Leah's report on "Nature: Hunters and Herders"

I watched a program on "Nature" on hunters and their prey. The
program discussed many different kinds of animals.
The first part of the program was on wildebeests and lions. It's a
good idea for wildebeests to be in herds because it's hard for them to
hide in the open grasslands and they have lots of predators.
Wildebeests have lots of speed and lions have lots of power.
Wildebeests have a scent gland in their hooves so other wildebeests can
follow them even in the dark. Lions have better eyesight than people.
One in seven lion attacks succeed -- now remember that lions have to eat
too. They grasp the wildebeest with their claws then bite them in the
throat, killing them by suffocating them.
Golden eagles hunt jackrabbits. Eagles have really good vision.
Jackrabbits can run over 40 miles an hour. They can stop really
suddenly and then the eagle misses them.
Male bison fight each other to see who gets to mate. How they fight
is by butting heads. They have huge shoulders, very strong backbones,
rock hard skulls, and several inches of thick fur and skin for skull
padding. They also have really sharp horns.
There is a kind of bird called a woodpecker that pecks at a tree
twenty times a second. It does this to build a nest, to catch bugs to
eat, and to tell other woodpeckers where it is. It has muscles behind
its beak that it tightens when it bangs its head.
Rattlesnakes eat ground squirrels. The snake uses what is called a
heat sensor to find its food. How the squirrel makes the snake not eat
it is the squirrel flicks its big tail really fast so it gets really hot
and the snake thinks the squirrel is bigger than it really is. When the
snake tries to come into the ground squirrels' den, the squirrels try to
bury it in dirt.
What anteaters like to eat is termites. When the anteater digs into
the termite nest, the soldier termites bite its tongue. Even if some of
the termites get killed, the queen termite lays 3 eggs every second so
there's always more termites.
Giraffe calves weigh 150 pounds and are six feet tall at birth.
They fall about six feet to the ground when they're born. About half of
all giraffe calves are eaten by lions. Elephant babies nurse with their
mouths but then need to learn how to suck water from waterholes with
their trunks.
Cheetahs like to eat gazelles. The cheetah has great acceleration
but a gazelle can turn faster and run farther than a cheetah can. Some
gazelles do "pronking" which is a sudden leap in the air. Why they do
this is so they can see further and also so the cheetah misses them when
it leaps for them.
Your weekend reporter,
Leah Sinclair