The Red Wolf

Wolves are the largest members of the dog family. Although we know from our fairy tales that wolves are villains (think of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf), wolves aren't really that big or bad. Wolves are natural predators that hunt and eat other animals; it doesn't matter that they are from the dog family, they must never be treated as pets. They are wild animals. This is their nature.

The Red Wolf is unusual because this species actually became extinct in the wild in 1980. It was the top predator in the Southeastern United States. Hunting and the clearing of the forests where the Red Wolf roamed reduced the entire population of the animal to just 17 wolves in 1980!
The Red Wolf has a brownish, cinnamon-colored fur with black and gray on the back and tail. Its muzzle has white fur around the lips. Their ears are larger in size than regular wolves. Their jaws are powerful, which can bite through most animal hides. The Red Wolf usually hunts at night, dawn or dusk in a pack, a group of 20 or so wolves. It is almost exclusively a meat-eater, feasting on deer, sheep, goats, rabbits and rodents. Unlike the Gray Wolf, the Red Wolf has not been recorded to attack people.A Red Wolf will travel up to 20 miles to search for food.

Once practically extinct, the Red Wolf has been put on the CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES list. Thanks to scientists and conservationists who believed in the importance of bringing back and nurturing back the Red Wolf, there are thought to be some 300 Red Wolves in the world, with most of them in captivity.

Some new threats to the Red Wolf species include:

1. Presence of coyotes - Interbreeding with coyotes threaten the Red Wolf recovery program. Conservationists want to keep the Red Wolf line as pure as possible, but they have noticed that coyotes appear when there is a Red Wolf population in a place, no matter how small.

2. Diseases from domestic dogs - When the recovery program attempted to start a second breeding program, the Red Wolf pups often picked up diseases normally seen in pet dogs. Adult wolves also started moving away from the protected areas.

3. Loss of habitat - Forests and hills where the Red Wolf roams has been getting fewer and fewer as more people begin to demand more space. Only a few protected habitat for the Red Wolf remain.

4. Public perception of wolves - This has been the hardest to change, according to the conservationists. People would hear the word "wolf" and they begin to imagine all sorts of bad things happening, which has not been good for the Red Wolf recovery program at all.

More information on the Red Wolf Recovery Program can be found here.

Red Wolf Fast Facts
Scientific Name: Canis Rufus
Type: Mammal
Diet: Carnivore
Height: 3 to 5.25 feet
Weight: 40 to 175 pounds
Range: Southeastern United States
Diet: Goats, sheep, deer, rats, rabbits

To solve a jigsaw puzzle of a wolf, click on the image or here.

The Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. Because it is protected, people who shoot or harm this national bird will be put in jail. The Bald Eagle is not really bald; it has very white feathers on its head, making it look like it has no hair/feathers at all! The term "bald" may have come from the Old English word, balde, which meant white.

The favorite food of the Bald Eagle is fish. And this bird is an expert fisher. A Bald Eagle has spiny scales and sharp talons on their toes for gripping the slippery fish straight from the water. A powerful beak, in the shape of a hook, helps the eagle eat its food. When there are few fish, the Bald Eagle will hunt rabbits, squirrels, other birds and young deer.

Bald Eagles have very sharp eyes and can see four to seven times better than humans! But the eagle's eyes can't move from side to side like we do; it has to turn turn its head to be able to look around. When a Bald Eagle loses a feather on one wing, it will also lose a feather on the other wing. Why? So that it won't lose its balance!

The Bald Eagle was put on the Endangered Species list a few years ago. But because of the effort put in by the US Government, the population of this bird has increased, putting its classification status as a VULNERABLE SPECIES. This doesn't mean that we have to stop our efforts in helping this bird survive. There are still things that can further endanger the Bald Eagle.

1. Hunting - The Bald Eagle was hunted for "fun", and to put their heads and bodies on display as trophies. With government protecting these birds, hunting has almost stopped, giving the Bald Eagles the chance to have more babies.

2. Pesticides - These chemicals, used by farmers to protect their crops from insects, pollute the air and the water. The fish in the water would eat the pesticide, and the eagle would eat the fish. Although the pesticide doesn't harm the adult eagle, it makes them unable to lay healthy eggs, or would produce very soft eggs, that the eagle couldn't sit on it to make it hatch.

3. Habitat destruction - Bald Eagles need lots of trees in their environment. When more and more people use more and more paper and cut down trees to make houses and other buildings, they are destroying the places where the Bald Eagle lives.

Bald Eagle Fast Facts
Scientific Name: Haliaeetus Leucocephalus
Type: Bird
Diet: Carnivore
Height: 34 to 43 inches
Wingspan: 6 to 8 feet
Weight: 6.5 to 14 pounds
Range: North America
Diet: Fish, rabbits, dead animals

To solve a scrambler puzzle of the Bald Eagle, click on the image or here.

Leatherback Sea Turtle

The Leatherback Sea Turtle is the largest among the turtles, with its shell up to 8 feet long! It is also the heaviest among the turtles, weighing as much as 1,800 pounds! The Leatherback Sea Turtle is also the fastest, swimming as fast as 22 miles per hour! This huge turtle is a daredevil, too: it eats jellyfish, even the poisonous ones!

The Leatherback Turtle's shell is very different from other turtle shells. While other turtles have a hard protective shell, the Leatherback Turtle has a shell covered with a leathery skin supported by tiny bones. This allows the Leatherback Turtle to dive up to 3,000 feet below the ocean surface. A regular turtle would be crushed from the water pressure if it went this deep.

The Leatherback Sea Turtle is dark in color with white and pink spots. It has a large, flat, round body with two pairs of very large flippers, and a short tail. Once born, Leatherback males never leave the water once they enter it. Female Leatherbacks crawl on land to nest and lay eggs.

Leatherback Sea Turtles are among the most endangered animals on earth. With 35,000 turtles left in the world, this number is fast declining. On the CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES list, these largest reptile needs to be saved, and saved now. Some reasons for their endangered status:

1. Raiding of nests - Some people collect turtle eggs for food and other reasons. An average of only ONE Sea Turtle lives for every 1,000 eggs!

2. Plastics and pollution - Pollution in the waters and on the beaches, especially plastic, are a main reason why Sea Turtles die. The turtles mistake the plastic for jellyfish, their food, and they eat the plastic, causing the plastic to choke them.

3. Habitat loss - Noise and activity on the beaches, where the Leatherback Sea Turtle nests, causes the hatchlings to crawl away from the ocean, leading to their deaths. More people on the beaches also take away from beach space that the Leatherback needs to make a nest.

4. Accidental capture - Fishing gear like nets and explosives cause much harm to the Sea Turtle population.

5. Hunting - Sea Turtles are hunted for their meat and shells, used to make combs, eyeglass frames and other products.

Leatherback Sea Turtle Fast Facts

Scientific Name: Dermochelys Coriacea
Type: Reptile
Diet: Carnivore
Height: 6 feet long
Weight: 600 to 1, 800 pounds
Range: Oceans of the world
Diet: Jellyfish and soft-bodied animals

To make your own Sea Turtle puppet/marionette, click on the image or here.

Starting the Project: RAEGAN

Raegan finally joined the group as she started researching on her list of endangered animals. She narrowed it down to the following:

1. Snow Leopard
2. Siberian Tiger
3. Sea Otter
4. Giant Ibis
5. Mountain Gorilla
6. Florida Panther
7. Red Wolf
   

Some changes Raegan wanted for the blog include:

1. framing the drawings
2. blogwear - theme appropriate "skins" for the blog
   

The Polar Bear

The Polar Bear looks like a cute stuffed animal from afar, but we need to be careful of this wild animal. It is the largest carnivore on land, and shares the title of largest predator with the Kodiak Bear. The Polar Bear is also one of the fewest all-white animals on Earth. Only its eyes, nose and lips are black. Under all that thick, furry snowy-white fur, the Polar Bear's skin is also black; we just can't see it.


Polar Bears live in some of the coldest places on Earth: where there are snow and ice, Polar Bears are sure to be there. They are also strong swimmers; they use their large front paws, which are webbed like the fins we use on our feet when we snorkel. Although the Polar Bear lives in very very cold temperatures (sometimes as low as -30 degrees!), they have ways to stay warm:

1. Fur - The Polar Bear's thick fur is protected by an outer coat of guard hairs (longer, stiffer hair that grows through the fur of a mammal's coat). This second coat of hairs stick together when the Polar Bear gets wet, giving the animal a waterproof covering! Even the Polar Bear's huge paws are covered with its thick white fur to provide warmth and allows the Polar Bear to grip the ice and snow firmly.

2. Blubber - This is a very thick layer of fat that Polar Bears have to keep warm. The blubber is underneath their thick fur. Sometimes Polar Bears get too hot (with the combination of the blubber and fur) that they swim in the cold water to cool off! Blubber also provides a food reserve if the Polar Bears aren't able to hunt.

3. Winter Sleep -Although Polar Bears don't hibernate, they drift off into a deep sleep where their body functions slow down. This winter sleep helps them fight off the cold air around them.

Polar Bears' favorite food is the seal, especially its blubber. Polar Bears wait above the ice hole for a seal to come up for air, and then it strikes, biting and crushing the skull of the seal. Other foods the Polar Bear eats are walruses and small whales.

The Polar Bear is not classified as an Endangered Species. Yet. Its official classification is VULNERABLE SPECIES, a step before being Endangered. Scientists estimate that there are only 20,000 Polar Bears left in the world, and their number is decreasing. Some reasons for this decrease, and why they are being classified as a Vulnerable Species:

1. Global Warming - Ice sheets are melting and cold areas are becoming warmer. Polar Bears use the floating sheets of ice to travel from place to place and to hunt for food. If the number of ice sheets decrease, Polar Bears may be stuck in one place for too long a period of time, and there may not be enough food for all of them.

2. Shrinking Environment - The natural habitat of the Polar Bears seem to be getting smaller as more and more people look for places to live.

3. Hunting - People hunt the Polar Bear for several reasons. Fur for pants and footwear in cold places. People eat the bear's meat, and fat is used for food and as fuel for lighting and warming homes. Tendons are used for sewing clothes, and the gallbladder and heart of the Polar Bear are dried and powdered for medicines. The large teeth are also being used as lucky charms (talismans).

4. Pollution - Pesticides can easily poison the Polar Bear. Oil spills and gas spills, especially in the Arctic area, will pollute the environment of the Polar Bear and may kill them, reducing their already decreasing number.

Polar Bear Fast Facts
Scientific Name: Ursus Maritimus
Type: Mammal
Diet: Carnivore
Height: 7.5 to 8 feet
Weight: 900 to 1,600 pounds
Range: the Arctic, Russia, North America
Diet: Seal, walrus, whales

To solve a jigsaw puzzle of the Polar Bear, click on the image or here.

Sperm Whale

Remember Moby Dick? He was a Sperm Whale. The Sperm Whale is the largest of the toothed whales. It has the largest brain of any living animal. Sperm Whales have a huge head, almost a third of its entire body length. The scientific name of the Sperm Whale is Physeter Macrocephalus, where "macrocephalus" really means "big head"!

Another unique part of the Sperm Whale is the single blowhole on the left side of the head instead of the top, like other whales. The Sperm Whale also has a large hump on the back, followed by smaller bumps. Gray in color, the Sperm Whale's skin is not smooth like other whales but very wrinkly.

The Sperm Whale's huge head has a large space in it (called the spermaceti organ) filled with a waxy liquid called spermaceti oil. This oil can be cooled or heated by the water through the blowhole and can shrink and increase in weight, helping the whale sink; or expands and decreases in weigh, helping the whale rise to the surface of the ocean.

Although numbering close to 2 million whales today, the Sperm Whale is classified as VULNERABLE in the endangered species list. Two million seems like such a large number, but scatter that number throughout all the oceans on Earth, and the number looks very small. Some reasons why the Sperm Whale is on the endangered list include:

1. Hunting - The Sperm Whale has always been hunted for its spermaceti; whalers sell them to people who make cosmetics and candles. Japan continues to hunt Sperm Whales despite the ban on whaling by the International Whaling Commission.

2. Threats from fishing equipment - Sperm Whales also get entangled in nets and fishing gear, and collide with fishing boats.

Sperm Whale Fast Facts

Scientific Name: Physeter Macrocephalus
Type: Mammal
Diet: Carnivore
Height: 49 to 59 feet long
Weight: 35 to 45 tons
Range: Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans
Diet: Squid, fish, octopus

To make your own Whale Sock, click on the image or here.

Preliminary Sketches by Rogan

Here are Rogan's initial sketches for his drawings on his chosen endangered animals.

The Giant Panda

What's black and white and loved all over?.......the Giant Panda, a national treasure of China. Because it is a national treasure, it is protected by law. Scientists aren't exactly sure why the Panda is black and white, but they think that the black and white coloring provides camouflage against the snow and rocks of their environment. Some scientists also say that the different coloring also helps the Giant Pandas to see each other.


The Giant Panda's diet is 99% bamboo. And it eats a lot of bamboo, too! It eats for at least 12 hours per day and consumes up to 84 pounds of bamboo! In the wild, the Giant Panda also eats grass, shrubs, berries and small rats (if it can catch them).

When we see a Giant Panda in the zoo, it is either sleeping, or sitting down with its legs out in front. They look lazy, but they can easily climb trees and are good swimmers. Baby pandas are born white; they develop the unique coloring as they get older. Baby pandas are also blind, and cannot crawl until they reach 5 months.

The Giant Panda is an ENDANGERED SPECIES. There are only 1,600 Giant Pandas in the world. Some reasons why they are endangered:

1. Few babies - Female Giant Pandas give birth to one or two cubs and can take care of only one. In the wild, one of the cubs usually die. But in a zoo, zookeepers take care of the other twin and switches the cubs so that the Mother Panda is able to give both her babies care and milk.

2. Bamboo shortage - When bamboo plants grow, they flower and produce seeds. The seeds grow into plants big enough for the Giant Panda to eat. When the seeds produce the plant, the bamboo plant dies. The Panda will eat the kind of bamboo that grows in its environment. But the bamboo plants growing in the same area die at the same time, forcing the Giant Panda to look in other places.

3. Habitat destruction - As Pandas look for more places that grow bamboo, they compete with the world's growing population. More people means the need for more places to live, which means more forests are cut down to make space. As people cut more trees, the Giant Panda has less and less food to eat.

4. Hunting - Although the Giant Panda is not hunted, it can sometimes be hurt and killed by the traps that hunters set for other animals.

Giant Panda Fast Facts
Scientific Name: Ailuropoda Melanoleuca
Type: Mammal
Diet: Omnivore
Height: 4 to 5 feet
Weight: up to 300 pounds
Range: Southwestern China
Diet: Bamboo, grass, shrubs

To solve a jigsaw puzzle of the Giant Panda, click on the image or here.

Starting the Project: ROGAN

After a successful Family Day, Rogan settled down to start his project:

1. He filled up the Kids Can! questionnaire regarding his PLAN to make a difference.
2. He gave some suggestions on changing a few things on the blog to make it look better. (think blues)
3. He narrowed down his list of endangered animals to the following:

1. Black Rhino
2. Tarsier
3. Leatherback Sea Turtle
4. Tiger Salamander
5. Black Tern
6. Short-Eared Owl
7. Sperm Whale
   

The Asian Tapir

A mixture of animals, that's what a Tapir looks like. It has a round body (pig) and a long snout (anteater or elephant). It is closely related to the horse and the rhinoceros because each toe of the Tapir has its own separate hoof. The Asian Tapir, also known as the Malayan Tapir, is the largest Tapir among the four species of Tapirs in the world. In Thailand, P'som-sett is the name for the Tapir and means "the mixture is finished."

The Asian Tapir has unique coloring: the "saddle" from the shoulders to the top of the legs are white, and the rest is black except for the tips of the ears which is white. This pattern is for the Tapir's camouflage; animals that would hunt the Tapir think that it is a rock lying on the ground.

The Asian Tapir is a vegetarian, eating only different kinds of plants. Using its long nose like a hand/finger, the Tapir can get leaves from tree branches or pull grass from the ground The Asian Tapir has poor eyesight, so it relies mostly on its sense of smell and hearing to look for food. Small and compact, the Asian Tapir is at home in the water and dives in to cool off.

Baby Tapirs are born brown with beige stripes, no matter what species they are. At six months, the baby Tapir looks like a miniature adult. They reach their full size in 18 months and are considered adults at 2 to 4 years.

All four species of the Tapir are on the ENDANGERED SPECIES list. Some reasons why they are endangered:

1. Hunting - People hunt Tapirs for their meat and skin. A young Tapir captured can be sold for as much as $5,500.

2. Habitat destruction -People continue to be the real threat to the Tapirs' existence. Deforestatation for farming and other agricultural purposes and flooding caused by the damming of rivers for projects all put the Tapir's environment in danger.

Asian Tapir Fast Facts
Scientific Name: Ailuropoda Melanoleuca
Type: Mammal
Diet: Herbivore
Height: 2.5 to 3.5 feet
Weight: 500 to 800 pounds
Range: rainforests of Southeast Asia
Diet: leaves, grass

To make an origami of the Asian Tapir, click on the image or here.