The Zoo

The Scorpion Good thing the Tasmanian devil can't compete in the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest every Fourth of July . The Australian outback native can swallow up to 40 percent of its body weight in just 30 minutes; that's the equivalent of a human eating 216 hamburgers in the same amount of time!

The Tasmanian devil will actually eat to the point that it can barely waddle around, and is particularly fond of anything that smells like flesh. So if you've got some old boots or smelly socks, pass them to your left, along with the salt and pepper.

The "devil" in this little critter's name may be due to its rather rough and tumble approach to courtship. On top of having a mating call that could shatter glass, the Tasmanian devil also has a nasty temper and will throw down with anything that gets in its way .

Interesting Facts: - The Tasmanian Devil is the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial in Australia.
- The devil stores body fat in its tail, so unhealthy devils often have thin tails.
- The average life expectancy of a Tasmanian Devil in the wild is estimated at six years, although they may live longer in captivity.

Koza, the lion cub. Lived at the Wild Animal Park in Escondido with many other zoo animals and his best friend, a puppy named Cairo. Very sadly, Koza was killed as a very young lion cub by a female lion in the zoo.

A twelve-day-old female baby gorilla grabs the finger of her care taker Clara Beatty at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, April 20, 2005. The baby gorilla was born April 8, 2005, to the world's first test tube gorilla, TIMBU, who lost interest in her baby only seven hours after giving birth.

Knut is a captive-born polar bear born at the Berlin Zoo on 5 December 2006. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was subsequently raised by zoo keepers. He was the first polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo in over thirty years. Knut became a popular tourist attraction and commercial success.

Outside a polar bear den at the Denver Zoo, two tiny cubs lay on the cold floor. Zookeepers found them there just hours after they had been born and abandoned by their mother. The cubs were so chilled that thermometers did not show any body warmth at all. On that day, November 6, 1994, the zoo began its fight to save the twin cubs, Klondike and Snow.

Dema, a Sumatran tiger licks Nia a baby orangutan in a nursery room at the Taman Safari zoo Wednesday Feb. 28, 2007, in Bogor, Indonesia. The tiger and orangutan baby, which would never be together in the wild, have become inseparable playmates after they were abandoned by their mothers.

THE Yangon Zoological Gardens is celebrating the birth of its first Bengal Tiger cubs in more than 16 years. Three cubs were born on March 17, but one was killed by its mother, Noah.

The vampire bat feeds on mammalian blood. Their primary source is sleeping livestock. Their sharp teeth and light frame allow them to feed for up to 1/2 hour while perched on their victim without waking it. They need to feed every two days to survive.

One of the most famous and bizarre animals is the Aye-aye, found only in Madagascar. The Aye-aye combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unique method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out.

So what if the monkfish has an extremely large tooth-filled mouth, a peculiar flattened body, and loose, slimy skin? Millions of people in Europe, Japan, and in the United States love to consume this large, ugly, bottom-dwelling fish; it tastes like lobster. Just don't look before you dine.

Sloths are medium-sized mammals that live in Central and South America. They may eat insects, small lizards and carrion, but their diet consists mostly of buds, tender shoots, and leaves. Sloth fur also exhibits specialized functions: the outer hairs grow in a direction opposite from that of other mammals. In most mammals, hairs grow toward the extremities, but because sloths spend so much time with their legs above their bodies, their hairs grow away from the extremities in order to provide protection from the elements while the sloth hangs upside down.

The Tasmanian devil is frightening, creepy, and dreadful to look at. It's the size of a small dog, and its body resembles that of a small bear. The animal is black or brownish and has a white throat patch and white spots on the sides. The teeth are crowded together to give the mouth a powerful look. The upper incisors are rather long, sharp and, well, devilish.

The largest animal on Earth is the blue whale. Blue whales can measure anywhere from 75 feet (23 m) to 100 feet (30.5 m) from head to tail, and can weigh as much as 150 tons (136 metric tons). That's as long as a 10-story building and as heavy as about 112 adult male giraffes! These days, most adult blue whales are only 75 to 80 feet long; whalers hunted down most of the super giants. Female blue whales generally weigh more than the males. The largest blue whale to date is a female that weighed 389,760 pounds.

This photo, courtesy of the Potomac Museum Group, is of a baby African elephant. At full size, African elephants -- the largest living mammals on land -- can weigh 14,000 pounds. There are only three species alive today: the Asian elephant, the African savannah elephant and the African forest elephant. The largest living elephant, and overall the largest living land mammal, is the male African elephant, which can consume up to 600 pounds of food a day.

The Bison is the biggest animal in the Yellowstone National Park. They can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. The most abundant grazing animal in North America was formerly the American Bison. One estimate of the original number of bison in North America ranged as high as 70 million animals. A single herd located southwest of what is now Dodge City, Kansas in 1871 was carefully estimated to have over 4 million members!

The giraffe is an African mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,360 kilograms (3,000 pounds). The tallest was 5.87 m (19.2 feet) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lbs.). Females are generally slightly shorter. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa.

The hippopotamus (hippos meaning "horse" and potamos meaning "river") is a large, mostly plant-eating African mammal. The hippo is semi-aquatic, inhabiting rivers and lakes in Africa in large groups of up to 40 hippos. During the day they remain cool by staying in the water or mud.
Despite their physical resemblance to pigs their closest living relatives are whales, porpoises and the like. The hippopotamus can easily outrun a human. Despite its popularity in zoos and cuddly portrayal as gentle giants, the hippopotamus is among the most dangerous and aggressive of all mammals.

The pygmy marmosett is the smallest monkey in the world. They live in family groups led by a parental couple. Most of the time the male parent carries the offspring. The young go to the mother during feeding. After a few months they will jump around looking for food and excitement.

Thumbelina, the smallest horse in the world! At 17-inches tall, Thumbelina is currently the world's smallest pony. She was just 5 years old when she made it into the Guinness Book Of Records and lives on a farm with a couple who specialize in breeding miniature horses.

Fennec Foxes - The world's smallest fox, Fennec Foxes are smaller than housecats. Living in sandy, dry regions,their large ears keep them cool and help them hear rodents. Their ears are bigger than their faces!

The world's smallest mammal is the critically endangered bumblebee bat of western Thailand. Also known as Kitti's hog-nosed bat, it was first described just 30 years ago.

Salamanders come in a variety of colors and patterns, with bright colors usually a warning to predators that this menu item contains a lethal poison. They have slender bodies, usually four legs of similar size, a small head, small eyes and a tail. In some species the tail detaches when attacked. The tail will continue to twitch, distracting the predator as the rest of the salamander makes its escape.

The world's smallest bird is the Bee Hummingbird. The Bee Hummingbird is about the size of a, you guessed it, bee. That translates to 2.5 inches or 6.2 cm in length and 1.6 grams or 0.06 oz in weight. The Bee Hummingbird also lays the world's smallest bird eggs which are about the size of your smallest fingernail.

The Star-nosed Mole is a small North American mole found in eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States. It lives in wet lowland areas and eats small aquatic insects, worms and mollusks. It is a good swimmer and can forage along the bottoms of streams and ponds. Like other moles, this animal digs shallow surface tunnels for foraging; often, these tunnels exit underwater. The mole's most distinctive feature is a circle of 22 mobile, pink, fleshy tentacles at the end of the snout. These are used to identify food by touch, such as worms, insects and crustaceans.

Sakis, or saki monkeys are small monkeys with long, bushy tails. Their furry, rough skin is black, grey or reddish-brown colored depending upon the species. The faces of some species are naked, but their head is hooded with fur. Their bodies are adapted to life in the trees, with strong hind legs allowing them to make far jumps. For sleeping they roll themselves cat-like in the branches. They are generally very shy, cautious animals. Sakis eat fruits, leaves, flowers, insects, and small vertebrates, such as rodents and bats.

The frilled lizard is obviously designed for climbing, it is a large slender species, two thirds of its body length are made up by its tail. It has a brightly colored (often blue) frill which is most of the time folded against the neck. The lizard lives in Australia and Papua New Guinea and eats insects.

The Pink Fairy Armadillo is the smallest species of armadillo. It is approximately 90-115 mm long excluding the tail, and is pale rose or pink in color. It is found in central Argentina where it inhabits dry grasslands and sandy plains with thorn bushes and cacti. It has the ability to bury itself completely in a matter of seconds if frightened. It feeds mainly on ants and ant larvae near its burrow. Occasionally it feeds on worms, snails, insects and larvae, or various plant and root material.

The Emperor Tamarin is allegedly named for its similarity with the German emperor Wilhelm II. The name was first intended as a joke, but has become the official scientific name. This tamarin lives in the southwest Amazon Basin, in east Peru, north Bolivia and in the west Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas. Outstanding is its long, white mustache, which extends to both sides beyond the shoulders. This primate inhabits tropical rain forests, living deep in the forest and also in open tree-covered areas. It spends the majority of its days in the trees with quick, safe movements and broad jumps among the limbs.

Tarsiers are small animals with enormous eyes and very long limbs. The head and body range from 10 to 15 cm in length, but the hind limbs are about twice this long and they also have a slender tail from 20 to 25 cm long. Their fingers are also elongated, with the third finger being about the same length as the upper arm. Most of the digits have nails, but the second and third toes of the hind feet bear claws instead, which are used for grooming. Tarsiers have very soft, velvety fur, which is generally buff, beige, or ochre in color.

The Black Rhino. Since 1970, the Black Rhino population, native to southern and east Africa, has declined by 90% to less than 3,000. They are killed primarily for their horns. Trade of Rhinos has been banned for more than 20 years but there still continues to be a great demand for Rhino parts.

The Giant Panda. Within a few short years, Giant Pandas could be facing extinction. Fewer than 1,000 remain in their native habitat of China. The main reason for their decline is due to loss of natural habitat and poaching.

The Tiger. These magnificent cats are native to tropical zones in Southeast Asia and temperate regions like the Russian Far East. Less than 6,000 tigers remain in the wild. The most urgent threat to the species is poaching for body parts and bones used in traditional Asian medicines.

The Sturgeon. These ancient living fish fossils are found in the Caspian Sea. Valued throughout the world by connoisseurs for their superior quality caviar, poaching is out of control due to excessive demand and high prices paid for the Sturgeons' "pearl-like" caviar.

The Alligator Snapping Turtle. Prized by turtle trappers and dealers for its rare meat, Alligator Snapping Turtles, the largest of freshwater turtles from North America, is quickly being depleted due to increased shipments to many other countries.

The Hawksbill Turtle. Found mainly around tropical reefs, the three foot (one metre) length Hawksbill Turtle species, named for its distinctive snout, is becoming extremely vulnerable due to their slow reproduction rates and high volume of illegal trade for the prized jewel-like "tortoise shell."

The Green-Cheeked Parrot. Native to Mexico, this colorful parrot species, with the ability to mimic the human voice, has been significantly reduced in numbers due to a huge demand for these lovely pet birds, especially from the United States. Even after prohibiting the sale of these green-cheeked birds, droves of the species are still being illegally traded across the Mexico/US border.

The Mako Shark. The Mako Shark is highly sought for its tender meat, and especially in Asian markets, for their shark fins which have even greater value for medicinal purposes. Some are merely stripped of their prized fins by the international fishing fleets and then thrown back into the sea, left to die.

The Siberian Tiger. Cold, snowy Siberia, in the USSR, is home to the largest of all the tigers, the Siberian tiger. It is highly endangered and there may be fewer than 200 in the wild, probably all in special nature reserves. Hunting and loss of habitat have reduced their numbers.

The Lion-tailed Macaque . This small monkey lives in India's tropical rainforests. Many of these forests have been replaced with tea and coffee plantations. Unlike some other animals, the lion-tailed macaque has not been able to adapt to these new habitats. Poachers have also captured baby macaques, often killing their parents in the process, for illegal export to collectors.