Get Information About Weasels

Weasels vary in length from 12 to 45 centimeters (5 to 18 in), and usually have a red or brown upper coat and a white belly; some populations of some species moult to a wholly white coat in winter. They have long slender bodies, which enable them to follow their prey into burrows. Their tails may be from 22 to 33 centimeters (9 to 13 in) long. As is typical of small omnivores, weasels have a reputation for cleverness and guile.

Weasels feed on small mammals, and have from time to time been considered vermin since some species took poultry from farms, or rabbits from commercial warrens. Weasels occur all across the world except for Antarctica, Australia, and neighboring islands.

Where it lives

• The weasel can be found almost anywhere in Canada (the coast, the mountains, the prairies and the far north). The weasel will move into a den of an animal that it has killed.

Babies

• In April, two to ten babies are born in a burrow. The nest is lined with fur from animals that the weasel has killed.
• The mother watches them closely and takes good care of them. In about five weeks their eyes are open. Young weasels begin to hunt when they are about two months old.

Appearance

• The weasel has a tiny face, sharp teeth and claws, and a tail with black fur at the tip. In winter it is white and in summer it is brown.

• The short-tailed weasel is a tiny animal, only 15 to 23 cm long.

Food

• It hunts for rabbits, rats, birds, frogs, ground squirrels and pika ( a small rodent that lives in the mountains) . It eats hundreds of meadow mice. Weasels that live in the north also feed on Arctic hare and lemming.

The weasel can find the open entrance to an animal's tunnel and hunt the animal underground.

The weasel usually hunts at night. It kills its prey by biting it at the back of the neck. Chicken farmers do not like the weasel. It can kill several chickens at a time. But weasels are useful animals because they eat many rats and mice.

Know About Dog Fish!!!

Dogfish name for a number of small sharks of several different families. Best known are the spiny dogfishes (family Squalidae) and the smooth dogfishes (family Triakidae). Spiny dogfishes have two spines, one in front of each dorsal fin, and lack an anal fin. The common spiny, or piked, dogfish ( Squalus acanthus ) is found in most oceans of the world and is particularly abundant in shallow, temperate waters.


Its gray skin is speckled with white. Females of this species may reach a length of 4 ft (120 cm) and weigh 15 to 20 lb (6.3-9 kg); males are smaller. The spines in this species contain venom that can cause a very painful wound. Spiny dogfishes migrate seasonally, preferring water within a certain temperature range. They feed on a variety of fishes and invertebrates and cause great damage to populations of commercially valuable fish. In Europe they are fished for food. Other members of the spiny dogfish family are found in deep water. The smooth dogfish ( Mustelis canis ) is found on the Atlantic coast of America from Brazil to Cape Cod. It is gray in color and grows to a length of about 5 ft (150 cm). Of no commercial value, it migrates seasonally and feeds on small fishes and invertebrates.


Like the spiny dogfish, the smooth dogfish is much used for dissection by students of vertebrate anatomy. The smooth dogfish family also includes two small sharks abundant on the Pacific coast of the United States, the brown smoothhound ( Rhinotriacis henlei ) and the leopard shark ( Triakis semifasciata ); the latter is strikingly marked with black on a tan background. The name dogfish also refers to certain unrelated bony fishes (see bowfin ). The dogfish sharks are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Chondrichthyes, order Selachii.

Long Life Giant Tortoise !!!

Tortoises (Testudinidae) or land turtles are a family of land-dwelling reptiles of the order of turtles (Testudines). Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge.

The tortoise has both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton. Tortoises can vary in size from a few centimeters to two meters. Tortoises are usually diurnal animals with tendencies to be crepuscular depending on the ambient temperatures. They are generally reclusive animals.

There are many old wives tales about the age of turtles and tortoises, one of which being that the age of a tortoise can be deduced by counting the number of concentric rings on its carapace, much like the cross-section of a tree. This is not true, since the growth of a tortoise depends highly on the accessibility of food and water. A tortoise that has access to plenty of forage (or is regularly fed by its owner) will grow faster than a Desert Tortoise that goes days without eating.

Tortoises generally have lifespan comparable with those of human beings, and some individuals are known to have lived longer than 150 years. Because of this, they symbolize longevity in some cultures, such as China.

The oldest tortoise ever recorded, and one of the oldest individual animals ever recorded, was Tu'i Malila, which was presented to the Tongan royal family by the British explorer Captain Cook shortly after its birth in 1777. Tui Malila remained in the care of the Tongan royal family until its death by natural causes on May 19, 1965. This means that upon its death, Tui Malila was 188 years old. The record for the longest-lived vertebrate is exceeded only by one other, a koi named Hanako whose death on July 17, 1977 ended a 226 year life span

Box Jellyfish-Poisonous Fish

The top prize for The World Most Venomous Animal,would go to the Box Jellyfish. It has caused at least 5,567 recorded deaths since 1954. Their venom is among the most deadly in the world. Its toxins attack the heart, nervous system, and skin cells.



And the worst part of it is that jelly box venom is so overpoweringly painful, that human victims go in shock, drown or die of heart failure before even reaching shore. Survivors experience pain weeks after the contact with box jellies.




You have virtually no chance to survive the venomous sting, unless treated immediately. After a sting, vinegar should be applied for a minimum of 30 seconds. Vinegar has acetic acid, which disables the box jellys nematocysts that have not yet discharged into the bloodstream (though it will not alleviate the pain). Wearing panty hose while swimming is also a good prevention measure since it can prevent jellies from being able to harm your legs.

Jelly box can be found in the waters around Asia and Australia.

Castor Canadensis specifics

The North American Beaver (Castor Canadensis) is the only species of beaver in the Americas, native to North America and introduced to South America. In the United States and Canada, where no other species of beaver occurs, it is usually simply referred to as beaver. Its other vernacular names, including American beaver and Canadian beaver, distinguish this species from the one other extant beaver, Castor fiber, native to Eurasia.


This beaver is the largest rodent in North America and the third largest rodent in the world, after the South American capybara and the Eurasian beaver. Adults usually weigh 15 to 35 kg (33 to 77 lb), with 20 kg (44 lb) a typical mass, and measure around 1 m (3.3 ft) in total body length. Very old individuals can weigh as much as 45 kg (99 lb).


Beavers are mainly active at night. They are excellent swimmers but are more vulnerable on land and tend to remain in the water as much as possible. They are able to remain submerged for up to 15 minutes. They use their flat, scaly tail both to signal danger by slapping the surface of the water and as a location for fat storage.


They construct their homes, or "lodges," out of sticks, twigs, and mud in lakes, streams, and tidal river deltas. These lodges may be surrounded by water, or touching land, including burrows dug into river banks. They are well known for building dams across streams and constructing their lodge in the artificial pond which forms.

When building in a pond, the beavers first make a pile of sticks and then eat out one or more underwater entrances and two platforms above the water surface inside the pile. The first is used for drying off. Towards winter, the lodge is often plastered with mud which when it freezes has the consistency of concrete. A small air hole is left in the top of the lodge.

Odobenus rosmarus-Facts

The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic Walrus (O. rosmarus rosmarus) which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Walrus (O. rosmarus divergens) which lives in the Pacific Ocean, and O. rosmarus laptevi, which lives in the Laptev Sea.



The walrus is immediately recognized by its prominent tusks, whiskers and great bulk. Adult Pacific males can weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,700 lb) and, among pinnipeds, are exceeded in size only by the two species of elephant seals.



It resides primarily in shallow oceanic shelf habitat, spending a significant proportion of its life on sea ice in pursuit of its preferred diet of benthic bivalve mollusks. It is a relatively long-lived, social animal and is considered a keystone species in Arctic marine ecosystems.

Average Mass (lb): 2,645 (1200 kg)

Maximum Mass (lb): 4,500 (2150 kg)

Average Length (ft): 11

The walrus has played a prominent role in the cultures of many indigenous Arctic peoples, who have hunted the walrus for its meat, fat, skin, tusks and bone.[citation needed] In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the walrus was the object of heavy commercial exploitation for blubber and ivory and its numbers declined rapidly. Its global population has since rebounded, though the Atlantic and Laptev populations remain fragmented and at historically depressed levels.

Deep Sea Adventures-Vampire Squid!!!

Fine it is the center of the week, my driveway at a halt wants to be shovel and here I am writing a Wild Fact concerning a deep sea creature called the Vampire Squid.

In my opinion I think I made a great choice to sit down and write about this extremely single animal instead of braving the cold, windy, Yukon night. In order for us to get to know the Vampire Squid a little better you may want to put on your wetsuit and clutch an oxygen tank since we are heading to the deep blue sea. Usually they can be found in clement or tropical parts of the ocean. So we need to choose which area we want to go swimming in. My vote is for the tropical area.

The Vampire Squid is not a very big animal as the main they will characteristically grow to be only 30 cm (1 foot) long. Their actual jelly-like body is only about 15 cm (6″) long while their eight arms make up the rest of their length. You may have notice from the picture that their arms in fact have a webbing of skin attaching them together.

This webbing is pretty cool since the Vampire Squid is able to pull their arms over their body and use this web to protect themselves against attacker.

• Sticking with their arms, you will discover a single row of suction cups on each arm as well as soft spine which are known as cirri. Put in the cape-like webbing, soft spine structures to the fact that these squids have red eyes and you have the motive they are called Vampire Squid.

This revenue the squid is able to light up anytime they feel like. I would like to see those “show-off” normal vampires use bio luminescence to draw prey and disorient oncoming predators.

• This light show that the Vampire Squid display is most probable their main form of protection. Unlike other squid’s they don’t have an ink sac to help defend against the bully of the sea. Although, if belongings get really bad they can let go a cloud of bio-luminescent mucus from their arms, One more cause why the Vampire Squid is way cooler than the regular.

Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth Habitation

Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) is a species of sloth from Central and South America. It is a solitary nocturnal and arboreal animal, found in mature and secondary rainforests and deciduous forests.

With their shaggy fur, huge claws, and deliberate movements, two-toed sloths are unlikely to be confused with any other animal. At 5.5 to 7 kg (12–15 lbs) and about 60 cm (2 ft) in length, these nocturnal animals are the perfect size for moving about in the treetops of their rainforest habitat.

Two-toed sloths spend most of their time in trees, though they may travel on the ground to move to a new tree, and are excellent swimmers. They are strictly nocturnal, moving slowly through the canopy after dark, munching on leaves. The name "sloth" means "lazy," but the slow movements of this animal are actually an adaptation for surviving on a low-energy diet of leaves.

Female sloths may live in groups, while male sloths are usually solitary. In the wild, there are about 11 times more female two-toed sloths than male two-toed sloths. Female two-toed sloths give birth to a single offspring after an 11.5 month gestation period. The pup will nurse for at least 9 months, and may remain near its mother for more than 2 years. Two-toed sloths reach maturity at 4 to 5 years old.