WHAT ARE WILD ANIMALS?

Wild animals are animals that live in a area

without being introduced to humans; it lives in the wild. This means that it isn't tame and it lives on its own without any help from people. A wild animal finds its own food,shelter and all its other needs in a specific natural habitat.

Alligator.................page 1

Baboon..................page 2

Camel...................Page 3-4

Deer.....................page 4-5

Eagle....................page 5-6

Giraffe.................page 6-7

Hippo..................page 7-8

Indri...................page 8-9

Jaguar.................page 9-10

Kangaroo.............page 10-11

Lemur.................page 11-12

Meercat...............page 12-13

Newt....................page 13-14

Octopus................page 14-15

Polar Bear.............page 15-16

Alligators

An alligator is a crocodilian, which is in

the genus alligator family (Alligatoridae.) The two living species are the American alligator and the Chinese alligator. Additionally, many extinct species of alligator are well-known from fossil remains.

Did you know

that alligators

first appeared

about 80 million

years ago?

Diet

The type of food alligators eat depends on their size and age. When they're young, they eat fish, insects, snails, and worms. As they are mature, they eat lager fish such as gar, turtles and various mammals particularly coypu and muskrat. As well as this, their stomach also contains gizzard stones.

Habitat

American alligators are found in the southeast United States.They live in freshwater environments,such as,ponds,marshes,rivers,lakes and swamps.When they construct alligator holes in wetlands,they increase plant diversity and provide other animals during droughts.

Did you know that alligators are considered an important specie?

P1

Baboon

Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys. Baboons are one of the world largest monkeys. Like other Old World monkeys, baboons don't have gripping tails. However,they can climb trees to sleep,eat,or look out for trouble. They spend much of their time on the ground.

Diet

Baboons eat grasses, seeds, bark and roots, but also have a taste for meat, birds, rodents and

even the young of larger mammals, antelopes

and sheep.

Population

Four baboon species are known as the savanna baboons. Males use shows of physical power to dominate rivals. In addition, they spend many hours carefully grooming one another to remove

insects and dead skin.

pg2

Camels

Camels are animals, which have two/one big humps on their backs,and there used mostly for transport ever since 3,500 years ago.The one-humped camels are found in the Arabian deserts,while the two-humped camels are found in Gobi desert in China and the Bactrian steppes of Mongolia.

Diet

Camels are quiet picky about what they eat. Their thick lips allow them to eat things that most other animals couldn't-such as thorny plants. Camels are herbivores;therefore you wont find them eating meat. Water is very important to camels,they can drink 30 gallons of it (113 litres) of water in just 13 seconds. Their body can re-hydrate faster than any other mammal. Camels can survive up to 6 months without food or water!

Habitat

The two types of camels are found in different parts of the world.The dromedary camel (the Arabian camel) can be find be find in North Africa and the Middle East.

Deer

Deer are found in forests of Europe,Asia and North America, where most deer grow up to an average about up to 1 metre tall.

White-tailed deer are a highly adaptable species and thrive in a variety of habitats. The areas that provide the most suitable environment include a mixture of hardwoods, croplands, brushlands and pasturelands. They prefer an interspersed habitat including meadows, forested woodlots, brushy areas and croplands.

Habitat

Diet

A deer's diet changes depending on its habitat and the season. It eats green plants in the spring and summer. In the fall, it eats corn, acorns and other nuts. In the winter, it eats the buds and twigs of woody plants.

Eagle

Eagle is a common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae; it belongs to several groups of genera that are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the 60 species of eagles are from Eurasia and Africa

Habitat

The bald eagle occurs during its breeding season in virtually any kind of American wetland habitat such as seacoasts, rivers, large lakes or marshes or other large bodies of open water with an abundance of fish.

Diet

Fish of many kinds constitute the centerpiece of the Bald Eagle diet (common examples include salmon, herring, shad, and catfish), but these birds eat a wide variety of foods depending on what's available. They eat birds, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates such as crabs, and mammals including rabbits and muskrats.

Giraffe

The giraffe is a genus of African even-toed ungulate mammals, the tallest living terrestrial animals and the largest ruminants. The genus currently consists of one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, the type species.

Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands or open woodlands. Giraffes prefer areas enriched with acacia growth (a genus of shrubs and trees). Most giraffes live either in East Africa or in Angola and Zambia in southwestern Africa. Until the middle of the 20th century giraffes were also commonly found in West Africa, south of the Sahara. But populations there have fallen sharply and become increasingly fragmented.

Habitat

Diet

Giraffes live in habitats where the available food varies throughout the year. During the dry season, giraffes eat evergreen leaves.However, once the rainy season begins, they switch to new leaves and stems that sprout on deciduous trees. Also, twigs and branches are pulled into the mouth of the giraffe with their long and dextrous tongues. In the wild giraffes can eat up to 66 kilograms of food daily.

Hippopotamus

The common hippopotamus, or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous, semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus.

Habitat

You will find a group of Hippos living in the lakes and rivers. Sometimes the groups are very small with only about five members. They can be as large at to have thirty members though. It depends on if there is enough room for their basic needs to be met. They do like to live in shallow bodies of water.

Diet

Like almost any herbivore, they consume other plants if presented with them, but their diet in nature consists almost entirely of grass, with only minimal consumption of aquatic plants. Hippos are born with sterile intestines, and require bacteria obtained from their mothers' feces to digest vegetation.

Indri

The indri, also called the babakoto, is one of the largest living lemurs, with a head-and-body length of about 64–72 cm and a weight of between 6 to 9.5 kg. It has a black and white coat and maintains an upright posture when climbing or clinging.

Habitat

Like all Lemurs, the Indri is found only on the island of Madagascar in lowland jungle and tropical forests. Lemurs are arboreal animals meaning that they spend the majority of their lives, eating, sleeping and mating high up in the trees.

Diet

Leaves and twigs are a big part of the diet from the Indri Lemur. They are able to get most of the vegetation they need right from the trees. They will consume nectar, nuts, and fruit though if they come into contact with them. They are often on the ground though so they do have access to items of food that other tree living Lemurs don’t have.

Jaguar

The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only extant Panthera species native to the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline species after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Americas.

Habitat

Jaguars prefer wet lowland habitats, swampy savannas or tropical rain forests. Their favorite habitat is in the tropical and subtropical forests. Jaguars also live in forests and grasslands, living near rivers and lakes, in small caves, marshland, and under rock ledges; they live in shrubby areas as well.

Diet

Jaguars are known to eat deer, peccary, crocodiles, snakes, monkeys, deer, sloths, tapirs, turtles, eggs, frogs, fish and anything else they can catch. The jaguar is the third-largest living feline species, after the tiger and lion.

Kangaroo

The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae. In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus: the red kangaroo.

Habitat

Kangaroos live in varied habitats, from forests and woodland areas to grassy plains and savannas.Kangaroos are found in Australia and Tasmania, as well as on surrounding islands. Kangaroos live in varied habitats.

Diet

Kangaroos are herbivores. They eat grasses, flowers, leaves, ferns, moss and even insects. Like cows, kangaroos regurgitate their food and re-chew it before it is ready to be totally digested. A juvenile kangaroo views the outside world from the pouch of an adult female Eastern gray kangaroo.

Lemur

Ring-tailed lemurs have coats of soft, thick, woolly fur. The fur on their body is brownish gray and their tails are ringed with white and black fur.

Diet

Ring-tailed lemurs also spend a lot of time on the ground, which is unusual among lemur species. They forage for fruit, which makes up the greater part of their diet, but also eat leaves, flowers, tree bark, and sap.

Habitat

Lemurs live in trees which is why they are called arboreal. There are some large species of Lemurs though that also spend time on the ground. They are only found on the Comoro Islands.

Meerkat

The meerkat or suricate is a small carnivoran belonging to the mongoose family. It is the only member of the genus Suricata.

Diet

Eating both plants and animals, meerkats are omnivores. Their diet mostly consists of insects, which they sniff out using their enhanced sense of smell. They also eat small rodents, fruit, birds, eggs, lizards, and even poisonous scorpions.

Habitat

Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa.

Newt

A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae,

also called eft during its terrestrial juvenile phase.

Diet

Newts do the same with smaller fish and even other newts. Water lice, water shrimps, water fleas (Daphnia) worms, lesser water boatmen, small crustaceans, mayfly nymphs, seed shrimps, freshwater shrimps, leeches and other water dwelling invertebrates.

Habitat

Palmate newts also spend much of the summer in terrestrial habitats. Great crested newts spend most of their time around ponds, although a lot of this will be spent on the surrounding land rather than in the water.

Octopus

The octopus is a soft-bodied, eight-armed mollusc of the order Octopoda. Around 300 species are recognised and the order is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish and nautiloids.

Diet

Octopuses eat small crabs and scallops, plus some snails, fish, turtles, crustaceans (like shrimp), and other octopuses. They catch prey with their arms, then kill it by biting it with their tough beak, paralyzing the prey with a nerve poison, and softening the flesh. They then suck out the flesh.

Habitat

The water depth, in which they live ranges from the shallow, coastal waters to about 330 feet deep. The Pacific octopus is a benthic creature. It lives on the ocean floor. Dens are a very important place of shelter for these octopuses.

Polar Bear

The polar bear is a carnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses

Diet

Polar bears feed mainly on ringed and bearded seals. Depending upon their location, they also eat harp and hooded seals and scavenge on carcasses of beluga whales, walruses, narwhals, and bowhead whales. On occasion, polar bears kill beluga whales and young walruses.

Habitat

Polar bears are only found in the Arctic. The most important habitats for polar bears are the edges of pack ice where currents and wind interact, forming a continually melting and refreezing matrix of ice patches and leads (open spaces in the ocean between sea ice ).

Words you don't understand...?

Various=different from one another; of different kinds or sorts.

WORD

MEANING

Construct=build or make

Diversity=a range of different things

Droughts=low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water.

Dominate=have power and influence over.

Herbivores=an animal that feeds on plants.

Dromedary=trained for riding or racing.

Adaptable=able to adjust to new conditions.

Thrive=grow or develop well.

Pasture=land covered with grass and other low plants suitable for animals.

Interspersed=scatter around or between other things.

Abundance=a very large quantity or amount of something.

Constitute=being a part of something..

Amphibian=a cold-blooded animal.

Invertebrate=an animal lacking a backbone.

Even-toed=a hoofed mammal.

Semi aquatic=living partly on land and partly in water.

Arboreal=living in trees.

Marsupial=a mammal which is carried and suckled in a pouch on the mother's belly.

Do you now know a lot of information about these animals?

Which animal did you enjoy reading about and why?

What's your favourite animal?

THANKS FOR READING WILD ANIMALS!

Damalie 6R