Miscellaneous Animal Facts Flashcards
American Crow appearance
American Crows are large, long-legged, birds with a heavy, straight bill. They are all black, even the legs and bill. Their short tails are rounded or squared off at the end.
American Crow habitat
American Crows are highly adaptable and will live in any open place that offers a few trees to perch in and a reliable source of food. They are common in fields, open woodlands, and forests. American Crows thrive around people, and are often found in agricultural fields, lawns, parking lots, athletic fields, roadsides, towns, and city garbage dumps.
American Crow diet
American Crows eat a vast array of foods, including grains, seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, and many kinds of small animals such as earthworms and mice. They eat many insects, including some crop pests, and also aquatic animals such as fish, young turtles, crayfish, mussels, and clams. A frequent nest predator, the American Crow eats the eggs and nestlings of many species including sparrows, robins, jays, terns, and loons. They also eat carrion and garbage.
American Crow behavior
American Crows are very social and will form very large flocks. They congregate in large numbers in winter to sleep in communal roosts. These roosts can be of a few hundred up to two million crows. Crows are good learners and problem-solvers, often raiding garbage cans and picking over discarded food containers. They can also be aggressive and chase away larger birds and predators. This behavior is known as mobbing.
American Crow intelligence
American Crows are thought to be among the most intelligent birds in the world. They can make and use tools, recognize human faces, and mimic different sounds they hear.
Ring-Billed Gull Appearance
he Ring-Billed Gull is gray on the back with a white head, breast, and tail. Their black wingtips are spotted with white. They have yellow legs and a yellow bill with a black band around it. These “sea” gulls are large, robust birds with a strong flight. Their fully webbed toes make them good swimmers.
Ring-Billed Gull habitat
While the species is common on coastal beaches, particularly during winter, many Ring-Billed Gulls lead inland lives, never setting eyes on the sea. They often congregate around humans, in and around urban, suburban, and agricultural areas. They can also be found at reservoirs, ponds, landfills, parking lots, shopping malls, and freshly plowed fields.
Ring-Billed Gull diet
Ring-Billed Gulls are able to thrive on almost any available source of nutrition. They will, however, eat mostly fish, insects, earthworms, rodents, grain, and garbage. Common fish prey include alewife, smelt, nine-spined stickleback, and yellow perch. Insect meals feature primarily beetles, flies, dragonflies, and bugs. In addition, Ring-Billed Gulls have also been known to eat dates, cherries, blueberries, and strawberries, as well as French fries and other food discarded (or left unguarded) by people.
Ring-Billed Gull behavior
These sociable gulls often fly overhead by the hundreds or feed together at a golf course, beach, or field. Ring-Billed Gulls circle and hover acrobatically looking for food. They can race along at more than 40 miles per hour, and they are adept at snatching food from the air. They also forage afloat and on foot. Ring-Billed Gulls use a wide variety of foraging methods: walking around on land, stamping their feet in shallow water to uncover small invertebrates, skimming shallow water for small fish, and nabbing insects out of the air. They will also steal food from other birds, hunt for small rodents, and scavenge along beaches, parks, and garbage dumps.
Breeding Ring-Billed Gull Fun fact
Many Ring-Billed Gulls return to breed at the colony where they hatched. Once they have bred, they are likely to return to the same breeding spot each year, often nesting within a few meters of the last year’s nest site. Many individuals return to the same wintering sites each winter too.
Bantam Chicken Appearance
One of the most noticeable characteristics of Bantams is that they are small. The exact size varies depending on the breed, but they tend to weigh between 16 and 30 ounces and are roughly a quarter of the size of a standard chicken.
Bantam Chicken Habitat
Because of their small size, Bantams are suitable for smaller backyards. They also enjoy residing in the Ohio Bird Sanctuary Visitor’s Center and Aviary.
Bantam Chicken diet
The Bantam chicken eats the same feed as any other chicken. They will also eat insects, fruit, and just about anything the Ohio Bird Sanctuary Staff brings in their lunch.
Bantam Chicken behavior
Although each chicken has his or her own individual personality, Bantams are known to be mostly calm, placid, and friendly birds. As such, they are ideal pets for those who would like to interact with their chickens. Of course, they will not naturally want to be your best friend, so you will need to spend some time handling them before you really see their good temperaments shine through.
Eastern Box Turtle Apperance
The eastern box turtle, a subspecies of the common box turtle, has a dark brown, hinged shell with yellow-orange markings. Each shell has a top, called a carapace, and a bottom, called a plastron. The shell is made up of large hard scales called scutes. The top of the shell can come in many shapes, colors and sizes and are unique to the turtle! When threatened, it can pull its head, tail and limbs inside and shut its shell for protection. Males have vibrant red eyes, and noticeably curved plastrons to assist in mating.
Eastern Box Turtle Habitat
They can be found along the eastern U.S. from Maine to Florida and west to the Great Lakes region and Texas. Eastern box turtles are predominantly terrestrial and live in a variety of vegetative areas, including shrubby grasslands, marshy meadows, open woodlands and field forest edges. They are often found near streams or ponds, or areas that have experienced heavy rainfall.
Eastern Box Turtle Diet
These opportunistic omnivores eat a wide variety of plants, mushrooms, fruits, insects, fish, small amphibians, eggs and even animal carrion. Young box turtles grow very rapidly and tend to be primarily carnivorous (for needed energy for growth). Therefore, they spend more time in the water where it is easier to hunt. As they mature (5-6 years) they move onto land and shift to a primarily herbivorous diet.
Eastern Box Turtle behavior
These turtles usually have a home range with a diameter of 230 meters (750 feet) or less in which they normally stay. Home ranges of different individuals overlap frequently regardless of age or sex. Turtles are often found together and show no antagonism toward each other. While aggression between individuals is not common, competing males will spar each other. This involves biting at each other’s shells.
Box turtle age
Box turtles generally live for 25-35 years but have been known to survive to over 100 years old!
Box turtle temperature sex determination
Box turtles exhibit temperature sex determination; those incubated between 70-80 degrees fahrenheight are more likely to be males, those incubated above 82 degrees fahrenheight are more likely to be females.
Box Turtle impacts
Their biggest threat is habitat loss and vehicle collisions.
Box Turtle brumation
In northern regions where it gets too cold, they will often burrow in soil and enter a hibernation-like state called brumation. When they do so, their main source of oxygen is through their butt!
