What are the fun facts of Great egret?

Great egret is a wading bird that belongs to the heron family. It inhabits swamps, lakes, ponds, areas near the rivers, streams and islands.

It has a long leg, S-shaped neck and white plumage. It stands motionless and waits for the prey to come close enough. It catches its prey, usually fish, frogs, snakes and crustaceans, using its long, sharp bill in a fraction of a second.

Its predators are raccoons, owls and hawks.

The great egret is partially migratory, with northern hemisphere birds moving south from areas with colder winters.

The great egret feeds in shallow water or drier habitats, feeding mainly on fish, frogs, small mammals, and occasionally small reptiles and insects, spearing them with its long, sharp bill most of the time by standing still and allowing the prey to come within its striking distance of its bill, which it uses as a spear. It often waits motionless for prey, or slowly stalks its victim.

They are diurnal feeders and at dusk they gather from surrounding areas to form communal roosts.

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What are the fun facts of beaver?

Beaver is among the largest rodents in the world. There are two species of beavers: American and Eurasian.

It has thick fur, webbed fur, webbed feet and scale-covered tails. It is a semiaquatic species, which can swim 5 miles per hour and spend 15 minutes underwater without returning to the surface for air.

It uses its powerful jaws and strong teeth to fell trees and build homes and dams, which acts as channels to control the flow of water in a stream or lake.

It eats leaves, roots, and bark from aspens, willows, maples and poplar trees. It also eats aquatic plants.

All beavers need water to survive. They live in or around freshwater ponds, lakes, rivers, marshes and swamps. American beavers live throughout North America, but stay clear of deserts and the far northern areas of Canada. Eurasian beavers once lived all over Europe and Asia. Now, they only live in small numbers throughout southern Scandinavia, Germany, France, Poland, and central Russia due to overhunting.

Beavers don’t just build homes from trees, they also eat them. Unlike other mammals, beavers can digest cellulose, which is a major component of their diet, according to ADW. Beavers eat leaves, roots and bark from aspens, willows, maples and poplar trees. They also eat aquatic plants. 

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What are the fun facts of moths?

There are more than 16,000 species of them, varying in size and colour.

Most of them are active at night and use moon, stars and geomagnetic field to navigate. Some of their kinds are great mimics, impersonating other creatures to avoid being eaten by predators (They even mimic bird droppings!)

It is an important pollinator. It has long, curled tongue designed for diet based on nectar, fruits and berries.

While at rest, it flattens its wings against its body or spread them out (whereas butterflies usually hold their wings up)

The smallest moth in the world is the Stigmella maya, and the forewing measures just 1.2 millimetres. It is found in Yucatan in Mexico.

The largest moth in the world is the Atlas moth (Attacus atlas), with wingspan of up to 30 cm (12 inches) and a surface area of 400 square centimeters (62 square inches). It is found in the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast Asia.

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What are the fun facts of Llamas?

Llama is a relative of the camel, native to South America. But unlike camels, it does not have a hump. It has long legs and neck, small head and pointed ears.

It has been used as a pack animal by locals for centuries. It can navigate rocky terrain with ease.

It is a social animal and lives in herds. When it gets annoyed, it spits. It feeds on grass and regurgitates food and chews it as cud.

In mountainous regions llamas migrate up and down mountains, moving up to higher regions when it is warm, in order to stay cooler, and moving back down in winter when temperatures start to drop. Llamas are peaceful natured hardy animals. They have excellent survival skills and their thick coats allow them to thrive in climates with extreme temperatures. The llama is the national symbol of Peru and appears on many tourist products as well as coins and stamps.

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What are the fun facts of moose?

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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What are the fun facts of spider monkey?

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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What are the fun facts of wildebeest?

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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What are the fun facts of Galapagos tortoise?

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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What are the fun facts of sea horse?

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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What are the fun facts of puffin?

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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What are the fun facts of tarantula?

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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What are the fun facts of woodpecker?

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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What are the fun facts of lionfish?

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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What are the fun facts of bird of paradise?

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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What are the fun facts of hummingbird?

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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