Colorado State Mammal: Big Horn Sheep

The bighorn sheep’s compact body is muscular, with chocolate brown fur trimmed in white on the muzzle, rump, and belly. Most weigh 160 to 250 pounds, but males may weigh more than 350 pounds and stand around 40 inches at the shoulder. Their wide-set eyes are situated well forward on the head, providing a wide arc of exceptional vision. The bighorn sheep’s keen eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell help it detect and avoid predators.

The bighorn sheep is one of two species of wild sheep in North America with large horns, the other being the Dall sheep (Ovis dalli). The latest science shows that “bighorn sheep” is one species, with three living subspecies: the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis), the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis sierrae)—formerly called the California bighorn sheep, and the desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni).

Large, curved horns—borne by the males, or rams—can weigh up to 30 pounds, as much as the rest of the bones in the male’s body. Older rams have massive horns that can grow over three feet long with a more than one-foot circumference at the base. Females, or ewes, also have horns, but they are short with only a slight curvature. Both rams and ewes use their horns as tools for eating and fighting.

Although not as agile as mountain goats, bighorn sheep are well-equipped for climbing the steep terrain that keeps their predators at bay. The outer hooves are modified toenails shaped to snag any slight protrusion, while a soft inner pad provides a grip that conforms to each variable surface.

Diet

In warmer months, bighorn sheep browses on grasses, clover, and sedges. It transitions to eating woody plants like willow and sage in colder months. In desert areas, bighorn sheep often eat plants such as holly and cacti.

As ruminants, grass-eating bighorn sheep have a complex four-part stomach that enables them to eat large portions rapidly before retreating to cliffs or ledges where they can thoroughly rechew and digest their food, safe from predators. Then bacteria takes over, breaking down plant fibers for digestion. The sheep also absorb moisture during this digestive process, enabling them to go for long periods without water.

Behavior

Mature males spend most of their year in bachelor flocks apart from groups of females and young sheep. Young females generally remain in their mother’s group (led by an older ewe) for life. All ewes are subordinate to even young rams with bigger horns.

Males depart their mother’s group around two to four years of age and join a group of rams. This is sometimes a tough time of wandering until the young rams find a male group, and they will sometimes take up with other species out of loneliness.

Life History

It is during the mating season or “rut” that the rams join the female groups and engage in fierce competition to establish access rights to ewes. Their dominance hierarchy is based on age and size (including horn size), which usually prevents rams younger than seven years old from mating. Younger males will mate sooner if dominant rams in their group are killed.

Mating competition involves two rams running toward one another at speeds around 40 miles an hour and clashing their curled horns, which produces a sound that can be heard a mile away. Most of the characteristic horn-clashing between rams occurs during the pre-rut period, although this behavior may occur to a limited extent throughout the year.

Longevity depends on population status. In declining or stable populations, most sheep live more than 10 years. Even in areas where no hunting occurs, females rarely make it past 15 and males rarely live beyond 12. Juvenile mortality is variable and can be quite high, ranging from 5 percent to 30 percent. Sheep between two and six years old have low mortality.

Fun Fact

Bighorn sheep groups protect themselves from predators by facing different directions, allowing them to keep watch on their surroundings.

California State Flower: Poppy

The California poppy (Eschscholzia Californica) was designated the state flower of California in 1903. Also known as the flame flower, la amapola, and copa de oro (cup of gold), the California poppy grows wild throughout the state. Native Americans in California valued the poppy as a food source and for the oil extracted from the plant. Every year, April 6 is California Poppy Day and May 13th – 18th is Poppy Week.

Seeds of this plant were introduced into English gardens in the nineteenth century. Seed catalogs now offer many different colors. California poppies have been planted in most of the United States and have become established along roadsides, in empty lots, and other disturbed places. In California, it is hard to tell anymore which poppies are native wildflowers and which are garden escapes.

California poppies are easy to grow. Sow the seeds shallowly (1/16-inch deep) in fall or early spring in mild, wet winter climates, including most of California west of the Sierra-Nevada. Seeds will germinate after the first fall rains or when the soil warms in the spring. In hot summer areas, the poppies will bloom in spring and early summer, and then the tops will die back and the plants become dormant during the heat of the summer. The poppy survives in the form of a fleshy taproot. In cooler coastal climates, California poppies may bloom most of the summer. Sandy, well-drained soil in full sun is best. No supplemental watering is required unless the growing season is exceptionally dry.

In mild-winter climates, these poppies will survive several years, resprouting each fall. They will reseed themselves if they are happy. Where winters are cold, the poppy behaves as an annual, renewing itself from seed each year. The flowers of California poppy close each night, and on cloudy days. Enjoy them where they grow. If you pick California poppies for a wildflower bouquet, you will be disappointed when the petals almost immediately fall off.

SOURCE: US FOREST SERVICE

California State Mammal: Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear is a kind of brown bear. Many people in North America use the common name “grizzly bear” to refer to the smaller and lighter-colored bear that occurs in interior areas and the term “brown bear” to refer to the larger and typically darker-colored bear in coastal areas. However, most of these bears are now considered the same subspecies.

Grizzly bears are large and range in color from very light tan (almost white) to dark brown. They have a dished face, short, rounded ears, and a large shoulder hump. The hump is where a mass of muscles attach to the bear’s backbone and give the bear additional strength for digging. They have very long claws on their front feet that also give them extra ability to dig after food and to dig their dens.

Grizzly bears weigh upward of 700 pounds. The males are heavier than the females and can weigh about 400 to 600 pounds. A large female can weigh about 250 to 350 pounds in the lower-48 States.

Diet

Grizzly bears are omnivores. The most commonly eaten kinds of plants are fleshy roots, fruits, berries, grasses, and forbs. If grizzly bears are on the hunt, their prey can include fish (especially salmon), rodents like ground squirrels, carrion, and hoofed animals like moose, elk, caribou, and deer. They are especially good at catching the young of these hoofed species. Grizzly bears can also target domestic animals like cattle and sheep and cause economically important losses for some ranchers. The National Wildlife Federation has a program on National Forest lands surrounding Yellowstone Park to prevent attacks on domestic livestock by purchasing the grazing allotments from ranchers.

Behavior

Grizzly bears use sounds, movement, and smells to communicate. They growl, moan, or grunt, especially when females are communicating with their young or during mating season when male bears can fight each other fiercely for the opportunity to mate with receptive females. Grizzly bears also rub their bodies on trees to scratch and to let other bears know they are there.

Life History

Winter can be very tough for many species of wildlife, because the season brings harsh weather and little food. Grizzly bears hibernate in warm dens during the winter to minimize energy expenditure at a time when natural foods are not available and to permit their tiny young to be born in a warm and secure environment. Throughout the summer and autumn, grizzly bears build up fat reserves by consuming as much food as they can find. In late fall or winter, the bears find a hillside and dig a hole to serve as their winter den. When inside the den, grizzly bears slow down their heart rate, reduce their temperature and metabolic activity, and live off stored fat reserves. Pregnant females give birth in the dens and nurse their cubs until they are large enough to venture outside in the spring as snow melts and new food become available.

Depending on the length of the winter season, grizzly bears can stay in their dens for up to seven months. They don’t even go to the bathroom during this time. Grizzly bear hibernation is not as deep of a sleep as some other hibernators, like bats or ground squirrels, and they will quickly wake up when disturbed. Females with newborn cubs are the last to leave their dens in the spring. Females with older cubs emerge earlier and solitary females and males are the first to exit dens in the spring. Pregnant females are the first to enter dens in the fall followed by females with cubs; solitary males enter dens the latest.

Grizzly bears begin to look for mates in the spring and early summer. Females can mate with more than one male during her breeding season. When a female grizzly becomes pregnant, the development of the embryo temporarily stops for several months, a process called “delayed implantation.” Delayed implantation is characteristic of all bear species and some other families of carnivores, including weasels and seals. If a female bear is unable to gain enough weight during the summer and fall, her body will tell her to not proceed with the pregnancy and the embryo will reabsorb. This gives her a head start on gaining enough weight to have a successful pregnancy the following year. When female grizzly bears enter hibernation, the embryo implants in her uterus and begins gestation. In January or February, female grizzly bears give birth to one to four cubs (usually two). The female will care for her young inside the den until spring, when they finally step out into the world.

The mother cares for her young for at least two more years, feeding and protecting them. When the cubs are two and a half years old, they typically separate from their mother. In areas with little food, the cubs may stay with their mother longer. Typically separation happens when the female enters breeding condition and attracts males, which can be a threat to the cubs. At around five years of age, grizzly bears reach sexual maturity.

Grizzly bears are mainly solitary and territorial, except for mothers and their cubs, or when a plentiful food source is discovered. Grizzly bears are known to congregate at rivers with many fish and at improperly fenced garbage dumps. Grizzlies can run pretty fast, reaching speeds as fast as 35 miles an hour for very short sprints. They are good swimmers too. Cubs can climb trees to evade danger, but they lose this ability as their front claws grow longer. Grizzly bears can live to be 30 years in the wild, but most die before age 25.

Fun Fact

Grizzly bears received their name because their brown fur can be tipped with white. This gives them a “grizzled” look, especially when backlit by the sun.

SOURCE: NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION

What in the World?

The hala fruit is a large edible fruit made up of numerous segments called keys or cones and is found in Southeast Asia, eastern Australia, Pacific Islands and Hawaii.

Also called the Tahitian screw pine or thatch screwpine, the hala fruit tree is one of the 750 or so trees that belong to the Pandanus species. The hala fruit tree can reach up to 14 meters in height, with a spiny trunk that grows between 5 – 11 meters in width. This is a large fruit that can be up to 30 cm long, with dozens to hundreds of segments (or phalanges, keys) that are attached together by a core, each being around 20 cm long.

HOW TO EAT HALA FRUIT

The phalanges contain the edible pulp of the hala fruit. But in order to get to the pulp, you may have to remove a few of the phalanges with the claw of the hammer to make it easier to pull out the others. The outer edges of the keys are green and very fibrous. Pull out a segment, start from the inner end by chewing on it to squeeze out the sweet pulp from the inside.

WHAT DOES HALA FRUIT TASTE LIKE?

It looks a bit scary and reminds you of an exploding planet. But don’t let appearances scare you off, because chances are, you might have already tried a variant of the hala fruit at one point in your life, especially if you are a fan of Southeast Asian food.

Pandan chiffon cake, pandan curry, pandan custard – do any of these ring a bell? Pandan, usually in the form of an essence or paste is made from the leaves of a pandanus tree belonging to the same family as the hala fruit. If you’ve ever wondered why some of those desserts were a fluo green, it was probably because of pandan.

The hala fruit itself has a delicate, sweet taste, similar to the paste made from the leaves. It is eaten fresh, boiled or ground into a paste, or squeezed into juice.

Strangest Animals in Every State Part 2

Montana: Pronghorn

Often confused for an antelope, pronghorns with their distinctive backward-curving horns belong to a family of mammals all their own. After the cheetah, they are the second fastest land mammal in the world running more than 53 miles an hour according to National Geographic; even babies can outrun humans within a few days of being born. They can also go the distance if they cut down to half that speed. But despite long legs and the ability to achieve a running start, they rarely jump fences instead choosing to go underneath them. The pronghorn warning system is also guaranteed to make young children giggle: When frightened, the hairs on their behinds raises into a white patch that can be seen for miles.

Nebraska: Nine-banded armadillo

Of the 20 species of little-armored ones (the name’s Spanish translation), only the nine-banded armadillo, which can actually have anywhere from seven and 11 bands despite the name, is found in the United States. Once relegated to southeastern states, their range is continually expanding northward and now the bizarre beasts with ossified dermal scutes, keratinized epidermal scales, long sticky tongues, and hairy undersides are often spotted in the Cornhusker State. The insectivore cannot curl into a ball and roll away from danger despite popular belief. Only two types of armadillos can ball up according to The National Wildlife Federation. But it can jump three to four feet in the air, float across rivers by inflating its intestines, hold its breath for six minutes while running across riverbeds, and quickly dig a snug trench to lodge itself in when in danger.

Nevada: Cat-faced spider

Also known as a jewel spider, it belongs to a subset of spiders known as angulates, which can be identified by the presence of two pronounced bumps on the top of its abdomen. Those bumps form the ears of the feline face found on this eight-legged creepy crawler. Sitting with its head toward the ground is this spider’s preferred stance so most of the time the kitty appears upside down. Cat ladies have nothing to fear from this harmless-to-humans fellow.

New Hampshire: Buffalo treehopper

The buffalo treehopper is a tiny green plant jumper that earned its name because the pest appears to have horns and a tail that resemble those of a bison. But the tail is actually just the pointy end of the ridge on its back and the horns are the colored protuberances that come out of the widest part of its head.

New Jersey: Periodical cicada

These red-eyed freaks of nature emerge from living underground, subsisting on tree-root fluids, every 13 or 17 years through chimneys/turrets they build out of mud and immediately shed their skin. Harmless cicadas ascend synchronously in tremendous numbers in spring, often after a light rain. Males band together as a chorus to sing to potential mates and within a couple of months, eggs are laid and the adults disappear once again.

New Mexico: Gemsbok

These guys make the list simply because New Mexico is a strange place to find such a big wild herd. As their other name implies, the African oryx hail from another continent. According to Popular Mechanics, the gemsbok made their way out of Africa in 1969 when a group of 95 was transplanted from the savannahs of Southern Africa to the White Sands Missile Range and the surrounding area of New Mexico to give local hunters a big game target. That group thrived thanks to a lack of natural predators and now number more than 3,000.

New York: Seneca white deer

The Seneca Army Depot, a wildlife sanctuary and military museum built on a 7,000-acre former munitions and nuclear bomb storage facility in the Finger Lakes region, is home to the world’s largest herd of white deer. These ghost deer, a natural variation of the white-tailed species caused by a recessive gene, are not albinos. They are leucistic and therefore lack all pigmentation in their hair, but have normal noses and brown eyes. According to the depot’s non-profit organization’s website, the limited predators and controlled hunting on the defunct base allowed numbers to increase for more than 60 years.

North Carolina: Glass lizard

Abundant in the eastern part of the state, these guys are often mistaken for snakes. But glass lizards are actually legless (usually) lizards because of their head shape, movable eyelids, and external ear openings. Some have retained small stubby useless vestigial legs. The name refers to the tendency of their tails to easily break into several pieces like glass when they drop them to avoid being captured or eaten. It can take years for the tail to grow back and it is almost always smaller than its predecessor.

North Dakota: Spotted skunk

A unique fur pattern makes these skunks stand out in the crowd of sprayers. But the name is a bit of a misnomer as they only have one spot—on the forehead. They are however missing that traditional center white stripe and look more like a weasel. In many other ways, these skunks are like your average backyard intruder, especially when it comes to their defense mechanisms. First comes the warning. There’s front feet stomping, tail raising, hissing, and sometimes a handstand-like position which puts their shooter (aka their tushes) in the air. If that doesn’t work, two glands on the sides of the anus will release odorous oil through nipples.

Ohio: Lamprey

They wwaaaant to suck your blood. Well, maybe not your blood per se, but these aquatic vampires attach jawless disc-shaped mouths to fish in streams and rivers and feast on their blood. According to Ohio’s Division Of Wildlife, seven species including the non-native sea lamprey are found in Buckeye State waters. Sea lampreys also use their gnarly mouths to suction cup and move stones to form a breeding pit. Pits are made and used by the whole community of parasites.

Oklahoma: Ringtail

If you are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of these timid and tiny (usually weighing only a pound or two and are 24 inches in length) nocturnal animals, it’s likely you’ll mistake them for a really pretty housecat, an escaped zoo lemur thanks to oversized eyes and a long ringed tail of 14 to 16 black-and-white stripes, or for a fox because of their pointy muzzle and whiskers. But they are relatives of coatis and raccoons. They are great climbers. According to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, having the ability to rotate their back paws 180 degrees allows them to ascend walls, trees, cliffs, and even cacti. Their ears have also adapted to move independently so ringtails can listen to what’s happening in front and behind them simultaneously.

Oregon: Porcupine

Generally found in the eastern half of the state and occasionally west of the Cascade Mountains according to OregonLive.com, it is best not to mess with porcupines. Covered in up to 30,000 sharp, barbed quills they use for defense, studies show the large, slow rodents are intelligent, able to learn, and have long memories, especially of mistreatment according to National Geographic. If rattling their quills doesn’t scare off predators, they will ram backward into them as the quills cannot be shot out of the body. They do however grow back over time. They don’t ask for trouble and are herbivores, but have been seen chewing on animal bones to sharpen their teeth and intake minerals like salt and calcium to stay healthy.

Pennsylvania: American paddlefish

Don’t call it a comeback. The paddlefish has been here for years—since the Paleozoic era (300 to 400 million years ago) to be precise. Fossil evidence of this long-snouted filter-feeding fish is millions of years old. The paddle, which is longer than the rest of its head and flat on the top and bottom, might be a touch organ or it may help stabilize the fish when its jaw is extended. Strangely, young paddlefish do not have the trademark rostrum. They also have teeth while the adult versions, which can weigh more than 200 pounds, do not.

Rhode Island: Northern snakehead

National Geographic warns about the perils of ignoring this aggressive invasive fish with reptilian coloring, razor-sharp teeth that can tear human flesh, ravenous appetites, and an ability to be amphibious. That’s right, these bad boys cannot only survive on land for three days using a primitive lung above their gills, they can walk on it by rhythmically swinging their muscular bodies and fins back and forth. Also a problem: snakeheads reach sexual maturity by two or three, mate up to five times a year, and can release 15,000 eggs at once.

South Carolina: Sheepshead fish

Sheepshead fish, which can be found in waters from Massachusetts to Brazil, look like a genetic experiment gone wrong thanks to its human teeth. A Scientific American blog post explains that fully-grown convict fish—a nickname inspired by the distinctive black bars running down their silvery bodies—have well-defined incisors at the front of their jaw, multiple rows of molars, and strong grinders at the back. As with humans, this unique combination of choppers allows them to bite into armored prey like clams, crabs, and barnacles.

South Dakota: Least weasel

These guys are pretty darn cute, but they are also cutthroat hunters with huge appetites according to World Atlas. Their wee bodies—usually five to seven inches in length with an inch-long tail —transform when on the hunt for voles and mice. They can narrow their bodies to follow prey into a tiny burrow or hole the size of a wedding ring. Their coats also change color seasonally—brown in summer and white to match the winter snow—to provide better camouflage. Once they find a target, they swiftly latch onto the back of its head and bite through its skull with its very sharp teeth.

Tennessee: Cave salamander

The Tennessee cave salamander, a slimy pale pink creature with a pale belly and bright red feathery external gills, was designated the state amphibian in 1995. On the threatened list, they live in streams found inside caves and sinkholes, according to Tennessee Watchable Wildlife.

Texas: Jaguarundi

Despite its name, the jaguarundi’s closet relative is the mountain lion. It does not share either’s ferocious reputation mostly because the rodent hunter is only 30 inches from nose to tail. They are also born with spots like a leopard but lose them with age. The mini cat that looks more like a weasel than a cougar is common in Central and South America, where it was used as a Pied Piper on small village rat populations, but the Gulf Coast of the Lone Star State is the only place they are found in the states, according to Big Cat Rescue. The often-solitary animals occasionally forage and travel in pairs, communicating with 13 distinct recorded vocalizations.

Utah: Gila monster

These black and ivory, pimply relatives of Komodo dragons have small hidden beady eyes and look like they are missing lips. Fortunately for humans, they spend 95 percent of their time underground and lumber around slowly when they do emerge because they are incredibly venomous. When they bite, poison secreted by their salivary glands is propelled through their teeth by chewing and capillary action into their victim. Pioneers used to believe their breath was toxic, but in an ironic twist of fate, peptides found in their venom have been shown to inhibit lung cancer growth and treat diabetes, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill research.

Vermont: Marten

These mink-like, housecat-sized omnivores were long considered extirpated from the boreal forests of the Green Mountain State despite an attempt to reintroduce them from 1989 and 1991. But Vermont’s Department of Fish and Wildlife started reporting new sightings of the shy guys in 2014. They average 21 to 26 inches long with a third of that length coming from their bushy tails. As agile climbers, they spend lots of time in trees hunting for squirrels and chipmunks, nesting, and birthing their annual litters. It can rotate its hind legs to descend trees headfirst.

Virginia: Assassin bug

This is the kind of insect nightmares are made of—narrow heads, wide abdomens that generally flare upward, “butts” that tip into the air, black bodies with bright red markings, and a terrifying fang that can inflict an intense bite on humans. They earned their names because they move nimbly and rapidly when on the hunt. Powerful front legs pin down insects while a strong beak emerges from its hiding place under the head and repeatedly stabs it like a serial killer. Once dead, it sucks out the insect’s insides.

Washington: Geoduck

The largest intertidal and biggest burrowing clam in the world (as well as one of the longest-living animals) makes its home in the chilly coastal substrates and silts of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. The valves stay open in adult geoducks because the body and siphons are too large to retract. This defining feature inspired the Chinese to refer to them as elephant trunk clams. It can stretch its neck 24 inches from its body. Geoducks, considered a delicacy in culinary circles, position themselves about 3 feet in the sand and then hang there for 100 years.

West Virginia: Puss caterpillar

Looks can kill in the case of these wooly slugs. It may look furry and soft, but the long brown silky hairs of the puss caterpillar hide hollow poisonous spines that can cause intense pain, swelling, itchy rash, anxiety, fever, muscle cramps, swollen glands, and vomiting, according to the University of Michigan. This makes them the most poisonous caterpillars in the United States.

Wisconsin: Craspedacusta sowerbii

Warning: You might never look at lakes in the same way again after reading about this globular creature Popular Mechanics reports has been sighted numerous time in the fresh waters of America’s Dairyland despite being indigenous to China. But you can exhale as the one-inch Craspedacusta sowerbii, a freshwater jellyfish or hydra relative, has stingers far too small to pierce human skin. If you want to witness them, the best time is August or September in calm shallow waters although inexplicably their numbers vary wildly from season to season.

Wyoming: Wolverine

No, Hugh Jackman doesn’t finish out the list. We’re talking about the largest terrestrial member of the Mustelid family with its broad head, beady eyes, and minor underbite. These beasts are survivors adapted to take on polar vortexes with no need to hibernate thanks to their dark oily fur that withstands frost. Wide feet act like natural snowshoes and upper molars at the backs of their mouths are rotated 90 degrees to allow them to rip meat from frozen-solid carrion. They also have the energy to travel some 15 miles a day in search of food and females practice embryonic diapause, a delayed implantation of the embryo to the uterus months after breeding. Interestingly, when their bundles of joy finally make an appearance, they are pure white.

SOURCE: READER’S DIGEST

Strangest Animals in Every State Part 1

Alabama: Red Hills salamander

This official state amphibian is a long lean mean burrowing machine. Much larger than its other lung-less salamander peers at 11 inches, the Red Hills salamander breathes through its moist skin. It’s on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife endangered species list because much of the 60,000 acres of suitable habitat (i.e., the steep slopes and moist ravines of hardwood forests) are threatened by logging and deforestation.

Alaska: Ice worm

This relative of common earthworms and leeches makes its home inside glaciers and adjacent snowfields, moving through densely packed ice crystals with ease thanks to small bristles on the outside of their bodies. Its Latin name, Solifugus, meaning sun avoider, is basically a warning to the annelids who thrive best at zero degrees Celsius. According to the Alaska Centers public lands guide, when heated to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, an ice worm’s insides liquefy until it literally melts to death. Ouch!

Arizona: Javelina

Javelinas, also known as a collared peccary, are often confused for wild pigs thanks to their stumpy legs, porcine-like snouts, and tendency to communicate in snorts. But according to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, these “new world” herbivores/frugivores (fruit eaters) are distinguished from their “old world” lookalikes by numerous physical features including a scent gland in their rump that they rub on rocks and stumps to mark territory and on each other for identification. Pigs, on the other hand, lack scent glands.

Arkansas: Ozark cavefish

These endangered and nearly translucent cave dwellers live most or all of their lives in total darkness. But they’re blind because they lack eyes altogether and therefore use sense organs to detect movement in the water and find food. Very little is known about their reproductive habits, but the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation suspect that spring floods get them in the mood for making whoopee.

California: Banana slug

The sex life of these gooey, yellow mollusks is even more bizarre than their coloring or the fact that they inch down from high tree branches on thin strands of slime in much the same way as spiders utilize their webbing. For starters, according to a 1916 paper by Stanford University zoology professor Harold Heath, they are hermaphrodites. Two, a slug penis, which emerges from its head, can be as long as its entire body. That makes for some of the largest male genitalia of any species in proportion to its overall size. Three, reproductive sessions last hours and sometimes end in apophallation, which is when a banana slug gnaws off and eats its partner’s privates. They do not grow back.

Colorado: Sage grouse

Although the low fast fliers have poor eyesight themselves, they are quite the spectacle to watch during the spring breeding season. Defenders of Wildlife explains that males develop white chest feathers and specialized head plumage and that is just the beginning of their fascinating mating ritual. At dawn or dusk, birds in the mood for love assemble on leks—ancestral strutting grounds returned to annually that can be as far as 50 miles from their winter habitats—and strut, fan tail feathers, and puff their chests until bright yellow air sacs are revealed and hens are smitten.

Connecticut: Star-nosed mole

Star-nosed moles, according to National Geographic, eat faster than any other mammal on Earth. They decide if something is edible in 8 milliseconds and devour their meal (mostly bugs) in less than two-tenths of a second. They owe part of their ability to the extremely efficient operation of their nervous system and partly to their hideous “noses.” The star, which contains 100,000 nerve fibers contained into a space smaller than your fingertip, is the most sensitive touch organ in any mammal. They are also the only mammal known to smell underwater and again they have their grotesque snouts to thank. Moles blow bubbles into the water and then re-inhale them to catch a whiff of potential prey.

Delaware: Common grackle

These birds may be labeled “common,” but their foraging techniques are anything but. Grackles follow plows to catch invertebrates and mice, snatch leeches from the legs of turtles, raid nests and steal worms from other birds, wade in shallow water to fish, and use the hard keel on the inside of their upper mandible to saw open acorns. They also practice the strange habit of anting, in which they get low to the ground, wings spread, and let ants crawl all over them. It is postulated that the formic acid deposited by the insects gets rid of parasites. When they can’t find ants, grackles have been known to use walnut juice, marigolds, lemons, limes, and mothballs to achieve the same results.

Florida: Manatee

Although manatees are born underwater and never go ashore in their lives, the mammals with egg-shaped heads are related to elephants, not dolphins or whales according to National Geographic. The blubbery gentle giants known as sea cows congregate near Florida power plant discharge pipes because the water is warmer there. Smithsonian.com reports that they eat for almost half the day, consuming 10 percent of their 1,200-pound body weight in plants.

Georgia: One-toed amphiuma

At first glance, it is easy to confuse the one-toed amphiuma for a water snake or an eel. In fact, one of its common names is the ditch eel. But, according to the Wildlife Resources Division of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources, it is a very rare elongated salamander with a unique two pairs of tiny seemingly useless limbs (common to salamanders) with a single toe on each (unique to this species). It lacks external gills, and although it has gill slits, it breathes by periodically lifting its nose out of the mud or water.

Hawaii: Brahminy blind snake

Hawaii’s tourism boards would have people believe there are no snakes in paradise. And while there are not any that are indigenous to the 50^thstate, the claim is technically a fib. Let us be the first to introduce you to the blind snake, the world’s tiniest snake. Most likely spotted on Hawaii Island and Kauai, this earthworm lookalike was introduced to the state in the 1980s, likely in potting soil from the Philippines. They have managed to survive on the islands because they are the only known parthenogenic snakes, meaning their unfertilized eggs hatch into new female clones. (Geckos also utilize this adaptation.) And because they eat termites and ants, which are also non-native, they do not have any measurable effects on the ecosystem.

Idaho: Pygmy shrew

Weight watchers should be jealous of the second-smallest mammal in the world because despite consuming as much as three times its body weight every day and eating every three to four hours to maintain body heat, pygmy shrews usually only weigh less than an ounce and are two inches long. For them, their extraordinarily high metabolisms are more of a curse given it means they have to be on a constant hunt for food and can’t sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. Shrews swim, use the tunnels and nests of other animals, and burrow through snow in pursuit of the next meal. To compensate for a short food supply in winter, they may lose up to 40 percent of their body weight, which basically makes them a bag of bones and organs.

Illinois: Fishing spider

Spiders are generally creepy as a species, but a venomous one that can grow slightly wider than a human adult’s palm and submerge itself for more than 30 minutes to fish for small aquatic dwellers like tadpoles is next level sinister. The hairs on a fishing spider’s body trap air bubbles, which they use to breathe underwater while stalking their next meal. While down there, they also scope out the area above them because they can simultaneously eat insects skittering around and just above the water’s surface. Oh, and did we mention that as part of the nursery-web family, females lay eggs on a silken mat which they wrap into a ball and then carry said ball around in her jaws until she finds an ideal spot for them to hatch? It is attached to a web until hundreds of spiderlings emerge all at once and then disperse on their own silky threads to start fresh lives of hunting and haunting your nightmares.

Indiana: Hellbenders

These two-foot long and flattened aquatic salamanders with a devilish name once roamed nearly all of the Ohio River tributaries, but numbers are dwindling at a startling rate. Fewer than 300 remain in the state, all in the Blue River, according to The Nature Conservancy, thanks to degrading water quality, loss of habitat, accidental fishing, and fatal human interactions. A rumor even puts them on plates at a Harrison County fish fry in the 1970s. It would be a shame to lose what Popular Mechanics calls “a living fossil” because relatives of the gentle mud puppy show very little external evolutionary as far back as 160 million years.

Iowa: Common conehead

No, they don’t come from France but these insects with pointy pinched conical faces do consume mass quantities of grasses and corn crops. They have antennae longer than their bodies, strong jaws that can injure humans, and very long and powerful hind legs for jumping. Females have sword-like ovipositors to lay fertilized eggs inside plant tissue. According to InsectIdentification.org, they can be found by listening for their chirpy songs.

Kansas: Western hognose snake

If an animal Academy Awards existed, the hognose snake would be the reptilian Meryl Streep thanks to its convincing death scenes. (Although it can’t help but turn its nose up at fame.) When a hognose feels threatened, Reptiles Magazine explains it hisses, flattens its neck, raises its head like a cobra, and feigns strikes. If that fails to scare away its enemy, it will roll onto its back and play dead. It emits a stinky musk, poops, and lets its tongue hang out, sometimes even excreting blood droplets. If flipped upright while in this state, it will roll over again and continue the charade.

Kentucky: Scorpion fly

Scorpion flies look Frankenstein-ed together. According to The Wildlife Trusts, they have a tail that looks like the stinger of a scorpion although they don’t sting and it is not a tail at all. It’s actually the male’s clasper, which is used in courtship. Mating can be dangerous for males as the females have been known to kill their lovers. To dissuade her from post-mating murder, these garden/wood dwellers who have never met a stinging nettles bush they didn’t like will offer a dead insect or a wad of saliva. Its head contains a long beak used to feed.

Louisiana: Roseate spoonbill

The spoonbill is hard to miss thanks to its millennial pink feathers. But it’s the long speckled proboscis that leaves a lasting impression. Especially if you get to see one swinging it side to side to push away the muck in mudflats, tide pools, mangrove keys, and coastal marshes while on the prowl for crustaceans, snails, and various other residents of shallow waters. According to the Audubon Field Guide, they also use that beak as foreplay. Males and females first interact aggressively then huddle close, present twigs to each other, and wildly cross and clasp bills. For an unknown reason, the entire flock will suddenly fly up and circle the breeding area at the beginning of the season. They are no deadbeat dads either. They use the bill to gather materials to construct the nest should mating be successful and eventually help feed their young.

Maine: Tardigrade

An Oxford University study revealed that Tardigrades, eight-legged microscopic critters with a sucker-like pharynx on their faces, could outlive humans by 10 billion years because the sturdy water bears can survive extreme conditions like dehydration, freezing, autoclaving, exposure to the vacuum of space, and irradiation by using cryptobiosis to shut down their metabolism. They live in water and on lichen and moss in most countries and states including Maine.

Maryland: Nutria

This massive semi-aquatic rodent was introduced to America back in 1899 to kickstart a fur-farm industry. When the market collapsed in the 1940s, U.S. Fish & Wildlife reports that thousands were released into the wild and have been reported in 40 states. Nutria spend their days demolishing vegetation and roots, damaging ditches and levies with its burrowing, reproducing like wildfire (females can breed 48 hours after giving birth), and frightening musophobes (someone afraid of rats) with their beaver-like looks. Their hind legs are smaller than rear ones giving them a hunchback appearance. They have large yellow-orange front teeth, heavy scaly tails covered in wiry hairs, and facial features set high on their heads. Then there’s the vestigial toe dangling unconnected to the webbing that holds the other toes together. It does not show up in tracks. Female teats are also on the side of the body instead of the chest.

Massachusetts: Hickory horned devil

This is the kind of repugnant mug you can’t un-see. The devil is the green, orange, and black caterpillar stage of the royal walnut/regal moth. But its looks are “an elaborate ruse.” The horns don’t even sting. Devils are also easily handled by humans. They molt five times becoming bright green on the fifth round. Before pupation, a larva expels its guts and changes color to turquoise before heading underground. When they emerge as moths, they have severely reduced mouths so they do not feed and can only live for about a week.

Michigan: Snapping turtles

Don’t go insulting the largest turtles in North America because the snapping turtle will clap back. Equipped not only with a ferocious albeit toothless mouth, they have a growth on the tip of their tongues that looks like a wiggly worm reports the University of Michigan’s Bio Kids website. While buried in the mud or hidden by vegetation, turtles use the “worm” to lure fish into their jaws and eventually bellies. Some scientists believe they have developed such an aggressive personality because unlike most of their relatives, they cannot retract their limbs or head into their shells for protection. The curmudgeonly turtles are solitary with social interactions limited to fighting with other males. To pick up a mate, turtles face each other and communicate with leg movements.

Minnesota: Grey tree frog

These frogs don’t look bizarre, but they have developed a pretty unique adaptation that comes in handy in a state with famously brutal winters. The Twin Cities Pioneer Press details its ability to partially freeze during the winter. It produces large amounts of glycerol to protect its body during the freezing process, but its heart, breathing, and other vital functions can stop. Once it thaws, the frog will reanimate.

Mississippi: Alligator gar

These behemoth fish, which can grow more than eight feet long, look like they belong in a natural history museum because alligator gars retain many of their Cretaceous ancestors’ primitive features including the ability to breath air, a body covered by sharp rigid scales, very sharp teeth, and much stronger bites than most lake fish you’ll find lurking in lakes in many Southern states. Popular Mechanics also says they have a similar digestive system to sharks.

Missouri: Scolopendra heros

It’s hard not to get the heebie-jeebies when looking at a photo of the giant desert centipede, the largest centipede in North America, and its 21 or 23 pairs of yellow legs, fangs, red head, and greenish-black body. The bright coloration is aposematic, meaning it should act as a warning to stay away. The centipede hunts invertebrates and small vertebrates including rodents and reptiles, sometimes reaching into the air to grab flying bugs, and uses its cell-rupturing, membrane-compromising venom to subdue its future food. It can also pinch with its last pair of legs to bring the pain according to the Missouri Department of Conservation.

SOURCE: READER’S DIGEST

Arkansas State Mammal: Whitetail Deer

White-tailed deer, also known as “whitetail deer,” or “Virginia deer,” are an extremely common American mammal. These deer are the most widespread wild ungulate, or hoofed mammal, in the Americas. These frequently sighted animals have a number of sub-species throughout their range. Read on to learn about the whitetail deer.

Description of the Whitetail Deer

Whitetails range in color from reddish brown in warmer months, to grey in the winter and fall. The most recognizable characteristic is the deer’s white under-tail, which is visible when the tail is raised. The males, known as “bucks,” grow new antlers yearly. It is extremely rare for the does (female deer) to grow antlers.

Interesting Facts About the Whitetail Deer

While virtually everyone in the central and eastern United States has seen a white-tailed deer, most people know very little about them. There are a number of interesting tidbits about whitetail deer.

Bergmann’s Rule – Though there are exceptions, white-tailed deer typically follow the Bergmann’s rule, which states that the average size of an animal increases the farther away you get from the equator. The average weight of an adult male white-tailed deer is about 150 lbs., but in the northernmost end of their range the deer can exceed 250 lbs.!

Substantial Subspecies – Scientists estimate that there may be between 30 and 40 sub species of whitetail deer across their range. Some examples include the Columbian white-tailed deer, and the Florida key deer. Both of these sub species are listed as endangered on the S. Endangered Species Act.

Not-so-Camouflaged Camo – Despite the popularity of wearing intricate camouflage while hunting deer, safety-color orange shirts and hats work just as well as fancy leaf patterns! Whitetail deer have dichromatic vision, meaning that they see blue and yellow colors the best. This also means that they are very poor at distinguishing orange and red colors.

Velvet Cover – White-tailed deer bucks shed their antlers every year, and grow a new pair. The growing antlers take time to develop, and during this time a soft skin called “velvet” protects them. The velvet is filled with many veins, which supply blood to the antlers, allowing rapid growth to occur. Once the antlers are fully-grown, the velvet dries out and is shed.

Habitat of the Whitetail Deer

White-tail deer are extremely common and widespread because they are generalists. This means that they can adapt to a wide range of habitats. They are commonly found in temperate forests, partially wooded lowlands, open prairies, savannahs, mountains, tropical forests, and wetlands.

Distribution of the Whitetail Deer

In North America, whitetail deer can be found as far north as Canada, and as far south as Mexico. Their range spreads all the way to the eastern coast of the United States. They can also be seen across Central America, and into the northern edges of South America into Peru.

Diet of the Whitetail Deer

White-tailed deer eat a wide variety of vegetation. They frequently feed on legumes, including alfalfa and clover, but will also eat the shoots and leaves of many other plants and grasses. In desert habitats they will also feed on cactus. Whitetails have also been known to eat fruit, corn, acorns, mushrooms, and poison ivy.

Horns or Antlers?

Many people incorrectly refer to deer antlers as “horns,” but horns and antlers are extremely different. While deer, elk, and moose have antlers, cows, sheep, bison, and buffalo have horns.

Horns

Horns are made with a base of bone growing from the skull of the animal, similar to antlers. A sheath of keratin, the same material that makes up your fingernails and hair, covers the base of bone. The horns grow continuously throughout the animal’s life, and are never shed. Because the horns are live bone and keratin, they will bleed if broken.

Antlers

Antlers are shed every year, and will regrow. They are made entirely of bone. Antlers have no center “core,” consisting instead of a single structure of hardened bone.

Whitetail Deer and Human Interaction

Deer and humans have multiple negative interactions. Humans hunt deer, both for sustenance, as trophies or sport, and to control deer populations. Overgrown deer populations can cause the spread of disease, and vulnerable plant species to be decimated. Deer are also kept as livestock in a number of countries for their meat, antlers, and fur. Deer cause millions of car collisions each year, an increasingly serious problem in the United States.

Domestication

Farmed populations of whitetail deer have been domesticated to some extent. While they are not fully domesticated, like cattle or sheep, they have undergone selective breeding. When farming deer, farmers selectively breed docile individuals with good meat production, and large antlers.

Whitetail Deer Care

White-tailed deer must be provided with a large enclosure that allows for plenty of foraging. The fence should be at least eight feet tall, as deer are extremely proficient jumpers. Their diet should also be supplemented with vitamins and minerals, as well as additional vegetation if their habitat does not provide enough for them to maintain their weight.

Behavior of the Whitetail Deer

Bucks will compete amongst one another to determine a dominance hierarchy. More dominant males are able to reproduce with more females. During the breeding season, known as “rut,” the males will battle and attempt to breed with as many females as possible. During this time, they will lose significant amounts of weight, as they rarely eat or rest.

Reproduction of the Whitetail Deer

Females become receptive to mating in late October and early November, and they will give birth in May or June. She will give birth to 1 to 3 baby deer, called “fawns,” and nurse them for 8-10 weeks. Young bucks will stay with their mothers for about one year, and females will stay for two years.

SOURCE: ANIMALS.NET

Arizona State Mammal: Ringtail

Ringtails are cat-like mammals that are related to raccoons. Many people also call them “ringtail cats,” “ring-tailed cats,” “bassarisks,” and “miner’s cats.” While they are not genetically related to cats, they do look quite similar to felines. Instead, ringtails are in the Procyonidae family, along with raccoons, kinkajous, coatis, and olingos.

Description of the Ringtail

These cat-like mammals have buff-brown fur, with relatively large ears, and a long tail. As their name suggests, their tail has black and white rings, much like raccoons and coatis have.

Their tail is usually just as long as their body, between 12 and 17 in. long. With body and tail combined, ringtails measure around 24 – 34 in. long. However, they are lean creatures, and typically weigh around 2 lbs.

Interesting Facts About the Ringtail

Ringtails are interesting looking creatures, with interesting behavior and traits. There are a number of different fun facts about ringtails, read a few below!

Miner’s Cat – One of the more unusual nicknames of the ringtail is the miner’s cat. During the 1800s, miners in Arizona and California commonly kept these creatures as pets. Apparently, the miners were quite fond of their ringtail companions because they were wonderfully efficient mouse catchers!

Musky Mouthful– Ringtails are usually smaller than the average housecat, and half of their length is tail alone. Because of this, they commonly fall prey to many different predators. To avoid becoming lunch, ringtails excrete a strong-smelling musk when startled. This musk confuses and deters many different predators.

Cat-Like Climbers – Ringtails may look a little like cats, but they sure can climb better than most housecats! They can rotate their ankles over 180º, which allows them to climb up and down trees easily. Ringtails can even change direction on a branch by doing a cartwheel!

Striped Tail – This mammal’s long tail is not just for show. While their tail is not prehensile, and they cannot use it to grip branches, it is still quite useful. Ringtails use their tails to help them balance while climbing. Because their tail is so long, it works very efficiently as a counterbalance.

Habitat of the Ringtail

While these creatures live in a few different types of habitats, they live in arid environments most frequently. Rocky deserts are their favorite, but they also live in desert-like habitats near water sources. In these ecosystems, they nest in abandoned structures, mineshafts, hollow trees, caves, and more. These mammals also live in pine, conifer, and juniper forests with low rainfall.

Distribution of the Ringtail

Ringtails live in the Southwestern United States and across Mexico. Populations live in southern Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, parts of Kansas, and Texas.

Its range in Mexico is from the United States border south to Oaxaca. They are widespread in Mexico, but their distribution in the northern ends of their range is rather spotty.

Diet of the Ringtail

Ringtails are omnivores, but most of their diet consists of animals rather than plants. Their primary prey includes mice, rats, rabbits, ground squirrels, insects, and other small mammals.

Some less common food sources include fish, snakes, birds, lizards, and carrion. They also eat fruit, and some of their favorites include prickly pear, juniper, blackberries, hack, persimmon, and more. Their diet changes based upon the availability of food, for example, when mice are plentiful, they eat more mice.

Ringtail and Human Interaction

Humans and ringtails actually lived quite harmoniously. Because miners recognized their ability to catch mice and other pests, they often kept the creatures as pets.

Nowadays, it is illegal to own a ringtail as a pet without proper permits, though humans still acknowledge them as pest control. As with any animal, habitat destruction can be a problem, but their population is stable. The IUCN lists these animals as Least Concern.

Domestication

Though humans commonly kept these creatures as pets, they never formally domesticated ringtails.

Does the Ringtail Make a Good Pet

Ringtails did make good pets to miners, but that was because there were plenty of vermin for them to hunt. In a typical household, ringtails would not make good pets, simply because there wouldn’t be enough for them to do.

These creatures are wild animals, and when miners kept them as pets, they slept during the day, and hunted for vermin at night. Their relationship was really more of a partnership than anything. The miners provided safe nests to sleep in, and the ringtails hunted the pesky mice.

Ringtail Care

In zoos, ringtails need a little more stimulation, because they can’t exactly let them out to hunt mice at night. Instead, the zookeepers give the little predators a variety of puzzles, new scents, and fun toys, as well as training them using positive reinforcement.

These animals eat a diet of small mammals, like mice, rats, rabbits, and more. Because their natural diet also contains fruit, zookeepers give them a variety of fruits as treats. Their habitats have plenty of hiding places, and a variety of objects to climb and exercise on.

Behavior of the Ringtail

These little mammals are relatively similar to their raccoon cousins. They are nocturnal and active at night, and live alone. Unlike raccoons, ringtails are relatively shy, and avoid human contact.

Rather than roaming suburbs for garbage, these creatures actively spend their nights hunting small prey. They spend the rest of their time marking the boundaries of their territories. Males and females have overlapping territories, but they rarely interact outside of breeding season.

Reproduction of the Ringtail

Females are only receptive to mates in the spring. After mating, the male brings the female food during her 45 – 50 day gestation period. The female usually gives birth to 2 – 4 offspring, called “cubs.”

It takes a month for the cubs to open their eyes, and they will not learn to hunt until they are 4 months old. Once the cubs are 10 months old, they can reproduce themselves, and leave their mother.

SOURCE: ANIMALS.NET

Arkansas State Flower: Apple Blossom

History

The Apple Blossom faced some opposition in its selection as the state flower due to its biblical role in Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Fun Fact

Apples and crabapples are members of the rose family.

The Apple Blossom was chosen as the state flower of Arkansas during a time when the state was one of the largest apple producers in the U.S. For more than a quarter century after the designation as the Arkansas state flower, the flowering Apple Blossom dominated the state’s landscape and agriculture.

The industry brought the state so much notoriety that the small, northwestern town of Rogers organized an Apple Blossom Festival to promote the region. The celebratory event includes colorful floats, the coronation of an Apple Queen, and draws thousands of visitors from across the country. A newspaper in nearby Fort Smith boldly predicted that Arkansas would soon be competing with California and Florida as a “playground for the nation.”

But such aspirations would never materialize. In 1927, the state’s top crop were damaged by disease and severe frost. Apple production plummeted, and Arkansas’ days as a top apple-producing state were finished.

Even though apples no longer dominate the state’s agriculture today, the state flower continues to have a presence when the flowers bloom each April and May. The Arkansas state flowers are clusters of pink or white petals. These delicate blooms give off a honeysuckle scent that attracts bees to the trees where they carry out the important work of pollinating them.

Once Apple Blossom flowers bloom and are pollinated, they develop into fruit and grow to their mature yet small size by late summer. While apples from many trees can be eaten, the fruit that grows after the Arkansas state flower has fallen is largely ornamental. It is sometimes used to make jams and jellies.

Madagascar Sunset Moth

Madagascar sunset moths (Chrysiridia rhipheus) are brightly colored moths native only to the island of Madagascar. Their unique beauty makes them a favorite of traditional jewelry makers and artists who use the moths’ iridescent wings to create works of art. In addition to their beauty, there are several aspects that set Madagascar sunset moths apart from other moths.

Behavior

Madagascar sunset moths are diurnal, meaning, unlike most moths, they are active during the day. This habit, as well as the bright colors and shape of their wings, causes them to frequently be mistaken for swallowtail butterflies. During the daylight hours they can be seen flitting from one flower to another feeding on nectar. As adults, they show a strong preference for white flowers, although not for specific plants.

Larvae

They caterpillars, or larvae, of Madagascar sunset moths are much more picky in their feeding habits. They will only eat plants from the family Omphalea, which are toxic to most animals. They hatch from eggs laid only on the underside of the leaves of these plants. Upon hatching they consume the entire plant — leaves, flowers and stems. Once that plant is decimated they move on to another of the same family. These caterpillars are easy to distinguish, as their bodies are white or shades of light yellow with black spots, and they have bright red feet.

Defense

Madagascar sunset moths have only one means of defense — they are poisonous. The toxins contained in the Omphalea plants are eaten by the caterpillars but not digested. Instead these toxins remain in their bodies through pupation and into adulthood. The result is a moth that is toxic to most predators. Their brightly colored wings may serve as a warning predators to leave them alone or suffer the consequences.

Description

By far the most noticeable distinguishing characteristic of Madagascar sunset moths is their appearance. They are large moths, boasting a wingspan of 3 to 3 1/2 inches. It’s their wings that really get them noticed. They are iridescent and appear to be in shades of black, red, green and blue. Every time the moths move their wings, the colors and patterns shift, creating a kaleidoscope effect. It’s really just an optical illusion, though. Most of the of the moths’ wings contain no pigment at all, and in subdued light they appear bland and unremarkable. The flashy colors are created by the curvature of the scales on their wings that reflect light in different angles, giving the appearance of color.

SOURCE: PETS on MOM