Animals on Display page 3

The Common Snapping Turtle is an aggressive, freshwater turtle found in ponds, streams, and rivers. It spends most of its life in the water. These nocturnal turtles are common in Minnesota. Snapping turtles have an average life span of about 30-40 years.

Snappers grow up to 18.5 inches (47 cm) long and weigh up to 85 pounds (38.5 kg). Male snapping turtles are larger than females. They are omnivores, eating plants, small fish, frogs, insects, snakes, and carrion.

Did you know? You can tell a tortoise from a turtle by the shape of its shell, aquatic or land dwelling, whether it has webbed feet, and whether its an herbivore or an omnivore.

Button Quail
(Excalfactoria chinensis)

This bird is native to the sub-tropical forests of only a few provinces of SE China. It typically nests on the ground in grasslands and savannahs bordered by wetlands. They are non-perching birds and infrequent flyers. The males do not help in brooding or rearing of the chicks. Hens are prolific egg layers. Eggs typically take 16-19 days to hatch and chicks are fully mature in 4-6 weeks.

Chinchilla
(Chinchilla brevicaudata)

chinchilla

Chinchillas are well adapted to the cold, harsh climate of the Alps as evidenced by their thick fur. They are rodents and mostly nocturnal. Popular as pets, they may live for 15 years or more in captivity.

Did you know? Mammals are considered homeothermic because their body temperature is regulated internally and remains relatively constant.

Indian Walking Stick
(Carausius morosus)

Indian walking stick

Walking Sticks are properly known as Phasmatodea, “phasma” meaning “ghost” and referring to the excellent way they seem to disappear into the foliage. They can remain nearly motionless for hours on end during the day, or alternatively adopt a swaying motion, imitating a twig in a breeze. They often are very good at feigning death when attacked, dropping to the ground and becoming virtually invisible. They generally are more active feeders at night.

Eastern Gray Tree Frog
(Hyla versicolor)

gray tree frog

The chameleon-like eastern gray tree frog changes color with temperature or substrate color. Their background color varies from gray to green with blackish mottling. Unlike the Cope's gray tree frog, easterns do not lose their mottling when warm, although it may fade. In all cases, easterns have a white spot below each eye and bright yellow inner thigh markings. Toe pads are pronounced and serve as suction cups to cling to various surfaces. This species will call beyond the breeding season, especially on warm, rainy or humid days. Eastern gray tree frogs are forest and large woodlot dwellers and breed in semi-permanent to permanent wetlands.

Domestic Rabbit
(Oryctolagus caniculus)

domestic rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae, not rodents as commonly thought. There are many species of rabbit and along with pikas and hares, make up the order Lagomorpha.

Rabbits are ground dwellers that live in environments ranging from desert to tropical forest and wetland. Their natural geographic range encompasses the middle latitudes of the Western Hemisphere. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been introduced to many locations around the world, and all breeds of domestic rabbit originate from the European.

The long ears of rabbits are most likely an adaptation for detecting predators. In addition to their prominent ears, which can measure more than 10 cm (4 in) long, rabbits have long, powerful hind legs and a short tail. Each foot has five digits (one reduced); rabbits move about on the tips of the digits in a fashion known as digitigrade locomotion.

Orange-winged Amazon
(Amazonica amazonica)

Orange-winged Amazon

The Orange Winged Amazon inhabits mangrove forests, lowland forests, savannah and coastal regions of South America. They prefer moist forests to dry woodlands. During the day these birds are generally seen flying in pairs above the forest canopy or in the crowns of tall trees foraging for fruits and seeds. In the evening pairs converge on a particular clump of trees to roost communally; many thousands of birds have been seen roosting together. Attendance at these roosting places declines during the breeding season.

Their diet is fruit, seeds, nuts, berries, blossom and leaf buds. They also attack cultivated fruit such as oranges and mangoes. They nest in hollows of trees. A normal clutch is 2-4 eggs.

Amazons are very intelligent, playful birds who like to be the center of attention. They like playing with toys and climbing around, in and out of their cage. They are not the best talkers in the world but can often be taught to say several words and phrases.

Painted Turtle
(Chrysemys picta)

Painted turtles are the most widely distributed turtle in North America. They live in permanent freshwater habitats such as ponds, lakes, marshes, sloughs, and creeks. They spend time in the soft bottoms of these bodies of water as well as in the aquatic vegetation and in sunny basking spots on or near the water.

Male painted turtles are generally smaller than the females and they have longer front claws and longer thicker tails. Males also have concave plastrons (bottom shells) to make mounting females during copulation more feasible. One interesting fact is that there are no genetic males or females in painted turtles. Their sex is determined by external temperature during embryogenesis. Colder temperatures produce males and hotter ones make females.

In the wild, painted turtles are omnivorous—they eat fish, insects, plants, fruit, carrion, and anything else they find.

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