Author: Caitlyn Finton
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Meet the turkey vulture
Summer is approaching, and life is thriving outside. One animal that I associate with summer is the turkey vulture. There’s just something linking heat and seeing a turkey vulture circling above my head. If you live in the United States, you’ve likely seen turkey vultures as well. Turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) are found throughout the […]
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Meet the Italian wolf
It’s an exciting time in my house: it’s time for Eurovision 2022!!! For those of you who don’t know, Eurovision is a European song contest. Each country picks an artist to represent them in the contest. Each song must be made in the past year, be under 3 minutes long, and be performed live. After […]
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Meet the hammer-headed bat
I like bats. They’re flying mammals that can echolocate; how cool is that? And I have exciting bat news today: I now have a favorite bat. I present to you the glorious, beautiful, and majestic hammer-headed bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus). Hammer-headed bats are a type of megabat – bats that belong to the family Pteropodidae. Megabats […]
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Meet the monarch butterfly
My 6th grade teacher really liked monarch butterflies. Like, a lot. We grew monarch butterflies in our classroom: there was a big butterfly net where we watched caterpillars grow, make a chrysalis, and hatch into butterflies over the span of just a month. At one point I think we let the monarchs fly around in […]
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Meet the coati
I have had the absolute pleasure of seeing today’s animal in the wild. My senior year of college, I went on a trip to Costa Rica over winter break for a class. One day, while we were getting ready to hike in the cloud forest, we saw a coati in the parking lot. He was […]
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Meet the rabbit
This Sunday is Easter in the Christian Church, which means there’s been a lot of rabbit imagery lately in the secular world. Which raises the question: where did the Easter bunny come from? Why is it associated with Easter? To start with, let’s make this clear: there is no mention of an egg-laying bunny in […]
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Meet the Great Horned Owl
I love owls; they’re one of my favorite animals (up there with foxes and wolves). I even have a set of owls that I cross stitched hanging on the wall in my bedroom. And honestly, what’s not to like about owls? They’re so cool! They have asymmetrical ears, which helps them better pinpoint the location […]
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Meet the American robin
It’s officially spring! At least according to the calendar. Here in Boston, we just got finished with some cold, winter-like days. Which is not surprising because, you know, Boston in March is unpredictable like that. But still! Warmer days are in the weather forecast and the spring flowers are starting to bloom! In honor of […]
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Meet the sea spider
I do not like spiders. I know, I know. They’re important for catching insects like mosquitos and they serve as an important food source for other animals, like bats. But I still don’t like them. They just have too many legs. So imagine my horror when I learned about sea spiders. There are over 1,300 […]
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St. Patrick and the snakes
Gather around, friends. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m going to tell you a story… Once upon a time, in this case the 5th century, a religious man who would one day be known as St. Patrick went to Ireland. He started converting the local druidic people to Christianity, baptizing thousands of people and […]