra, and the mountain zebra. They live in various parts of Africa. Burchell’s, or plains zebra lives throughout much of eastern and southern Africa. Grevy’s zebra is found in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, and is the largest of the wild horses. The mountain zebra found in the hill country of Angola, Namibia, and western South Africa.
Burchell’s zebra has broad stripes that are widely spaced. The stripes of Grevy’s zebra are narrow and closely spaced, and the belly is white. The mountain zebra has a gridlike pattern of stripes on the rump.
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When the first dinosaurs walked on Earth, sharks were already swimming in the sea. Today there are about 400 species of shark. Sharks are some of the most fascinating, well-adapted marine organisms.
Most sharks live in oceans in the mild or warm parts of Earth. But the Greenland shark lives in the cold Arctic waters. Sand sharks spend most of their time at the bottom of shallow water. The Portuguese shark lives in the deepest parts of the ocean.
Sharks are great swimmers. Most species can swim from 32 to 48 kilometers per hour. But the speed of mako sharks has been recorded at more than 97 kilometers per hour.
Sharks play a crucial role as predators in ocean ecosystems. To save their energy, many sharks eat old, sick, or otherwise damaged fish thus getting rid of the weaker populations and freeing up resources for the strong.
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Crocodiles and alligators are lizardlike animals, related to dinosaurs, the giant reptiles of the past. They are the largest living members of reptiles. Alligators and crocodiles look a lot alike, but alligators have a broad flat head with a rounded snout. Most crocodiles have a narrow, pointed snout. Crocodiles are larger than alligators. When an alligator closes its mouth, none of its bottom teeth show. Many large teeth stick out of both the top and bottom jaw of a crocodile’s closed mouth.
Large adults can stay underwater for over an hour without breathing. Alligators and crocodiles often float with only their eyes and noses showing.
They eat mostly fish, small mammals, and birds. Sometimes they may kill deer or cattle.
Alligators and crocodiles are becoming extinct. They are killed for sport or for their skins, which are used to make purses, shoes, and belts.
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This cute animal looks gentle and harmless, but when it’s hungry, it can be a very dangerous creature! Mongooses are small, quick mammals that are known for killing cobras and other poisonous snakes.
Mongoose is also called ‘furred lightning’ because it can move faster than a snake can strike. This makes the mongoose the most famous snake killer in the world.
There are more than 40 different species, or types, of mongoose. They live in Africa, Asia, and southern Europe.
Mongooses can jump, run backwards, roll over, swim and stand on two hind feet. They can raise their hair up to seem two times bigger.
Most mongooses live in underground holes called burrows. Mongooses eat small mammals, birds, reptiles, eggs, and fruit. Females usually give birth to two to four young. Baby mongooses are blind and hairless when born, but open their eyes after about a week.
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Thousands of years ago some elephants wore heavy fur coats. Actually, the mammoth was an ancestor of the modern elephant. And mastodons were distant relatives of the mammoth.
Scientists have found many frozen mammoth bodies, especially in the icy area of Russia, Siberia. The animals died out at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago.
Mastodons appeared about 20 million years ago. They were smaller than mammoths. The legs were short, massive, and like pillars. Mastodons were covered with long, reddish brown hair.
Mammoths were the size of modern elephants. They had small ears and very long tusks. Although they were large creatures, they fed on plants. They ate willow, fir, and the leaves from bushes. When their stomach contents were examined many different kinds of leaves were found.
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