The Viennese Vegetable Orchestra may be the world’s weirdest group of musicians. All of their instruments are carved out of vegetables and fruit! From pumpkin drums to celery guitars, each instrument is made fresh for each performance. Learn how to make one too!
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These frogs are considered one of Earth’s most toxic, or poisonous, species. For example, the golden poison dart frog has enough poison to kill 20,000 mice. With a range of bright colors—yellows, oranges, reds, greens, blues—they aren’t just big show-offs either. Those colorful designs tell potential predators, „I’m toxic. Don’t eat me.“ Scientists think that poison dart frogs get their toxicity from some of the insects they eat. How do poison dart frogs capture their prey? Slurp! With a long, sticky tongue that darts out and zaps the unsuspecting bug! The frogs eat many kinds of small insects, including fruit flies, ants, termites, young crickets, and tiny beetles, which are the ones scientists think may be responsible for the frogs‘ toxicity. Poison dart frogs live in the rain forests of Central and South America.
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The giant squid is massive and when full grown can be at least 33 feet (10 meters) long. These mysterious eight-armed creatures are rarely seen by humans. Most of what we know about them comes from finding them washed up on beaches. The largest of these hard-to-find giants ever found measured 59 feet (18 meters) in length and weighed nearly a ton (900 kilograms). Giant squid, along with their cousin, the colossal squid, have beach-ball size eyes! Their eyes are the largest eyes in the animal kingdom and are about 10 inches (25 centimeters) in diameter. Their big eyes help them to spy objects in dark depths where most other animals would see nothing. Like other squid species, they have eight arms and two longer whiplike tentacles that help them bring food to their beaklike mouths. Their diet likely consists of fish, shrimp, and other squid, and some suggest they might even attack and eat small whales. They maneuver their massive bodies with fins that seem too small for the rest of their bodies. They use their funnel as a propulsion system, drawing water into the mantle, or main part of the body, and forcing it out the back.
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Blue marlins are among the largest, fastest, and most recognizable fish in the world. Their cobalt blue and silvery white bodies and spear-shaped upper jaws make this big fish stand out in a big ocean. Just how big is a blue marlin? Female blue marlins can grow up to 14 feet (4.3 meters) in length and can weigh more than 1,985 pounds (900 kilograms)! This incredible predator lives a solitary life from the time it is born. The mother lays her eggs in the open water and they float along until hatching with no parental care. From then on, the fish spends most of its life alone, far from land, in the warm surface waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. They can swim long distances and will follow warm ocean currents for hundreds and even thousands of miles. Blue marlins usually feed at the surface where the water is warm, but they have been known to dive deep to feast on squid. To catch prey, blue marlins swim through dense schools of mackerel and tuna at full speed, slashing their upper jaw. They go back to the school to eat their stunned victims.
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These insects get their name because they have very long front legs that they hold in a position that reminds people of praying. There are about 1,800 species of praying mantids around the world. People often refer to any mantid as a praying mantis, but mantises are part of a smaller group within the mantids. Praying mantids are carnivores, eating mainly insects and other small animals. Many gardeners and farmers welcome mantids, because the insects they eat are often pests that hurt crops. In addition to insects such as crickets and grasshoppers, mantids eat spiders, frogs, lizards, and even small birds. Praying mantids have long necks topped by a triangular head. They can turn their heads 180 degrees—an entire half circle. They’re well-camouflaged, adapting colors that help them blend with plants. Some also have amazing body shapes that make them look like leaves or branches. Their front legs have rows of sharp spines to help them hold on to their prey, which they usually begin to eat head first!
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See animals from zoos and aquariums go on wild adventures.
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Check out the wacky poses of these upside-down animals.
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Jellyfish have drifted along on ocean currents for millions of years, even before dinosaurs lived on the Earth. The jellylike creatures pulse along on ocean currents and are abundant in cold and warm ocean water, in deep water, and along coastlines. But despite their name, jellyfish aren’t actually fish—they’re invertebrates, or animals with no backbones. Jellyfish have tiny stinging cells in their tentacles to stun or paralyze their prey before they eat them. Inside their bell-shaped body is an opening that is its mouth. They eat and discard waste from this opening. As jellyfish squirt water from their mouths they are propelled forward. Tentacles hang down from the smooth baglike body and sting their prey. Jellyfish stings can be painful to humans and sometimes very dangerous. But jellyfish don’t purposely attack humans. Most stings occur when people accidentally touch a jellyfish, but if the sting is from a dangerous species, it can be deadly. Jellyfish digest their food very quickly. They wouldn’t be able to float if they had to carry a large, undigested meal around. They dine on fish, shrimp, crabs and tiny plants. Sea turtles relish the taste of jellyfish. Some jellyfish are clear, but others are in vibrant colors such as pink, yellow, blue, and purple, and often are luminescent. The Chinese have fished jellyfish for 1,700 years. They are considered a delicacy and are used in Chinese medicine.
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Coyotes once lived only in prairies and deserts of the western United States and in Mexico. Today they thrive almost anywhere in North America. Adaptability—that’s the main reason for the success of the coyote. A coyote is naturally adaptable because it eats such a wide range of food. If it can’t find mice or voles to eat, lizards, insects, or even garbage will do. In Native American stories coyotes are clever and tricky. Some coyotes kill calves and lambs on people’s ranches and farms. For a century people have tried to kill coyotes by using poison, traps, and guns. Still coyotes continue to thrive. This trickster of Native American tales often gets fooled—but it always bounces back. Coyotes vary in body size from 32 to 37 inches (81 to 94 centimeters). Their tails can be up to 16 inches long (41 centimeters).
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Pufferfish can inflate into a ball shape to evade predators. Also known as blowfish, these clumsy swimmers fill their elastic stomachs with huge amounts of water (and sometimes air) and blow themselves up to several times their normal size. Some species also have spines on their skin to ward off predators. Even if a predator gobbles up a puffer before it inflates, it won’t enjoy the snack. Most pufferfish contain a toxic substance that makes them foul tasting and potentially deadly to other fish. The toxin is deadly to humans. There is enough poison in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote. In Japan, they are called fugu and are a very expensive, delicious treat. They are prepared only by trained, licensed fugu chefs. Most puffers are found in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but some species live in brackish and even fresh water. Some species of pufferfish are considered vulnerable due to pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing, but most populations are considered stable.
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