See a Dumbo Rat and a Red-tailed Hawk

By Matthew and Alasia

On Monday, Wildlife Experience came with two very exciting animals.

First, came the red-tailed hawk.

When the red-tailed hawk is born, it has a brown tail until it is one year old. When the bird grows, its tail feathers turn a rusty red color, and that’s how it got its name.

Did you know that a hawk can see eight times better than our eyes? We can see the colors of the rainbow, but the red-tailed hawk can see in ultra-violet! That ability helps it see things that it wants to eat.

Next, the Dumbo rat came out of its cage.

The Dumbo rat got its name from its big ears. Did you know that rats can have 21 babies every 28 days? Rats usually lives up to 3 years, and they have a prehensile tail. That means a rat can use its tail to hang on.

If you’re looking for a good pet, you might want to try the rat. It only costs $3.00 at the pet store, and a rat is capable of eating human food. Just don’t give the rat chocolate or candy! If you feel lonely while you’re doing your homework, put the rat on your shoulder and you don’t have to worry about it falling off.

Do you have any new facts to add about the red-tailed hawk or the Dumbo rat?

How did you like the presentation?

See an Opossum and a Desert Tortoise

By Alasia, Amanda, Bethany, Garrison, and Lexi

On Monday, Wildlife Experience returned with two amazing animals.

First, we learned about footprints. You can figure out if an animal has been on a nature trail by looking at the footprints.

We got to hold rubber footprints from five different animals.

Here is Awesome the Opossum! Opossums are the only marsupials that live in North America. A marsupial is an animal that lives on land and has a pouch.

Awesome the Opossum has an amazing adaptation that she uses when she meets a predator. When an opossum is scared of something or someone, it tries to run away. If it can't outrun what is scaring it, then it will bare its 50 razor-sharp teeth and will snarl.

If that doesn't work it goes into a catatonic state. That means a chemical is sent to the opossum's brain that makes it fall asleep, and it releases a scent that smells rotten. The dead smelly opossum is "playing dead" and that can save an opossum's life. Minutes later, the opossum wakes up, but does not know what happened. It did not even know it was playing dead!

Wildlife Experience also brought a desert tortoise!

These reptiles are an endangered species because some people take them out of the desert to keep as pets. Those people might have pets that have parasites which could spread to the tortoise. Sometimes, they return them back in the desert and that virus can spread to other tortoises. When that happens, sometimes a tortoise dies or it could get extremely ill! If that happens, the animal control could come and rescue the animal. That is what happened to the tortoise picture above. This tortoise no longer has the disease and is used for classroom events.

Have you ever seen either of these animals in the wild?

Have you ever played dead? When and why?

Please leave us a comment!