Posts Tagged With: mammals

INTERNATIONAL SNOW LEOPARD DAY!

Woohoo! We’re heading to the chilly mountains of Asia to meet one of the more gorgeous and elusive big cats on earth! Happy International Snow Leopard Day! We’re going to celebrate with some fun facts about these neat cats!

• Snow leopards live in the mountains of Central Asia.

• They have some of thickest fur of any animal on earth, up to 5 inches thick.
• Snow leopards can jump up to 50 feet in on leap.
• Snow leopards are carnivores, they eat blue sheep and small mammals.
• Their long tails can grow up to 36 inches, almost as long as their bodies. Their tails help the snow leopard with balance and warmth.

• Snow leopards are endangered.
• Snow leopards are known to be shy and solitary.
• Their feet are built like snow shoes.

INTERNATIONAL SLOTH DAY!

• Sloths sleep up to 20 hours a day.
• Sloths live in the rainforests of South and Central America.

• Sloths are related to armadillos and anteaters.
• Sloths have algae that grow on their fur; it helps them camouflage in the trees.
• There are two main species- two toed and three toed sloths.

• They are herbivores, eating leaves, shoots and fruit.
• Sloths only go on the ground about once a week and they do that to poop and pee. This keeps their scent away from their tree top homes.

• Giant sloths roamed the earth during the time of woolly mammoths, around 11,000 years ago.

• Sloths are great swimmers!
• Sloths have a four chambered stomach.
• Baby sloths cling to their mothers in their first weeks of life.

Check out the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica for more information about these amazing animals and how you can help!

We’re Seeing Red!

Fall has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere and that means many animals are starting to hoard or cache food for the winter! Today we are heading to Europe to meet a small rodent who hoards food for the winter! Let’s go meet the red squirrel!

Range/Habitat: Northern Europe- Asia

Diet: Omnivore: seeds, nuts, fungus and bird eggs
Length/Weight: 5-8 inches/ 9-12 oz
Conservation Status: least concern

Fun Facts:

• Red squirrels coloration depends on where they are located. They can go from red to black.
• Red squirrels can swim.
• They are crepuscular.
• Red squirrels molt their fur generally twice a year. 
• Red squirrels do not hibernate.
• They store caches of food for when supplies might be low in the winter. What seed caches are forgotten help plant new trees.
• Red squirrels are more arboreal.
• They spend most of their waking days foraging for food.

GREAT PROSIMIANS!!

Who’s ready to meet an amazing primate- a prosimian!  Well, they are primates, but they don’t have all the adaptations that monkeys and apes do! Prosimians include, lemurs and aye-ayes! Are you ready to meet this furry primate?

MEET THE BROWN GREATER GALAGO!

Range/Habitat: Central-Southern Africa/woodlands

Diet: Omnivore: fruit, tree sap, insects

Length/Weight: 10-16”/2 ¼-4 ½ lbs

Conservation Status: common

Fun Facts:

• Brown Greater Galagos are the largest of the galago family.
• Brown Greater galagos are also known as Thick-tailed Bush babies.
• They are called bush babies because of their childlike cries.
• They are nocturnal (active at night) and have large eyes and ears that help them navigate and find food in the dark.
• Brown Greater galagos are arboreal (spend most of their time in trees).
• Brown Greater galagos have strong feet with pads to help them climb and jump.
• They have brownish-grey fur.

Wow, these little primates have perfect adaptations for a life in the trees! But you won’t see one unless you are willing to head into the woods at night. Is anyone up for a nighttime adventure? Bring your night vision goggles and let’s go!

INTERNATIONAL RED PANDA DAY!!!

Who loves Red Pandas? We love Red Pandas! And today on International Red Panda Day we’re celebrating the original panda! That’s right folks, red pandas were discovered and named panda before the Giant Panda was discovered!

• Red pandas are classified in their own families, but are related to raccoons. 
• They are nocturnal.
• They live in mountainous forests in parts of Southeast Asia.

• Red pandas are arboreal.
• They are solitary.
• Red pandas are also called The Fire Fox or the Red Cat Bear.

• Red pandas eat bamboo, grass, fruit and eggs.
• They have very thick fur and very bushy tails to keep them warm.
• Red pandas have a psuedo thumb that helps them grasp bamboo.

These adorable little red pandas are endangered, mainly due to habitat loss. There is a great organization working very hard to protect our favorite red pals! The Red Panda Network celebrates Red Panda Day, conserves forests and educates people about the fire fox!

RITA THE RAT!!

Hello everyone! My name is Rita the Rat. I am the new professor of geography and habitats at the University of Ellie and Edmond! I am so super excited to be teaching everyone about habitats around the world! We animals live in extremes, from the driest desert to the coldest Antarctic homes. I get to tell you about these types of habitats and where they are located on the planet. I’ll even be sharing some of the local customs and languages of the people that may share the habitat with the animals.

I’m a Norwegian rat and my relatives live all over the world. We’re also know to be kept as pets and I must say we are generally a very friendly lot! We are very social animals and usually live in large family groups. We get a bad reputation, but we are very important! We are scavengers and help keep things clean and many of my wild relatives are a big part of the food web! Did you know that there are rats who help humans detect land mines? That’s right, we are extremely helpful and I must say- adorable! I look forward to sharing the world with you here at the University!

PROFESSOR OF MAMMALS- BERTIE BEAR!

Hi! I’m Bertie the Bear! I’m new the professor of mammals here at the University of Ellie and Edmond! I’ll be teaching you about mammals that live all over the planet, including our marine mammal friends!
But before we get into why mammals are so awesome, I’m going to tell you all about myself.
I’m a brown bear. I grew up in the woods of Alaska where there is plenty of salmon, berries, nuts and seeds to eat. I have relatives all over the world, including in Asia and Europe. I am the top predator in my woodland habitat, but don’t worry I’m a friendly bear. I’ve spent most of my bear life traveling around learning about other mammals of the world, we sure are a diverse group.
In my spare time I like to hang out with my friends, eat salmon and bagels and talk about how we can save our planet. I also love to eat honey pies when I get the inkling. I look forward to this exciting first year at the University and to meeting all of you!

Hi everyone! We’re working on the new ellieandedmond.com- we’ll be posting infrequently for the next few weeks. Today we’re celebrating World Orangutan Day with last year’s post! We’ll share with you some great new details of the new website very soon!

WORLD ORANGUTAN DAY!!!

We’re celebrating some orange apes today! These amazing great apes call Asia home. They are amazingly intelligent and have culture! These special creatures that we share the planet with are losing their homes at an alarming rate! We’re going to tell you why you should love them and how you can help!

Some of the food orangutans eat!

• Orangutans are great apes.
• There are two species, the Bornean and the Sumantran.
• Orangutans are solitary in the wild.
• Orangutans are arboreal (spend most of their lives in trees.)
• They are frugivores.
• Orangutans are highly intelligent.
• Baby orangutans stay with their mothers for around 8 years, the longest of any primate.
• Orangutans have extremely long arm spans, up to 7 feet from finger tips to finger tips.
  
• Orangutans’ feet are built just like hands and help them climb in the trees.

We love those faces. Orangutans are losing their precious forest homes due to palm oil plantations. Palm oil is used in many products and food. It is very hard to avoid totally. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has a wonderful resource for consumers to use. They have a list of products that use palm oil that is produced in a sustainable manner and is not taking over orangutans homes. This resource is a great tool to help orangs! Visiting your local zoo and learning more about these apes is a great way to help! Our local zoo, Zoo Atlanta does some fantastic research with orangutans. They are learning to use computers!

Check out the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo website. They even have a nifty app you can take with you when you are shopping!

Learn more about Zoo Atlanta’s Orangutan Learning Tree Project! They are doing some amazing work! We’ll be participating in the Redhead Run here in Atlanta to support orangutans to