My Science School

Moose is the largest of all the deer species. It inhabits forests during winter and areas near rivers and streams during summer. It is found all over the North hemisphere, mainly in the colder climate.

It has poor eyesight, but has excellent sense of smell and hearing. It is also an excellent swimmer and a fast runner.

One of its unique features is the antlers. Only male moose (bulls) sport antlers. The shape differs from animal to animal and they are shed every year around November, being replaced with larger ones the forthcoming spring. The primary function of antlers is to attract potential mate.

A male moose also has a ‘dewlap’, a dangling up under the chin.

Adult of its species are too big to have many predators, but bears, wolves, and cougars prey on calves.

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Spider monkey is a primate living in Central and South America. There are seven different species of spider monkeys. It has long, thin arms with look-like hands and a very long tail that allow it to swing through the trees. It does not have a thumb.

It looks like a spider as it hangs upside down from its tail with its arms and legs dangling. And that’s why scientists named it so.

Like most primate species, it is a very social animal. They live in groups called troops. When foraging for food, they split into smaller groups and share their bounty.

It uses different sounds such as scream, sob and even bark for communication.

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Wildebeest is a large antelope found in parts of Africa. It is also known as gnu.

It has a large head, shaggy mane, and sharp, curved horns. It is strictly a grazer, preferring sweet, stocky grasses. Each year, our species undertake a long migration, considered one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on Earth, as it involves up to 1.5 million wildebeests as well as thousands of other animals, such as zebra and gazelle.

Wildebeest thrive in areas that are neither too wet nor too dry, with their range extending from the equator to the tip of South Africa. The blue wildebeest, known as the brindled gnu, ranges from Kenya to northern South Africa. They prefer the dense bushlands, open grasslands and woodland floodplains of the southern savanna.

Wildebeests are strictly grazers, preferring sweet, stocky grasses. This grass often grows in areas that have seen recent fire, as tall, coarse brush is burnt, permitting room for new vegetation to grow. Wildebeest will also follow herds of other grazers that eat dry, longer grasses. In addition to grasses, these creatures also eat succulent plants and browse on karoo bushes. They begin grazing soon after sunrise, rest briefly at midday, and continue feeding until sunset. Wildebeest need water almost daily.

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Galapagos tortoise is a species of giant tortoise found on the Galapagos Islands. It is the world’s largest tortoise. It is also the longest-lived of all vertebrates, averaging over 100 years.

Grass, leaves and cacti are its favourite food. Di you know it can go without eating or drinking for up to a year because it can store food and water in its body?

It sleeps for nearly 16 hours per day. Giant tortoises reach maturity at about 20 or 25 years old. They typically breed during the hot season, which occurs from January to May. Mating can take several hours, after which the female migrates to an area with dry, sandy ground. There, she digs a hole in which she lays two to 16 eggs. The eggs hatch after around 130 days, after which the young tortoises must dig their way up to the surface.

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As its head and neck resemble a horse, scientists gave him this name. But it is a marine fish belonging to the genus hippocampus.

You can spot it swimming among seaweeds and other plants in shallow tropical and temperate salt waters throughout the world.

Unlike most fish that have scales on their body, it possesses segmented bony armour that protects me against my predators. Its pectoral fins, located behind its eyes, help in steering, while its curled tail helps in grasping objects.

A female seahorse lays eggs in a brood pouch on the male seahorse’s abdomen.

A master of camouflage, these fab fish can be incredibly difficult to spot. Camouflage not only helps the seahorse avoid predators, such as crabs and other fish, it helps it to be a predator, too. Feeding on small crustaceans, seahorses are super-skilled ambush predators. Rather than chasing their food, they wait, unnoticed, for prey to pass by. They then suck their unsuspecting victim though their tube-like mouth, before swallowing it whole. 

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Puffin is a seabird found in the North Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It has black or black and white plumage and a large beak, which changes colour. In winter, it is grey, and in spring, the breeding season, it turns orange to attract mate.

It feed primarily on small fish by diving in the water. It uses its webbed feet as a rudder and can dive down up to 60 metres under water!

It is a great flyer too, speeding through the air at up to 88km an hour. It flaps its wings up to 400 times a minute!

They breed in colonies on coasts and islands. Both the parents incubate the egg and feed the chick.

When starting a puffin family, our feathered friends dig out a burrow using their sharp claws and beak, usually in a grassy bank or rocky crevice. At the back of their burrow home, they build a nest lined with feathers and grass where the female lays her egg. Both parents take it in turn to incubate the egg for the next 36-45 days before the baby “puffling” hatches!

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It belongs to a group, which consists of 700 species of hairy spiders. Unlike most spiders, it does not spin webs to catch prey, rather use silk to secure the entrance to its burrow. It typically lives in the ground.

It is a night-time hunter. It uses its legs to catch prey, which includes insects. Some of the bigger tarantula species enjoy frogs, toads and mice.

After catching a prey, it injects paralyzing venom into it. It secretes digestive enzymes to liquefy its body and drink it using its straw-like mouth openings.

It defends itself by throwing needle-like, barbed hairs at its attackers.

One of the most distinctive traits of many tarantulas is the presence of bristly hairs on their bodies, including their legs. Although this looks like hair and is commonly described as such, spiders and other arthropods do not have true hair like mammals do. Mammalian hair is mainly made of keratin, while arthropod setae consists largely of chitin.

Tarantulas are long-lived spiders, although their life spans vary by sex as well as species. Male tarantulas may live for as long as 10 years, but once they successfully mate, they usually die within a few months. Female tarantulas, on the other hand, have been known to live for 30 years.

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There are more than 180 species of woodpeckers worldwide. It lives in a range of habitats, including forests, woodlands and even urban settings.

It gets its name from how it forages for food – It taps on tree trunks to catch insect prey living in cracks in the bark.

It has a tough, pointed beak which it uses to chip barks on trees, and find insects. Did you know some of them tap on trunks around 8,000 to 12,000 times per day?

Some of them drum on trees to communicate to their folks and to engage in courtship.

The most common plumage colors for all woodpeckers are black, white, red and yellow. A few species also have orange, green, brown, maroon and gold in their coloration. Brighter colors are usually flashy patches, typically on the head, neck or back where they will be easily seen.

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Lion fish is native to the Indo-Pacific region. It is known for the zebra-like red, white and black patterns on its body and feathery pectoral fins.

It uses its fin to attract prey and warn predators away. Their babies are called fries. They live near the water’s surface until they’re big enough to swim to the deeper parts.

Lionfish are not poisonous, they are venomous. The difference between poison and venom is the method of delivery. Venom must be injected into the bloodstream to cause injury, such as through a sharp spine or fang, but is harmless if drunk or eaten. Poison has to be ingested or absorbed to be harmful; lionfish carry no poison in the edible meat of the fish.

Lionfish are predators that consume more than 70 species of fish and many invertebrate species such as shrimp and crab. Lionfish can reduce juvenile fish populations on a reef by nearly 90% in as little as five weeks. Lionfish can eat up to 30 times their own stomach volume.

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A bird of paradise is a member of the family Paradisaeidae found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia. They are known for their striking colours and bright plumage.

Depending on the species, the colours may be yellow, blue, scarlet, or green.

Males often sport vibrant elongated feathers, which are known as wires or streamers. Some even have enormous head plumes or other distinctive ornaments.

Most males perform complex courtship displays to attract potential female mates.

It eats fruits, insects and sometimes frogs and reptiles.

The 42 species of birds of paradise look very different from each other, and they also also sound very different from each other. But researchers are only beginning to investigate their calls in detail. The sounds they make run the gamut from basic squawks, to seemingly mechanical noises, to melodious whistles, to sounds that don’t involve their voices at all.

Birds of paradise tend to be solitary birds and only come together to mate.

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Hummingbird is a brightly-coloured bird found only in the Americas. It is known for my long, sharp beak, long tongue and fast-moving wings. It is very small bird, weighing less than 5 gram. Some of them can flap our wings up to 200 times per second! The name, hummingbird, comes from the humming noise their wings make as they beat so fast. It drinks nectar by moving its tongue in and out about 13 times per second. It can consume up to double its body weight in a day.

There are more than 325 unique hummingbird species in the world. Only eight species regularly breed in the United States, though up to two dozen species may visit the country or be reported as regular vagrants. The rest of the hummingbirds are primarily tropical species and do not regularly migrate. They are found in Central and South America as well as throughout the Caribbean.

Despite their small size, hummingbirds are one of the most aggressive bird species. They will regularly attack jays, crows, and hawks that infringe on their territory. Backyard birders often find they have one dominant hummingbird that guards all the feeders, chasing intruders away.

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Gharial is a type of Asian crocodile living in clear freshwater river systems. Its long, thin snout helps in sensing the presence of my prey, usually fish, by detecting vibrations in the water. It regulates its body temperature by basking in the sun or resting in shade or water. It has about 106 to 110 razor-sharp teeth. The male of its species sports a large spot on the snout called ‘ghara’.

Gharials are perhaps the most dedicated parents of all reptiles. Females lay eggs in lots of nests close together and guard them from the river. When the eggs hatch, all of the hatchlings join together to form a large ‘creche’.

The females and the males then guard these creches from predators in the water and on the banks of the river. At the first sign of danger the hatchlings will rush to the safety of the nearest adult, often clambering onto their heads for protection.

The damming and diversion of the rivers on which they depend threatens their habitats. The illegal extraction of sand from the riverbanks is destroying their nesting habitats.

The depletion of fish numbers due to overfishing by humans is a major threat, and gharials often died after being caught in fishing nets.

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