Birds are warm-blooded, covered in feathers and lay eggs. All birds have wings, a beak and stand on two legs. Most birds fly, but some cannot. Some species, particularly penguins and members of the Anatidae family, are adapted to swim. Some birds eat only seeds and berries. Some also eat insects. Birds of prey eat small animals. Male birds are usually more brightly colored than females, while females have better camouflage which helps to protect their nests.

Birds are incredibly intelligent animals. They make and use tools and culturally transmit knowledge across generations. They are social, communicating with visual signals, calls and songs, and participate in such social behaviors such as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of bird species are monogamous, for one breeding season or for years. Eggs are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching. In some species, both parents care for the babies, or close relatives will help with the raising of the young.

Birds are present in almost all habitats on earth and are usually the most familiar and visible wildlife to people all over the world. Because of this, they may act as a significant indicator for monitoring how the biosphere changes. Diminishing bird populations in the majority of habitats are the sad confirmation that major changes are taking place on Earth because of our activities. More than 12% of currently known species of birds are at the threshold of extinction. The biggest impact on bird population has been caused by degradation and loss of habitat, with collectors’ activities and invasive species following closely.

The tallest bird is the ostrich at around 9 feet tall. The ostrich is also the heaviest bird, at about 345 pounds. The heaviest flying bird is the mute swan at about 40 pounds. The largest wingspan of all birds belongs to the wandering albatross at 11 feet 10 inches.

The smallest bird is the bee hummingbird measuring in at only 2.2 inches from beak to tail.

The fastest bird is the spine-tailed swift, traveling at speeds of over 106 mph.

The longest living bird is thought to be the sulfur-crested cockatoo, able to live well into their 80's.

Crows’ intelligence rivals human children. They use tools to get food, have exceptional memories and anticipate future events to help them solve problems. They have learned to use bread crumbs as fish bait. They can count, distinguish complex shapes and perform observational learning tasks. Crows are extremely social creatures. They have been observed creating knives from leaves and stalks of grass and using advanced plucking, smoothing and bending to fashion twigs and grass into a variety of substances. Caledonian crows remember specific people, cars and urban situations. They also develop grudges against specific people and cars that last for years.

Ravens push rocks on people to keep them from their nests, steal fish by pulling a fishermen’s line out of water and play dead beside an animal carcass to scare other ravens away from the food. Ravens are known to steal food from other birds and mammals. They can act in pairs: one individual captures an animal's attention, while the other steals its food. They pretend to hide food in one place while really hiding it somewhere else to fool other animals. Ravens can learn to talk better than many parrots and mimic other noises. They imitate wolves or foxes to attract them to carcasses that the raven cannot break open. They roll around in anthills so the ants swarm on them, or they chew the ants up to rub their guts on their feathers as an insecticide and fungicide or to soothe molting skin. Ravens point with their beaks to indicate an object to another bird and hold up objects to get the attention of other birds. They will console other birds and remember friends and family for years. They live complex social lives and express happiness, tenderness, surprise, emotion and rage through their own language. Ravens are very playful and play with other ravens, other animal species and humans. They mate for life and live in pairs. When children reach adolescence, they join gangs until they mate and pair off.

Many birds have been known to play. Ravens and crows love to play and have been observed sliding down snow banks on their backs, cavorting in updrafts and sliding repeatedly down sloping church windows.

Jay birds have been observed grieving, including an entire group of birds sitting for 48 hours near a dead brethren.

Swans are highly intelligent and social animals. They remember who have been kind to them, and who have not. They usually only show aggression to those who have upset them, and will remember them. They have sharp vision and hearing and use a remarkable assortment of sounds to convey a broad range of emotions. Swans usually mate for life, with occasional “divorces” occurring. Male swans will occasionally baby sit an egg so the expecting mother can take a break.

Pigeons are actually domesticated rock doves who were set free. They are marvelous parents: the father builds the nest, and both parents take turns incubating the eggs and even making milk in their crops for the young. Pigeons remember dozen of routes to find their way to familiar places, and can recognize their faces in mirrors. They can remember hundreds of photographs and images, are able to differentiate between photographs, and even differentiate between different human beings in a photograph. They have been known to be able to distinguish between Van Gogh and Chagall paintings. They can count, order items in ascending order and understand math rules. They have an amazing ability to remember people and places throughout the course of their life. Pigeon can recognize all 26 letters of the English language, be taught complex actions and response sequences, and can make responses in different sequences.

It has been discovered that birds name their offspring. They use smell memories to travel thousands of miles. They show advanced planning and art. They have been proven to perform arithmetic, invent words and express love through language.

Parrots not only mimic the words of humans, they also understand the meanings of the words. Studies show that they remember 90% of what they are told, including full sentences and even parts of songs. They are capable of performing math, identifying colors and communicating to humans what they want. Parrots cannot bear to be alone. While most mate for life, all live in large social groups, sometimes with multiple species of birds.

Ostrich mothers lay their eggs in a communal nest, allowing the eggs and young to all be cared for by one bonded pair; up to 380 chicks have been seen being escorted by loving parents.

Finches learn by listening to others and follow rules of syntax. Bengal finches use strict rules of syntax. If a zebra finch is sick, it will fake being healthy in front of other zebra finches, especially if there’s a chance to mate.

 

Watching the many species of birds that inhabit your ecosystem is a fun and fascinating pastime the whole family can enjoy together. Winter is the best time to feed birds as they need the food more than at any other time of year and you will typically see a greater number and variety of birds at bird feeders. Many interesting birds from the north fly south in winter, and in spring many species return home from lands in the south, providing a great variety of species to see.

 

You don’t need to spend money on food or feeders to attract birds to your yard. If you can leave a small area of your yard un-mowed, you can attract a lot of birds. They eat the seeds from the grasses and weeds and use the area for cover as well.

 

Employing a feeder grants the ability for close study of birds. While all feeders draw birds, those that keep the bird feed dry and free of mold are best. Moldy seeds are bad for bird health. Place feeders either near a window or fairly far away to help prevent birds from colliding with windows when startled. The most common feeder is a hopper or house feeder, usually made of windows of clear plastic that feed seed to a perching surface. These feeders attract cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees, grosbeaks, buntings and titmice. One without a lot of perching surface minimizes use by house sparrows or starlings. The most important thing is to keep feeders clean by washing with bleach water every few weeks. Washing with bleach water prevents the spread of disease.

 

Although slightly more expensive, bird food with black oil sunflower seeds attract a wide variety of desirable birds. A suet feeder attracts woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and bluejays. Some birders push suet or peanut butter into crevices in bark or in the cracks of old stumps to attract birds. Witnessing a northern flicker or red-bellied woodpecker feeding at close range sears a delightful memory into the mind of a youngster. Woodpeckers love dead branches on trees. Leave a dead branch on a tree to attract woodpeckers if it is safe to do so.

 

It is important to provide water for birds in winter too. Place the water in a spot in the yard that receives sun as its rays will melt some water for birds on even the coldest days.

 

A good guide book is essential for identifying birds. Looking up unfamiliar birds and learning about their distinguishing characteristics is part of the fun of birding. Modestly priced binoculars now have coated lenses and other features that make them acceptable choices for bird watching. Don’t get zoom binoculars for birding. You tend to lose clarity at high magnification. A wide angle pair lets in more light and makes it easier to find birds.

 

Bird watching is a good way to introduce kids into the outdoors and spark awareness of our natural world. Backyard birding is a family-friendly way to enjoy wildlife viewing. Plus, it is just plain fun.

Majestic sea dwellers, superb hunters and socially complex beings, orcas (also known as killer whales or blackfish) are the largest members of the oceanic family Delphinidae, which includes dolphins, pilot whales, melon-headed whales and false killer whales. They’re found in every ocean in the world and most seas as well, including the Arctic and Antarctic regions and the warmer seas of the Mediterranean and Arabian, but have been counted in highest densities in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans, in the Gulf of Alaska and Southern Ocean. Although they can have an enormous range, they typically tend to prefer to stay closer to coastal areas versus swimming in deeper ocean waters.

Their striking coloration is what makes the orca most recognizable; they have a black back with a white chest and sides, and a distinctive white area above and behind their eye. Large, paddle-like pectoral fins assist in fine manoeuvring , while sharp teeth and strong jaws allow them to firmly hang on to thrashing prey. With a robust skeletal frame, an orca’s body is much heavier and larger than a dolphin’s, and they have an erect dorsal fin that can stand as tall as 2 meters in height for some males, over 6 feet. Males are generally larger, and can range from 7 to 9 meters long (20 to 30 feet) and may weigh as much as 6 tons. Female orcas are smaller in size, around 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet) in length and weighing between 3 and 4 tons, with a shorter, more triangular dorsal fin. Their size and strength make them capable of swimming at some of the fastest speeds among all marine mammals; some whales can actually reach swimming speeds of over 55 km/hour. 

Unlike some other oceanic residents, orcas have excellent eyesight both above and below water, as well as well developed senses of hearing and touch. In addition, they use echolocation (a series of audible clicks) to locate their prey and navigate around obstacles in the water. Orcas are also adaptable to a variety of water temperatures. Although they have an average body temperature between 36 to 38 °C (97 to 100 °F), they also have a thick layer of blubber that acts as insulation between them and the elements. Orcas swimming close to the surface have a faster average heartbeat than when submerged – 60 beats per minute versus 20 beats per minute. Their lifespan in the wild depends on a number of factors, but females tend to live an average of 50 years, and males around 29 years.

Interestingly, there are three to five different subgroups (perhaps even subspecies) of orcas themselves, with variances in appearance, prey preference and hunting behavior that make each subgroup unique. Resident orca populations tend to have rounded dorsal fin tips ending in a sharp corner, eat mainly fish and squid, live in strongly bonded family groups (pods), and visit the same areas on a consistent basis. Transient orcas, on the other hand, are far more migratory and travel in smaller groups. They tend to have less complex dialects of vocalizations, too. In appearance, they have a distinctive solid grey area around their dorsal fins, which are more triangular and pointed than resident orcas’. Finally, offshore orca populations travel further from shore, feeding mainly on schooling fish, but also hunting other mammals and sharks. They tend to gather in much larger groups ranging from 20 to 75 in number, and they tend to be smaller in size than both resident and transient orca populations. The lifestyle of these different populations seems to be closely linked with their diet preference – for example, fish-eating whales in northern waters have close social structures, while orcas in Argentina that prefer to eat mammals behave more like transient whales.

While orcas may appear to look similar, their prey preference can be tremendously varied, though often specific to a certain population. Fish, squid, mammals, sea birds, sea turtles, rays, and even larger whales and sharks may be on the orca prey menu. Unfortunately for their chosen food, they’re also skilled and cooperative hunters that travel in packs to capture their prey. Different types of orcas also use different and specialized hunting techniques; Norwegian killer whales use a method called carousel feeding, for example, where they herd herring into a ball with nets of bubbles, then slap the fish with their tails to stun or kill them. Whale and shark hunting orcas will stalk their prey as a group, separating them and forcing them into immobility (in the case of sharks) or not allowing them to surface, causing them to drown. Finally, mammal-feeding orcas (who feed on seals, penguins, sea lions and sea otters) disable their prey by throwing it, slapping it with their tails, ramming it or breaching and landing on it.

More than their unique hunting techniques, however, the rich and complex social structure of orcas is what fascinates most scientists and enthusiasts. In resident orca populations, pods typically consist of one to four related matriarchs and their descendants. Offspring live with their mothers for their entire lives, and as many as four generations may migrate and hunt together, using the same dialect to communicate with each other. Several pods may come together to form clans, which are groups that share similar dialects (languages) of vocalizations. Transient orca societies tend to be smaller, however; usually made up of a single female and one or two of her offspring, though males tend to stay with their mothers for a longer period of time.

Orcas usually only leave their societal groups for short periods of time, either to hunt, or to mate. Female orcas reach sexual maturity at around age 10, and gestation of orca calves lasts anywhere from 15 to 18 months long, with a single offspring birthed around once every five years for a fertile female. The first seven or eight months are critical for calves; 37% to 50% of all orca calves die before they reach their first birthday. Females begin weaning their calves at around 12 months, and most calves are completely weaned by age two. All the members in a pod (both male and female) help to care for the young orcas, playing with them, teaching them hunting skills, and using particular family calls to help familiarize new calves with the pod dialect. The females tend to reach the end of their breeding years around age 40, but many go through menopause and continue to thrive for decades after they’re no longer fertile.

Recent studies have found that orcas are among the most contaminated marine mammals in the world. Pollution and chemical contamination make orcas more susceptible to disease and likely cause reproductive difficulties.

Human activity is the largest threat to populations of orcas, although the IUCN has lately recognized that they need more data on individual orca types, as they may actually be separate (and potentially endangered) species. Human fishing practices have resulted in the reduction of available prey for many orca populations, while pollution, oil spills, and noisy habitat disturbances (like military sonar use, shipping and drilling) are significant concerns for orcas all over the world. The southern resident community, made up of three pods that live in the Georgia and Haro Straits and Puget Sound, has been listed as an endangered population under the EDA in the last decade, while The Alaska and Prince William Sound resident orca pods were so devastated by the Exxon Valdez spill that the entire population in that region is expected to eventually die out.

Hundreds of orcas, dolphins and other members of the dolphin family are held in captivity in the United States. While the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), passed in 1972, makes it more difficult to capture marine mammals from the wild, aquariums can still apply for permits or import animals caught in other countries. Whether wild caught or captive born, orcas and dolphins in captivity are sentenced to a life of confinement deprived of normal social and environmental interaction. Captured orcas and dolphins are confined to tanks as small as 24 feet by 24 feet wide and 6 feet deep. In tanks, the reverberations from their own sonar bouncing off walls drives some orcas and dolphins insane. Tanks are kept clean with chlorine, copper sulfate, and other harsh chemicals that irritate animals' eyes, causing many to swim with their eyes closed. Captured dolphins and orcas are often forced to learn tricks through food deprivation. Marine parks may withhold up to 60 percent of food before shows so that the animals will be "sharp" for performances. The stress of captivity is so great that some commit suicide.

The Coccinellidae are a family of small beetles, commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Britain, Ireland, the Commonwealth and some parts of the southern United States. Entomologists in the United States prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles, as these insects are not true bugs.

Coccinellids are found worldwide, with over 5,000 known species. They are often yellow, orange, or scarlet with small black spots on their wing covers, with black legs, heads and antennae. Color patterns vary greatly, however. Depending on the species, they can have spots, stripes, or no markings at all. Many species are mostly, or entirely, black, dark gray, gray, or brown. Seven-spotted coccinellids are red or orange with three spots on each side and one in the middle; they have a black head with white patches on each side. Most coccinellids have oval, dome-shaped bodies with six short legs.

The four most common types of ladybugs are:

The round-shaped ladybugs, Seven-spotted ladybug, originally from Europe. They are round and have a dome-shape, and are bright red with seven spots of black on the back of their bright red wings.

The oval-shaped ladybug, Convergent ladybug, which is orange with different spot patterns of black. They are common in the pacific coastal states.

The Multicolored Asian ladybeetle, a larger ladybug with five black spots and curved lines in the shape of the letter M. These ladybugs are originally from Asia and are now plentiful in the United States.

The C-Mac ladybug, an oblong pink and black spotted ladybug.

Ladybugs are generally considered useful insects, because many species feed on aphids or scale insects which are pests in gardens, agricultural fields, orchards and similar places. Within the colonies of such plant-eating pests, they will lay hundreds of eggs. When these hatch the larvae will commence feeding immediately. However, some species do have unwelcome effects; among these the most prominent are the subfamily Epilachninae, which are plant eaters. Usually, Epilachninae are only mild agricultural pests, eating the leaves of grain, potatoes, beans, and various other crops. But their numbers can increase explosively in years when their natural enemies, such as parasitoid wasps that attack their eggs, are few. In such situations, they can do major crop damage. They occur in practically all the major crop-producing regions of temperate and tropical countries.

Coccinellids are best known as predators of aphids and scale insects, but the range of prey species that various ladybugs attack is much wider. Some specialize in mites, some attack caterpillars and other beetle larvae. Others feed on various insects or their eggs. Larvae and eggs of ladybirds, either their own or of other species, can also be important food resources when alternative prey are scarce. Certain species of coccinellids are thought to lay extra infertile eggs with the fertile eggs, apparently to provide a backup food source for the larvae when they hatch. The ratio of infertile to fertile eggs increases with scarcity of food at the time of egg laying. Ladybugs are also now known to be far more omnivorous than previously thought. Their diets often include honeydew, pollen, plant sap, nectar, and various fungi. Some species are strictly herbivores.

The main predators of ladybugs are usually birds, but they are also the prey of frogs, wasps, spiders, and dragonflies. The bright colors of many ladybugs discourage some potential predators from making a meal of them. Their coloring is a reminder to any animals that have tried to eat their kind before that they taste awful. The blood of a ladybug is yellow and has a very strong smell that also acts as a repellent to predators. Ladybugs also play dead until predators pass.

Ladybugs in temperate regions enter diapause (a period of suspended development) during the winter, so they often are among the first insects to appear in the spring. Some species gather into groups and move to higher elevations, such as a mountain, to enter diapause. Most coccinellids overwinter as adults, aggregating on the south sides of large objects such as trees or houses during the winter months, dispersing in response to increasing day length in the spring.

Ladybugs go through a complete metamorphosis with egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages. Ladybug eggs look like small clusters of orange footballs. Female ladybugs can lay more than 2,000 eggs in one year. The eggs hatch in only a few days. Eggs are usually laid on leaves near an area where the larvae have easy access to food sources.

Baby ladybugs, larvae, look nothing like adults. They are long in shape and are generally one color, resembling small alligators. They are fast moving and they have big appetites. The larvae will eat aphids and other bugs for about 2 to 3 weeks. After they have grown to full size, they attach themselves to a plant leaf or a stem by their tail and begin a metamorphosis. Their skin splits down its back and exposes the pupa, which is about the same size and color as adults but with a protective layer until they develop wings. They pupate and turn into an adult ladybug within 7 to 10 days.

Ladybugs usually do most of their flying in the warmest part of the afternoon. They beat their wings 85 times per second. Their wings are made from chitlin, the same material human fingernails are made from.

As ladybugs grow older, their spots fade. Most ladybugs live for about a year, but some species can live up to three years. In a year they eat over 5,000 bugs, playing a vital role in the management of pests.

Due to habitat loss and changes in climate, ladybugs are threatened with extinction. Ladybugs are particularly sensitive to temperature changes, and will die from dehydration if they become overheated. Like most animals, the primary threat to ladybugs is the destruction of their habitat. Human development has taken an alarming toll on the environment. Impact from land use practices such as agricultural conversion, deforestation, and urban sprawl continue to degrade and fragment remaining pockets of habitat and accelerate biodiversity loss. Pesticides and other forms of pollution are also of serious concern, as well as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Barracudas are a large species of fish that live in the warmer, coastal regions of the planet's oceans. They are known for their aggressive and dominant predator behavior. There are over 20 species of barracuda in the world.

While barracudas are widely spread across the seas, they are more commonly found in tropical areas where there is an abundance of food sources. Although barracudas also live in the deep ocean, they prefer the coastal areas along continental shelves and near coral reefs. Barracudas are nocturnal animals, active during the night.

All species of barracuda have an elongated shape and a pointed head with powerful jaws housing sharp, fang-like teeth. Different species of barracudas vary in sizes and colors. Barracudas can grow to be very large. The upper part of a barracuda body is covered with scales that can be black, gray, brown or blue. A barracuda's belly is always white. Irregular dark spots are located on both sides of the barracuda's body.

Barracudas are carnivores. The barracuda feeds mainly on smaller species of fish, crustaceans, invertebrates and squid. They are opportunistic predators, feeding on other animals in the surrounding area. They use a surprise tactic to capture their prey, ambushing with tremendous power. They can swim very quickly in short bursts to overtake their prey.

Barracudas prefer a solitary life, but sometimes gather in groups called schools. Schools provide safety and cooperative hunting opportunities.

Barracudas have few natural predators. Sharks and killer whales prey on barracudas.

Mother barracudas spawn during the spring. The female barracuda releases her eggs into the ocean which are then fertilized externally by the male barracuda. Baby barracudas have little interaction with their parents.

Barracudas can live over 15 years in the wild.

The biggest threats to barracudas are recreational fishing and the barracuda meat trade.

All ocean animals are threatened by pollution, the fishing industry and changes in climate. Global fish populations are collapsing, affecting all marine life. Plastics and toxic waste are destroying aquatic ecosystems. Almost half of all ocean pollution is from irresponsible human activities that take place on land, including animal agriculture, sewage, chemical spills, industrial runoff and garbage dumping.

Marine habitats are being destroyed by coastal pollution. The clearing of mangrove forests and scraping of underwater mountain ranges through deep-sea trawling are also having detrimental affects on marine ecosystems.

Hammerhead sharks, which belong to the family Sphyrnidae, are some of the most unique looking creatures in the ocean. There are ten distinct species of these sharks, which most people recognize by their distinctive head shape; a flattened, extended structure that’s called a cephalofoil. (A related and slightly different hammerhead species, the winghead shark, is classified under the family name Eusphyra instead.)

Hammerhead sharks tend to prefer warm water living, so they’re usually found in ocean habitats that are close to coastlines and continental shelves – they’ve been found in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Californian coast, as well as in Colombian, Costa Rican, Hawaiian, Australian, and southern and eastern African coastal waters. Depending on the year and weather phenomena such as El Niño conditions, some hammerheads may migrate seasonally, swimming towards warmer waters closer to the equator in the winter and northward towards the poles in the summer.

These large sharks can grow to quite a significant size, depending on their age and sex. The largest species, the great hammerhead, can range from 3 feet to over 19 feet in length, and may weigh from 6.6 to as much as 1,278 pounds. Other species of hammerheads are usually much smaller, however, and all species of hammerheads have an average lifespan of 25 to 35 years.

They’re light in color with a tall, straight dorsal fin, and their slight green skin tint and white underbelly allows them to blend well into the ocean and sneak up on prey below.

A hammerhead’s head shape, of course, is the most interesting part of their anatomy; their heads have flat projections that extend out on either side, with their eyes actually placed on either side of the hammer shape at the outer edges allowing them a 360 degree view of what’s above and below them at all times.

All sharks have special sensory pores that detect the tiny electrical fields made by other animals (called ampullae of Lorenzini), but on a hammerhead shark, these pores are spread out over a wider area giving them a larger advantage when sweeping for their next meal to eat.

Typically, hammerheads have a smaller mouth than other sharks, hunting mainly close to the bottom of the ocean. Some species (like the scalloped and smooth hammerhead) travel in schools with other hammerheads during the day, though they separate themselves to hunt alone at night.

Hammerheads are efficient and carnivorous ocean hunters that eat a range of different prey, including fish, squid, octopus, crustaceans, and sometimes other sharks. Their favorite food, however, is stingrays, which they stalk and pin down with their mallet-shaped head. Great hammerhead sharks are more likely to occasionally eat other hammerheads, including their own young on occasion.

Reproduction can also be a rather dangerous business for hammerhead females. Usually happening only once a year, a female shark is persuaded to mate with a male hammerhead by violent episodes of biting until she agrees to the coupling. After sperm is transferred to the female, eggs are fertilized inside her and embryos begin to develop, at first being nourished only by a yolk sac. After the yolk is gone, however, the sac then transforms into a structure that resembles a mammal’s placenta, allowing the young sharks to be sustained by the mother’s body until they’re developed enough to be born. At this point, the mother can give birth to  a litter of 12 to 15 live shark pups (great hammerheads can birth up to 40 pups), which tend to be born in the spring or summer months, and stay together for protection and safety as they swim for warmer, shallower waters. Neither of the shark parents provides any further care to the pups after birth.

As for their threat to people, most hammerheads are harmless, and only three hammerhead species have been noted as being dangerous at all. Scalloped, great, and smooth hammerheads have been known to attack humans, but there are no listed deaths on record for a hammerhead attack against a person.

Unfortunately for these fascinating fish, we humans are their largest threat. Overfishing and the shark fin trade (where a shark’s fins are harvested as a delicacy, but the remainder of the shark is thrown back into the ocean) have put some hammerhead species at risk of extinction.

Two species, the great and scalloped hammerhead, are listed by the World Conservation Union as endangered, and the smalleye hammerhead has a ‘vulnerable’ status.

Interestingly, Hawaii may be one of the safest places for hammerhead sharks to exist at the moment. Native Hawaiian culture reveres sharks, believing some species to be reincarnated family members or the chosen ‘birth animals’ for some children, and the hammerhead shark in particular is seen as a highly respected animal and a good omen.

Although ‘melonhead’ and ‘sea canary’ may be some common nicknames for this unique ocean dweller, the beluga is most commonly referred to as the white whale. Belonging to the family Monodontidae, the beluga’s only other family member is the narwhal, and their appearance and physiology is a result of being adapted to life in the cold waters of the Arctic. Beluga populations are also found in the seas and coastal areas around Russia, Greenland and North America, though many do migrate from the Arctic ice cap to warmer estuaries and coastal waters during the summer.

Belugas are some of the most easily recognized ocean mammals; they’re entirely white and have a distinctive bulge at the front of their heads called a melon. Unlike dolphins, belugas don’t possess a dorsal fin. Reaching maturity at around 10 years of age, male belugas can reach 18 feet long and weigh up to 3,500 lb, while females are generally smaller, growing up to 13.5 feet in length and weighing as much as 2,600 lbs. Between 40% and 50% of their body weight is actually blubber (fat), providing excellent insulation from frigid Arctic water; in fact, they have the highest blubber percentage of any whale. Their body shape is stocky and rounded, with broad, short flippers and a curved tailfin.

The beluga’s coloration is actually a camouflage technique, allowing them to blend in with the ice to escape detection by their predators, which are mainly polar bears and orcas. Calves are born dark grey, and progressively lighten over the next 7 years as they mature.

Belugas are also the only marine mammal that shed their skin; during the winter, their outer epidermal (skin) layer becomes thicker and more yellowish, but during the summer, they rub themselves on riverbed gravel to remove the extra layer.

The anatomy of a beluga’s head is distinctive among other ocean dwelling mammals. The neck vertebrae are not fused, allowing them to move their head from side to side without needing to rotate their entire body; this helps when hunting prey and gives them better maneuverability in deeper water. Their beak (called a rostrum) has around 40 small, blunt teeth that are used to catch prey, and they have a single blowhole on the top of their head.

A beluga’s melon is extremely essential to its ability to accurately move through its ocean home and hunt. Their melon is a prominent bulge at the front of their head that contains an organ used for echolocation and communication. A beluga can actually focus the sounds they emit by changing the shape of its head. Belugas also use their head, along with their dorsal ridge, to help open up small holes in the ice through which they can breathe.

Belugas are the lazy divers of the whale world, typically not diving any deeper than about 20 m (66 feet), and they usually prefer to swim only at a depth that covers their bodies. They can stay underwater for 10-15 minutes, though a usual dive is usually much shorter than that, lasting around 3-5 minutes, and their heartbeat slows to between 12 and 20 beats per minute during a dive. They don’t jump out of the water like dolphins or killer whale relatives, and are slower swimmers too, being rather less aerodynamic marine mammals.

These beautiful whales have a very developed sense of hearing, which is also necessary for echolocation. They receive sound waves through their lower jaw, which are then transmitted towards their middle ear, and they can hear sounds within the range of 1.2 kHz to 120 kHz; to compare, we humans only have an average hearing range between 0.02 to 20 kHz. Their vision isn’t quite as spectacular, though they are able to see in and outside of water, and it’s likely that they can see some colors, since their retinas (surface covering the back of their eyes) contains cones. These ocean dwellers have no sense of smell, however.

Like other whales, belugas are very sociable and form small family groups called pods that can number anywhere from 2 to 25 members. They communicate with each other using whistles, trills and squawks, and their sounds are sometimes of such high frequency that they sound like birdsong. A pod is usually led by one male, but it’s not unusual for individual members to move from pod to pod.

Belugas seek out frequent physical contact with each other, they hunt in coordinated groups together, and they play chase and stage mock fights. They tend to be curious and investigative as well, often approaching humans in wild settings, swimming along boats, and playing with objects that they find in the water.

The type of diet that a beluga eats depends on the region in which they live and the season of the year. A typical diet is made up mainly of fish like cod, halibut, and Pacific salmon, as well as invertebrates like shrimp, squid, octopus, clams and sea snails. They search for food on the ocean floor or join with a group of other belugas to herd fish onto more shallow shoals.

Belugas reach breeding maturity by about four years of age, and females tend to birth one calf every three years or so. It’s not known if belugas can delay implantation of a fertilized egg, but gestation times can vary so greatly (anywhere from 12 to 15. 8 months after mating). Calves are born in warmer waters around bays or estuaries, and can swim by their mother’s side from birth, nursing every hour and staying dependent on her for the first year.

Although polar bears and killer whales are the beluga’s only natural threats, these whales are also affected by water pollution and hunt-to-capture expeditions which provide whales for marine exhibits worldwide.

Whaling by European and American whalers in the 18th and 19th centuries severely affected beluga populations, as they were hunted for meat, blubber, and oil from their melons. Belugas make easy prey because of a predictable migration pattern. Indigenous populations in the Canadian, Alaskan and Russian Arctic regions still hunt belugas for food and skin.

Belugas are listed as ‘near threatened’ by the IUCN, and are protected under the Marine Mammal Act in the USA.

Jackals are medium sized members of the canine family. There are four main species of jackal: the side-striped jackal, the golden jackal, the black-backed jackal and the Ethiopian wolf jackal.

Jackals vary in color and size. They have golden, rust or silver-colored black fur and bushy tails. Jackals inhabit deserts, grasslands, savannas, marshes, mountains, bush-lands and woodlands. The golden jackal inhabits open deserts, savannas and arid grasslands. The side-striped jackal lives in moist savannas, marshes, mountains and bushlands. The black-backed jackal, or sliver-backed jackal, is found primarily in woodlands and savannas.

Jackals are opportunistic omnivores. They eat mostly a carnivorous diet and have adapted to hunting small mammals, reptiles and birds. Being opportunistic feeders, they eat whatever is available. Some species of jackal eat poisonous snakes. Jackals also scavenge the remains of carcasses killed by other larger predators. Many jackals, especially those in the tropics of Southeast Asia, also eat plants.

Jackals are usually nocturnal mammals, active at night. Some jackals in remote areas are more diurnal, active during the cooler times of the day. Jackals sleep in crevices in rocks and dens made by other animals. Jackals are fast running predators and can run for long periods.

Jackals live singly or in pairs, or in tribes called packs. 10 to 30 jackals can reside in a pack. Jackal community members work together to protect each other. Jackals who live in packs often hunt alone or with only one other jackal. Fewer jackals hunting together increases the chance of ambushing prey as they can be more stealthy and silent.

Jackals are territorial and defend their marked territories. Using a wide range of vocal sounds specific to each jackal family, they successfully keep other jackals away from their community. It is uncommon for jackals of other tribes to enter the territory. Verbal communication among jackals includes yips, howls, growls and owl-like hoots. Yipping calls are made when the family gathers. A siren-like howl is used to announce a food source has been found. Only family members respond to their own family's calls – ignoring the calls of other jackals.

Jackal mating season varies based on their location. African jackal mating season occurs in October. Southeast Europe jackal mating season takes place in December. Jackals in India mate throughout the year. Jackals are monogamous, mating for life. The gestation period lasts about 2 months. Typically 2 to 4 babies are born, but litters can be up to 9 cubs. Jackal babies are kept in underground dens, caves or rock crevices. Jackal mothers move the location of the den about every two weeks to prevent predators from finding the babies. Jackal babies are blind the first 10 days. They feed on their mother's milk and regurgitated meat provided by family members for the first couple of months. By the age of 6 months, young jackals are taught to hunt. Older pups help to take care of younger jackal babies.

Jackals are preyed upon by leopards, hyenas and eagles. Jackal babies are an easy target of eagles.

Jackals live up to 9 years in the wild.

Some jackals are endangered due to habitat loss, animal agriculture and hunting. As jackal habitats are lost, jackals increasingly infringe on human settlements where they can be viewed as a threat to livestock and poultry and are killed as pests.

Reptiles are cold blooded animals, covered with scales, and mostly lay eggs. Some reptiles eat plants, some eat animals and some eat both.

Reptiles are tetrapod vertebrates, meaning they have four limbs or, like snakes, they descended from four limbed ancestors. They usually have limited means of maintaining a constant body temperature and rely on external sources of heat. Being cold blooded requires far less fuel to function. A crocodile needs a fraction of the food a lion of the same weight needs, and can live half a year without eating. Due to their slow metabolism, reptiles can do well in areas where food sources are too low for most mammals and birds to live.

Four major groups of reptiles include crocodilians, snakes, turtles, lizards and ttuatara – a lizard-like reptile that is the only surviving member of an order which flourished around 200 million years ago. The study of reptiles, historically combined with that of amphibians, is called herpetology.

Reptiles lay eggs on land, and the eggs musts stay dry. Many reptiles bury the eggs. Mother pythons, mud snakes and some skinks wrap their bodies around their eggs to protect them. Alligator mothers carry newly hatched babies in their mouths. Some reptiles abandon their eggs and do not care for the babies. About a fifth of snake species give birth to live young. Warmer egg temperatures produce females for some turtles, cooler temperatures result in males, and temperatures in the middle will produce a combination of genders. With crocodiles, the results are reversed – with males usually born at higher temperatures. The sex of snakes is determined by chromosomes, as it is with mammals and birds. Once hatched, most reptiles are independent and able to care for themselves. Babies look like miniature adults, though their colors may be different.

More than one fifth of all known reptile species are considered endangered or close to becoming extinct. This has been particularly pronounced for island reptile species, counting at least 28 island reptiles having disappeared so far. This pattern of extinction, commonly seen in the islands, is finding its way toward the mainland as well. This crisis is mainly due to human intervention causing fragmentation in the continental habitats, which results in island-like territories, isolating species among each other. Reptiles are especially threatened by non-native species that compete for resources or feed on them, and habitat loss.

The longest reptile is the reticulated python, measuring over 32 feet. The heaviest is the leatherback sea turtle, weighing over 1,900 pounds.

Leaf chameleons of Madagascar measure only an inch from nose to tail.

Green sea turtles are the fastest reptiles, reaching speeds of 22 mph.

The Aldabra tortoise lives the longest, to over 150 years.

Reptiles are capable of solving complex problems and remembering what they have learned. They share the same level of intelligence as birds and mammals. They change techniques when presented with new challenges and learn from other reptiles. They possess advanced social skills and flexible behavior – behavior that can be adapted to meet a particular situation. In captivity, they learn how to open hinged doors, open jar lids, have the ability to interpret and anticipate common activities such as feeding time and cage-cleaning time, and can even navigate mazes. In the wild they exhibit advanced social behavior including recognition of their family, pair bonding and loving care of their children. They exhibit social learning, play behavior and cooperation. Studies show they are capable of counting, advanced learning and problem solving. They are able to reverse course in addressing problems, unlearning incorrect approaches almost instantly. They have individual personalities.

Shingleback skinks are often monogamous. They court for months with the male strutting, licking and nudging the female affectionately before mating. The reptilian couple will mate every breeding season for as long as 20 years. When one dies, its surviving partner will stay beside the body for days, tenderly touching it.

Australian monitors plan ahead and arrange ambushes when pursuing fast-moving prey. Monitor lizards have been shown to count snails at feeding time and learn to use their forearms to help extract insects from logs.

Alligators gather together in large groups during the spring, usually one to three hours after sunrise, to sing and engage in “alligator dances” for courtship. Mothers defend their nests from predators. Shortly before hatching, baby alligators call their mother to the nest and begin vocalizing to synchronize the hatching of their siblings. Mother alligators gently assist with opening the eggs and carry the babies to a special pool called a nursery. Young alligators will stay close to their mother and form social groups. They follow her wherever she goes, hop on her head to bask and follow her around on land like little ducklings. When in distress they call out for her, bringing her to their aid. They stay with their protective mother for up to 2 years after being born.

Crocodiles are behaviorally complex creatures that live and work as members of a group. They can be incredibly tender and affectionate. They play together, exhibit complex social interactions and gaze recognition, use tools, pair-bond, practice monogamy, hunt together and have good memories. Expecting mothers guard their nests and protect their young until they are old enough to survive on their own, up to 3 years old. Babies are carried around in their mouths to protect them. Crocodiles have community nurseries where one mother watches over the hatchlings of many. Crocodiles have excellent communication skills, using body language and sounds, and even vibrate to make water ‘dance’, producing sounds that humans cannot hear. 

Wild turtles who are caught and later released will head in the direction of the nearest water source. Captive turtles recognize the sight of their food container and sound of food rattling in it.

Green iguanas share nesting areas with as many as hundreds of other iguanas and construct complex burrow systems that are continuously improved upon. Babies hatching from eggs look around and duck back into the egg while observing other babies to determine if it is safe to emerge. They get excited and jump up and down when they see other babies emerging. Siblings will stay together for months, rubbing against each other frequently and wagging their tails like dogs. They sleep together and groom each other and walk in a line with a chosen leader. They rub each others' heads before returning to their family's territory, watching for predators together and protecting each other.

Sharks are members of a group of almost exclusively marine and predaceous fishes. There are about 250 species of sharks, ranging from the 2 feet pygmy shark to 50 feet giants. They are found in all seas, but are most abundant in warm waters. Some may enter large rivers, and one ferocious freshwater species lives in Lake Nicaragua. Most are predatory, but the largest species, the whale shark and the basking shark, are harmless plankton eaters. Dogfish is the name for members of several families of small sharks; these should not be confused with the bony dogfishes of the mud minnow and bowfin families.

Sharks are heavy fishes, possessing neither lungs nor swim bladders. Their skeletons are made of cartilage rather than bone, and this, along with large deposits of fat, partially solves their weight problem. Nevertheless, most sharks must keep moving in order to breathe and to stay afloat. They are good swimmers; the wide spread of the pectoral fins and the upward curve of the tail fin provide lift, and the sweeping movements of the tail provide drive. Their tough hides are studded with minute, toothlike structures called denticles. Sharks have pointed snouts. Their crescent-shaped mouths are set on the underside of the body and contain several rows of sharp, triangular teeth. They have respiratory organs called gills, usually five on each side, with individual gill slits opening on the body surface. These slits form a conspicuous row and lack the covering found over the gills of bony fishes.

Like most fishes, sharks breathe by taking water in through the mouth and passing it out over the gills. Usually there are two additional respiratory openings on the head, called spiracles. A shark's intestine has a unique spiral valve, which increases the area of absorption. Fertilization is internal in sharks; the male has paired organs called claspers for introducing sperm into the cloaca of the female. Members of most species bear live young, but a few of the smaller sharks lay eggs containing much yolk and enclosed in horny shells. Compared to bony fishes, sharks tend to mature later and reproduce slowly.

Only a small number of the predatory species are definitely known to occasionally engage in unprovoked attacks on humans. The largest and most feared of these is the great white shark, which may reach 20 feet in length and is probably responsible for more such attacks than any other species. Other sharks reputed to be slightly dangerous are the tiger and blue sharks and the mako. Sharks are extremely sensitive to motion and to the scent of blood. Swimmers in areas where dangerous varieties occur should leave the water quietly if they are cut. In some places bathing areas are guarded by nets. A number of substances have been used as shark repellents, but their effectiveness is variable. Sharks usually circle their prey before attacking. Since they seldom swim near the surface, an exposed dorsal fin is more likely to be that of a swordfish or ray than that of a shark.

Sharks can range from being just inches in length (like the tiny cookie cutter shark) to being larger than a school bus (like the giant plankton-eating whale shark). Though sharks perform the same role in the ocean ecosystem that is performed by well-known predators such as lions, tigers, and cheetahs on land, the fact that they live in such an alien world makes it hard for us to know about their lives. What we do know is pretty fascinating.

Sharks shed their teeth. A single shark may lose thousands of teeth over its life and this accounts for the many shark teeth found by beach combers throughout the world. Their teeth are connected to a membrane in their mouth that is constantly being pushed forward as new teeth form. New teeth are generally slightly larger than the ones before. This allows the size of the shark's teeth to keep pace with the growth of the rest of the body.

Sharks are picky eaters. Some sharks eat only plankton, others eat small fish or squid, and still others eat large fish and marine mammals. The type of teeth a shark has will show you what it eats. Great white sharks have teeth with serrated edges for slicing off pieces from larger prey, the teeth of mako sharks are thin and pointed for grabbing onto slippery fish. Nurse sharks and other bottom dwellers tend to have thicker teeth for crushing shellfish. No matter the tooth shape, sharks never chew their food.

You're more likely to die as a result of being electrocuted by holiday lighting than being attacked by a shark. More deadly than shark attacks each year are crocodile attacks, hippo attacks, and even attacks by pigs.

Many sharks are warm blooded. Unlike the rest of the fishy world, many large sharks can maintain their body temperature higher than the ocean temperature around them. We don't know whether sharks sleep. Sometimes they seem to rest, but their eyes don't close and if they sleep, they certainly don't sleep the way that mammals can.

Don't be afraid OF sharks; be afraid FOR them. There are more misunderstandings and untruths about sharks than almost any other group of animals on the planet. While many people fear sharks, it is the sharks who should be fearing us.

According to the shark attack file, maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History, on average 5 people die worldwide from shark attacks. Up to 70 million sharks are killed by humans each year, mostly for their fins. This is a devastating death toll for a long-living species that is as slow to reproduce as sharks.

Sharks have roamed the oceans far longer than most land animals have been here. They were here before many of the dinosaurs and have outlasted them. But an international assessment of sharks undertaken by the World Conservation Union reveals that their future is in doubt. Of 546 shark species assessed, 111 species were at significant risk of global extinction. Twenty species are listed as critically endangered and 25 as endangered. Some shark species have lost 80% of their populations just in the past 40 years including hammerhead sharks, thresher sharks, and porbeagle sharks. While hammerhead shark is a name familiar to most, most people have never heard of porbeagle sharks; some of the lesser known sharks are in even greater danger.

There is a lot we don't know about sharks, but we DO know that if we don't act soon to stop overfishing, some of the most ancient and magnificent animals on the planet may soon disappear.

Members of one of the most diverse groups of lizards, skinks are reptiles with cylindrical, streamlined bodies, functioning eyelids and tight, smooth, scaly skin. They belong to the family Scincidae, and their name comes from the Greek word skinkos, which was a name that was used to refer to lizards in a specific region of the country. Over 1500 distinct species of skinks have been described, living in a wide range of habitats worldwide, from dry deserts, to mountains, grasslands and forests.

Although skinks are close in appearance to ‘true lizards’ (such as wall lizards, for example), they don’t have a distinct neck, and their legs tend to be smaller. Interestingly, some species of skink actually have reduced limbs or even no limbs at all, making their movement appear far more like a snake than a lizard - which is what many people may mistake them for. A few certain skink species, like the blue-tongued skink, also tend to be more broad-headed and wider-bodied than their relatives.

The particular living environment of a skink can often be determined merely by its toe length – generally, the longer a skink’s digits (toes), the more likely it is to spend most of its time climbing in trees.

These unusual reptiles tend to be small to medium sized, on average, depending on the species. They can range from specimens as tiny as the little brown skink at 3 inches, to as large as the Solomon Islands skink at 14 inches, though their tails usually make up more than half of that length.

Many skink species are escape artists. They can shed their tails when necessary if predators grab them, and can re-grow the lost part. The shed tail will actually wiggle for a short period of time after being lost, which serves to distract any potential predators while the skink makes its escape. Skinks may also return to the lost tail and ingest it in order to regain lost nutrient value.

Active, quick, and agile little lizards, skinks can dart rapidly from place to place when they’re not found basking on warm rocks or logs. Offspring-bearing females or mating pairs tend to be slower, however. Some species of these lizards are tree-climbing, but for the most part, most tend to live in ground habitats (so they’re terrestrial, in other words), or prefer to burrow through sand. They’re most active in the daytime.

Skinks like to stay safe and out of the reach of predators or bad weather, and make their nests in secure, hidden areas. For some, this can mean a nest in the dirt or under heavy brush cover. For other skinks (especially those in and around urban areas) rotting boards, garages or spaces under structures like sheds can be suitable nesting areas. Some nests can contain anywhere from 10 to 30 skinks at a time, and it’s not unusual for skinks to actually ‘guard’ their territory. A small number of skink species are also water-dwelling, but these tend to be the exception.

Skinks are fairly predictable eaters. Being carnivorous lizards, their menu choices tend to run to insects like flies, beetles and caterpillars, but some may even eat snails or small rodents. They sniff out prey using their tongue, and then chase it down, corner it, and usually swallow it whole.

The method of producing young can be different from species to species of skink. Male skinks will sometimes fight each other for the privilege of mating with a certain female by biting each other on the head, neck or tail. Male-female pairs in some species will form monogamous relationships from year to year. Just under half of all skink species birth live young, nourishing their offspring though a placenta-like organ. Other species hatch their eggs internally instead, and then give birth to young after that. Still others lay eggs which hatch outside their body.

Females tend to be protective of their eggs, coiling around them and guarding against predators, and will often stay to protect their new offspring for the first few days until they leave the nest. Skinks can have significant gestation times, typically several months and as long as one year in some species. They have been noted to have as few as 1 or as many as 67 young born at one time.

Although many skinks are highly adaptable when it comes to their nesting situation, they also have a large number of natural predators. Raccoons, snakes, crows, herons, hawks and other lizards may see skinks as a tasty meal.

Because the skink’s long gestation period means that they can’t replenish their population numbers as quickly as other animals, overhunting by larger invasive predators like the mongoose has caused skink species in some areas to approach extinction. The Anguilla Bank skink in the Caribbean is one example.

Beetles are a group of insects which are biologically classified in the order Coleoptera. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek, koleos, meaning "sheath"; and pteron, meaning "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Most beetles have two pairs of wings, the front pair being hardened and thickened into a shell-like protection for the rear pair and the beetle's abdomen.

There are more beetles on the planet than other other animal. Almost 25% of all known types of animal life-forms are beetles. About 40% of all insect species are beetles (about 400,000 species), and new species are discovered frequently. Some estimates put the total number of beetle species at as high as 100 million. Weevils, or snout beetles, and rove beetles are the most common.

The diversity of beetles is very wide. They are found in all major habitats, except the polar regions. Beetles live in freshwater and marine habitats and everywhere vegetative foliage is found - from trees and their bark to flowers, leaves, and underground near roots. They even live inside plants, in every plant tissue, including dead or decaying ones.

Particular species of beetles are adapted to practically every kind of diet. Some break down animal and plant debris; some feed on particular kinds of carrion such as flesh or hide; some feed on wastes such as dung; some feed on fungi; some on particular species of plants and others on a wide range of plants. Some beetles are pollen, flower and fruit eaters and help to pollinate flowers. Others are predatory, usually on other invertebrates; some are parasites or parasitoids. Many of the predatory species are important controls of agricultural pests that damage crops. Conversely, beetles are prey of various invertebrates and vertebrates, including other insects, fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Beetles have a hard exoskeleton, particularly on their forewings, distinguishing them from most other insect species. Like all armored insects, beetles' exoskeletons comprise numerous plates, some fused and some separated by thin sutures. This combines armored defenses with flexibility. All insects' bodies are divided into three sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.

Beetles are endopterygotes; they undergo complete metamorphosis, a biological process by which an animal physically develops after a birth or hatching, undergoing a series of changes in its body structure. The typical form of metamorphosis in beetles passes through four main stages: the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the imago or adult.

Beetles may display extremely intricate behavior when mating. Pheromone communication is likely to be important in the location of a mate. Another way species of Coleoptera find mates is the use of biosynthesized light, or bioluminescence. This special form of a mating call is used by fireflies by the use of abdominal light-producing organs. The males and females engage in complex dialogue before mating, identifying different species by differences in duration, flight patterns, composition, and intensity.

Before mating, males and females may stridulate, or vibrate the objects they are on. In some species, the male climbs onto the female and strokes her with his antennae. Conflict can play a part in the mating rituals of some beetles. Many male beetles are territorial and will fiercely defend their small patches of territory from intruding males. In such species, the males may have horns, making their overall body lengths greater than those of the females, unlike most insects. Pairing is generally quick, but in some cases will last for several hours. During pairing, sperm cells are transferred to the female to fertilize the egg. A single female may lay from several dozen to several thousand eggs during her lifetime. Parental preparation varies between species, ranging from the simple laying of eggs under a leaf to constructing underground structures complete with a supply of dung to house and feed their young. Other beetles are leaf rollers, biting sections of leaves to cause them to curl inwards, then laying their eggs, thus protected, inside. Some beetles will patrol the eggs and larvae and apply a burrowing behavior to keep them from flooding and from asphyxiating. The mother will protect the eggs and larvae from predators.

The larva is usually the principal feeding stage of the beetle lifecycle. Larvae tend to feed voraciously once they emerge from their eggs. Some feed externally on plants, while others feed within their food sources. The larvae of many beetle families are predatory like the adults. The larval period varies between species, but can be as long as several years. Like adult beetles, the larvae are varied in appearance, particularly between beetle families.

All beetle larvae go through several instars, which are the developmental stages between each moult. In many species, the larvae simply increase in size with each instar as more food is consumed. In some cases, however, more dramatic changes occur. Among certain beetle families, particularly parasitic beetles, the first instar is highly mobile and searches for a host, while the following instars are more sedentary and remain on or within their host. Beetle larvae pupate, and from these pupae emerge fully formed, sexually mature adult beetles. Adults have extremely variable lifespans, from weeks to years, depending on the species.

Beetles have a variety of ways to communicate, some of which include a sophisticated chemical language through the use of pheromones. Some beetles stridulate to communicate, rubbing body parts together to create sound. They have a "scraper" on their abdomens that they rub against a grooved surface on the underside of their left wing cover to create a sound that is not audible to humans. Female beetles will stridulate and produce pheromones to attract other unmated males and females. New females arrive and do the same. As the males arrive, they enter the galleries that the females have tunneled, and begin to stridulate to let the females know they have arrived, and to also warn others that the female in that gallery is taken. At this point, the female produces a different pheromone to deter more beetles from coming.

Since species of beetles use environmental stimuli to communicate, they are affected by the climate. Microclimates, such as wind or temperature, can disturb the use of pheromones; wind would blow the pheromones while they travel through the air. Stridulating can be interrupted when the stimulus is vibrated by something else.

Like most animals, the primary threat to beetles is the destruction of their habitat. Human development has taken an alarming toll on the environment. Impact from land use practices such as agricultural conversion, deforestation, and urban sprawl continue to degrade and fragment remaining pockets of habitat and accelerate biodiversity loss. Pesticides and other forms of pollution are also of serious concern, as well as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Spring rains and warmer temperatures bring out the spotted salamander. These amphibians are purple, with yellow spots, and grow up to 8 inches long.

The spotted salamander is normally secretive, living beneath rocks or under logs. They spend only two weeks or so above ground every year, feeding at night on worms, slugs, spiders and millipedes. They can secrete a noxious milky toxin from glands in their backs and tails to discourage would-be predators.

The spotted salamander offers a unique lesson in procreation. When mating, males circle a female, often so many that they form a grapefruit-size ball of animals in the water. Males drop sperm packets that the female will then choose from. When she has made her choice, she will bring the sperm into her body to fertilize her eggs. Breeding finished, the salamanders move back into the woods and hide themselves again. 

Spotted salamanders are among those amphibians, programmed through evolution, to return to the water where they were born to breed. They breed in “vernal pools”, a temporary gathering of water that is too shallow to support fish that would eat the salamander’s eggs. When conditions are right, you might see hundreds of them making their way, up to a half-mile, through the woods to reach their birth pool. Vernal pools derive their name from the Latin “vernus”, meaning “belonging to spring”. Every spring, these small wetlands fill with water and blossom into life, only to dry up and disappear into the forest floor by autumn.

The multifarious organisms that inhabit a vernal pool race against time and compete with each other to flourish in a fragile environment, where rain one day too late can mean the end of their genetic survival. Each pool is a self-contained microcosm. With a single dip of the net, a student of nature can find an incredible wealth of life forms and adaptations. It is a world full of beauty and drama, close to our homes, yet one that most of us have never seen. Sadly, as development destroys our green spaces and woodlands, these pools are becoming one of nature’s most rapidly disappearing natural gems.

A general decline in amphibian species has been linked with the fungal disease chytridiomycosis. A higher proportion of salamander species than of frogs or caecilians are in one of the at-risk categories established by the IUCN. Salamanders showed a significant diminution in numbers in the last few decades of the 20th century, although no direct link between the fungus and the population decline has yet been found. Deforestation, resulting in fragmentation of suitable habitats, and changes in climate are possible contributory factors.

The Chinese giant salamander, at 6 feet the largest amphibian in the world, is critically endangered, as it is collected for food and for use in traditional Chinese medicine. The hellbender is another large, long-lived species with dwindling numbers and fewer juveniles reaching maturity than previously. Habitat loss, silting of streams, pollution and disease have all been implicated in the decline.

Of the 20 species of minute salamanders in Mexico, half are believed to have become extinct and most of the others are critically endangered. Specific reasons for the decline may include climate change, chytridiomycosis, or volcanic activity, but the main threat is habitat destruction as logging, agricultural activities, and human settlement reduce their often tiny, fragmented ranges.

Lobsters are found in all oceans and found on land. They live on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms from the shoreline to beyond the edge of the continental shelf. They generally live singly in crevices or in burrows under rocks. Like most arthropods, lobsters must moult in order to grow, which leaves them vulnerable. During the moulting process, several species change color.

Lobsters are invertebrates with a hard protective exoskeleton. In general, lobsters are 10 to 20 inches long. Lobsters have 10 walking legs; the front three pairs bear claws, the first of which are larger than the others. The lobster's head has antennae. Because lobsters live in a murky environment at the bottom of the ocean, they use their antennae as sensors. Lobsters “smell” chemicals in the water with their antennae, and they “taste” with sensory hairs along their legs.  They have no vocal chords and possess two stomachs.

Lobsters move by slowly walking on the sea floor. However, when they flee, they swim backward quickly by curling and uncurling their abdomen. A speed of 11 mph has been recorded.

Lobsters, like snails and spiders, have blue blood due to the presence of hemocyanin which contains copper. In contrast, vertebrates and many other animals have red blood from iron-rich hemoglobin.

Lobsters urinate from openings located at the base of their second antennae, and also excrete from other places on their bodies including their gills and digestive glands.

Lobsters carry their young for nine months and can live to be more than 100 years old. Research suggests that lobsters may not slow down, weaken, or lose fertility with age, and that older lobsters may be more fertile than younger lobsters. Lobsters, like many other decapod crustaceans, grow throughout life, and are able to add new muscle cells at each molt. Lobster longevity allows them to reach impressive sizes. The largest known lobster weighed 44.4 lb.

Female lobsters lay thousands of eggs, each about the size of a raspberry segment. Mother lobsters carry their eggs under their abdomens. Baby lobsters can be from multiple fathers. Lobsters are serial monogamists, having one exclusive, but very short-term, relationship after another.

Lobsters are omnivores and typically eat live prey such as fish, mollusks, other crustaceans, worms, and some plant life. They scavenge if necessary and eat their shed skin after moulting. Their teeth are in their stomachs, located a very short distance from the mouth. They chew their food in their stomach between three grinding surfaces that look like molar surfaces called the “gastric mill.”

Lobsters use complicated signals to explore their surroundings and establish social relationships. They take long-distance seasonal journeys and can cover 100 miles or more each year. They can regenerate lost claws, walking legs, and antennae, though it can take several years.

Symbions are tiny aquatic animals, less than ½ mm wide, that live on the bodies of cold-water lobsters.

Lobsters are threatened by overfishing. They are commonly harvested for human consumption. More than 20 million are consumed each year in the United States alone. They are among the most heavily harvested creatures in the sea.

Lobsters can feel pain. The most common way of killing a lobster is by inhumanely placing it live in boiling water. They are sometimes also placed in a freezer for a period of time before being boiled alive. Another method is to split the lobster or sever the body in half lengthwise. Lobsters may also be killed or rendered insensate immediately before boiling by a stab into the brain (pithing), in the belief that this will stop suffering. However, a lobster's brain operates from not one but several ganglia, and disabling only the frontal ganglion does not usually result in death or unconsciousness. When kept in tanks, lobsters suffer from stress associated with confinement, low oxygen levels, and crowding. There is no humane way to kill a lobster.

Pollution is causing shell rot and other illnesses in normally disease-resistant species of lobster.

Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous (poisonous) snakes that live in a wide range of habitats, and have the scientific name Crotalus cerastes. There are 32 known species of rattlesnakes, and they can be found all over the Americas, ranging from Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, to as far south as Argentina.

These fascinating snakes get their name from the rattle at the end of their tails – when the snake shakes the rattle, it makes a loud noise that helps to defend the snake by warning off predators or passing larger animals. It’s basically the snake’s way of saying ‘watch your step!’

The living environment that rattlesnakes prefer can be different from species to species, though many types of rattlesnakes live near open, rocky areas that can give them protective cover from predators that might eat them. Rocks are also a great place for rattlesnakes to warm themselves by basking, and also for them to find the types of prey that they need to eat. Rattlesnakes can also be found in many other types of habitats as well, however, including prairie, marsh, and forest homes. They tend to prefer to live in temperatures between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but they’re also fairly hardy, tolerating short periods when temperatures go below freezing, and they’re even able to survive for days at a time when the temperature is as cold as 37 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rattlesnakes are predators, meaning that they hunt and eat small animals like birds, mice, rats and lizards. They lie in wait for their prey, and sense small animals using heat-sensing ‘pits’ on their faces. They kill prey by quickly striking and biting it, injecting a large amount of venom through their fangs into the animal, which causes rapid internal damage and bleeding. Some types of rattlesnakes, like the tiger rattlesnake and the Mojave rattlesnake, can actually paralyze using their venom, too.

As well as using their eyes to find their bitten prey as it runs away, rattlesnakes find and follow an animal’s scent. They then check for signs of life using their odor-sensing tongue and touch before eating their meal headfirst. It might surprise you to learn that a rattlesnake’s gastric juices are powerful enough to digest even the bones of their prey! If the snake has found a large enough meal, they’ll usually find a warm, hidden place to curl up in for a rest while they digest.

Although rattlesnakes get most of their needed moisture from the animals that they eat, they do need to drink some water as well to stay hydrated. They have a few different ways of drinking that probably look quite strange to us. In bigger bodies of water, like creeks or ponds, they put their entire head under the surface and open and close their jaws to suck in water. With small puddles or dewdrops, though, they ‘sip’ the water, or flatten their lower jaw and allow the water to run into their mouth.

These snakes have many other distinctive features as well. Their skin is made up of overlapping scales that protect their body from head to tail, and unlike their flashier relatives, rattlesnakes tend to be intricately patterned in earth tones to provide the best camouflage from their predators.

A rattlesnake can feel changes in air temperature though its skin, which is important for helping it to find warm locations or protective shelters. Rattlesnakes are ectotherms, meaning that they can’t keep themselves warm – instead, they have to exchange heat with their environment to change their body temperature, basking on rocks and warm earth to absorb heat.

The sound of these snakes is unmistakable. A rattlesnake’s rattle is actually composed of scales that are made of keratin, creating several hollow, interlocked tail segments at the end of the snake’s body. The snake ‘rattles’ by squeezing and relaxing special muscles in their tail, making the segments vibrate together to make a loud noise. A rattlesnake can contract these muscles up to fifty times per second, for as long as three hours! Rattlesnakes travel with their rattles in the air to protect them, and a new tail segment is added each time the snake sheds its skin.

Interestingly, rattlesnakes also have a very good sense of smell, and use their tongues to carry smells into their mouths to their Jacobson’s organs – special organs that detect chemicals called pheromones. Although they tend to rely more on scent than sight, rattlers also have enough sight ability to spot movement during both the day and night, and they even possess some amount of color vision, too.

As adults, male rattlesnakes tend to have longer, thicker tails than females, and most rattlesnake species mate either in the summer or fall.

Female rattlesnakes, who tend to mate every three years, secrete a pheromone trail that allows males to follow them using their tongues and Jacobson’s organs, and once a male actually finds a female, he follows her around for days before mating. The males of some rattler species, like the timber rattlesnake, fight with each other to compete for a certain female during mating season too. Rattlesnakes are one of the snake species that give birth to live young snakes after carrying the eggs inside them, and female rattlesnakes actually stay in the nest with their young for weeks, some even sharing mothering duties with other female rattlers as well. Who knew snakes were such good parents? 

As rattlesnakes usually take several years to reach adulthood, while still young they’re vulnerable to danger from predators like ravens, raccoons, skunks and weasels, as well as king snakes, a predator that’s immune to rattler venom. Occasionally, even ants will prey on very young snakes.

Some species of rattlesnakes will gather together in large groups to hibernate in cooler weather, (though they’ll usually stay dormant during drought and extreme heat) and rattlesnake dens have been counted to hold well over 1,000 snakes at a time! They often return to the same den each year.

Rattlesnakes are threatened by a variety of human activities. Some areas host mass exterminations like rattlesnake roundups, and car accidents and destruction of rattlesnake habitats due to human development have caused some species, like the Timber, Massasauga and Canebrake rattlesnake, to become threatened or endangered in some areas.

Centipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated creatures with series of body segments, with one pair of legs per body segment.

Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs from under 20 to over 300. Centipedes have an odd number of pairs of legs, therefore there is no centipede with exactly 100 legs. They have a pair of venom claws and are a predominantly carnivorous.

Centipedes normally have a drab coloration combining shades of brown and red. Cave-dwelling and subterranean species may lack pigmentation and many tropical species have bright colors. Size can range from a few millimeters to about 12 inches.

Worldwide, there are estimated to be 8,000 species of centipede. Centipedes have a wide geographical range, reaching beyond the Arctic Circle. Centipedes are found in an array of terrestrial habitats from tropical rainforests to deserts. Within these habitats, centipedes require a moist micro-habitat because they lose water rapidly through their skin. Accordingly, they are found in soil and leaf litter, under stones and dead wood, and inside logs. Centipedes are among the largest terrestrial invertebrate predators.

Centipede reproduction does not involve copulation. Males deposit a sperm capsule for the female to take up. In some species, the male undertakes a courtship dance to encourage the female to engulf his sperm. In other cases, the males just leave them for the females to find. In temperate areas egg laying occurs in spring and summer but in subtropical and tropical areas there appears to be little seasonality to centipede breeding.

Some centipedes lay their eggs singly in holes in the soil; the female fills the holes with soil and leaves them. The number of eggs laid ranges from about 10 to 50. Time of development of the embryo to hatching is highly variable and may take from one to a few months. Development to adulthood is also highly variable within and among species. For example, it can take 3 years for S. coleoptera to achieve adulthood, whereas under the right conditions Lithiobiomorph species may reach a reproductive period in 1 year. In addition, centipedes are relatively long-lived when compared to their insect cousins – some living up to 6 years.

Some centipedes provide parental care to their babies. The mother stays with the eggs, guarding and licking them to protect them from fungi. Some mothers stay with their young after they have hatched, guarding them until they are ready to leave. If disturbed, the female will either abandon the eggs or eat them; abandoned eggs tend to fall prey to fungi rapidly. Some species are matriphagic, meaning that the offspring eat their mother.

Centipedes are predominantly predatory animals. They are generalist predators, which means that they have adapted to eat a variety of different available prey. Centipedes are mostly nocturnal. What centipedes actually eat is not well known because of their cryptic lifestyle and thorough mastication of food. Centipedes are eaten by a great many vertebrates and invertebrates, such as mongooses, mice, salamanders, beetles and snakes. They form an important item of diet for many species. Centipede defenses include their speed and venomous forcipules, as well as the secretion of defensive chemicals.

Like most animals, the primary threat to centipedes is the destruction of their habitat. Human development has taken an alarming toll on the environment. Impact from land use practices such as agricultural conversion, deforestation, and urban sprawl continue to degrade and fragment remaining pockets of habitat and accelerate biodiversity loss.

Pesticides and other forms of pollution are also of serious concern, as well as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Like all arthropods, the tarantula is an invertebrate that relies on an exoskeleton for muscular support. Like other Arachnida a tarantula’s body comprises two main parts, the prosoma (or cephalothorax) and the opisthosoma (or abdomen).

Spiders are invertebrates but are not considered insects because they only have two main body parts instead of three, eight legs instead of six and no antennae. Most spiders also have eight simple eyes, while insects have large, compound eyes. Some have no eyes and others have as many as 12. Spiders, along with ticks, mites, harvestmen and scorpions, are called arachnida.

Tarantulas of various species occur in the southern and western parts of the United States, in Central America, and throughout South America. Other species occur variously throughout Africa, much of Asia and all of Australia. In Europe, some species occur in Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, and Cyprus. Their natural habitats include savanna, grasslands such as the pampas, rainforests, deserts, scrubland, mountains, and cloud forests.

Tarantulas sizes range from as small as a fingernail to as large as a dinner plate when the legs are fully extended. Most species of North American tarantulas are brown. Elsewhere species are cobalt blue, black with white stripes and greenbottle blue. Some have yellow leg markings or metallic blue legs with vibrant orange abdomens.

A tarantula has four pairs of legs and two additional pairs of appendages. Two or three retractable claws are at the end of each leg. These claws are used to grip surfaces for climbing. Also on the end of each leg, surrounding the claws, is a group of hairs. These hairs help the tarantula to grip better when climbing certain surfaces.

The tarantula's mouth is a short straw-shaped opening that can only suck, meaning that anything taken into it must be in liquid form. Prey with large amounts of solid parts, such as mice, must be crushed and ground up or predigested, which is accomplished by coating the prey with digestive juices.

A tarantula perceives its surroundings primarily via sensory organs called setae (hairs or spines). Although a tarantula has eyes, touch is its keenest sense, and in hunting it primarily depends on vibrations given off by the movements of its prey. A tarantula's setae are very sensitive organs and are used to sense chemical signatures, vibrations, wind direction, and possibly even sound. Tarantulas are also very responsive to the presence of certain chemicals such as pheromones. Most tarantulas are not able to see much more than light, darkness, and motion. Arboreal tarantulas generally have better vision compared with terrestrial tarantulas.

Tarantulas have also evolved specialized hairs to defend themselves against predators. Besides the normal "hairs" covering the body, some tarantulas also have a dense covering of irritating hairs called urticating hairs, that they may use as protection against enemies. These hairs are present on New World species but not on tarantulas from the Old World. Urticating hairs are usually kicked off the abdomen by the tarantula, or rubbed against the target. These fine hairs are barbed and serve to irritate. They can be lethal to small animals such as rodents. Tarantulas also use these hairs for other purposes such as to mark territory, to line their shelters, and to discourage flies from feeding on the spiderlings. Urticating hairs do not grow back, but are replaced with each moult.

All tarantulas are venomous. Before biting, tarantulas may signal their intention to attack by rearing up into a "threat posture". They may then slap down on the intruder with their raised front legs. If that response fails to deter the attacker, the tarantulas of the Americas flick urticating bristles toward the pursuing predator, and then retreat. If there is no line of retreat, their final response may also be to whirl suddenly and bite. Some tarantulas are well known to give dry bites; not pumping venom into the wound. Old-world tarantulas (from Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) have no urticating bristles and are more likely to attack when disturbed. Old-world tarantulas often have more potent venom.

Once a male spider reaches maturity and becomes motivated to mate, it will weave a web mat on a flat surface. The spider will then rub its abdomen on the surface of this mat and in so doing release a quantity of semen. It may then insert its pedipalps (short leg-like appendages) into the pool of semen. The pedipalps absorb the semen and keep it viable until a mate can be found. When a male spider detects the presence of a female, the two exchange signals to establish that they are of the same species. These signals may also lull the female into a receptive state. If the female is receptive then the male approaches her and inserts his pedipalps into an opening in the lower surface of her abdomen. After the semen has been transferred, the male will swiftly leave the scene.

Females deposit 50 to 2,000 eggs, depending on the species, in a silken egg sac and guard it for 6 to 8 weeks. During this time, the female will stay very close to the egg sac and become more aggressive. Within most species, the female turns the egg sac often, which is called brooding. This keeps the eggs from deforming due to sitting too long. The young spiderlings remain in the nest for some time after hatching where they live off the remains of their yolk sac before dispersing.

Like other spiders, tarantulas have to shed their exoskeleton periodically in order to grow, a process called molting. A young tarantula may do this several times a year, while full grown tarantulas will only molt once a year or less, or sooner in order to replace lost limbs or lost urticating hairs.

Tarantulas may live for many years. Most species take two to five years to reach adulthood, but some species may take up to ten years to reach full maturity. Upon reaching adulthood, males typically have less than 2 years left to live and will immediately go in search of a female with which to mate. Male tarantulas rarely molt again once they reach adulthood. Females will continue to molt after reaching maturity. Females have been known to reach 30 to 40 years of age, and have survived on water alone for up to 2 years.

Some tarantulas hunt prey primarily in trees; others hunt on or near the ground. All tarantulas can produce silk – while arboreal species will typically reside in a silken "tube tent", terrestrial species will line their burrows with silk to stabilize the burrow wall and facilitate climbing up and down. Tarantulas mainly eat insects and other arthropods, using ambush as their primary method of prey capture. The biggest tarantulas can kill animals as large as lizards, mice, birds and small snakes.

Regardless of their fearsome reputation, tarantulas are themselves an object of predation. The most specialized of these predators are large members of the wasp family Pompilidae. In the Americas, these insects are termed "tarantula hawks". The largest tarantula hawks will track, attack and kill large tarantulas. Humans can also be considered predators of tarantulas, as tarantulas are considered a delicacy in certain cultures. Some other arthropods, such as giant centipedes, are also known to prey on tarantulas.

Like most animals, the primary threat to tarantulas is the destruction of their habitat. Human development has taken an alarming toll on the environment. Impact from land use practices such as agricultural conversion, deforestation, and urban sprawl continue to degrade and fragment remaining pockets of habitat and accelerate biodiversity loss. Pesticides and other forms of pollution are also of serious concern, as well as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Tarantulas are also threatened by the pet trade. Regulations are in place to prevent importation of tarantulas into the U.S., but there are few measures to prohibit the overcollection of tarantulas. Captivity is cruel for wild animals. Animals are captured from their native habitat and transported to various countries to be sold as “pets”. Backyard breeders also supply exotic animals. The sellers of these animals often disregard the dangers, difficulties, physical and physiological needs of the animals they peddle. The suffering of the animals in the hands of unqualified and hapless buyers appears to be of no concern in the lucrative exotic pet trade.

Known for their highly effective and tremendously pungent defensive tactics, skunks are some of the most infamous animals around. Members of the family Mephitidae, the name of these distinctive little mammals likely originated from 1600’s Algonquian language. Although they can vary in appearance, almost all species of skunks are found in the Americas (ranging from Canada to central South America), with the exception of Asian stink badgers, which are generally found in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Differing in size and weight depending on species, these odiferous creatures can range from around 15 to 37 inches in length and weigh from around 1lb up to around 18 lb in weight – on average, around the size of a typical housecat. Although they’ve been known to live as long as 10 years in captivity, most skunks in the wild don’t live past the age of one or two, since many fall victim to pest control campaigns or collisions with vehicles because of their poor vision. They’re generally thickly furred and short-limbed with fairly compact bodies, including well-muscled forelegs and sharp claws that are well suited to digging for food or building burrows in the earth. Although skunk coat patterning and coloration is unique to specific species, every skunk is striped from birth, acting as a built in visual warning for predators who might consider the skunk an easy meal. Most skunk species are typically black and white, but coat colors for certain species might include brown, grey, or even cream colored. Some even have a series of spots and stripes combined, or stripes on their legs as well.

The scent of a skunk is its most renowned characteristic, as well as being one of the most effective existing defensive tactics within the animal kingdom. Skunks produce a very obnoxiously scented mixture of chemical oils within two small organs known as anal glands, found on either side of their anus. Strong muscles beside these glands allow a skunk to accurately spray their target as far as 10 feet away. As well as being extremely repulsive; skunk spray is extremely irritating and can even cause temporary blindness in some cases. Because these glands only produce a limited amount of spray, skunks are usually reluctant to use their spray as an initial protection, so they’ll go through a warning routine of foot-stamping, hissing and tail flagging postures before resorting to spraying as a last resort defence. The pungency of skunk spray is so strong that skunks are often able to deter bears and other predators from attacking them, and most people can smell a skunk from as far as ½ a mile away.

Because of their tenacious nature when survival is on the line, it’s not surprising that many skunks have learned to live and thrive in urban environments. Besides being omnivorous, these unique animals are opportunistic foragers and occasional scavengers, changing their diet with the availability of their food. They’ll use their sharp claws to dig holes in search of food, and a meal for a skunk might range from berries, leaves and grasses to insects, bees, worms or grubs. Some skunks may also eat lizards, frogs, snakes, moles, birds and bird eggs, as well as pet food and human refuse if available.

Not usually seen during daylight hours, skunks are most active at dawn and dusk, usually preferring to forage alone assisted by their highly developed senses of smell and hearing. Daylight means rest time for these small creatures, and they tend to shelter in self-made burrows until the sun sets. In colder weather, they’ll stay in their dens for increased periods of time, and groups of female skunks usually like to winter together to stay warm. They aren’t true hibernators, as they will emerge from their den during winter, but they do enter a more dormant phase feeding only occasionally and staying fairly inactive.

Like many other mammals with less active winter cycles, these small creatures mate in early spring and typically give birth to litters of four to seven kits around two months later. Males generally mate with more than one female to ensure successful genetic distribution. Skunk kits are born helpless, blind and deaf, and stay in the den for the first several weeks as they nurse from their dam. Male skunks don’t play any part in the raising or care of their kits. Around the age of three weeks, their eyes open, and around the age of two months, they become weaned and leave the den, though they tend to stay with the female until they’re sexually mature which happens around one year of age. Skunk mothers are particularly protective, too; a female who senses any threat to her kits won’t hesitate to spray potential predators.

Despite their smelly defences, there are still one or two predators who dare to hunt these small striped opponents. Domestic dogs tend to be the most numerous predators, with some even hunting skunks repeatedly despite retaliation. Wolves and other wild canids rarely hunt skunks themselves unless they’re desperate for food. The great horned owl is a skunk’s only consistent predator, swiftly killing them from the air and bringing them back to their nests to feed.

Although most skunk species are fairly populous, there are a variety of hazards that pose a danger to them. One species in particular, the Eastern Spotted skunk, is currently listed as endangered is some states because of population decline due to farming practices that eliminate ground cover. Some species have traditionally been hunted to harvest their pelts, while pesticide use in many areas has decreased the food supply that’s available for skunks. As a skunk’s foraging nature often leads it to roam across roads in search of food, collision with moving vehicles is a common occurrence for almost all skunk species.

True old world lizards with evolutionary roots that date back as far as 61 million years ago; chameleons are some of the most unique reptiles on earth. There are around 180 different species of chameleon belonging to the family Chamaeleonidae, which can come in a myriad and dazzling range of colors and sizes. Many species have the astounding ability to change colors in order to blend into their environment.

Naturally preferring warm climates, chameleons live in habitats that range from rainforest to dry desert, and chameleons have been found to occur, depending on species, in Africa, Madagascar, Europe, and southern Asia (as far as Sri Lanka). The word chameleon derives from Latin and Greek languages, roughly meaning ‘lion of the ground.’

It’s difficult to even begin to describe a chameleon’s curious appearance. They can range from 0.6 inches up to 27.5 inches in length, and their size and body structure can be very different from species to species. Some have unique decorative features, such as horn-like nasal protrusions or crests on top of their heads, while others have crests of small spikes along their spine that help break up the outline of the chameleon so it blends into its surroundings. The males of many chameleon species tend to be more decorative than the females.

Since most chameleons are tree dwellers, they have developed prehensile (grasping) tails and a highly functional foot structure, often referred to as a zygodactyl foot. On each of their feet, the toes are grouped into either two or three separate, flattened bundles, which give the feet the appearance of tongs. These specialized feet allow chameleons to grip tightly onto narrow branches, and the sharp claws at the end of each toe help these little lizards to readily climb rough surfaces like bark. Even those species that have moved to more terrestrial movement have kept the same toe structure as their tree-top dwelling counterparts.

Continuing to break the mold when it comes to unusual animals, chameleons also have the most distinctive eyes of any reptile. Their upper and lower eyelids don’t move separately, but are completely joined together, leaving only a pinhole opening large enough for the pupil to see through. A chameleon can keep just one eye on you while watching a tasty bug at the same time. Each eye can move, pivot and focus in complete independence, giving them a 360 degree field of vision. In addition, their actual eyesight is excellent in comparison to other reptiles, allowing them to see their prey from as far as 5 to 10 meters away. Their eyes can also detect both visible and ultraviolet light – in fact, ultraviolet exposure plays an important role in regulating a chameleon’s social, feeding, and reproductive activities.

The most renowned characteristic belonging to many species of chameleon is their ability to change their skin color and pattern, usually in combinations of pink, blue, red, orange, black, brown, light blue, yellow, turquoise or purple. Chameleons have two layers within their skin structure, placed on top of one another, that control color change by using a lattice of a substance called guanine nanocrystals. When the chameleon’s body ‘excites’ the lattice, the distance between the nanocrystals increases, changing which wavelengths of light are reflected and absorbed by their skin (therefore changing their color and pattern).

Chameleons will change color not only to camouflage, but also to communicate with others in social situations like courting before mating, or conflict. One species, the Namaqua chameleon, changes color in order to help regulate its body temperature too, turning black in cooler weather to absorb heat, and then lighter grey to reflect light in warmer daytime temperatures. In general, a chameleon will usually show darker colors if they’re angry or trying to scare off other chameleons or animals, but shows lighter and more multicolored patterns when they’re courting to mate.

In order to fuel all of this brilliant body structure, chameleons need to be fairly efficient hunters. They eat mainly insects, though some larger species will also hunt other lizards and sometimes even small birds, catching them by rapidly projecting their long, sticky tongue to capture their prey from afar and bring it into their mouth to eat. Some chameleons can actually project their tongues more than twice the distance of their own body length, and can capture prey in as fast as 0.07 seconds. Many chameleon species will also munch on tender leaves, plant shoots and berries as well to supplement their diet.

Chameleons are mainly external egg-layers (oviparous), though some species retain eggs inside their body until they are ready to hatch (oviviparous). Chameleons who lay eggs will do so three to six weeks after mating, digging a hole in the ground to lay anywhere from two to two hundred eggs, depending on the particular sizes and species. Although eggs of these chameleons generally hatch after 4 to 12 months, the eggs of one species, the Parson’s chameleon, are believed to have an extremely long gestation period of over 24 months.

Oviviparous species, on the other hand, have a gestation period of five to seven months, after which the mother chameleon presses each sticky-surfaced egg onto a branch. The egg membrane then bursts, freeing the new young chameleon to move away, hunt, and hide from predators. An oviviparous female can have up to 30 live young from one gestation period.

THREATS TO CHAMELEONS

There are several species of chameleons that are inhumanely kept in captivity. Every year, a variety of sources provides millions of animals to the exotic pet trade. Animals are captured from their native habitat and transported to various countries to be sold as “pets”. Others are surplus animals from zoos or their offspring. Backyard breeders also supply exotic animals. The sellers of these animals often disregard state or local laws regulating private possession of exotics,  and the dangers, difficulties, physical and physiological needs of the animals they peddle. The suffering of the animals in the hands of unqualified and hapless buyers appears to be of no concern in the lucrative exotic pet trade. Reptiles pose safety risks to humans. Many incidents have been reported of escapes, strangulations, and bites from pet reptiles across the country.

Many species of chameleons are threatened with extinction in their natural habitats because of human pollution and deforestation.

These small lizards can also be host to a number of different parasites as well; nematode worms and protozoan parasites like Plasmodium (the parasite that causes malaria) and coccidia have all been noted to be carried by various chameleon species.