Animals

Cats, dogs, and fish are the most common pets people have. Humans domesticated animals as early as 8000 BC when they started to farm and settle in one place. Take a look at the Museum of Natural History Animal Domestication Timeline and see when many types of animals became pets, working companions, and protectors. The Egyptians were buried with their cats and considered them sacred. Pets are our companions. Like people, pets need love, and attention, exercise and play, and socialization. We must groom them (brush their hair and teeth) and take them for check-ups regularly. Pet owners are responsible for caring for their pets as pets are no longer capable of meeting their own needs in the wild. When we commit to having a pet, we commit to caring for the animal for their entire life. It is our responsibility to give them the care that they need. Make a chart of common pets and their life expectancies.

There are many types of animals in the world, and we are still discovering new ones. Mammals, insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and birds are all animals. These six types of animals fall into two main categories- vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates have spines or backbones and make up less than five percent of all animals. Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals all have backbones of some type. Insects, on the other hand, make 84% of the animal kingdom and are the largest and most diverse group of animals in the world, called Artopods because of their body parts, they belong to the Arthropoda Phylum(or family). They, like worms, centipedes, spiders, clams, mollusks, crabs, jellyfish, and others, do not have vertebrae.

In each animal category, there are many, many species. These species evolved from marine life billions of years ago. It is a fantastic world to find that our evolution created swimming, floating, flying, walking, running, digging animals! Are people animals? The answer is yes! We are mammals. We have babies fed with mothers’ milk; we have hair and fur; we learn through our senses. Our bodies develop and mature, and we must eat and drink to live. Animals must find food to live. They do not produce their own (except for babies). They grow, mature, and move around for most of their lives. Make a chart of the animal types with several animal species in each category.

Animals (including humans) eat different foods, live in different places, and have many different characteristics. Animals chirp, roar, talk, bark, moo, sing, coo, and communicate in many different ways. Babies are born alive (like mammals), hatched in small or large eggs, or appear as larva, pupa, or maggot. Baby animals are cubs, pups, kittens, calves, chick, duckling, foals, fawn, hatchling, antling, and other types and names. They have hair, fur, scales, or feathers. They have feet, hooves, toes, wings, webs, or fins. Some animals have spots, others have stripes, and many are solid colors. FIll out this Animal Characteristics worksheet and upload it to the gallery with your favorite animals.

People have skin. It is smooth! Some of us have hair on our arms, legs, and chest. Other animals have different coverings. Rabbits, chipmunks, horses, bears, lions, tigers have fur. Some of the coats are soft, and some are rough. They help protect the animals, regulate their temperature, and protect them from insects and weather. Birds, on the other hand, are covered in feathers. Feathers are the same material as our fingernails. Some birds use their feathers to fly, others to swim. Animals like snakes and fish have scales. These coverings protect the bodies of animals. Snakeskin is not slimy but hard; lizards also have armor-like scales. These animals both shed their skins as they grow larger. Fish scales grow as the fish matures. Insects do not have skin. The outside of their bodies is their skeleton, or exoskeleton as it is their outside covering. There is much diversity in animal skins. Make a chart of animals. Draw or photograph their coats. List how it protects the animals. Don’t forget to draw a human, too!

Go outside. Look in the dirt, sand, or mud. If you look closely, you can find animal tracks. Animals leave different footprints in sand, dirt, and snow. Some animals leave a single track while others leave pairs of trails. Some animals with four legs leave multiple footprints. Animals have toes, pads, webs, hoofs, scales, claws, nails, and even more types of feet. You can determine the type of animal by its tracks. You can guess the size of the animal by the size of the imprint, the length of the animal’s stride, and the depression that the animal makes. Take a walk at the beach or in the woods and look for animal tracks. Look in moist soil. Take a walk on a beach and look in the sand. Look for clues like pieces of fur or feathers. Be careful. You might find scat or animal poop! Listen carefully, too. Your animal might be close by and talking! Become an animal tracker. Draw six different animal tracks and the animals that left the tracks and label them.

Many animals see, hear, and smell with a greater range than humans. People have a hearing range between 20 Hz – 20KHz and can see in a certain color range and with certain peripheral vision. Many animals can see at night when people cannot see in the dark. Many animals surpass the human sense of smell. Can you match the following animals to their correct range of hearing?
1. Elephant

2. Goldfish

3. Bat

4. Owl

5. Dog

6. Beluga Whale
Use the following frequencies: (a) 67 Hz to 45,000 Hz, (a) 67 Hz to 45,000 Hz; © 20 Hz to 3,000 Hz;(d) 1,000 Hz to 123,000 Hz;(e) 200 Hz to 12,000 Hz;(f) 16 Hz to 12,000 Hz.
Answers are as follows: Elephant (f); Goldfish ©; Bat (b); Owl (e); Dog (a) Can you put these animals in order of the one that can see the least to the one that can see the furthest? Take a look at Animals and Vision to compare what people and different fish, insects, mammals, and reptiles see! And finally, consider smell. Humans have between 5 and 6 million smell receptors, ranking behind twelve other animals, including guinea pigs, dogs, western clawed frogs, horses, mice, Chinese softshell turtles, cows, opossums, rats and finally, African Elephants. If cows can smell odors from six miles away, how far can African Animals smell with their long trunks? Draw pictures of the five top ‘sniffers’ and 'seers’ and 'listeners,’ from the best to the fifth-best!

Which animal is the largest? Who runs the fastest? What one migrates the furthest? What animal has the best memory? Check out the biggest/fastest site and research animal superlatives. Surprise yourself with animal facts. The blue whale is the world’s largest animal. It is so large that its tongue alone weighs about 3 tons (or about 2,700 kilograms). The largest animal on land, the African bush elephant – the whole thing, not just the tongue – weighs about six tons. Who IS the biggest, fastest, oldest, loudest, most massive, longest-lived, etc.? Make a list of exciting animal facts. Pick an animal. Research its characteristics. Make a five-question riddle to have people guess your animal. For example, what animal is this? What animal is awake at night? What flies silently? Which animals turn their head 270 degrees? Who says, “Hoooo”? Who is wise?

What kind of work do people do with animals? Early on, there were animal trainers or people who captured wild lions, horses, bears, dogs, monkeys, and even falcons and taught them to stay close and to follow instructions. Some of the instructions were to entertain or do tricks, but many directions were to protect people, pull heavy loads, carry them across great distances. Some animals are used to provide food. The study of animals is called zoology. Zookeepers take care of the animals and animal habitats in zoos. Doctors who take care of animals when they become sick are called veterinarians or vets. Apiarists take care of bees making honey. Pet groomers wash and trim your pets and even clean their ears, eyes, and teeth! Animal wranglers bring animal movie stars to film sets and make sure they perform their best! Animal nutritionists study the best foods for animals. Animal trainers work with horses, dolphins, lions, tigers, and bears! Which animal will you befriend?

Upload a photo of the animals you want to work with to the Animal Gallery! Check out Careers with animals!

• The African elephant is the largest land mammal in African.
  • True
  • False
• The frog is invertebrate animal.
  • True
  • False
• The starfish is vertebrate animal.
  • True
  • False
• Whales are mammal.
  • True
  • False
• The brown bear is the largest bear in the world.
  • True
  • False
• There are 7 species of penguin found in the Arctic Circle.
  • True
  • False
• The elephant is the only mammal that cannot jump.
  • True
  • False
• The barn owl is the quietest flyer in the bird world.
  • True
  • False
• Meerkats live alone by the river.
  • True
  • False
• Beavers live by the river and like building dams.
  • True
  • False