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Kids learn about the African Wild Dog. How these endangered predators of the savanna hunt larger animals and live in a pack.

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Butterflies

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Butterfly: Learn About the Flying Insect

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What are butterflies? Find out about the metamorphasis that makes a catterpillar turn into a butterfly.

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Get narwhal facts and pictures from National Geographic Kids.

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Giraffe: Learn all about the tallest animal on earth.

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Giraffes are the world's tallest animals. Learn about this protected species found in Africa.

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Learn about the Gorilla, strong and intelligent African primate that is endangered.

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Giant Panda: Learn about the cuddly looking bear.

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Learn about giant panda bears from China. They eat bamboo in the mountains and are an endangered species.

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Elephants: Learn about the biggest land animal.

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Why do Elephants have big ears, trunks, tusks? Learn about elephants, the endangered giants of India and Africa

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What are blue whales? Find out about the largest mammal on earth that lives in the ocean.

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Learn how dolphins eat, sleep, and live together. Bottlenose dolphins and orcas travel the ocean in pods.

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Bald eagle
Source: USFWS

Back to Animals for Kids

The bald eagle is a type of sea eagle with the scientific name Haliaeetus leucocephalus. It is most famous for being the national bird and symbol of the United States.

Bald eagles have brown feathers with a white head, a white tail, and a yellow beak. They also have large strong talons on their feet. They use these to capture and carry prey. Young bald eagles are covered by a mixture of brown and white feathers.

Bald eagle landing
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The bald eagle has no real predator and is at the top of its food chain.

How big are Bald Eagles?

Bald eagles are large birds with a wing span of 5 to 8 feet long and a body that ranges from 2 feet to just over 3 feet long. The females are larger than the males and weigh around 13 pounds, while the males weigh around 9 pounds.

Where do they live?

They like to live near large bodies of open water like lakes and oceans and in areas that have a good supply of food to eat and trees to make nests. They are found in much ofNorth America including Canada, northern Mexico, Alaska, and the 48 United States.

Bald eagle chicks
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

What do they eat?

The bald eagle is a bird of prey or raptor. This means that it hunts and eats other small animals. They mostly eat fish such as salmon or trout, but they also eat small mammals like rabbits and raccoons. Sometimes they will eat small birds like ducks or gulls.

They have excellent eyesight allowing them to see small prey from very high in the sky. Then they make a diving attack at very fast speeds in order to capture their prey with their sharp talons.

Is the Bald Eagle endangered?

Today the bald eagle is no longer endangered. At one time it was endangered in the continental United States, but recovered at the end of the 1900s. It was moved to the "threatened" list in 1995. In 2007 it was completely removed from the list.

Fun Facts about Bald Eagles

They aren't really bald. They get the name from an old meaning of the word "bald" due to their white hair.

The largest bald eagles tend to live in Alaska where they sometimes weigh as much as 17 pounds.

They live around 20 to 30 years old in the wild.

They build the largest nest of any North American bird. Nests have been found that are as deep as 13 feet and up to 8 feet wide.

Some bald eagle's nests can weigh as much as 2000 pounds!

The bald eagle is on the seal of the President of the United States.

Bald eagles can fly as high as 10,000 feet.

Bald eagle with fish in its talons
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

For more about birds:

Blue and Yellow Macaw - Colorful and chatty bird
Bald Eagle - Symbol of the United States
Cardinals - Beautiful red birds you can find in your backyard.
Flamingo - Elegant pink bird
Mallard Ducks - Learn about this awesome Duck!
Ostriches - The biggest birds don't fly, but man are they fast.
Penguins - Birds that swim
Red-tailed Hawk - Raptor

Back toBirds

Back toAnimals

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Kids learn about the bald eagle, endangered bird that is the symbol of the United States.

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Kids learn about the habitat of the Black Widow Spider, most venomous spider in North America. Arachnid with red hour glass.

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Penguins: Learn about these swimming birds.

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Learn about penguins. They are birds that can’t fly, but boy can swim really fast. Where do they live and what do they eat?

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Pink Flamingo
Author: Keeepa

Back to Animals for Kids

The flamingo is a beautiful pink wading bird. There are actually 6 different species of flamingos. They are the Greater Flamingo (Africa, Europe, Asia), Lesser Flamingo (Africa, India), Chilean Flamingo (South America), James's Flamingo (South America), Andean Flamingo (South America) and the American Flamingo (Caribbean).

Caribbean Flamingo
Author: Adrian Pingstone

We'll talk mostly here about the American Flamingo which has the scientific name Phoenicopterus ruber. They grow to around 3 to 5 feet tall and weigh around 5 to 6 pounds. The males are generally slightly larger than the females. Flamingo's feathers are usually pinkish red. They also have pink legs and a pink and white bill with a black tip.

Where do Flamingos live?

Different species of Flamingos live throughout the world. The American Flamingo is the only one that lives in the wild in North America. It lives on many Caribbean islands such as the Bahamas,Cuba, and Hispaniola. It also lives in northern South America, the Galapagos Islands, and parts of Mexico.

Flamingos live in a habitat of low level water such as lagoons or mudflats or lakes. They like to wade around in the water searching for food. They are very social and sometimes live in large groups of as many as 10,000 birds.

What do they eat?

The Flamingos get most of their food by filtering out the mud and water in their bills to eat insects and crustaceans like shrimp. They get their pink coloring from the pigment in their food, carotenoid, which is the same thing that makes carrots orange.

Group of Flamingos
Author: Photo by Ducksters

Can Flamingos fly?

Yes. Although we mostly think of Flamingos wading in the water, they can fly as well. They have to run to gather speed before they can take off. They often fly in large flocks.

Why do they stand on one leg?

Scientists aren't 100% sure why Flamingos stand on one leg, but they have some theories. One says that it's to keep one leg warm. In the cold weather they can keep one leg next to their body helping it to stay warm. Another idea is that they are drying out one leg at a time. A third theory states that it helps them trick their prey, because one leg looks more like a plant than two.

Whatever the reason is, it is truly amazing that these top heavy birds can balance on one leg for hours at a time. They even sleep while balanced on one leg!

The juvenile greater flamingo
Author: Hobbyfotowiki

Fun Facts about Flamingos

Parent flamingos take care of their kids for up to six years.

Flamingos have a number of interesting rituals or displays. One of them is called marching where a tight group of flamingos walks together in one direction and then suddenly switches directions all together at once.

They are one of the longest living birds, often living up to 40 years old.

Flamingos make a honking sound like a goose.

Sometimes flocks in Africa can get as large as 1 million flamingos. These are the largest bird flocks in the world.

Flamingos make their nests in the mud where they lay one large egg. Both parents watch over the egg.

For more about birds:

Blue and Yellow Macaw - Colorful and chatty bird
Bald Eagle - Symbol of the United States
Cardinals - Beautiful red birds you can find in your backyard.
Flamingo - Elegant pink bird
Mallard Ducks - Learn about this awesome Duck!
Ostriches - The biggest birds don't fly, but man are they fast.
Penguins - Birds that swim
Red-tailed Hawk - Raptor

Back toBirds

Back toAnimals

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Pink FlamingoAuthor: Keeepa Back to Animals for Kids The flamingo is a beautiful pink wading bird. There are actually 6 different species of flamingos. They are the Greater Flamingo (Africa, Europe, Asia), Lesser Flamingo (Africa, India), Chilean Flamingo (South America), James's Flamingo (South America), Andean Flamingo (South America) and the American Flamingo (Caribbean).

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Learn about the Ostrich. These strange birds, Ostriches, can't fly, but they are big and fast.

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Kids learn about the Clownfish, orange and white famous coral reef fish from Finding Nemo.

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Great White Shark Drawing
Author: Robbie Cada, PD

Back to Animals

Great white sharks are the largest and most fierce predators in the ocean. The scientific name for this fish is the Carcharodon carcharias. The name comes from two Greek words meaning "sharp" and "tooth".

How big do they get?

They are giant fish that can grow to 20 feet long and 4000 pounds. Fully grown, Great White Sharks are at the top of the ocean's food chain. The only animals that will attack a great white shark are orca whales and other great white sharks. Great whites also have powerful jaws filled with lots of long teeth up to 2 1/2 inches long.

Great White Shark
Author: Sharkdiver68, PD, via Wikimedia Commons

Great whites have a white underbelly, but are darker on top. This gives them some camouflage from prey where they tend to blend in with the dark ocean floor when viewed from above and with the bright surface when viewed from below.

Great White Sharks have three major fins:

Dorsal fin - the one on top that can stick out of the water like in the movie Jaws.

Pectoral fins - there are two of these, one on each side of the shark

Caudal fin - the fin on the tail of the shark

What do they eat?

Sharks are carnivores that eat other animals. Younger and smaller great white sharks mostly eat other fish like tuna. However, fully grown great white sharks like to prey on sea mammals like sea lions and seals. They have even been known to take down whales, dolphins, and seabirds. Sharks don't chew their food, but will tear off big chunks of meat and swallow them whole.

Where do they live?

Great white sharks are found throughout the world's oceans generally in cool waters close to the coast. They live in areas where the water temperature stays between 54 and 75 degrees F. They are often found near Japan, Australia,South Africa, and both coasts of the United States.

What are baby great whites called?

A baby great white shark is called a pup. Pups are fairly large, 5 feet long, when they are born. The mothers don't take care of the pups when they are born and sometimes even try to eat them.

The Upper Teeth of a Great White Shark
Source: Smithsonian Institution

They Have Excellent Senses

One reason sharks, including great whites, are such good hunters is because they have excellent senses including smell, hearing, and sight. They also have a sensitive electro-receptive sense called the Ampullae of Lorenzini. Their sense of smell is so good that they can detect blood in the water from up to three miles away.

Fun Facts About Great White Sharks

Some great whites have been tracked swimming all the way from South Africa to Australia.

They may be big, but they can reach speeds of 40 miles per hour while swimming.

The shark is considered vulnerable on the endangered list and is protected in some areas.

Great whites do not do well in captivity. A few have lived beyond 6 months before being released back into the ocean.

They have a lifespan of around 25 years.

Shark skin is very rough and can be used as sandpaper.

They can roll their eyes back into their head to protect them.

For more about fish:

Brook Trout
Clownfish
The Goldfish
Great White Shark
Largemouth Bass
Lionfish
Ocean Sunfish Mola
Swordfish

Back toFish

Back toAnimals for Kids

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Learn about the Great White Shark, king of sea. This deadly shark is the leading predator of the ocean.

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Learn about Scorpions. These arachnids have eight legs, pincers, and a venomous stinger on their tail.

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What is a yellowjacket Wasp? Learn about its habitat, how to identify, what it eats, and more.

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Kids learn about the arachnid Tarantula, large harry eight legged poisonous spider.

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Lions: Learn about the big cat that is the king of the jungle.

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The lion rules the land with it's hunting prowess and roar. Learn about this second biggest of the big cats.

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What are cheetahs? Kids find out about the big cat that is the fastest of the land mammals and lives in Africa.

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Learn about the Tiger, the large striped cat from Asia that is endangered. Biggest cat on Earth.