Find answers to your zoo questions here! We'll be adding new ones regularly, so be sure to come back often! To submit your own Ask the Zookeeper question, click here.
Why do Masai Giraffes have weird spots?
Why do kangaroos hit their tail on the ground?
Is it true that one fish can fly?
Why do meerkats stand up on their hind legs so much?
What’s bigger: a lion or a tiger?
Do horned lizards spit blood out of their eyes?
How many species of elephant are there?
I heard that jellyfish have no brain, heart, or central nervous system. Is this true?
What is faster, an ostrich or a T. rex?
Are leopards nocturnal? My dad thinks so but I'm not sure.
How many okapis are there left in the world?
When did dodo birds go extinct?
Did dinosaurs have ears?
Why do saber-tooth tigers have such big teeth?
Why are polar bears going extinct and is anyone helping them come back?
Is it true that hummingbird wings beat 50 times per second? Or is that a myth?
Why do male lions have manes?
Why can’t zoos release lions or tigers into the wild?
Why do a flamingo’s legs bend the way they do?
Why do hyenas laugh?
How many stomachs does a cow have?
Why do gorillas slap their chests?
Is a polar bear’s fur actually transparent?
Can a rhinoceros grow its horn back?
Which animal is fastest: the cheetah or the ostrich?
Why do male common peafowl have lots of colors while females don’t?
What is the smallest animal in the world?
Do zebras have black skin with white stripes or white skin with black stripes?
I have heard that the most dangerous animal is the hippopotamus. How can that be?
Why do wolves howl at the moon?
Why do birds migrate?
How many teeth do crocodiles have?
What's the largest land predator?
Is a yak the same as a muskox?
Why do garter snakes have live babies?
Why are Bengal tigers sometimes white?
Do you enjoy playing Zoo Tycoon 2? What is your favorite animal?
Why are komodo dragons called dragons?
Are there undiscovered animals out there?
Why do deer lose their antlers in the winter? Does it hurt when they fall off?
Why do kangaroos hop around so much?
How do you keep the polar bears from getting bored?
Why is there a scratching post in the warthog exhibit?
Are koalas really bears?
Why do the lions always hang out on the same rock?
A zoo educator said jaguars are “crepuscular.” What’s that mean?
Do elephants have enemies?
What’s an ungulate?
Why are flamingos pink?
Why do Masai Giraffes have weird spots?
—Renee
Dear Renee,
The Masai giraffe’s spots—which are jagged and shaped like a star or oak leaf—are quite different from the more homogenous spots you can see on the other eight giraffe subspecies. Every giraffe has a unique spot pattern, much like your own fingerprints, but zoologists have noticed that the Masai giraffe’s characteristic spot pattern works really well as camouflage. In fact, some people have reported seeing this 18-foot tall animal in the wild and mistaking it for an oak tree!
Why do kangaroos hit their tail on the ground?
—Wes
Dear Wes,
There is a legend among Australian Aborigines that a huge kangaroo once shook the entire countryside by beating its enormous tail on the ground. Legends aside, this marsupial actually bangs its hind feet — not its tail — on the ground when in danger. The kangaroo does use its large, strong tail for balance when it hops, and as something to lean against when it fights. “Hop” that helps!
Is it true that one fish can fly?
—Peta
Dear Peta,
Exocoetidae, or flying fish, look like they’re flying, but in fact they only glide through the air. Flying fish are very fast, reaching head-turning speeds of more than 35 miles per hour (60 kph)! They get their power and speed from the caudal (tail) fin, which vibrates up to 70 beats per second right before takeoff. Once airborne, these marine wonders will spread out their wing-like pelvic fins and whoosh! They can soar for up to 200 yards before re-entering the water. That’s a distance equal to two football fields! Found mainly in tropical waters, Exocoetidae are the only type of fish that can jet themselves out of the water, a feat which comes in handy when they’re trying to escape such pesky predators as swordfish or tuna.
Why do meerkats stand on their hind legs so much?
—Pierce
Dear Pierce,
Meerkats stand up so they can see their enemies better. At only 12 inches tall, these inhabitants of South African deserts and plains look like a nice snack to predators such as jackals and the martial eagle. But because meerkats are very intelligent and social, they are not easy prey. They live in mobs of up to 30 members, and each of them takes turns with chores such as hunting, digging, and keeping a look out for danger. There are always one or two sentries on duty for each mob, and they stand as tall as possible to better detect danger. The sentries sound a unique alarm depending on which predator they see — kind of like a special meerkat 9-1-1!
What’s bigger: a lion or a tiger?
—Alisdair
Dear Alisdair,
The answer depends on which type of lion or tiger you’re talking about. Male lions and tigers are always bigger than females, so we’ll only consider the boys in this contest. Barbary lions, extinct in the wild since the 1920’s, reportedly weighed more than 500 pounds (227 kilograms) when full grown, but modern African lions average only about 400 pounds (182 kilograms). Meanwhile, a Sumatran tiger might weigh as little as 220 pounds (100 kilograms), but Siberian tigers can tip the scales at a whopping 600 pounds (283 kilograms)! The answer, then, is that the African lion is both bigger than and smaller than a tiger, depending on the tiger in question.
Do horned lizards spit blood out of their eyes?
—Clyve
Dear Clyve,
Yes, at least four varieties of horned lizard do spit blood out of their eyes as a message for predators to back off! When threatened, a horned lizard has a detailed escape plan. First, it runs and stops suddenly, trying to confuse the predator. If that doesn’t work, its next line of defense is to puff up its body and show off its spiny scales. As a last resort, the lizard will increase the blood pressure in its head until small blood vessels in its eyes rupture. This causes blood to squirt out in a stream that can carry for up to three feet. The blood confuses the predator and tastes really bad, too — or at least canines and felines seem to think so. Predatory birds, though, don’t seem to mind, which means the horned lizard should keep its eyes on the skies.
How many species of elephant are there?
—Jamie
Dear Jamie,
That’s an interesting question. For a long time, scientists believed that there were only two species of elephant: Asian elephants (Elephus maximus) and African elephants (Loxodonta Africana). In the past few years, though, new studies have drawn new lines. African elephants were always known to include two different sorts of elephants: forest elephants and savannah elephants. But scientists have discovered that the two types are not as similar as they thought, and so African forest elephants may deserve their own species designation. In addition, the Borneo pygmy elephant has been classified as its own species, with larger ears, a longer tail, and bigger tusks than Asian elephants. That raises the number of elephant species from two to possibly four — a 100% increase just since the year 2000!
I heard that jellyfish have no brain, heart, or central nervous system. Is this true?
—Taylor
Dear Taylor,
You’re right! Jellyfish are fascinating creatures with extremely simple bodies. They are invertebrates, which means that they don’t have a backbone (or in their case, any sort of skeleton). Instead of a brain or a central nervous system, they have an elementary nervous system, or nerve net, that is scattered throughout their bodies. Their nerve net can detect light, scent, and other types of stimulus and coordinate appropriate responses (“move closer,” “move away,” and so forth). Also on the list of things you won’t find in a jellyfish are a heart or a circulatory system. Instead, they have a mouth, a stomach, tentacles, and a body full of meloglea, which is the thick jellylike substance for which they’re named.
What is faster, an ostrich or a T. rex?
—Andreas
Dear Andreas,
That’s a great question. The T. rex and the ostrich actually have a lot in common: their similar skeletal structure and composition trace back to a common ancestor (shared by modern birds as a whole). The sheer size of the dinosaur, though — over 13,000 pounds compared to the 350 pounds of your average ostrich — indicate that T. rex may have been quite the shaker, but probably not so much of a mover. Ostriches have been clocked running as fast as 45 miles per hour. Given the amount of muscle and mass we believe T. rex had, we think it ran somewhere between 10-20 miles per hour — fast enough to hunt larger dinosaurs of its time, but not to outrun its distant relation, the ostrich.
Are leopards nocturnal? My dad thinks so but I'm not sure.
—Alex
Dear Alex,
Your dad is correct. While leopards do occasionally move about and sun themselves during the day, the majority of their hunting and activity happens at night. Their spotted coats (covered with markings called “rosettes”) make them difficult to see among either the leaves in the trees (one of their favorite places to hide) or the tall grasses as they stalk their prey.
How many okapis are there left in the world?
—Sophie
Dear Sophie,
The short answer to your question is that we’re not entirely sure. Okapis, which look like zebras but are most closely related to giraffes, weren’t even discovered until 1900, and they’re extremely shy and very good at hiding. Their natural habitat is the Ituri Forest in central Africa, which is a very dense rainforest that’s difficult to search. With such a limited geographic area, though, we can estimate that there are between 10,000 and 30,000 left in the wild, with the total probably between 20,000 to 25,000.
When did dodo birds go extinct?
—Kyle
Dear Kyle,
The dodo was first sighted in the early 1500’s, and less than two hundred years later — around 1681 — it was already extinct. Why did it die out so fast? Two reasons, mainly. First, sailors who landed on the dodo’s island home of Mauritius, off the coast of Africa, hunted the birds for food, and to make matters worse, they brought with them animals (such as cats, rats, and pigs) that ruined the dodo’s nests. Another bird might have flown away to make its home somewhere else, but the dodo was flightless and unafraid of its new predators. And so, all we have of that hapless bird today is the common saying: “As dead as a dodo.”
Did dinosaurs have ears?
—Arga
Dear Arga,
Dinosaurs did have ears, but you wouldn’t know it to look at them, since their hearing organs were inside their heads (as with birds and lizards today). Since scientists cannot perform tests on dinosaurs, they study hearing in related animals, such as birds. Based on these studies, scientists believe that larger dinosaurs, like the T.rex, couldn’t hear higher-pitched sounds like the whine of an insect’s wings. The T.rex would, however, have been able to hear the footfalls of other large animals moving around, and those sounds meant one thing: lunch!
Why do saber-tooth tigers have such big teeth?
—Bob
Dear Bob,
The saber-toothed cat used its massive front teeth (which could grow as long as a banana) to bring down its prey. Saber-toothed cats did not have the physique to chase down large animals and wrestle them to the ground, so they relied on ambush. Pouncing on their prey, they used their long fangs to quickly administer a fatal wound. The teeth were certainly the saber-toothed cat’s most distinctive feature, and is the basis of its official name: “Smilodon,” which is Greek for “knife tooth.” Even with those formidable teeth, the saber-toothed cat died out about 10,000 years ago, most likely because of climate change and hunting by prehistoric humans.
Why are polar bears going extinct and is anyone helping them come back?
—James
Dear James,
The polar bear is not yet extinct, but the melting of the polar ice cap has threatened its habitat. As a result, the polar bear was recently listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. A species is listed as “threatened” when it as at risk of becoming endangered, and it is considered “endangered” when it is in danger of extinction. Many organizations working to protect the polar bear have websites where you can find tips on how to help.
Is it true that hummingbird wings beat 50 times per second? Or is that a myth?
—Matthew
Dear Matthew,
It’s true, and then some. On average, the incredibly fast and agile hummingbird beats its wings at about 50 times a second. There are more than 300 different species of hummingbird, though, and one variety, the Calliphlox amethystina, can reach speeds of 80 wing-beats per second while hovering. On the other end of the spectrum, the giant hummingbird flaps its wings at only 10 times a second — slow by comparison, but still very fast. All that flapping burns a lot of energy, so it’s no wonder that hummingbirds are constantly looking for food, including plant nectar and insects. So you might think about setting up a feeder filled with sugar water in your yard. If there’s a hummingbird outside right now, there’s a good chance he’s pretty hungry!
Why do male lions have manes?
—Crystal
Dear Crystal,
Lion experts used to think that the mane protected a lion’s throat, but now they believe that it merely helps the lion look more ferocious. Much like when a house cat arches its back and puffs out its fur to look larger and more fearsome, lions use their manes to appear even more threatening than they already are. A lion’s mane grows and darkens throughout its life, so the older the lion, the bigger and darker its mane. Like antlers on a deer, bigger, darker manes indicate a mature, strong animal, and female lions look for a healthy mane when they’re choosing a mate. Not all male lions have manes, however; Tsavo lions, which live in the Tsavo East National Park in Kenya, have no manes — but that’s not to say they aren’t just as fierce!
Why can't zoos release lions or tigers into the wild?
—Seamus
Dear Seamus,
Releasing any zoo animal into the wild is tricky business! Many animals born in captivity can be rehabilitated to the wild, but lions and tigers can have a hard time making the adjustment. Animals that live in structured social groups (such as a pride of lions) aren’t always willing to let outsiders into their group, and a lion on its own rarely survives long in the wild. Releasing a lion or tiger into the wild requires a long introduction process: The cat must be taken out into its new habitat every day so that it can adjust to the lifestyle of a wild animal, make friends with others of its kind, learn to hunt for its food, and even practice defending itself against attackers. This daily exposure is vital if the big cat is going to adapt successfully to its new life. That may be the most important reason why zoos don’t often make the attempt: most aren’t located near a wild cat habitat.
Dear Kendra,
You’re right — flamingos have pretty weird legs. They seem to bend and stretch every which way, like rubber bands or guitar strings. You’ll notice that flamingo legs have a big, bulbous hump in the middle that looks like a knee. It isn’t really a knee, though. It’s actually more of an ankle joint that allows the leg to rotate and bend backwards. It looks weird, because that’s where a human knee would be. To eat, flamingos wade out into the water, turn themselves completely upside-down, and — looking backwards — scoop up algae, insects, and shrimp with their oddly-shaped beaks. Their legs, which are longer than the rest of their bodies, help them wade out into deeper waters, where they can reach food sources other birds can’t, while their webbed feet support them on the soft mud. The funniest thing of all about a flamingo’s legs is when it flies. Just look up, and you’ll see it soaring through the air with its neck stretched out in front and its long, spindly legs dangling behind.
Dear Sami,
The spotted hyena, or “laughing hyena,” as it is often called, doesn’t actually hang around all day telling jokes. Even though its scientific name, Crocuta crocuta, does sound like someone laughing, the hyena doesn’t find anything the least bit funny. If you hear a hyena making its characteristic high-pitched, cackling sound, chances are it has just been chased or is about to get into a fight. That sound is one of several ways hyenas communicate that they’re scared or excited. And if a hyena is scared, look out — there might be a lion behind you! Lions and hyenas don't like each other at all, but not because lions are cats and hyenas are dogs; actually, hyenas are most closely related to cats. For the most part they’re just fighting over food. For a long time people mistakenly thought that hyenas were scavengers that would only eat animals that other predators had already killed. However, hyenas actually hunt for most of their food and other animals, like the lion, will sometimes steal it away from them! With all that competition, the hyena knows better than anyone that survival is no laughing matter.
Dear Ciaran,
This may sound like a creepy alien invasion story, but don’t worry! Cows aren’t aliens from another planet, but they do have four stomachs. And they need all four of those stomachs to digest their food. The food a cow eats goes straight to its largest stomach, called the rumen, which is why animals that have four stomachs are called "ruminants." In the rumen, the food is stored and broken down until it flows into the second stomach, the reticulum, where it softens. Here’s where it gets icky. The cows burp their food back up into their mouths and chew on it some more. This burped up food is called “cud” and they chew it like bubble gum. Then they swallow the yucky, chewed-up food again, and this time it flows through into their third and fourth stomachs, called the omasum and abomasum. There it is further digested, after which all of those wonderful nutrients are absorbed into the cow's body. This is all part of a cow’s normal and healthy digestive process. So don’t worry, cows aren’t here to take over the universe. They’re just gross!
Dear Pat,
Believe it or not, gorillas are great actors! If you visit the zoo, though, don’t expect them to be reciting Shakespeare. Gorillas put on their chest-slapping show in order to fend off intruders. They shout, they roar, they throw vegetation, and, yes, they slap and beat their chest, all in the hopes that their competition — be it an unfamiliar gorilla or a strange human — will go away. They might even charge the intruder, but they’ll usually miss on purpose because they don’t really want to fight. Not that they wouldn’t be good fighters. Gorillas have massive arms, which are so strong that they can “knuckle-walk” — they carry all their weight on the backs of their fingers. Their arms are also very long and great for grabbing hold of high branches, which means that they could knock you silly before you even got close! But don’t worry; despite all that chest-slapping, gorillas really just want to monkey around.
Dear Jackie,
You’re close! A polar bear’s fur isn’t transparent, it’s translucent. What’s the difference? We can easily see through transparent objects, such as the glass in a window, but translucent objects blur the light, as if you were looking through waxed paper. Every hair in the polar bear’s fur is a hollow tube, which creates this light-blurring effect. The polar bear’s outer layer of fur is called guard fur and covers a shorter layer of woolly fur in every place on their body except their footpads, eyes, and big, bulbous nose. These areas are the same color as the rest of its skin — black. This black skin absorbs heat from the sun and covers four inches of thick, rubbery blubber, which adds to the other layers of snuggly warmth, but a black-skinned bear on a snowy landscape wouldn’t be able to hide from anything! That’s where the translucent fur comes in: by blurring the light, the fur appears white and allows the polar bear to blend into its arctic surroundings.
Dear Heather,
The massive rhinoceros is both graced and cursed with a magnificent horn on the top of its snout. Thus its name is highly appropriate: rhinoceros means “nose horn” in Greek. This horn gives the wily rhino its handsome appearance and helps it forage for food, dig for water, and defend itself against other animals. There’s a down side to having such a cool horn, however: some people want to take it! For centuries the rhino has been killed for its horn, and this has driven it nearly to extinction. The real story inside the rhinoceros horn is that it is made of keratin, the same stuff that hair and fingernails are made of. So if you took a really big pair of nail clippers and cut off Mr. Nose Horn’s horn, it — like your fingernails — would grow back over time.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the match of the century, pitting two fleet-footed animals in a race to see who’s the fastest! Representing the mammals, and sporting fashionably spotted fur, is everyone’s favorite to win — the cheetah! Racing on behalf of our feathered friends of the Aves Class is that always funny character with his head in the sand—the ostrich. They’re in their starting blocks now. On your mark … get set … go! They’re off! Who will win this great matchup between this sleek and elegant cat and this big-plumed, comical bird? The ostrich is looking good, and why wouldn’t it — nature has provided it with powerful legs that make it faster than greyhounds, faster than lions, faster even than antelopes. But unfortunately not faster than the cheetah, who as we speak has surged ahead by five lengths — but wait! What’s this? It’s a third contender, the unheralded peregrine falcon, a famous hunter known for reaching 200 miles per hour or more when diving for its food! The falcon zooms across the finish line! The cheetah is claiming the falcon cheated! The falcon is eating a rabbit that never saw what hit it! (I hope that’s not one of the spectators!) The ostrich is … well, the ostrich is looking silly and crying “false start!” But here are the official standings: the ostrich finishes in third as the consolatory second-fastest animal on land, bowing to the cheetah in second place but still the fastest land animal, and the peregrine falcon takes the grand prize as the fastest animal on earth: land, air, and sea. It’s been an exciting day here at the races. Thank you and good night!
Dear Hermione,
Quite a colorful question! There is no more dazzling a natural spectacle than when the male peafowl, or peacock, displays his beautiful tail. Most birds get their brilliant colors from pigments from the plants and insects they eat that give such bright colors to their skin and feathers. When the females, or peahens, are choosing who they will mate with, the males use their bright colors to compete with each other. Bright colors indicate a healthy strong male and that means healthy chicks, and let’s face it — girls like a boy who looks good! It isn’t all about pigments, though. Peacocks have long tail feathers, known as “trains,” that are structurally formed to actually create color and give the feathers their shimmering, iridescent look. That’s why when you stare at it from different directions, you can’t see all the colors of all those “eyes”. It’s all in how the light interacts with the feathers. Isn’t that incredible?! Peahens, on the other hand, conserve the energy they might have put into growing colorful feathers so they can use it on rearing chicks. Not worrying about their looks is actually an advantage: having dull colors hides them from the view of predators while nesting. You’ll also notice that peahens don’t have the long tail feathers that the males do — and it’s a good thing, too! If they did, the chicks might accidentally get shoved out of the nest whenever mum sat down! So pity the poor, colorless peahens; perhaps, next Mother’s Day, their peacocks could get them a nice scarf or handbag to brighten up their drab wardrobe.
Dear Simon,
Watch your step–you might be standing on one of them right now! These are the truly tiny creatures of the world and you may not even be aware of them. For instance, the smallest bird in the world is our furiously fast and flighty feathered friend, the Bee Hummingbird, which is the size of a bee! Not small enough for you? Well, smaller still is the world’s smallest mammal, the Hadrocodium, a big-snouted insect eater about the size of a paper clip. You don’t need to worry about stepping on one of these, though — they died out almost two million years ago. Then there is the Fairy Fly, a parasitic wasp that bears the title of world’s smallest insect by being only 1/100 of an inch long! However, as small as these little guys are, the Zooplankton still has them beat. Zooplankton are microscopic organisms so tiny that you need a microscope just to SEE them! You can find these itty-bitty creatures floating in the sea (their name means “wanderer” or “drifter” in Greek), where they are an important source of food for many types of sea life. So the next time you’re at the shore, take a look around and think about how small living things can be — and how many of them a whale would have to eat to fill its belly!
Dear Courtney,
Ah, yes — one of life’s great mysteries (right up there with, “Is that lion’s watering hole half full or half empty?”). Every zebra you see is a designer original and has a pattern unlike any other — like a snowflake, only warmer, since zebras live in Africa. There are three species of zebras, each with its own fashion sense; the plains zebra has stripes all over its body, while the Grevy’s and mountain zebras have stripes up top but completely white bellies. “Ah ha!” you must be thinking, “this must certainly prove that zebras are white with black stripes!” But don’t be too sure. That is just their hair. If you were to shave a zebra bare from head to hoof, you would find that their skin is in fact … drum roll, please … black! So why would a black-skinned animal need a hide full of striped hair? The stripes on a zebra can help confuse colorblind predators like the lion, which may look on a herd of zebras but only see random shapes and lines and have difficulty picking out one zebra to have for lunch. It’s also possible that hungry insects are confused by the zebra’s pattern when they’re looking to land on a solid mass of color. If your stripes are keeping you from becoming a main course, you must be doing something right!
The hippopotamus, or hippo to his close friends, is most definitely a dangerous animal. Hippopotamus means “river horse” in Greek, which makes hippos sound kind of cute, but in their native region of Africa they are responsible for more human deaths than lions or crocodiles. Hippos are aggressive and unpredictable by nature, with teeth and tusks like spears, a huge, chomping mouth, and a massive head that can swing like a sledgehammer. Unlike most animals, they aren’t scared of humans and have been known to capsize boats for no reason. Does that sound dangerous enough? The funny thing about this very treacherous creature is that it is, in fact, a plant eater. So don’t ever come between a hungry hippo and his salad!
Dear Robin,
It’s true — wolves do love to howl! They also like to bark, snarl, whimper, and growl, each as a way of communicating with other wolves. These fierce creatures of the night really just want to hang out with their friends and family — their pack. The wolves in the pack howl to find one another, to shoo an unfriendly wolf away, or just because they want to! They also love singing together in a chorus howl. One of the many wolf myths is that they howl at the moon. The truth is, wolves don’t really howl at the moon (and the moon couldn’t hear them if they did!). Wolves are, however, more active on bright moonlit nights when they can see better. So if the moon is bright enough tonight, you might just hear a long, lonesome “HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL!”
Dear Kaare,
Just as humans book their vacations to tropical islands at the hint of cold weather, birds often travel thousands of miles in the depth of winter in search of warmer climates. And it’s not just for fun in the sun: they’re doing what their tummies tell them to do. Cold winter weather grips their breeding grounds and kills off their supplies of insects, grass, or whatever else they eat, so if they don’t hit the road — er…air—they’ll starve! On the way they navigate by the sun, the stars, or even the earth’s magnetic field. These birds of a feather really do flock together. In fact, some species of birds like geese and ducks fly in a V-formation, and not because it’s their favorite letter. Each bird gets a little boost from the bird in front of it, which keeps them from getting too tired on such a long journey.
Dear Cody,
The crocodile is an amazingly toothy animal with an average of 64 to 68 choppers in its mouth. What's truly amazing about the croc is that it never runs out of teeth! If it loses one, it can always just grow another. These cone-shaped teeth interlock, meaning they’re great for biting and gripping prey but not so good for chewing — so if you meet a crocodile, don’t offer him a stick of chewing gum. A toothbrush might be a better gift, though I wouldn’t want to be a crocodile’s dentist!
Dear Macie,
The largest living land predator is our furry, frigid friend, the polar bear! These colossal carnivores can grow over 11 feet tall when standing on their hind legs and can tip the scales at more than 1300 pounds. They sure eat a lot! They spend much of their time hunting their favorite prey, seals. Because a polar bear can roam more than 100,000 square miles in its lifetime, this bear needs a lot of food!
Dear Diggory,
The yak and the musk ox are cousins, but different animals. Both have long, messy hair that they don’t comb or cut. The yak’s hair is usually dark brown or black, but the musk ox has clumps of long, cream-colored hair growing out of its head, back, and legs over a dark brown coat. They also live on different continents!
Dear John,
The common garter snake, like some lizards, fish, and insects, is ovoviviparous, that is, babies develop inside eggs carried inside the mother’s body, where they are safe and are nourished by the egg yolk until they are ready to hatch. It can get pretty crowded in there — some mothers give birth to more than 40 babies at a time!
Dear Luís,
Bengal tigers are sometimes white due to a double recessive genetic code that occurs in only one of 10,000 wild births. The Bengal tiger is the only tiger species affected in the wild. All white Bengal tigers in captivity are descended from a single white tiger that was captured in India in 1951 after its mother was killed.
Dear Mercedes,
I love playing Zoo Tycoon 2! It lets me practice running my real zoo and keeping the animals healthy and happy and protected, which is what a good zoo strives to do. My favorite animal? You’re kind of putting me on the spot with that one, but I’d have to say giraffes because they’re graceful and completely unlike any other animal.
Dear Edward,
I’m afraid there’s no good reason except that people think they resemble the mythological creatures.
Dear Katty,
Yes, there are an amazing number of animals still to be discovered, and new animals are found every year. Most of them live in the few remaining areas of the world where human beings don’t go, such as deep in the rainforest. Some are truly undiscovered species and some are subspecies of animals we already know exist.
Dear Shebawolf,
Deer and caribou lose their antlers in the winter to save energy when food is scarce because it takes a lot of energy to carry the weight of them. It does not hurt when they fall off. Antlers are made of calcium, and before they fall off, the calcium is drawn back into the animal’s body. The antlers become brittle and eventually fall off. Rodents then gnaw on the detached antler to get their source of calcium.
Dear Migerst,
Kangaroos hop because they can’t drive.
Dear Maia,
Give them something to do! Polar bears love all things cold, especially ice. A block of ice serves as a perfect plaything for a polar bear and will keep him amused for hours!
Dear Aoife,
Warthogs love to scratch! In the wild, they roll around on just about anything — including termite mounds — to get those hard-to-reach areas! They also allow birds to help with their grooming.
Dear Russell,
Koalas are often referred to as koala bears, which is misleading. Though they resemble cute little teddy bears, koalas are not bears at all — they are marsupials like opossums and kangaroos.
Dear Edrick,
That rock is probably heated. Lions love to lounge on a warm surface, so zoos put heated rocks into lion exhibits to mimic sun-heated rocks on the African savannah.
Dear Danny,
An animal that is crepuscular is most active at dawn and dusk (as opposed to nocturnal, which means an animal is most active at night). Some other crepuscular animals include red pandas, foxes, and rabbits.
Dear Tomás,
In the wild, adult elephants typically do not have to worry about predators. Calves, however, are vulnerable to lions and other large cats, as well as hyenas. To shield their calves from predators, adult elephants form a protective circle around them. No lion would want to cross that barrier.
Dear Linda,
“Ungulate” is just a fancy term for any mammal with hooves. Some animals that are ungulates include horses, camels, antelope, and rhinos.
Dear Hideko,
Flamingos aren’t born pink. Young flamingos are gray and their feathers turn pink only after they begin eating a steady diet of shrimp and plankton. In many zoos, flamingos are fed a special pellet diet that helps them maintain their rosy glow.