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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.
Comeback critters See how animal species in trouble have come back from the brink

Youngsters tumble, climb, and run playing follow the leader. Another group plays a rowdy game of king of the mountain. Several adults watch the action, relaxing nearby. Is this a playground scene at school? No, guess again. It’s a lush mountain forest high in the Virunga mountains of Africa, and the playmates are young mountain gorillas under the watchful eyes of their mothers. For a long time the image most people had of a gorilla encounter included chest pounding, roaring, charging, and big, bared teeth. But researchers studying gorillas reveal a very different picture of mountain gorillas. The animals are peaceful, gentle, social, and mainly vegetarian creatures. The occasional ferocious-looking, impressive displays are generally from a male gorilla protecting his family group from a threat. A typical group is led by the biggest and strongest mature male gorilla—often the guy doing any chest pounding or charging. He’s called a silverback because the hair on a male’s back turns from black to silvery gray as he matures. This happens when he is between 11 and 13 years old. A silverback’s group normally includes a subadult male or two and a few females and their young. Mountain gorillas wander around a home range of up to 15 square miles (39 square kilometers). Mountain gorillas spend much of their time eating. Their food includes a variety of plants, along with a few insects and worms. At night the animals make a nest to sleep in. Many lightweight gorillas nest in trees, making beds of bent branches. The heavier individuals may nest in grasses on the ground. Babies snuggle with their mothers for the night. Life for mountain gorillas isn’t all peaceful. They are endangered, threatened by civil war in a small area of Africa where they live. Hunters kill them for food or trophies. Their forests are chopped down for farmland, fuel, and housing. But many dedicated scientists, park rangers, and other concerned people are working hard to protect mountain gorillas, their forests, and their way of life in the mountains.
Comeback critters See how animal species in trouble have come back from the brink

When a great white shark is born, along with up to a dozen siblings, it immediately swims away from its mother. Born on the east and west coasts of North America, the south of Africa and southwest Australia, baby sharks are on their own right from the start. Their mother may see them only as prey. At birth the baby shark is already about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long; as it grows it may reach a length up to four times that. The pup (which is what a baby shark is called) will live its life at the top of the ocean’s food chain. But before it grows larger, the pup must avoid predators bigger than it is—including other great white sharks. Many baby sharks do not survive their first year. Young great white sharks eat fish (including other sharks) and rays. As they grow, the sharks’ favorite prey becomes sea mammals, especially sea lions and seals. Sharks count on the element of surprise as they hunt. When they see a seal at the surface of the water, sharks will often position themselves underneath the seal. Using their tails as propellers, they swim upward at a fast sprint, burst out of the water in a leap called a breach, and fall back into the water with the seal in their mouths. They can smell a single drop of blood from up to a third of a mile (0.53 kilometers) away. Sharks don’t chew their food; they rip off chunks of meat and swallow them whole. They can last a month or two without another big meal.
Comeback critters See how animal species in trouble have come back from the brink

Balanced on a rock in the middle of a river, a black bear lowers her head to the water and … chomp! A wriggling salmon is no match for her strong jaws. She’s spent the summer eating berries and roots—now she’s eating all the salmon she can catch to gain as much weight as possible. She needs enough stored fat for her body to make milk for newborn cubs this winter.
This way, they don’t have to leave their dens and hunt for food in the bitter cold

Get the dirt on our planet and what makes it so awesome.
This means that many things on Earth have yet to be discovered.

Although Nile crocodiles resemble armored tanks with huge, teeth-filled mouths, these reptiles are unusually attentive parents. When a large male croc spots a female that catches his eye, he bellows and splashes, slapping his snout on the water to get her attention. He grunts and growls, and sometimes, inhales as hard as he can, submerging his snout and blowing water through his nostrils, producing a fountainlike spray. The female croc is ready to lay her eggs nearly two months after mating. She scouts the area for a suitable nest site in which to lay the eggs, usually digging a hole on a riverbank, shoreline, or dry streambed. She deposits from 25 to 80 eggs in the nest, then settles in for a long vigil. For a reptile, it’s an unusual display of devotion. Other reptiles lay their eggs, then move on. The female croc, however, will keep constant guard over the nest during the three-month incubation period, leaving only to cool off in a nearby shady spot or for a quick dip in the water. The male is usually close by to help scare off predators. Just before hatching, the young crocs send out high-pitched sounds—a signal for help. The female digs up the nest. The mother croc then carefully picks up the 12-inch- (30.5-centimeter-)long hatchlings in her mouth and carries them to the water. The young crocs live under their mother’s protection for up to two years, feeding on insects and small fish and growing about a foot (about 30 centimeters) each year.
Comeback critters See how animal species in trouble have come back from the brink

Get pictures and fun facts about eight wacky houses.
The bathroom of this toilet-shaped house may have glass walls, but don’t worry.

Scientists mixed up this dino with Brontosaurus.
Subscribe menu Apatosaurus may have migrated in herds like other large plant-eaters

This chicken-size dinosaur had feathers and winglike limbs.
called Anchiornis huxleyi, and it’s the oldest soaring dinosaur that paleontologists have

As nighttime approaches in a tropical rain forest in parts of Sumatra and Borneo in Asia, orangutans prepare for sleep. In forks of trees high off the ground, shaggy, red-haired apes bend branches down to form comfortable mattresses of leaves and twigs. They sometimes add a roof built from more branches, so that if it rains they will stay dry. Though an adult male orangutan can weigh up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms)—females weigh about half what males do—orangutans spend most of their time up in the trees. They are the largest of all arboreal animals. Equipped with very long, powerful arms and hook-shaped hands and feet, these apes climb and swing from tree to tree with ease. They reach from one tree to the next with their long arms, grasping the next branch with long hands or feet, and swing their bodies across the gap. If a baby following its mother reaches a gap between trees that is too wide for it to navigate, its mother makes a living bridge for the baby to scamper across. Sometimes heavier males can’t find branches strong enough to hold their weight, so they climb down to get to the next suitable tree. On the ground, orangutans walk on all fours. Orangutans find their food in the trees where they live. More than half their diet consists of fruit. They also eat nuts, bark, and other parts of plants and trees. Every once in a while they eat insects such as ants and termites, as well as bird eggs. Orangutans find the water they need for drinking up in the trees—in hollows, on leaves, or even on their own fur after a rain. Trees are essential to every aspect of the orangutans‘ world. The cutting down of trees—deforestation—has landed this species on the endangered species list.
Comeback critters See how animal species in trouble have come back from the brink