BOOKLET

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Animals

Animals Mammals Mammals include humans and all other animals that are warm-blooded vertebrates (vertebrates have backbones) with hair. They feed their young with milk and have a more well-developed brain than other types of animals. African elephant When an elephant drinks, it sucks as much as 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of water into its trunk at a time.Then it curls its trunk under, sticks the tip of its trunk into its mouth, and blows. Out comes the water, right down the elephant’s throat. Since african elephants live where the sun is usually blazing UNSPLASH UNSPLASH hot, they use their trunks to help them keep cool. First they squirt a trunkful of cool water over their bodies.Then they often follow that with a sprinkling of dust to create a protective layer of dirt on their skin. Elephants pick up and spray dust the same way they do water—with their trunks. Elephants also use their trunks as snorkels when they wade in deep water. An elephant’s trunk is controlled by many muscles.Two fingerlike parts on the tip of the trunk allow the elephant to perform delicate maneuvers such as picking a berry from the ground or plucking a single leaf off a tree. Elephants can also use its trunk to grasp an entire tree branch and pull it down to its mouth and to yank up clumps of grasses and shove the greenery into their mouths. When an elephant gets a whiff of something interesting, UNSPLASH it sniffs the air with its trunk raised up like a submarine periscope. If threatened, an elephant will also use its trunk Common name: african elephants to make loud trumpeting noises as a warning. Scientific name: loxodonta Elephants are social creatures.They sometimes hug by Type: mammals wrapping their trunks together in displays of greeting Diet: herbivore and affection. Elephants also use their trunks to help lift Group name: herd or nudge an elephant calf over an obstacle, to rescue a Average life span in the wild: Up to 70 fellow elephant stuck in mud, or to gently raise a newborn years elephant to its feet. And just as a human baby sucks its Size: Height at the shoulder, 8.2 to 13 thumb, an elephant calf often sucks its trunk for comfort. feet One elephant can eat 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of Weight: 2.5 to seven tons. food in one day. People hunt elephants mainly for their ivory tusks. Adult females and young travel in herds, while adult males generally travel alone or in groups of their own. 2

Beluga whale UNSPLASH The beluga, or white whale, is one of the smallest species of whale.Their distinctive color and prominent foreheads make them easily identifiable. Unlike most other whales, the beluga has a very flexible neck that enables it to nod and turn its head in all directions. Belugas generally live together in small groups known as pods.They are social animals and vocal communicators using a diversified language of clicks, whistles, and clangs. Belugas can also copy a variety of other sounds. These whales are common in the arctic ocean›s coastal waters, though they are found Common name: Beluga whale in subarctic waters as well.Arctic belugas migrate southward in large herds when the Scientific name: Delphinapterus leucas sea freezes over. Belugas feed on fish, crustaceans, and worms.The whale is related to Type: Mammals the tusked «unicorn» whale known as the narwhal. Diet: Carnivore Group name: Pod The beluga is not related to the sturgeon of the same name, which has been heavily Average life span in the wild: 35 to 50 fished for its famous caviar. years Size: 13 to 20 feet Weight: 1 to 1.5 tons 3

Clown anemonefish Seahorse Fish are vertebrates (vertebrates have backbones) that live in water.They breathe using Seahorses are tiny fishes that are named for the shape special organs called gills.This 4-inch-long (10-centimeter-long) fish shares an amazing of their head, which looks like the head of a tiny horse. partnership with another sea creature: the anemone (pronounced: uh-nem-uh-nee). There are at least 25 species of seahorses.You’ll find seahorses in the world’s tropical and temperate coastal The partnership benefits both participants, and the close relationship led to the fish waters, swimming upright among seaweed and other being named an anemonefish. Anemones have tentacles that sting, but the clownfish plants. Seahorses use their dorsal fins (back fins) to isn›t bothered by them. In fact, it lives among the tentacles. propel slowly forward.To move up and down, seahorses adjust the volume of air in their swim bladders, which is Living among the tentacles of the anemone, the clown anemonefish gains protection an air pocket inside their bodies. from predators—which don›t dare get near the stinging protector. The anemonefish also gets to eat leftovers from the anemone›s meals.The anemone benefits from having Tiny, spiny plates cover seahorses› bodies all the the fish around, too.The useful fish nibbles away parasites that bug the anemone. And way down to their curled, flexible tails.The tail can sometimes the anemonefish brings food into the tentacles which the anemone can also grasp objects, helpful when seahorses want to anchor eat. Generally several anemonefish make one host anemone their home. themselves to vegetation. FishUNSPLASH A female seahorse lays dozens, sometimes hundreds, of eggs in a pouch on the male seahorse’s abdomen. Called a brood pouch, it resembles a kangaroo’s pouch for carrying young. Seahorse young hatch after up to 45 days in the brood pouch.The baby seahorses, each about the size of a jelly bean, find other baby seahorses and float together in small groups, clinging to each other using their tails. Unlike kangaroos, baby seahorses do not return to the pouch.They must find food and hide from predators as soon as they’re born. Common name: Clownfish Scientific name: Amphiprioninae Type: Fish Diet: Carnivore Group name: School Average life span in the wild: 6 to 10 years Size: 4.3 inches Common name: Seahorses Scientific name: Hippocampus Type: Fish Diet: Carnivore Group name: Herd Average life span in the wild: 1 to 5 years Size: 0.6 to 14 inches UNSPLASH 4

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birds Birds are warm-blooded vertebrates (vertebrates have backbones) and are the only animals with feathers. Although all birds have wings, a few species can›t fly. UNSPLASH 6

UNSPLASH Adélie penguin Adélie penguins breed and raise their young on the continent of antarctica. In september Bald eagles can soar over 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) high, and october—springtime in that part of the world—thousands of adélies gather on the and their great eyesight lets them see fish up to a mile rocky antarctic shoreline.The huge gatherings are called colonies. (1.6 kilometers) away.When they attack, they drop down at up to 100 miles (161 kilometers) an hour! Then they Adélie penguins build nests by scooping out areas in the ground.The female usually lays glide just above the water, snag a fish with their feet, and two eggs in the nest. Adélie penguin eggs hatch in december. fly off to eat it. In the antarctic winter, the adélie penguins live at sea. Both parents care for the eggs. Bald eagles were on the brink of extinction because of While one stays behind keeping the eggs warm and safe from predators, the other hunting and pollution. But laws created almost 40 years parent heads out to sea to eat.They feast mainly on krill, tiny shrimplike animals, but also ago have helped protect them, and they›ve made a eat fish and squid. comeback. Parents take turns caring for their youngsters after they hatch until the chicks are about Female bald eagles are a bit bigger than males.Their bod- three weeks old. At that point, both parents may leave to forage for food while the chicks ies can be three feet (one meter) long, and their wing- gather in the safety of a large group of other young penguins.These groups of young span can be eight feet (2.4 meters) across.Thats about the adélies are called crèches. distance from the floor to the ceiling! Eagle nests are called aeries (air-ees). Bald eagles build By march, when adélie chicks are about nine weeks old, their downy baby feathers have their nests at the very top of tall trees so the eggs will be been replaced by waterproof adult feathers.They plunge into the sea, and start hunting safe. Some parents come back year after year to the same for food on their own. nest, adding more sticks, twigs, and grass each time. Like other penguin species, adélies are excellent swimmers.They›re powerful and graceful in the water, with torpedo-shaped bodies that pierce through the water.Their modified wings help propel them through water instead of air.These birds are swimmers, not fliers. Bald eagle A bald eagle›s white head may make it look bald. But actually the name comes from an Common name: Adélie penguin old english word, «balde,» meaning white.These graceful birds have been the national Scientific name: Pygoscelis adeliae symbol of the united states since 1782. Type: Birds Diet: Carnivore Babies, called eaglets, are born light gray then turn brown.When they are four to five Group name: Colony years old, they develop their normal white heads and tails. In the wild, they can live to Average life span in the wild: 11 to 20 be 35 years old or more. years Size: 27.5 inches Weight: 8.5 to 12 pounds 7

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FATIMA MOHAMMED YOUSEF SUMMER 2021 UNSPLASH 8