Eastern cottonwood is another widely distributed tree in America. It is a large tree that grows along streams, rivers, and lowland areas. It is the oldest and largest hardwood tree in North America, reaching a height of 100 feet and width of 75 feet. The tree species got its name from its seeds, which resemble cotton.
Eastern white pine is a native species of North America. This Maine and Michigan state tree has gray-brown barks, broad ridges, and scaly plates. It can grow between 50 to 80 feet tall.
Shagbark hickory is a member of the walnut family. It grows to 60 - 80 feet and is 25 - 35 feet wide. It is endemic to eastern and central America and some regions of Canada. The tree thrives in sandy or clay soils but prefers fertile, deep, and well-drained soil. It is also drought and flood-tolerant.
Elephants are herbivores; they eat fruits, grasses, roots, and tree bark. They use the tusks on either side of their face to forage food. The African forest elephant seems to enjoy salt and will consume soil or other sources of sodium. Elephants can consume up to 136 kilograms of food and drink 113 to 190 liters of water daily.
Elephants have a large appetite, so they spend a lot of time eating. Adult elephants spend most of their days roaming across long distances to find food. Elephants walk for 1 to 4 miles a day in search of food.
One of the special things about elephants is their upper incisor teeth, which grow to be quite a prominent feature. We call the elongated teeth tusks, and they can be as long as 11 feet. The tusk is hollowed, and the hollow contains pulp with nerve tissues. Elephants have one-third of the tusk embedded in the cranium, and the remaining two-thirds are visible.
Both female and male African elephants have tusks, and the tusks never stop growing. In Asian elephants, only male Asian elephants have tusks, and not every male will get them. Most Asian elephants, however, do have small tusks, called tushes, which seldom protrude about an inch or two from the lip line.
Elephant tusks protect the elephant's trunk and work for self-defense. They use them to gather food, move objects, and strip bark from trees. Elephants even use their tusks to dig holes that allow them access to water during drought season. Individual elephants can be left or right-tusked, and the tusks they use the most are usually smaller because of wear and tear.
Time and time again, man has looked to the animal kingdom for labor. Elephants were used as beasts of burden not so long ago. The armies of the Persian Empire, the Indian subcontinent, and Alexander the Great used adult male elephants in their war efforts.
Elephants can carry loads weighing over 500 kg, and humans have taken advantage of that strength to transport heavy loads or plow fields.
People regard elephants as one of Africa’s ‘top five’ wildlife animals, and elephants are popular with tourists. The tourism industry benefits from using elephants as a carriage for visitors. Tourists can enjoy rides on the backs of elephants as they go sightseeing in the jungle. Communities that can manage the elephant population around them safely and humanely can benefit from tourism income.
Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae (/sfɪˈnɪsɪdiː, -daɪ/) of the order Sphenisciformes (/sfɪˈnɪsəfɔːrmiːz/).[4] They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapted for life in the ocean water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life which they catch with their bills and swallow whole while swimming. A penguin has a spiny tongue and powerful jaws to grip slippery prey
Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genera,[1] they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Central and South America.[2] As of 2024, 21 hummingbird species are listed as endangered or critically endangered, with numerous species declining in population.[3]
Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper mandible. Hornbills have a two-lobed kidney. They are the only birds in which the first and second neck vertebrae (the atlas and axis respectively) are fused together; this probably provides a more stable platform for carrying the bill.[1] The family is omnivorous, feeding on fruit and small animals. They are monogamous breeders nesting in natural cavities in trees and sometimes cliffs. A number of mainly insular species of hornbill with small ranges are threatened with extinction, mainly in Southeast Asia.
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic, although fossil remains of short-tailed albatross show they once lived there up to the Pleistocene,[2] and occasional vagrants are found. Great albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds, with wingspans reaching up to 2.5–3.5 metres (8.2–11.5 ft) and bodies over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length.[3] The albatrosses are usually regarded as falling into four genera, but disagreement exists over the number of species.
