Forests
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
There are forests in North America,
Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and
Australia. The growing season in these
forests is about 6 months long.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Temperature and Precipitation: The average temperature in forests ranges
from about 75°F - 86°F, depending on where the forest is. Forests higher in
the mountains are colder. Forests receive from 2 to 5 feet of precipitation
(both rain and snow) each year. The soil in the forests is quite fertile, since
it is often enriched with falling leaves, twigs, logs, and dead organisms.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Fall Colors: In the Fall leaves
turn brilliant colors, ranging
from red to orange to yellow
to brown.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Brown bears are large mammals that live in cool mountain forests. These
solitary bears can run up to 35 mph for short bursts. Brown bears are
found in North America, Europe, and Asia. Grizzly bears are a type of
large brown bear found in North America.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Although they sleep in dens (caves, hollow logs, or holes they dig) during the
winter, they are not true hibernators and can be easily awakened. Brown
bears have a life span of about 25 years in the wild.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Brown bears are up to seven feet long and weigh up to 1,500 pounds.
Females are smaller than males. Their thick fur ranges in color from black
to brown to reddish brown to blond. Like all bears, they are flat-footed.
Newborns weigh only about one pound, the size of a rat.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Brown bears are omnivores who eat
plants, roots, berries, fungi, fish, small
mammals, and large insects.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Porcupines are nocturnal, which means they are active
mostly at night. They like to sit quietly in trees, and
when porcupines are on the ground, they shuffle and
waddle along.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby
Jungle
North American Porcupines are herbivores (plant-eaters) who
eat leaves, bark, evergreen needles, buds, twigs, fruit, and salt.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Animals that prey
on porcupines
include horned
owls, coyotes,
bobcats, cougars,
and wolves.
Fun facts:
* Porcupines don’t see very well, but they have an excellent sense of smell.
* Baby porcupines are called porcupettes.
* Porcupines live up to 20 years in captivity. They live in North America.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
The North American Porcupine is about 29 inches long plus a short tail that is
eight inches long. They have short legs and long, curved claws on the feet. Like
all rodents, the porcupine's front top teeth continue to grow throughout its
life. It must gnaw on hard things to keep wearing the teeth down. The North
American porcupine's front teeth are orange.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Sharp, barbed quills protect the back, sides, and tail; long, stiff guard hairs
cover the front upper part of the body. The quills are usually held flat against
the porcupine's body. When the porcupine is in danger, it raises the quills
upright, so they can easily stick into in an enemy when it brushes up against the
porcupine. The barbs in the quills make them difficult to remove, since they point
backwards.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Opossums are nocturnal. They sleep during the day in a den in a hollow tree or
in an abandoned rodent burrow.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
The opossum is about 2.5 feet long, including its foot-long, hairless, grasping
tail. This is about the size of a cat. It has a clawless, opposable thumb on each
hind foot.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
The young are about the size of a bee when they are born. Females have a furlined pouch on their tummy into which these tiny babies crawl. The young live and
drink milk in the pouch for about 2 months.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
The opossum is an omnivore (eating both plants and animals). It eats insects,
lizards, mice, snails, earthworms, fruit, nuts, seeds, grasses, and carrion (dead
meat that it finds, like road kill).
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
When opossums are attacked, they will "play possum," pretending that
they are dead; they remain still, do not blink, and their tongue hangs out.
This act often makes the attacker lose interest in the opossum. Some of
their many predators include foxes and dogs.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Raccoons are small, very adaptable mammals from North and
South America. They live in a variety of habitats, including
marshes, forests, prairies, cities, and suburbs. These
nocturnal animals have a life span of about 6 years in the wild.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Raccoons have distinctive black patches
around their eyes that look like a mask.
They have a bushy, black-ringed tail,
clawed feet, and a pointed snout. They
have long fingers and toes and an acute
sense of touch.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Newborn raccoons do not have black eye patches or a ringed tail; these
develop after a few days. Raccoons grow to be about 18 to 26 inches long plus
a striped, furry tail 9 to 12 inches long.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Raccoons are omnivores; they will eat almost anything, including frogs, crayfish,
birds, mice (and other small mammals), fruit, nuts, plants, crops, and garbage.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Raccoons find much of their food in water. Adult raccoons have few natural
enemies; young raccoons can be eaten by wolves and bobcats.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Squirrels are common rodents that have hairy tails and strong hind legs. There
are over 200 different kinds of squirrels.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
There are three types of
squirrels: tree squirrels
(with bushy tails), ground
squirrels (with a non-bushy
tail), and flying squirrels
(who cannot really fly, but
can glide up to 150 feet
using a flap of skin).
Tree squirrels are the
squirrels that are common
in cities. Many ground
squirrels hibernate during
cold winters, sleeping in a
nest until warm weather
arrives. Squirrels can live up
to 15 years in captivity.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Squirrels range in size from 5 to
36 inches long (including a long
tail). Baby squirrels are born in
nests; they are blind and hairless
at birth.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Squirrels are omnivores (they eat plants
and meat). They eat seeds, nuts, leaves,
roots, mushrooms, insects, worms, eggs,
small birds, and other small animals.
Ground squirrels have pouches in their
cheeks in which they carry food to their
burrow to store.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Squirrels are hunted by
the weasel, fox, hawk,
eagle, lynx, bear, and
coyote.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Owls eat mice. They swallow a mouse
whole. Then they cough up the bones
and fur!
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
There are about 162 different
species of owls.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Owls have a large head and large eyes
that face forward (unlike other birds,
whose eyes are on the sides of their
head). This eye placement gives them
binocular vision. Also, there are circles
of feathers surrounding each eye, giving
them a wide-eyed, alert look.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Owls cannot move their eyes within their
sockets like we can. In order to look
around, they have to move their entire
head, which has a range of movement of
about 270°.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Some owls have feathered ear tufts;
these are not ears, but are part of the
By:
owl's camouflage.
Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Owls are carnivores that hunt during the night (they are nocturnal). They use
their keen sense of sight to find prey in the dark (owls see mostly in black
and white). They have an acute sense of hearing which also helps in finding
meals. Owls are stealth hunters, they can easily sneak up on their prey since
their fluffy feathers give them almost silent flight.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Owls are excellent hunters.
An owl waits on a low tree
branch until it spots an
animal it wants. Then it
swoops down onto the prey.
They have sharp claws to
catch and hold the prey.
Owls hunt and eat mice,
insects, frogs, and birds.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
The owl is at the top of the food
web; it has no major predators.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
The beaver is a large, semi
aquatic rodent with a large
flattened tail. It is a strong
swimmer and can swim up to
five miles per hour. The
beaver can swim underwater
for up to 15 minutes.
Young beavers are called kits.
Beavers live in forests in
North America and in parts
of Europe and Asia. Beavers
do not hibernate over winter,
but they will stay in their
lodge, where they have
stored enough food to last
until spring.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Beavers build sophisticated lodges out of sticks and mud. The dome-shaped lodge
is built in water and only has underwater entrances. If the local pond water isn't
deep enough, the beaver will build a dam (or a series of dams) downstream from
where the beaver wants to build a lodge. The dam forms a deep pond. Beavers cut
down trees for the dam using their strong teeth. The water in the pond must be
deep enough so that the pond bottom won't freeze in winter, blocking the lodge's
entrance.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Beavers are about three feet long. Their flat, thick tail is about one foot long.
They weigh 30-70 pounds. Like all rodents, their teeth continue to grow their
entire lives. Their ears and nostrils can close while the beaver is underwater.
While swimming, transparent eyelids protect their eyes. Beavers can close their
mouth by closing a flap located behind their teeth, allowing them to chew while
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
holding their breath.
Beavers are herbivores (plant-eaters). They eat tree bark, leaves, roots,
twigs, and water plants.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
The beaver is hunted by many
animals, including coyotes,
wolves, bears, lynxes, and
wolverines. Minks, owls and
hawks prey upon young
beavers. Beavers cannot move
very quickly on land, so their
best defense from predators
is to retreat into the water
and go into their lodge.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Beavers create rich habitats for other mammals, fish, turtles,
frogs, birds and ducks.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
The North American beaver’s
tail acts as a rudder while
swimming, as a prop for
standing upright, as a lever
when dragging tree logs, and
as a noise maker for producing
a warning signal when it is
slapped on the water. Their
fingers have long claws, and
their legs have webbed feet
and claws.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Beavers have sharp, renewable, self-sharpening teeth
that can cut through wood and knock down a tree.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Their lodges, made of tangled sticks and caked mud, offer protection that even
black bears have difficulty in breaking through. While other wildlife endure
wintertime cold and hunger, beaver stay warm in their lodges with an
underwater food storage nearby.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Skunks eat insects, mice, and garbage!
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Skunks are the smelliest mammals. These small, nocturnal animals are found
in forests in North and South America.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Skunks produce a very smelly spray that repels most predators. This oily, yellow
liquid is produced in two glands located under the tail. They can spray up to 10
feet away. The smell is long-lasting and very hard to get rid of.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Wild skunks are black and white, but the
patterns vary. They all have a bushy tail,
short legs, clawed feet, and a long snout.
Skunks that live in captivity have a
variety of coat colors and patterns.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Skunks are omnivores;
they eat insects, rodents,
reptiles, small mammals,
worms, eggs, fish, fruit,
and plants.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Trees in America’s oldest
forests are dying more and
more quickly because of
climate changes.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
New trees aren’t sprouting fast enough to replace the dying trees.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
Over the past twenty years, trees are dying more and more because of changes in
the earth’s weather and water cycle.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
If the ozone layer continues to
deteriorate, forests will have
fewer and fewer trees over time
because the trees will only live
half as long.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
In the future, forests might store less carbon than they do now, which would
speed up the process of global warming.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle
We must protect our forests because they are home to so many animals.
By: Elyse Jacoby-Jacoby Jungle