ANIMALS OF DIFFERENT KINDS

ANIMALS OF DIFFERENT KINDS

PRESENTED BY: Nanda Nair A

Introduction:

Animals adapt to the environment. Therefore each animal is different from each other.

Does African elephant look like the Asian elephants? Does chimpanzees look like gorillas?

These are all of same kind but different species living in different areas therefore they all look different from one another.

Story of the Meerkats

Meerkats

Standing at only 30 cm (12 in.) tall, meerkats, also known as Suricats, depend on group cooperation to survive in the Kalahari Desert.

Meerkats are specially adapted to living in the harsh desert environment. Dark patches around their eyes help them be effective lookouts by reducing the glare of the sun, much like a baseball player who paints dark lines beneath his eyes. Their eyes also allow them to take in a wide angle view of the scene. This helps prevent predators from gaining an advantage by sneaking up.

Eating both plants and animals, meerkats are omnivores. Their diet mostly consists of insects, which they sniff out using their enhanced sense of smell. They also eat small rodents, fruit, birds, eggs, lizards, and even poisonous scorpions. They can catch a scorpion and pull off its deadly stinger in the blink of an eye. Because they have very little fat to store energy, meerkats forage and hunt every day.

Meerkats are found in the Kalahari desert of Africa.

Story of bald eagle.

Bald Eagle

Clearly recognized by its white head, brown body, and hooked yellow beak, the bald eagle has been the national emblem of the United States of America since 1782.

bald eagles feast on fish, ducks, snakes and turtles. They will also eat rabbits, muskrats, and dead animals.

Bald eagles can reach great heights when flying.

Bald eagles are not born with their distinctive brown and white look. When baby eaglets hatch, their entire bodies are covered with light gray feathers. Around 3 weeks, their plumage takes on a brown coloration. Finally, at 4-5 years old, they acquire the distinctive brown and white color pattern.

Bald eagles are found throughout most of North America, preferring to make their homes in large trees near bodies of water.

Story of the

black tailed

prairie dog

Black- tailed Prairie dog

Although they stand at only 30 cm high and weigh about 1 kg , black-tailed prairie dogs make a substantial impact on the ecosystem of the North American plains.

Their barks indicate the location of the predator. All members of the colony remain outside the burrow to keep an eye on the threat. If they were to all retreat into the burrow, the predator would simply attack when a prairie dog poked its head of out the entrance to check if the coast was clear. In this way, their system of warning barks has proven to be most successful.

Prairie dogs also perform jump-yip calls, in which they stand on the mound, throw their head back, and let out a high-pitched bark, sometimes evening toppling onto their backs due to the exertion.

Although they once numbered in the hundreds of millions, prairie dog populations are now estimated at around 10-20 million. Their numbers have decreased as a result of habitat destruction due to development and agriculture. Additionally, many farmers poison or shoot prairie dogs because they believe the animals interfere with cattle grazing. Finally, prairie dog populations have been largely affected by the sylvatic plague.

Black-tailed prairie dogs live in colonies scattered throughout the plains of the United States, Mexico, and Canada

Bottle nose dolphin

Bottle nose dolphin

Commonly seen in aquariums, sea parks, TV shows, and movies, the bottlenose dolphin is a wildly recognizable cetacean (marine mammal). In the wild, bottlenose dolphins inhabit the temperate and tropical oceans around the world.

Like the name bottlenose suggests, this species of dolphin has a short, stubby beak. Its sleek, conical body varies in color from a light to slate grey on the upper body to a pale to pinkish grey on the bottom part.

Males are significantly larger than females.

Although they have little to no sense of smell, bottlenose dolphins have other well-developed sensory organs. They also have an excellent sense of hearing.

Dolphins produce high-frequency clicks that humans cant hear. They use these clicks in a sonar system called echolocation. After 12 months in the womb, the calf is ready to be born. The calf emerges tail first so that it doesnt drown. Once fully out, the baby dolphin swims to the surface to take its first breath of air. The calf stays with its mother for 3-6 years, nursing for the first 12-18 months and learning to hunt once weaned.

In the wild, bottlenose dolphins inhabit the temperate and tropical oceans around the world, with coastal populations entering into bays, estuaries, and river mouths.