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About Animals - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Marsupials' babies stay in the mother's pouch until they grow up. While in the pouch of the mother, a baby constantly feeds and is very small and weak.
      - Examples of marsupials are koalas, bandicoots, and the opossums.
      - Most marsupials live in Australia and New Guinea.
    - - Many mammals that eat grass need a long time to digest food. They also live in herds for safety because multiple animals together can spot danger more quickly and react accordingly.
      - Herds of zebra, wildebeest, and antelope run away very fast when faced by danger while animals like the shaggy musk oxen fight against their predators.
    - - Primates consist of monkeys and apes. We are part of the primate family too. Most primates use their feet as extra hands.
      - Chimpanzees are found in the hot, damp forests of Africa and are always on the move in search of food. This is why they do not have a particular home. Instead, each animal builds a new nest for itself every night. There is a leader in every group who is respected by the others.
    - - Bats
        
        Bats are the only mammals that can fly. Their leathery wings are made up of a double layer of thin skin (membrane). A bat's wings are supported by arm bones, spread-out finger bones, and legs for extra strength.
        
        Due to their hand like wings, they can easily change the shape of their wings in air.
        
        When resting, bats' wings fold up like umbrellas and they sometimes tuck their heads inside their wings. Most bats live in colonies in caves.
        
        When giving birth, a mother bat will turn and hang by her thumbs. She will form a safety net in which the baby will live for a few days, clinging on to her fur when she flies. This net is formed when the mother tucks her tail membrane between her legs.
        
        Bats squeak while flying. This is so that if there is something ahead, the squeaks make an echo which the bats can hear with their large and sensitive ears. This method lets bats know how far away something is too.
        
        Bats eat insects (moths are their favorite), fruit, and the vampire bat from South America drinks animals' blood.
    - - Such animals are air breathers, and even though they live in water and can stay underwater for long periods of time, they eventually must come to the surface to breathe.
      - Dolphins and porpoises are actually small whales. Dolphins have a beak-like snout and it seems to be smiling while porpoises have rounded snouts.
      - Pinnipeds
        
        Pinnipeds are animals such as seals, sea lions, and walruses that have fins which are basically flattened feet. Unlike the first group of aquatic mammals, these ones can come on land and waddle about.
      - Whales
        
        Whales cannot breathe underwater and regularly come up to the surface to breath in. This oxygen gets dissolved in their blood and keeps them going underwater until they come up again to expel the remaining oxygen through their blowholes and inhale more.
        
        Whales have no sense of taste, and most have poor eyesight. But, their hearing, tasting, and feeling senses are really good.
        
        Whales talk with one another by making high pitched squeaking sounds that only they can hear most of the times. They can hear these squeaks over great distances.
        
        Most whales' throats are too small to swallow anything bigger than an orange. Ergo, some species eat microscopic plants and animals called plankton. While others eat krill. Narwhals and bottlenoses are carnivores and eat fish, crabs, and lobsters. Killer whales eat seals and porpoises.
  - - - Have a hard shell - acts like armour.
      - Spend a lot of time in water. Can swim better than can walk.
      - Mothers lay eggs in holes in mud and sand and leave them.
      - Sea turtles eat small sea creatures. Tortoises mostly eat plants.
    - - Much like dinosaurs. Help scientists learn about dinosaur ages.
      - Most African crocs live near slow-moving rivers.
      - Spend most of daytime basking motionless in the hot sun.
        In the evening, they move down into the cool waters.
      - Small crocs eat fish. Big ones can eat passing large animals.
      - Mothers dig shallow pits in the riverbanks and lay eggs. When they hatch, the babies make croaking noises and the mother digs them out and carries them into the water in a special pouch in the bottom of her mouth.
    - - Babies don't need to learn anything. Can do everything an adult can.
      - Most of them only eat live food. They swallow prey whole.
      - Their jaws are hinged and for bigger meals, they release the hinges and open their mouths very wide.
      - Some snakes have poison glands. Hollow fangs inject poison into the victim's body.
      - Snakes flick their tongues out to smell.
    - - Some lizards' tails can break off when in danger and regrow.
      - Lizards also change their skin, but they peel it off bit by bit.
  - - - A mother can lay upto 4,000 eggs in a lake or pond.
      - Three weeks later, tadpoles hatch.
      - Tadpoles swim around, nibbling at plants.
      - They start growing hind legs.
      - Then, lungs begin developing and front legs appear.
      - After 3 months they can breathe with lungs and leave the water. Their tails shrink and vanish.
        They are full grown.
  - - - Feathers aren't live parts of birds. Birds change feathers at least once an year in a process lasting 4 to 6 weeks called moulting.
      - Feathers help birds fly and keep them warm in cold weather. Feathers can also be waterproof and their colors can attract mates or act as camouflage.
    - - Birds have different shaped feet to suit their lifestyles.
      - Birds that perch on branches have toes that curl around the branches for a tight grip.
      - Birds that find food in the ground have short, blunt, rake-like toes that help scratch the ground.
      - Birds that swim in water have paddle like feet.
      - Birds of prey have sharp curved claws to grab their victims.
      - Birds that are good climbers have two toes pointing forwards and two pointing backwards. Most tree dwellers hop on both feet.
      - Most flightless, fast-running birds have three toes on each foot while the ostrich is the only two-toed bird.
    - - All birds have wings. Most birds can fly while some don't like to and others are flightless.
      - Wings are a few slim bones covered with thin skin with feathers attached.
      - A bird usually jumps or falls to get into the air and then begins flapping its wings in upstrokes and downstrokes. When landing, a birds spreads out its wings and tail like a brake.
        Birds have differents shapes and sizes of wings depending on their lifestyle.
    - - All birds have bills or beaks that are used as special tools to get the food that a bird wants.
        Bills are also used to preen (smooth) a bird's feathers.
        Some birds have places near the tails that give off an oily liquid when rubbed. This liquid is smeared onto the bill and then rubbed through the feathers, making them glossy, waterproof and smooth.
        Other birds clean themselves using a powder that comes from special feathers.
      - Bills are also used by birds to help carry building materials and make a nest.
      - Birds like woodpeckers have chisel-like bills that are used to pound against a tree and make a hole in the bark to get at the insects.
      - A spoonbill which wades by the seashore with its head underwater has a shovel-like beak which it uses to shovel small fish and other food in its mouth.
      - Sparrows, who eat things from the ground have tweezer-like bills.
      - Parrots who eat nuts and seeds, have nut-cracker like bills.
      - Hummingbirds, who sip nectar from flowers have a long hollow tube as a bill which acts like a drinking straw.
      - Herons have long and pointed, spear-like bills to lift fish out of the water.
    - - Birds usually nest in springtime and do so to lay eggs. Birds build different kinds of nests according to where they live.
    - - Eggs need to be kept warm for the babies inside. Keeping eggs warm by crouching over them is called incubation.
      - When the babies are full sized, the begin to push their way out using a sharp spike on their bills, called an egg-tooth.
      - Many baby birds are completely helpless when they hatch and need to be taken very good care of. Since they don't have feathers at this stage, the parents need to keep them warm by brooding, which is a process in which the crouch over the babies and cover them with their wings.
    - - They are the largest birds in the world which makes it impossible for their wings to support them enough to be able to fly. Instead, they run as fast as racehorses and their kicks are powerful enough to rip open a lion's body.
      - They live in flocks in the dry parts of Africa, searching for food and water. They usually eat plants, but may also eat small reptiles. They can survive for long without water if they have enough green plants to eat.
    - - Ducks, geese and swans are known as waterfowl because they spend most of their time in various water bodies.
      - They are fine swimmers.
      - Dabbling ducks
        
        These ducks put their heads underwater with their feet and tails sticking up straight to feed on water insects, plants, and snails.
        
        Mallards, widgeons, and teals are some dabbling ducks. Even swans feed this way too, but they mostly eat plants.
      - Diving ducks like Pochard ducks dive down and eat underwater. They mostly eat water plants.
      - Geese usually feed on land. They eat grass, seeds, and plants.
      - Swans and geese make untidy heaps of grass and plants close to water as nests.
        Dabbling ducks, and many diving ducks, nest on the ground.
        Shelducks make nests in empty rabbit holes and other animal burrows.
      - Before building nests, special "nest-down" feathers grow on the breasts of females and after she lays eggs, she plucks these feathers off and lines her nest with them.
    - - Birds such as kingfishers dive in water to find food.
      - Grebes are very skilled underwater but are extremely clumsy on land. They are called water witches.
      - Puffins live in large colonies and like to spend a lot of time in the sea.
      - Pelicans have large pouches on the lower parts of their bills that they use to scoop fish out of the water.
    - - Sharp Claws - Talons
      - Strong, curved beaks.
      - Excellent Eyesight
      - Carrion Eaters eat dead animals.
        
        Help clean the environment.
    - - Enormous eyes - can see in least bit of light
      - Very keen ears.
      - Very soft wing feathers - soundless.
      - Kills prey instantly, eats it whole.
      - Coughs up the fur and large bones of prey in a lump called a pellet.
  - - - Crustaceans have 10 legs, 4 feelers/antennae.
      - Feelers are used for touching and feeling, and sometimes smelling.
      - Breathe through gills.
    - - Spiders
        
        They weave webs made of special silk which is a liquid that becomes a thin, strong thread when it comes out of spinnerets (tiny holes at the back end of spiders).
        
        Some have poisonous bites. Tarantulas' bites are like bee stings, and they can be tamed and kept as pets.
        
        Spiders spin a ball of silk around their eggs. When the babies hatch, they are blown away on long threads of silk.
      - Scorpions
        
        Close relations of spiders.
        
        Don't lay eggs.
        
        Live in warm places.
        
        Hide under rocks in the day and hunt at night.
        
        Long jointed tail with dangerous sting.
    - - Six-legs, two feelers, mostly have two wings, some have four
      - Flies taste using feet and smell with their feelers.
      - Ladybirds
        
        About 4,000 kinds
        
        Come in colors like red, yellow, and black. These bright colors are probably warnings to birds that ladybirds should be left alone as they taste bad.
        
        They have wing covers; this are one of the things that make them beetles.
        
        Very useful because they eat aphids and other insects that destroy crops.
      - All insects grow from eggs to adult in four stages called metamorphosis. Some of them only go through 3 stages.
      - Termites
        
        Termite towers (nests) are sealed-up cities with many tunnels and rooms. Termites who live here have different jobs.
        
        Worker termites do all kinds of tasks, like tending to the fungus gardens.
        
        Soldier termites protect the nest and fight.
        
        The queen lays upto 40,000 eggs a day for which she needs to eat a lot. This causes her to be much bigger than the others.
      - Army ants do not make nests, sometimes they 'make camp' and for about 9 days, the queen lays thousands of eggs while other babies are slowly becoming adults through metamorphosis. When the eggs hatch and the new adults arrive, they are very hungry and so begins the army ants' march for food. Most kinds of army ants are blind, hence, they just follow the trails of the ant in front of them. Worker ants carry the babies along with them.
  - - - This restricts movement.
  - - - Thousands of fish in a shoal which act as one. They copy each other very quickly.
      - Safer, easier to find food, the shoal may travel to a common egg-laying spot; this makes it easier to find mates.
    - - Their skeletons are made up of cartilage/gristle.
      - Very rough skin because of millions of tiny teeth-like scales.
      - No gill covers; no air bladder, hence have to keep swimming or will drown.
      - Most give birth to live babies. Some lay eggs enclosed in hard, leathery cases called mermaids' purses.
      - Usually found in warm waters, but the sleeper shark lives at the North Pole. Its name is such because it moves so slowly, it seems to be half asleep, yet it is still able to catch seals too.
      - The wobbegong shark spends most of its time on the seafloor and is disguised so well that prey mistakes it for a rock or seaweed.
  - - - Usually have 5 arms, sometimes more.
      - Little tubes on the underside of each arm are the starfish's feet.
      - Small reddish spots (eyes) are at the end of each arm.
      - Starfish find food mainly by smell.
      - On finding a clam, the starfish attaches itself onto it with its feet.
      - Then, it starts prising the shell a tiny bit open.
      - The starfish pushes out its stomach through an opening in its body and pushes it into the clam's shell. Special juices from the stomach make the clam almost liquid and it is digested.
      - Can regrow arms.
    - - Round and plump with needles all over.
      - Some have poisonous spines.
      - A sea urchin's spines are for protection.
    - - Lots of tiny, tube-like feet onto which food gets stuck.
      - They just poke each tube into their mouths and sucks up the food.
  - - - Looks a lot like the flower anemone.
      - Lives on the sea bed, usually in coral reefs or rock pools.
      - They stick their arms out. When an arm touches something, poisonous threads shoot out which paralyse the creature.
    - - Almost completely made out of water.
      - It swims by opening and closing its body.
    - - Tiny creatures born without skeletons.
      - Often live in large groups. Their outer skeletons are joined together.
      - Makes its skeleton out of the chemicals it takes from the water.
      - The skeletons are called coral which, if spanning over a wide area, are called coral reefs.
      - The skeleton is cup-like and a polyp hides in it during the day. But, at night, it pokes out its wavy tentacles out of the coral to catch food.