Mystery Animal, by Philip

Vermont Animals - Mystery Animal...

By Philip

Can you guess what animal I am describing? It is cute, clever, part dog, different colors and can do cat stuff. If you’re thinking it’s a red fox, you’re right! I’m going to tell you about red foxes: where they live, what they eat, how they hunt, and other stuff.

Red foxes eat rabbits, voles, mice, rodents, snails, insects and eggs. A red fox is silent when it’s hunting its prey. Then it jumps, grabs its prey with its claws so it wouldn’t go away, and then kills them with its teeth. Red foxes are clever and they can trick their prey.

Foxes are in lots of stories. They are usually tricky and clever. Like if they were trying to catch a mouse and it couldn’t swim, the fox could say he could swim for him and the mouse would jump on his back. And the fox would jump and open his mouth and eat the mouse whole.

The female red fox, or vixen, chooses the strongest male, or dog fox, because if it has a baby the baby will become strong. The dog fox and the vixen will stay together forever if they get married. Litter is the name for all the cubs in a family. A baby fox, or cub, cannot see or hear for ten days after it’s born. When the cub is one-year-old, it’s strong enough to leave its den, or hole. Foxes go away so quickly from their parents!

Red Foxes’ habitats are in woodlands, hay fields, brushy areas, meadows and parks. A red fox borrows another animal’s home under the ground, like a badger if it died, because fox aren’t good at digging.

Thank you for reading this. I hope you had fun. I hope you like what I wrote and what I taught you about red foxes. Before I end this report, I want to tell you what I would like to do if I were a red fox. I would swim, jump, run and enjoy having a fox’s life.

Deer, by Melodi

Vermont Animals - Deer

By Melodi

One day, I was in my car and I saw two deer, and they were looking at me really strange. They had really big ears and a lot of spots. And then they ran away. But the funny thing was, when my dad stopped, we had some things in my car, where I was sitting, and when he stopped, all those things fell down!

Anyways, I’m Melodi and I’m learning a lot about deer because they’re my favorite animal. I think that the deer I saw were fawns because they had spots. Do you know what fawns are? They are baby deer. A mother deer is called a doe, and a father deer is called a buck. I learned it from my book, and you could do it too.

Did you know when bucks are young they have really little antlers coming out? And then when they are one or two years old, the antlers grow bigger. Bucks’ antlers grow in spring, and fall off in winter. Isn’t that amazing? And the antlers get eaten by rodents. When the antlers are small, they’re really soft because they have velvet on them. When the velvet comes off it looks bloody, but actually it’s not bloody. Inside the velvet is red. Do you know how bucks get the velvet off the antlers? They only rub it off on the bark of trees.

Another cool thing about deer is their footprints. When they walk, their footprints look like hearts. And when they run, the heart shape opens, and you can see their little toes that look like your fingernail. Deer have four toes. Two are really small and two of them are big. Deer have hooves that are so sharp, that if a wolf is attacking them, they can kick him and hurt him with the sharp part of their hooves.

Beavers by Komel and Fruti

Vermont Animals - Beavers

By Fruti and Komel

Hello, we’re Fruti and Komel and we’re studying beavers today. We love learning about animals. Do you? It’s fun. Beavers are very cool animals. They are very smart in how they protect themselves and they work a lot for their lodge. You know, beavers are very soft and clean. They swim very well. We didn’t know so much about beavers, but we learned in different ways. It’s not hard to learn about beavers. You can do it too - just read on!

Before they make their lodge, beavers build a pond and you might want to know how they build it. They chop down trees with their yellow teeth and they put very big sticks called logs on a small river. The logs make a dam, which blocks or stops the water and then it makes a pond. On the pond, the beavers build their lodge. The beavers make their lodge with sticks. They collect it together and then they take the mud and put it together so the sticks will not fall apart. They swim in the water then they come to their home. There are two entryways (doors) in the water that they can go inside. When any animal comes that eats them or hurts them, they can swim quickly to their lodge and go in either entryway.

If a bear comes, then the beaver sees it, then they splash their tail and then the other beavers know there is a bear or other animal coming. They go under the water and swim into their lodge. And the bear can’t fit in their lodge. This is how they protect themselves. Beavers have a flat tail that makes a loud noise when it slaps on the water. It sounds like a gun, or like a hunter’s coming.

You all might be wondering about their bodies and how they look. We all thought they were small, like a mouse, but beavers’ bodies are actually 24 - 36 inches long and their tails are 12 - 18 inches long. Their tails are like pancakes - they’re flat. Beavers weigh 44 to 60 pounds - the same size as Komel! Their thick, oily fur is brown. They have very sharp yellow teeth. Beavers have webbed feet that help them to swim. They have 5 toes on each clawed foot. It’s legs are short legs. Their front feet are small. They stand up on their hind legs to chew a branch on a tree.

Oh, sorry, we didn’t write about babies! Baby beavers are called kits. Beavers wait for sixteen weeks for a baby. Kits can swim out of their lodge when they are a week old.

Here are a few more interesting facts about beavers. Beavers are herbivores, which means they only eat plants. Beavers are a kind of mammal. They live in the United States and Canada. Beavers open their eyes while they swim, but they close their mouths and ears to keep the water out.

I think we have a lot of good stuff that we told you about. Now it’s time to say “good bye” and I hope you should also read more about beavers from books.

Coyotes by Snow and Kevin

Vermont Animals - Coyotes

By Snow and Kevin

Do you know what coyotes eat? Do you know how tall coyotes are? Do you know what the name “coyote” means? We didn’t know either. Then we looked in books and studied coyotes so now we know everything about them. Let us tell you some interesting facts about coyotes.

First, let’s talk about coyotes’ bodies. Adults weigh 20 to 30 pounds. They are 2 feet at the shoulder, 3 feet long, and they have bushy tails that are 1 1/2 feet long. That means the coyote’s body is two times longer than its tail. The tail helps the coyote keep its balance while turning. Coyotes run with their tail between their legs. They have long legs and small feet like a dog. Coyotes have skinny bodies that help them run fast to catch some animals so they can eat with their large sharp teeth.

Now, we will explain about food that coyotes eat. Coyotes’ best meal of the day is rodents and prairie dogs and sometimes dogs that are smaller than them. You know when there’s none of their favorite food, they hunt a lot of chickens, sheep and lambs. Some coyotes prefer to hunt alone, and some hunt in a pack. They also eat carrion - animals that are already dead. Coyotes and badgers sometimes work together to find food. Now you know about food and body about coyotes.

Now we will tell you where coyotes live.
Coyotes have been an important part of North American life for hundeds of years. They live almost everywhere in North America, Alaska, and Central America. Coyotes prefer to live in grasslands and the edges of woodlands because rodents live there and coyotes can hunt them down.

Did you know we never finished answering all the questions in the first paragraph? Coyote’s real, scientific names are Canis Latrans. It means “a barking dog”. Do you know why it means a barking dog? Because coyotes are like dogs and they bark like them, except they usually howl. A long time ago, in Mexico they called coyotes “coyotl”. Then, the Spanish explorers changed it to “coyote”.

Now that you know about coyotes you should be thankful for our work. We hope you learned all about coyotes and what they eat and where they live. We hope you like our article and we should say “bye bye”.