Tag: north america
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Meet the gray wolf
Last week, on April 8, I drove to Vermont to see a solar eclipse. It was so cool! We went far enough to be in the path of totality, where the moon entirely covered the sun. While it was amazing to see the sun disappear and the world get dark, it was also bizarre. I’m not…
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Meet the Eastern gray squirrel
It’s the weekend, and you know what that means: I get to play in a curling competition! The club I’m playing at this week has the cutest mascot: a little gray squirrel. The story goes that when the country club was expanding the golf course, they cut down a lot of trees. And what did…
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Meet the groundhog
Today, February 2, is Groundhog Day! A day when a groundhog predicts the weather, and we all celebrate the majesty of groundhogs. Groundhogs (Marmota monax) deserve to be celebrated because they are North America’s most widespread marmot (aka, ground squirrel) species. You can find groundhogs throughout most of the United States and Canada in various…
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Meet the American alligator
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I spent mine in sunny Florida, home of the largest reptile in North America: the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). Outside of Florida, you can find American alligators as far north as North Carolina and as far west as central Texas. But boy, do American…
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Meet the American pygmy shrew
It’s a few days after American Thanksgiving. If you celebrated, it’s time to finish digesting all the food you ate and prepare to heat up some leftovers. But even if you think you ate a lot of food yesterday, some animals can eat even more. For example, blue whales eat between 10 and 20 tons of food…
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Meet the beaver
It’s almost time for the curling season to start, and I am very excited to get back on the ice! In honor of curling, I wanted to talk about the national animal of Scotland, the country where curling originated. Unfortunately, Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn, and I couldn’t find any scientific papers about this…
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Meet the Loggerhead shrike
It’s spooky season! While there are plenty of clearly spooky animals out there, there are also some very understated ones. For example, today’s animal: the loggerhead shrike. Loggerhead shrikes (Lanius ludovicianus) are unassuming birds. They’re about the size of a robin, just 8 – 10 inches long and with a 12-inch wingspan. Like other songbirds,…
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Meet the burrowing owl
I have a surprise for you: there’s an owl that lives underground. AND IT’S SO CUTE!!!! This little owl is a burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia). Burrowing owls are small, slender birds with long legs. They weigh only 4 – 7 ounces (113 – 198 grams) and are about 8 inches (20 cm) long. In fact,…
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Meet the white-tailed deer
I’m going on vacation next week, and I’m very excited! I’m spending some time at Mackinac Island (pronounced ma-kuh-naw), a little, car-free island between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. As I looked up what type of wildlife I might find, one surprised me: the white-tailed deer. I’m familiar with white-tailed deer, as I’m…
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Meet the sea otter
BREAKING NEWS: At the time of writing, Otter 841 is still at large! Otter 841 is a sea otter stealing surfboards off the coast of Santa Cruz, California. The government has been trying to catch Otter 841 for weeks, but they just can’t get her! Like other members of her species, she seems to be a…