This enormous marine reptile had a monster-size appetite!
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Burmese pythons, one of the largest snakes in the world, are best known for the way they catch and eat their food. The snake uses its sharp rearward-pointing teeth to seize prey, and then coils its body around the animal, squeezing a little tighter with each exhale until the animal suffocates. Stretchy ligaments in their jaws allow them to swallow animals up to five times as wide as their head! Burmese pythons are carnivores, eating mostly small mammals and birds. But exceptionally large pythons may search for larger food items like pigs or goats. Pythons have even been known to have attacked and eaten alligators! They have poor eyesight, so instead they stalk prey using chemical receptors in their tongues and heat-sensors along their jaws. Burmese pythons are among the largest snakes on Earth. They are capable of reaching 23 feet (7 meters) or more in length and weighing up to 200 pounds (90 kilograms) with a girth as big as a telephone pole. When they are young, Burmese pythons will spend equal time on the ground and in the trees. But are they grow larger they tend to stay on the ground because the trees can’t hold them anymore! They are also excellent swimmers and can stay submerged up to 30 minutes. The Burmese python is an invasive species in the Florida Everglades. According to the National Park Service, tens of thousands of these snakes exist there. Females lay clutches of up to 100 eggs, which they incubate for two to three months. To keep their eggs warm, they continually contract, or shiver, their muscles. When the baby snakes hatch they use their special egg tooth to cut their way out of their egg and the mother leaves. The newly hatched baby python will often remain inside its egg until it finishes shedding its first shedding of skin, then it will hunt for its first meal all by itself.
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These beautifully colored sea turtles got their name because their oversized head sort of looks like a big log. Within their heads are powerful jaws, which loggerheads use for crushing prey like conchs, horseshoe crabs, and other animals with hard shells. They also eat softer foods like jellyfish, fish, seaweed, and a brown algae called sargassum. Loggerheads live in oceans all over the world, except in the coldest seas. There are more loggerheads in the waters of the United States than any other species of sea turtle. A female loggerhead sea turtle may travel thousands of miles to return to the beach where she hatched as a baby to lay her own eggs as an adult. A loggerhead female generally nests every two to three years. On average, she’ll lay eggs four times in one nesting season. Each time, she comes ashore and uses her front flippers to clear a spot in dry sand. Then she uses her hind flippers to dig her nesting hole and gently lay her eggs. Those that remain undisturbed hatch about 60 days later. Hatchlings dig their way up through the sand toward the surface and wait just underneath the last layer of sand until nightfall. Once cooler temperatures signal that the sun has set, the hatchlings pop the rest of the way out and scurry toward the ocean avoiding raccoons, crabs, birds, and other predators.
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A blob the size of a teacup slinks along the ocean floor in the shallow waters off of Australia. It’s a type of sea slug called the nudibranch (NEW-dih-bronk), a slime-oozing creature with a boneless body. Many of them also sport brilliant colors and eye-catching patterns on their skin. In fact this sticky slug is often considered one of the most beautiful animals in the world. IN THE MOOD FOR FOOD Over 3,000 species of nudibranchs exist, and most live in shallow, tropical waters. They can be anywhere from a quarter of an inch to 12 inches long and can weigh up to 3.3 pounds. These sea slugs spend their time sliding on their bellies around their habitat in search of snacks. The animals have a set of curved teeth, which they use to eat coral, sponges, and fish eggs off the ocean floor. Nudibranchs use tentacles on their heads to poke around for grub. TRUE COLORS The nudibranch’s meals don’t just satisfy its hunger—the food also gives the animal its coloring. When the sea slug eats, it absorbs and displays its prey’s pigment—the substance that gives the prey its color. Some nudibranchs also absorb toxins from certain prey and secrete the poison from their own skin. This allows them to fend off enemies such as fish. So the nudibranch is stunning, resourceful, and it recycles? This slug sounds far from sluggish! Text by Andrea Silen / NGS Staff
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These animals have a reputation for being slow—but they’ll quickly amaze you. Here are five cool things about sloths.
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The red-tailed hawk is a top predator. The hawks use tall perches to spot their prey in the open spaces next to highways. Red-tailed hawks also hunt from the air. As they circle and soar, they can spot a mouse from 100 feet (30 meters) up in the air—about ten stories high. When a red-tailed hawk spots a rodent, rabbit, lizard, or other prey scurrying, it swoops down and grabs its meal in its talons—the big claws on its feet. Once the hawk grabs its prey, it usually flies back up to its perch to eat it. They were named for the variety that has a brick-red tail. Male and female red-tailed hawks basically look alike, though the females are larger. Red-tailed hawks often mate for life. The pair makes a stick nest in a tree, high above the ground. They will use the nest year after year, so it grows bigger and bigger. The female hawk lays one to five eggs—which are white with brown spots. The parents take turns sitting on the eggs, keeping them warm and safe. Baby red-tailed hawks are covered with white, downy feathers. The hawk parents feed their young until the young birds can leave the nest, usually when they’re about six weeks old.
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Octopuses are sea animals famous for their rounded bodies, bulging eyes, and eight long arms. They live in all the world’s oceans but are especially abundant in warm, tropical waters. Octopuses, like their cousin, the squid, are often considered “monsters of the deep,” though some species, or types, occupy relatively shallow waters. Most octopuses stay along the ocean’s floor, although some species are pelagic, which means they live near the water’s surface. Other octopus species live in deep, dark waters, rising from below at dawn and dusk to search for food. Crabs, shrimps, and lobsters rank among their favorite foods, though some can attack larger prey, like sharks. Octopuses typically drop down on their prey from above and, using powerful suctions that line their arms, pull the animal into their mouth. The octopus performs its famous backward swim by blasting water through a muscular tube on the body called a siphon. Octopuses also crawl along the ocean’s floor, tucking their arms into small openings to search for food. Seals, whales, and large fish prey on octopuses. If threatened, octopuses shoot an inky fluid that darkens the water, confusing the aggressor. The octopus can also change to gray, brown, pink, blue, or green to blend in with its surroundings. Octopuses may also change color as a way to communicate with other octopuses. Octopuses are solitary creatures that live alone in dens built from rocks, which the octopus moves into place using its powerful arms. Octopuses sometimes even fashion a rock “door” for their den that pulls closed when the octopus is safely inside.
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The aardvark gets its name from a South African word meaning “earth pig.” Although the aardvark looks like a pig, especially with its body and snout, aardvarks actually share common ancestors with elephants and golden moles. Aardvarks live throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. STRONG CLAWS Aardvarks use their large front claws to dig holes at a rate of 2 feet (0.6 meters) in 15 seconds so they can quickly get to their favorite meal: termites and ants. Aardvarks have long, sticky tongues, which can be up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) long. Each night, they are able to dig up termite mounds and ant nests and slurp up and swallow tens of thousands of insects. Aardvarks are most active at night and tend to live alone. During the day, they sleep curled up in a ball in their burrows. As night falls, aardvarks will emerge cautiously from their dens, jumping around on the lookout for predators. They are able to see at night, but otherwise have poor vision and are color-blind. They rely on their senses of sound and smell, using their long ears and snouts to get around and find insects. Female aardvarks give birth in their burrow usually to one baby at a time. A baby aardvark stays in the burrow for two weeks and then begins to venture out to forage at night with its mom. Babies begin digging for their own meals when they reach six months and they grow to full size in about one year. The aardvark’s fast digging skill also helps protect it from predators, such as hyenas and lions. When threatened, an aardvark can dig a hole and cover itself up in about ten minutes. Its large claws are another layer of defense. Though aardvarks remain widespread, humans are the aardvark’s biggest threat. Some landowners don’t like the holes that aardvarks leave behind and kill the aardvarks. The use of pesticides to grow crops on land inhabited by aardvarks has also reduced the number of insects available for aardvarks to eat. Text by Jed Winer/NGS Staff
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Get pictures and fun facts about eight wild roller coasters.
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This double-crested dino was an early top predator.
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