Tag: mammal
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Meet the narwhal
Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day! And what better way to celebrate than with an animal that I always forget exists: the narwhal. In my defense, narwhals look fake. What other animal has a giant tusk coming out of its head? I mean, besides a unicorn, and I’m pretty sure unicorns aren’t real. Narwhals are known,…
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Meet the badger
According to the calendar, it’s officially spring! Which means that it’s time to learn more about a spring animal. When I Googled “classic spring animals,” I saw one that surprised me: the badger. I’ve never personally thought of a badger as a springtime animal! But, as I soon learned, this could be because I’m American.…
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Meet the Irish elk
It’s St. Patrick’s Day! To celebrate, let’s take a look at an absolutely massive animal: the Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus). The Irish elk is one of the largest deer ever, clocking in at around 7 feet tall at the shoulder (the height of an average door frame). Unfortunately, you’ll never be able to see this…
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Meet the orca
March is Women’s History month in the United States, and this past Wednesday (March 8) was International Women’s Day. So to celebrate, I want to introduce you to a fantastic animal mother: the orca (also known as the killer whale). Orcas (Orcinus orca) are one of the most widespread species of animals and the most…
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Meet Pallas’ cat
It is officially March, and what better way to celebrate than an adorable animal: Pallas’ cat. Pallas’ cats (Otocolobus manul) are small cats that live in rocky, dry regions throughout Central Asia. They get their name from the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas, who first described them in 1776. Pallas’ cats look just like domestic…
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Meet the cheetah
I’m running a race this weekend in North Carolina! It’s a short race (just 5 miles). But this race does have you eat a dozen doughnuts halfway through… Don’t worry, I signed up as a ‘casual’ runner, so I don’t have to eat all the doughnuts; I’ll probably eat just one! (Really hope I don’t…
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Meet the quokka
Folks, we’re heading back to Australia this week on the blog. Australia: the place where evolution went wild. The place where it went wild and created one of the cutest animals ever: the quokka! This smiling little creature is a quokka (pronounced KWAH-kuh; Setonix brachyurus). Quokkas are about the size of a domestic cat and look…
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Meet the aye-aye
I’ve been playing a lot of the most recent Pokémon game recently. And let me tell you, there are a lot of cool new Pokémon in it! There’s a dog made of bread, a ghost dog, a mastiff dog…can you tell I like dogs? One Pokémon I’m not as enamored with is Grafaiai. It’s a…
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Meet the fisher
This week’s animal is an identification request from my partner. He was biking around Massachusetts when he saw a sign that said, “Warning: fisher cats.” Which begged the question: what is a fisher cat?? He asked me if I knew what they were when I got home; I said I did, but I honestly only…
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Meet the vampire bat
I watched the movie Morbius over the weekend. It was… a movie. And not a very good one. Some of the movie’s choices I can look past. Most fantasy / action movies require some suspension of disbelief. Do I wish they had given more context about the character backstories? Sure. Can I look past the…