Bats – The only group of
mammals that can truly fly, using leathery wings. Bats are small but highly
intelligent animals, more closely related to monkeys than to the rats they are
often mistakenly associated with. This is the second largest group of mammals,
numbering one-fourth of all mammal species. It is extremely important to
humans, because various species of bats pollinate many important plants, spread
seeds or eat prodigious quantities of harmful insects. For more on bats, see
this report.
Cats – Not just pets but
also a whole group called the cat family that includes wild animals like lions,
tigers, leopards, cheetahs and mountain lions, as well as smaller wild cats
similar to house cats such as the bobcat found in Texas. Cats usually hunt
alone, catch prey with their claws, use powerful teeth and jaws for quick
kills, and have short noses to make it easier to bite hard.
Canine – Belonging to the dog
family, including dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, etc.
Dogs – Not just pets but
also a general word for a group called the dog family that has several kinds of
wild animals, including wild dogs, wolves, coyotes and foxes. Most hunt in
packs, use gripping teeth to drag prey down, have long noses, very good senses
of smell.
Feline – Belonging to the cat
family, including domestic cats, lions, leopards, jaguars, etc.
Frog – An animal that
hatches from eggs in the water and looks like a little fish for a while but
then grows four legs, loses its tail and hops out of the water onto land. It
has a smooth, wet skin that contains powerful chemicals that can be poisonous
to animals who bite the frog but that also can sometimes be used as medicines
for people.
Insect – A small six-legged
animal that does not have an inside skeleton but usually has a hard outer skin
to support its body; insects usually of through several stages of life, with
the young ones looking like little worms, then resting for a while in little
insect sleeping bags called cocoons, before emerging as adults; there are many kinds of insects;
some crawl, some fly, some swim; some eat plants and some eat other insects
Marsupial – A "pouch
mammal," i.e., a mammal that gives birth to very small and helpless babies
who then enter a pouch in the mother's body to be nursed for a period of time
before emerging into the world. Includes oppossums in the Americas and a wide
variety of species in the Australia region, including kangaroos, wallabyes,
wombats, koalas and the bandicoots.
Monotreme – The group containing
only two kinds of unusual egg-laying mammals (the duckbilled platypus and the
echidnas, both from the Australia-New Guinea area).
Primate – The group of mammals
that includes monkeys, apes and humans.
Rodent – A group of mostly
small mammals that have large gnawing incisor teeth, such as rats, squirrels,
etc. Rodents are the largest group of mammals and are found all over the world.
Ruminant – A plant-eating mammal
that has multiple stomachs and brings food back up from a storage stomach to
rechew it (chewing cud), a way to digest the otherwise almost-too-tough-to-eat
cellulose fiber that makes up much of the structure of certain plants,
especially the grasses.
Ungulate – The scientific name
for a mammal with hooves, such as horses, cattle and antelopes.
Snake – An animal with a
backbone but no legs, which slithers along the ground. Snakes usually have
scaly bodies and eat small animals. Some put a poison called venom into their
food animals or enemies when they bite. People should not grab snakes, not only
to keep from getting bitten but also to keep from hurting the snakes. Most
snakes are good to have around your house because they eat insects and rats
that can cause problems.
Spider – An eight-legged
animal, usually small, that eats bugs; many spiders spin sticky webs to catch
bugs in, but some just creep around until they spot a bug to jump on. Some
people are afraid of spiders, but only a few kinds of spiders can hurt people and
spiders help us by eating lots of insects.
Turtle – A scaly animal with a
hard shell around his body; most turtles can pull their heads and legs into the
shell for protection against animals that want to eat them.
Worm – A name for many kinds
of legless animals without backbones, soft-bodied, usually wiggly, some on land
and some in the sea. Some land worms are slimy. Worms come in many sizes,
colors, and shapes (some round, some flat), etc., but all are sort of like
pencils or strings. Some kinds of worms are problems because they are parasites
that can make us or our pets sick; but other kinds are very important to us.
Earthworms, for example, are very important for making soil fertile so that
plants can grow well.