Tag: animal friday
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Meet the koala
I have been really sleepy lately. But even with how tired I’ve been feeling, one animal can still out-sleep me: the koala. Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) hold the record for the sleepiest animal, sleeping between 18 and 22 hours a day. These small animals are arboreal and spend almost their entire lives in the eucalyptus trees…
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Meet the giraffe
There’s a new animal at the local zoo: a Masai giraffe calf! The son of mom Amari and dad Chad (A+ giraffe name), the little giraffe seems to be healthy and thriving. As I read the exciting news, I was struck by the word ‘Masai.’ What is a Masai giraffe? Is it different from a regular…
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Meet the electric eel
It’s been a stressful and exciting week in my household. We had a big rainstorm over the weekend, and our roof started leaking. Not great! But want to know what was even worse? Water started coming out of our breaker box…yeah, not an ideal scenario! It’s all fixed now, but it got come thinking –…
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Meet the peregrine falcon
It’s been an exciting month at work – we’ve had juvenile peregrine falcons hanging around! The parents have a nest in the building across the street from us, and the babies have apparently decided that the balcony on the 15th floor is a great place to chill. It’s been so cool to get to see…
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Meet the fennec fox
It’s the middle of summer here in Boston, and it is getting hot! Unfortunately, I am not adapted to living in this hot weather. But you know who is? The cutest desert animal, the fennec fox. Fennec foxes (Vulpes zerda) get their name from the Arabic word for fox, fanak. They are found in the deserts…
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Meet the bald eagle
This past week was July 4th, the United States’ Independence Day. So, I thought it was an excellent time to take a closer look at the U.S.’s national bird: the bald eagle. Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are a type of sea eagle, large fish-eating eagles that live along the water. You typically find bald eagles…
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Meet the seahorse
Mothers usually get all the credit for raising their offspring, but there are some pretty amazing fathers out there, too! In honor of Father’s Day, let’s talk about one of the best animal fathers around: the seahorse. There are approximately 50 species of seahorses found in shallow, coastal waters worldwide. I personally associated seahorses with…
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Meet the Atlantic puffin
I had a very exciting weekend: I saw puffins! Some friends and I went to Booth Bay in Maine for a puffin cruise. After about an hour of sailing into the bay, we saw them: Atlantic puffins. And let me tell you, they were so cute! If you need further proof of a puffin’s cuteness,…
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Meet the lightning bug
Summer is coming. Next week (June 21) is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The summer solstice is traditionally considered a magical time when spirits and fairies find it easier to cross into our world. And although you probably won’t see any fairies in the next week or…
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Meet the Mary River turtle
It’s time for another turtle, but you may only have heard of it if you’re in the punk scene. This is the Mary River turtle, aka the punk turtle on the internet, because it grows a green algae mohawk in its Australian river home. Unfortunately, scientists don’t tend to call it ‘punk turtle’ and instead…