Hooray for summer! Find out why this sunny season deserves a warm welcome.
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Flamingos are famous for their bright pink feathers, stilt-like legs, and S-shaped neck. When a flamingo spots potential dinner—favorite foods include shrimp, snails, and plantlike water organisms called algae—it plunges its head into the water, twists it upside down, and scoops the fish using its upper beak like a shovel. They are able to „run“ on water, thanks to their webbed feet, to gain speed before lifting up into the sky. Flamingos build nests that look like mounds of mud along waterways. At the top of the mound, in a shallow hole, the female lays one egg. The parents take turns sitting on the egg to keep it warm. After about 30 days, the egg hatches. Flamingo young are born white, with soft, downy feathers and a straight bill. The bill gradually curves downward as the flamingo matures. Both parents take care of the newborn flamingo, feeding it a fluid produced in their digestive systems. The young leave the nest after about five days to join other young flamingos in small groups, returning to the parents for food. The parents identify their chick by its voice. After about three weeks, the adults herd young flamingos into large groups called crèches where they start to look for food on their own. Most flamingo species are not endangered, although the Andean flamingo is listed as Vulnerable, and the Chilean, Lesser, and Puna flamingos are Near Threatened.
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Slowly stalking down the snowy hillside, the Amur leopard watches its prey through the trees. In the clearing below, a sika deer munches on tree bark, one of its few remaining food sources during the cold Russian winter. The leopard crouches, its body so low to the ground that its belly fur brushes the snow. Suddenly it bounds and springs forward, tackling the deer from 10 feet away. It’s dinnertime.
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Stingrays, with their wide, flat bodies, may not look like fish, but they are. They are related to sharks, and like their shark cousins, they do not have bones. Instead, their bodies are supported by cartilage—the same material that you feel inside the tip of your nose. Stingrays have broad fins that run the full length of their bodies, giving them a flat, roundish shape. To swim, some stingrays move their whole bodies in a wavy motion that propels them through the water. Other species flap their fins like bird wings and „fly“ through the water. Stingrays have tails that are armed for defense. Some kinds of stingrays have a spine in their tail with a very sharp point and edges that are serrated or notched. Many species, including the exotic-looking blue-spotted stingray, have venom that is delivered through their tails. That venom, and the spine itself, can be dangerous to humans. Stingrays prefer shallow, near-shore waters in warm parts of the world. Here, they spend most of their time lying partially buried on the ocean floor hiding from predators, like sharks, or waiting for prey to swim by. Their colors usually match the mud or sand they hide in. While a stingray’s mouth is on the underside of its body, along with its nostrils and gill slits, its eyes are on the top. Scientists don’t think they use their eyes for hunting very much though. Instead, they use special sensors called ampullae of Lorenzini, which can detect the tiny electrical charges emitted by their prey. Prey for stingrays includes clams, oysters, shrimps, crabs, and mussels. When they find dinner, stingrays crush their meal using strong jaws. Generally, female stingrays give birth once a year. They usually have two to six young at a time. While a baby stingray is still inside its mother, it grows to be quite large and developed so that when it’s born, it looks like a little adult. From birth, the young stingray is able to fend for itself.
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Scorpions are arachnids and have eight legs like their cousins—spiders, mites, and ticks. They can quickly grab an insect with their pincers and whip their telson, the poisonous tip of their tail forward and sting their prey. They use their poison to kill prey and to defend against predators. Scorpions look like small lobsters and may be the first animals to move from water to land hundreds of millions of years ago. They have been around since before the age of the dinosaurs. Fossils of scorpions from Scotland hundreds of millions of years ago show that their appearance hasn’t changed over the millennia, but they are now half the size of their ancient ancestors. Only 30 or 40 species around the world have strong enough poison to kill a person. Each species has a special type of venom that works well against a chosen prey. Scorpions typically eat insects, but when food is scarce, they can slow their metabolism to as little as one-third the typical rate for arthropods. This technique enables some species to use little oxygen and live on only one insect per year. Such survival skills allow scorpions to live in some of the planet’s toughest environments. Researchers have even frozen scorpions overnight, only to put them in the sun the next day and watch them thaw out and walk away. However, they are burrowing animals, so in areas of permafrost or heavy grasses, where loose soil is not available, scorpions may not be able to survive.
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Space explorers go above and beyond on the job. Here are five cool things about these pioneers.
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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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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 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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You’ll want to go to bat for these awesome mammals after reading about their supercool skills.
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