Yesterday, got animal facts when sibs were watching Curious George and Go Diego Go!
Skunks
We all know that skunks spray a stinky smell, and apparently tomato juice takes it out. Turns out skunks spray when scared... bright lights, loud noises, enemies, and bigger creatures do the job, and then they spray. They sleep under houses sometimes.
Lamas
While Lamas live in zoos, they also hang out up in the mountains. Their strong, padded feet help them climb... and they're apparently fast creatures. They're strong too... for ages, they've been used to carry stuff, similar to what donkeys do. They have long necks. They hum for their sound. It's fun to hear Linda the Lama from Go Diego Go hum... "HUM! HUM!"
Armadillos
Armadillos have hard shells, usually from protection. In Go Diego Do, they say that the armadillos are frightened of Maned Wolves. Armadillos roll up in a ball sometimes. They can use this to roll too. They're also good diggers... their claws are made for digging!
And I got an extra from How It's Made to boot!
Extra
Fishing flies was the subject. But it was different this time... instead of in a factory, we watched one guy make a fishing fly! Guess fishing flies are factory material! But when used right (and moved realistically) they help catch some fishies!
It was cool watching the dude. A lot of string and string-like material went into it. There was a lot of wrapping and looping with a wax (sticky) string. Different materials, natural and synthetic, go into making fishing flies. Plastics, furs, feathers, and metals are used. Usually, they're "usually dyed bright colors" (How It's Made).
Flies have to imitate their subjects (little fish and bugs) to fool the fishies. I actually got some animal facts too... trout eat a certain moth's pupa when the pupa rise to the surface of the water and spread their wings. This causes air bubbles. Fly-makers use shiny string to make the illusion of these bubbles. To make wings, a material (in the show, deer guard hair) was put into a hair stacker, which was shaken, to evenly align the hairs. Some extra hair was left on the fly then needed to make the head.
Today, got some spare froggie facts from Seseame (sp?) Street, in the part called Elmo's World. They showed some frogs to go with it, which was cool.
Frogs
Frogs live in many places... trees, ponds, apartments (as pets usually), woods, and even deserts! We all know they start out in water as tadpoles (tadpoles live in water after hatching in water), then grow legs and stuff, and then leave the water as frogs. But get this... tadpoles have gills! Frogs have different colors. Some of them, usually the bright colors, are warnings to other animals to leave them be. Some are for camouflage. There are big frogs and small frogs... there's one that's small as a penny! WOW!
Then I read a book, and got more data on Cheetahs, though a lot was the same.
Cheetahs
Apparently, these cats can be more solitary than I thought. Some males take up solitary lives. Females live alone, unless mating and/or raising cubs. And females ignore each other.
And they do make territories. Usually the groups of males make a territory, which they wander and follow prey animals through year after year. They usually follow the same paths year after year, following the animals. The females are ignored, unless mating time, but if another male intrudes, the cats go wild on it. Single males are usually pretty gentle (hey, they back away from vultures taking their lunch!). The group of males are usually healthier than singles, since they get more food (and bigger, because the coalitions [groups] go after bigger prey sometimes).
Speaking of food, Cheetahs only have fresh kills. And it has to be kills that they do. This fact makes them less likely to fall into traps, since they ignore the bait. But once they're full, someone else has the leftovers. And when's there's more than one cat eating, they eat in a star pattern around the kill, so there's no fighting while eating over the meat.
These cats have chests bigger than usual, and longer legs than usual. Also, they aren't all completely spotted... the spots merge to become rings on the tails before the white puff at the end. They also have manes, but not as visible or big as lions, and it doesn't go around the head like a lion. And each cheetah's spots is unique to that cat. Cool!
Their speed and hunting techniques make them more successful at hunting than any other cat. 1/2 of their hunting attempts work! (The book said that other cats only get 1/3 of their hunts to work). Of course, they have predator and food-stealing problems... And they don't need to drink water as much! They get most of it from their meals, though they stop once in a while to take a drink from a watering hole. But they can go up to 10 days without taking a drink!!!
Momma also does a lot of cub-moving when little, since litters are open to attack. The cubs' "honey badger" disguise helps hide them as well as protect them with the whole "look-like-a-honey-badger" trick. They're helpless as first, but grow up. They crawl and open their eyes about a week or so after birth. Cubs also play a lot when not learning from Momma (when they're following her about 3 months later). Momma sometimes joins in the fun. They leave around 18 months old, and Momma goes to try and get pregnant again. When ready, their pee smells funny (so males can tell they're ready when they smell it), and they try with males. If fail, they're ready again in only 10 days! Litters can go up to 8 cubs and can be sometimes one cub, though 3-4 is the average amount for a litter.
Of course, they're in danger. The book listed the usual stuff: farmers, poachers, habitat loss, and ranchers. But it told why the zoo thing is hard... genetics! There used to be around three species of cheetah, but most got wiped out somehow. So all cheetahs alive are pretty genetically similar... which means less adaptable to change. This makes things harder, as well as breeding habits. Females usually mate with the strongest in the territory, but zoos makes things limited. Study of cheetahs is making things easier.
And for poaching, some people are getting farmers and ranchers to use dogs for protections. The big dogs, with big barks sometimes, scare off cheetahs, and protect the animals. Kids are also helping in many different ways.
Some people (the book I read did) call cheetahs the most elegant of cats. They're very popular. And have been for ages... even ancient Egyptians kept them as pets (a gold Cheetah artifact was found in Tutankhamen's [sp?] tomb), and made artifacts looking like them. And they were used in sports too, and as helpers in hunting. In one sport, a blindfolded cheetah was led into an arena where a gazelle was grazing. The blindfold came off, and the resulting hunt entertained many people (since the Cheetah went after the gazelle). Cheetahs are many people's favorite... and work is being done to save them, since they're so much in trouble (in danger of going extinct!). There's many programs and breeding programs that are good. And even Kids are taking part in whatever way to help, by joining programs and such. And some adults are helping too!
Oh, and all cats, even housecats, belong to one family: the Felidae. The Cheetah's scientific name is Acinonyx jubatus. (Names copied from the book: Nature Watch: Cheetahs Revised Edition by Dianne M. MacMillan).
Oh, and there was one cool picture in the book of a cheetah stretching (that's how they start their day according to the book), and it looked like it was doing the yoga pose Downward Dog! Cool! They rest during the hot parts of the day, and usually sleep in one place during the night.
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