Mountain Gorilla

Youngsters tumble, climb, and run playing follow the leader. Another group plays a rowdy game of king of the mountain. Several adults watch the action, relaxing nearby. Is this a playground scene at school? No, guess again. It's a lush mountain forest high in the Virunga mountains of Africa, and the playmates are young mountain gorillas under the watchful eyes of their mothers.

Mountain GorillaGorilla beringei beringeiTYPE: MammalsDIET: OmnivoreAVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN THE WILD: 35 yearsSIZE: Standing height: 4 to 6 feetWEIGHT: 300 to 485 poundsFor a long time the image most people had of a gorilla encounter included chest pounding, roaring, charging, and big, bared teeth. But researchers studying gorillas reveal a very different picture of mountain gorillas. The animals are peaceful, gentle, social, and mainly vegetarian creatures. The occasional ferocious-looking, impressive displays are generally from a male gorilla protecting his family group from a threat.A typical group is led by the biggest and strongest mature male gorilla—often the guy doing any chest pounding or charging. He's called a silverback because the hair on a male's back turns from black to silvery gray as he matures. This happens when he is between 11 and 13 years old. A silverback's group normally includes a subadult male or two and a few females and their young. Mountain gorillas wander around a home range of up to 15 square miles (39 square kilometers).Mountain gorillas spend much of their time eating. Their food includes a variety of plants, along with a few insects and worms. At night the animals make a nest to sleep in. Many lightweight gorillas nest in trees, making beds of bent branches. The heavier individuals may nest in grasses on the ground. Babies snuggle with their mothers for the night.NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAPSLife for mountain gorillas isn't all peaceful. They are endangered, threatened by civil war in a small area of Africa where they live. Hunters kill them for food or trophies. Their forests are chopped down for farmland, fuel, and housing. But many dedicated scientists, park rangers, and other concerned people are working hard to protect mountain gorillas, their forests, and their way of life in the mountains. 
Gorillas are like to eat roots, shoots, fruit, bark, and wild celery! Learn more amazing facts about these amazing creatures in this video from National Geographic Kids.

Taxonomically, the snow leopard was long classified in the monotypic genus Uncia.^[4] Since phylogenetic studies revealed the relationships among Panthera species, it is considered a member of this genus.^[5][6][7] Two subspecies were described based on morphological differences, but genetic differences between the two have not been confirmed. It is therefore regarded a monotypic species.^[8]

Did you know that the tiger belonged to the cat family?

Well if you did, it’s by far the biggest species out of all cats and a beauty too!

There are lots of different types of tigers including the Sumatran Tiger, Siberian Tiger, Bengal Tiger, South China Tiger, Malayan Tiger and Indochinese Tiger. Wow, there are loads.
The Caspian Tiger, Bali Tiger and Javan Tiger are all extinct which is very sad, and many others are endangered, which means they in big danger of becoming extinct.
The most endangered species is the South China tiger (also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger) they are listed in the top 10 of most endangered animals in the world.
Out of the entire population of tigers in the wild, only about 3% are left, which is not cool at all, and 97% were completely wiped out in a period of just 100 years. That is frightening to say the least.

Elephants belong to the mammal family, which means that they have hair, give birth to live young, and feed their babies milk. They have large, thin ears that are used to help cool them down, and have long, powerful trunks.
https://www.coolkidfacts.com/elephant-facts/

Butterflies are a large group of insects belonging to the 'Lepidoptera' family, which means the 'flaky wing'. They are characterized by their large, often colored wings, which they use to suck floral nectars. They lay eggs that hatch into larvae (called caterpillars), which have a completely different appearance, with a cylindrical body, and feed mainly on the plants that are leaving before they undergo pupal metamorphosis.

Butterflies have very specific requirements for food and habitats at different stages of their life cycle. They are therefore particularly sensitive to changes in their environment and serve as an excellent indicator of ecosystem status. More than half of the butterfly species inhabit grasslands, forests and shrubs. The main causes of the loss and deterioration of the habitat of butterflies are related to climate change, adverse land management, grassland, increased fires and the development of tourism.

Many butterflies are valued for their beauty, but they also have an economic interest and play an important role in ecosystems through pollination and prey for other species. They also support a wide variety of parasitoids, many of which are host-specific and which deserve protection in themselves.