Animals

#271 Why do pandas eat bamboo?

I learned this today. Pandas eat bamboo because it is such an abundant food source that they don’t need to fight over food or search for it. There is some argument over when pandas started eating bamboo. The general consensus is that they began to eat bamboo about 6 million years ago. Evidence for this […]

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#237 How do extremophiles survive?

I learned this today. Different species of extremophiles have evolved different ways to survive the extreme environments that they live in. The word extremophile comes from the Greek “extremus”, which means love and “philia”, which means love. They are organisms that not only survive in extreme environments they flourish in them. I learned about tardigrades

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#236 Why are tardigrades so tough?

I learned this today. Tardigrades are incredibly strong and incredibly small micro-animals. Tardigrades are generally about 0.5mm long. Some of the big ones grow up to 1.5mm in size but they are usually much smaller. There are about 1,300 different species of them and they live all over the world. They are short and plump

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#234 Why do skunks smell so bad?

I learned this today. Skunks smell so bad because they spray an organic compound that has sulfur in it. Skunks are mostly native to north and south America, although there is also a species of skunk that lives in Indonesia. This is called the Sunda stink badger. There are generally ten different species of skunk.

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#231 Why do sloths move so slowly?

I learned this today. Sloths move so slowly because they have an extremely low metabolic rate. There are six species of sloth that are divided into two different types of sloth: three-toed sloths and two-toed sloths. Both of these groups of sloths are from different families that are very distantly related. They have both evolved

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#224 Why can animals run so fast?

I learned this today. Many animals can run quickly because they have four legs, run on their toes, and have bodies designed for speed.       There are three types of animals when it comes to the shape of feet. There are plantigrades, digitigrades, and unguligrades.       We are plantigrades. Along with rodents, rabbits, hedgehogs, kangaroos,

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#208 How do cows produce milk?

I learned this today. Cows combine nutrients from their blood, sugar, fat, and water in their udders to produce milk. All mammals, except for monotremes (like the duck billed platypus) produce milk. In all but one case the milk is produced by the female mammal. The only male mammal that produces milk is the Dayak

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