Wild Animal Parade

Hyenas make a variety of vocalizations, including wailing calls, howling screams and the well-known "laughter" used to alert other clan members up to three miles away of a food source.

For years scientists have wondered whether pandas are bears, raccoons, or in a group all their own. Through studying the genetic code (DNA) in pandas' cells, scientists have confirmed the panda's relationship with bears.

The name of a male is referred to as a stag or a buck
The name of a female is referred to as a doe or hind
The name or offspring, or a baby Deer, is a fawn or yearling
The average size of a litter is one or two fawns
The collective name for a group of Deer is a herd
The sound made by a Deer is referred to as a bellow

The 25 species of chipmunks are small members of the squirrel family. Did you know? Although chipmunks hibernate, they do not store fat. Instead they slowly gnaw away at their summer bounty throughout the winter.

The smallest squirrel is the African Pygmy. They are 5 inches long from their heads to the tip of their tails. They are found in Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon.

The largest squirrel is the Ratufa also called the Indian giant squirrel. It can be as long as 3 feet in length. This beauty is found in Asia and Nepal.

As mammals, dolphins have to breathe air. They do so through a single blowhole on the top of the head. It has a muscular plug to keep water out of the lungs while diving.
They are intelligent and playful creatures and friendly to humans.

The okapi's dark tongue is long enough to clean its eyes and ears!
Okapis are hard to find in the wild. Their natural habitat is the Ituri Forest, a dense rain forest in central Africa. Okapis are very wary, and their highly developed hearing alerts them to run when they hear humans in the distance.

Let's get right to the point: porcupines cannot shoot their quills! Quills are just modified hairs made out of keratin, the same substance found in our own hair and fingernails.
Diet- All porcupines are nocturnal rodents with a great sense of smell. To make quick work of available food, these herbivores have sharp, chisel-like front teeth.

Don't feed coyotes.
Eliminate water sources.
Position bird feeders so coyotes can't get to them.
Secure garbage containers; eliminate garbage odors.
Feed pets indoors whenever possible and store food securely.
Don't allow pets to run free; provide them with secure nighttime housing.
Don't leave young children unattended outside if coyotes have been spotted in the area.
Trim shrubbery near ground level to remove any hiding places for coyotes.

Some of the more important invertebrate foods consumed are beetles and their larvae, grasshoppers and crickets, earthworms, butterfly and moth larvae, spiders, snails, ants, bees and wasps, and crayfish. This skunk eats fruits in season, such as wild cherries, ground cherries, blackberries, blueberries, and many others. In the fall, the animal gorges itself to fatten up in preparation for the lean winter months.

The Common Raccoon's nimble fingers, almost as deft as a monkey's, can easily turn doorknobs and open refrigerators. (In fact, the animal's common name is derived from aroughcoune, an Algonquin Indian word meaning "he scratches with his hands.") If water is conveniently close, this animal sometimes appears to wash its food, a trait reflected in its species name, lotor, which means "washer." The raccoon's objective, however, is not to clean the food but to knead and tear at it, feeling for inedible matter that should be discarded. Normally this is done with food found in the water.

Forest succession and encroachment into grasslands is reducing the habitat of the badger, an animal vital in controlling rodent populations.

The name of a male is referred to as a boar or he-bear
The name of a female is referred to as a sow or she-bear
The name or offspring, or a baby bear, is a cub
The average size of a litter is one to four cubs
The collective name for a group of Bears is a sleuth or sloth
The sound made by a bear is referred to as a growl

The elephant is distinguished by its high level of intelligence, interesting behavior, methods of communication and complex social structure.
Elephants are very social, frequently touching and caressing one another and entwining their trunks.
Elephants demonstrate concern for members of their families they take care of weak or injured members and appear to grieve over a dead companion.

Kangaroos need very little water to survive and are capable of going for months without drinking at all.
Kangaroos are the only large animals to use hopping as a means of movement.
When a kangaroo is moving slowly, the tail is used as an extra leg and supports the kangaroo when it's standing on its hind legs.
Kangaroos are the only large animals to use hopping as a means of movement.

A baby koala is referred to as a joey and is hairless, blind, and earless. At birth the joey, only a quarter of an inch long, crawls into the downward-facing pouch on the mother's belly (which is closed by a drawstring-like muscle that the mother can tighten at will) and attaches itself to one of the two teats.

Young remain hidden in the pouch for about six months, only feeding on milk. During this time they grow ears, eyes, and fur. The joey then begins to explore outside of the pouch. At about this stage it begins to consume small quantities of the mother's "pap" (formerly thought to be excrement, but now thought to come from the mother's cecum) in order to inoculate its gut with the microbes necessary to digest eucalypt leaves.[20] The joey will remain with its mother for another six months or so, riding on her back, and feeding on both milk and eucalypt leaves until weaning is complete at about 12 months of age. Young females disperse to nearby areas at that time; young males often stay in the mother's home range until they are two or three years old.

- Water downstream of North American beaver dams is cleaner.
- Beavers mate for life.
- A beaver can remain submerged in the water for up to 15 minutes.
- The beaver waterproofs its thick fur by coating it with castoreum, an oily secretion from its scent glands.
- Beavers can close both their ears and nose.