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Black widows are poisonous arachnids-animals that have a skeleton outside their body, a segmented body, and eight jointed legs. They are not insects. Their deadly poison is said to be 15 times stronger than rattlesnake venom.

Black widows use a silk-like substance to weave tangled-looking webs, typically close to the ground in covered or dark places, such as near drain pipes or under logs. The female hangs upside down in the web to await her prey, exposing her bright markings as a warning to potential predators.

The black widow senses vibrations to the web. When an unlucky intruder gets trapped, the spider immediately begins weaving its glue-like webbing around it. Insects such as flies, mosquitoes, or even larger prey like grasshoppers are typically caught. Once captured, the black widow injects its victims with poison, paralyzing them.

The tips of the black widow's legs are coated with an oily substance that prevents the black widow from getting caught in its own web.

Adult male and female black widows live solitary lives, meeting only to breed. The female black widow lays approximately 200 eggs. The eggs incubate for some 20 days in a small, round papery sac that's attached to the mother's web. After hatching, the baby spiders stay in the cocoon for up to one month.

Three species of poisonous North American spiders carry the common name black widow under the genus Latrodectus.

Each species occupies a distinct region of North America, as their names suggest: Eastern black widows ( L. mactans), northern black widows ( L. variolus), and western black widows ( L. hesperus). These three species have very similar physical and behavioral characteristics.

The name "black widow" comes from the female's habit of eating the male after mating. The female black widow is approximately 1.5 inches (38 millimeters) long. The male is about half the female's size. The black widow is prey for birds and other spiders.

Although poisonous, the black widow is not considered aggressive unless threatened. In fact, the male black widow is reclusive and hardly ever seen by humans. While the black widow's poison is rarely fatal to humans, it can cause severe pain and nausea.

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Female black widows are shiny black, with a red-orange hourglass pattern on their abdomen. Male black widows are not black, but brown or gray with small red spots. Black widows are poisonous arachnids-animals that have a skeleton outside their body, a segmented body, and eight jointed legs. They are not insects.

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Jacob the lamb is a bit confused-he thinks he's a sheepdog! When the fleecy baby was abandoned by his mother, Kip the sheepdog became the lamb's unofficial mom at Tatton Park's Home Farm in Cheshire, England. Soon Jacob started herding other animals-just like a sheepdog! Jacob would run side by side with Kip as the dog did her work. If Kip rounded up sheep and ducks, so would Jacob. If Kip barked to keep the animals in line, Jacob would bleat.

LAMB TO RAM

"He was Kip's shadow," says farm worker Jayne Chapman. "He did everything she did." Although he has moved to a pasture with other sheep, Jacob still isn't very sheepish. To Kip's dismay, Jacob still thinks he's a dog- and refuses to be herded.

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Jacob the lamb is a bit confused-he thinks he's a sheepdog! When the fleecy baby was abandoned by his mother, Kip the sheepdog became the lamb's unofficial mom at Tatton Park's Home Farm in Cheshire, England. Soon Jacob started herding other animals-just like a sheepdog!

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Animal Heroes- Check out the part about the rat!

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Animal Heroes- Check out the part about the rat!

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Throughout history, men and women have defended their countries by serving in the armed forces. But people aren't the only heroes. These critters below have also put their best foot, paw, fin, flipper, and wing forward and answered the call of duty.

DUTIFUL DOLPHINS

The United States Navy first created the Marine Mammal Program in the 1960s to study and train dolphins, beluga whales, sea lions, and other marine mammals. A dolphin named Tuffy completed the first successful open ocean military exercise. He carried mail and tools to military personnel 200 feet underwater. Tuffy was also able to guide lost divers to safety.

GALLANT GLOWWORMS

Glowworms may seem unlikely heroes, but these bioluminescent invertebrates have a special power: light. Soldiers in the trenches of World War I (1914-1918) would gather the worms in jars to read maps, intelligence reports, and letters from home by their light.

ALLEGIANT ELEPHANTS

The ancient Greeks, Persians, and Indians all used the mighty elephant as a sort of animal tank, terrifying and breaking the ranks of enemy troops. Elephants famously crossed over the Alps with Carthaginian general Hannibal in 218 B.C.

PATRIOTIC PIGEONS

It's no myth-these intelligent birds have been employed as military messengers since ancient times. Throughout World Wars I and II, United States and British forces created special pigeon service units comprising tens of thousands of birds to transmit messages. One special pigeon flew roughly 150 miles to deliver the news of the Allied troops' landing in Normandy, France, a key event toward the end of World War II.

SUPER-SENSING SEA LIONS

Also part of the U.S. Navy's Marine Mammal Program, sea lions were trained to locate and recover military hardware dropped in the ocean. Their incredible underwater vision also makes them perfect guard dogs: They can spot an approaching enemy swimmer and alert the crew nearby.

RESOURCEFUL RATS

When you hear the word "hero," a rat probably doesn't spring to mind. But these specially trained African giant pouched rats have saved thousands of lives by detecting land mines. These hero rats sniff out the land mines and scratch at the surface to let their handlers know where one is buried. Rats are a perfect fit for the job because they're light on their feet, cover a lot of territory, and are incredibly smart.

SERGEANT STUBBY

Stubby the stump-tailed terrier worked behind enemy lines and gained military rank and honors along the way. Private Robert Conroy casually adopted the orphan pup while attending basic training on the campus of Yale University in 1917. When Conroy's unit shipped out for France during World War I, he smuggled his new friend aboard. By the time Stubby encountered Conroy's commanding officer, the dog had perfected his right-paw salute. Charmed, the CO awarded Stubby mascot status and sent him along with Conroy's unit to the Western Front. Sergeant Stubby's brave deeds earned him a place in history and in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., where his stuffed body, decorated with war medals, can still be seen.

PURPOSEFUL PENGUIN

This king penguin is a knight! Sir Nils Olav was initially given the role of mascot of the Norwegian Guard but he quickly climbed the ranks when the Royal Guardsmen came to visit him at his home in the Edinburgh Zoo. In 2008 the King of Norway, King Harald V, bestowed the honor of a knighthood upon Nils.

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Throughout history, men and women have defended their countries by serving in the armed forces. But people aren't the only heroes. These critters below have also put their best foot, paw, fin, flipper, and wing forward and answered the call of duty.

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Canada geese usually graze together in fields, eating grasses, sedges, grains, and berries. Their bills have serrated edges, which helps them cut tough grass stems.

In addition to grasses, sedges, grains, and berries, Canada geese also feast on aquatic vegetation. When eating in water, they "tip up," reaching underwater and tearing water plants with their heads beneath the surface and their rear ends sticking up in the air.

Male geese fight one another to win a particular female. The winning male gets the female as a mate, and the pair may stay together for life.

The female of the pair picks a good spot to make her nest. She finds a place-always near water-which is isolated and a little higher than anything right around it. The female makes her nest of dry grasses, twigs, and other plant material. She uses her body to shape the nest into a bowl.

The baby geese, called goslings, take about a month to hatch. Babies are covered with soft feathers called down. They hatch with their eyes open and will leave the nest within 24 hours, following their parents. Goslings can swim right away. In less than two months, the goslings grow adult feathers and learn to fly.

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Canada geese usually graze together in fields, eating grasses, sedges, grains, and berries. Their bills have serrated edges, which helps them cut tough grass stems. These birds also feast on aquatic vegetation. When eating in water, they "tip up," reaching underwater and tearing water plants with their heads beneath the surface and their rear ends sticking up in the air.

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Pigs are also known as hogs or swine. Male pigs of any age are called boars; female pigs are called sows. Pigs are found and raised all over the world, and provide valuable products to humans, including pork, lard, leather, glue, fertilizer, and a variety of medicines. Most pigs raised in the United States are classified as meat-type pigs, as they produce more lean meat than lard, a fat used in cooking.

In the wild, pigs eat everything from leaves, roots, and fruit to rodents and small reptiles. In the United States, farm-raised pigs eat commercially made diets of mostly corn. In Europe, pigs eat barley-based diets. Pigs have sharp tusks that help them dig and fight. Farmers often take off the tusks to avoid injury to people and other pigs.

Sows give birth to a litter of young called piglets. They usually nurse the piglets for three to five weeks. Piglets weaned off their mother's milk are not called piglets but are referred to as shoats.

Piglets weigh about 2.5 pounds (1.1 kilograms) at birth, and usually double their weight in one week. Fully grown, pigs can grow to between 300 and 700 pounds (140 and 300 kilograms), and sometimes much more. Pigs have poor eyesight, but a great sense of smell. The pig's nostrils are on its leathery snout, which is very sensitive to touch. The pig uses the snout to search, or root, for food.

Pigs are among the smartest of all domesticated animals and are even smarter than dogs.

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Despite their reputation, pigs are not dirty animals. They're actually quite clean. The pig's reputation as a filthy animal comes from its habit of rolling in mud to cool off. Pigs that live in cool, covered environments stay very clean. Pigs are also known as hogs or swine.