Random Animal & Bird Facts

I'm actually volunteering right now at Reinstein as I am typing this out.  I had work from 5am to 10am and then came in at 12:30 until 4 to volunteer.  Whew!  Long day!!

I'm reading Critters of New York: Pocket Guide and I've discovered some really interesting new facts.  I'm so excited about them that I just really wanted to share.  So in now particular order, here they are:

• A beaver can chew down hundreds of trees each year.  One family of beavers may consume as much as 2,000 lbs of bark in a single winter!
• A red fox can leap 15' in a single bound.
• A moose can store over 100 lbs of food in its stomach.  It has weak eyesight and has been known to mistake cars for potential mates.  Males attract females by making wallows (patches of muddy ground where they urinate).  Yuck!!
• Muskrats create a V-shaped wave as they swim and that's how you can distinguish them from other critters. 
• The Virginia Opossum has 50 teeth, more than any other land mammal on this continent.  (We humans have 32 teeth.) 
• The Northern Raccoon, contrary to popular belief, does not wash everything that it eats. 
• The Eastern Gray Squirrel can hide 25 nuts in an hour.  It usually finds 4 out of 5 of the nuts it buries.  They can smell a nut buried beneath 12" of snow.
• The Red Squirrel is very territorial and occupies a range of 2-5 acres.  It's also called fairydiddle, boomer, pine squirrel and chickaree. 
• The male and female Red-winged Blackbirds do not migrate together. 
• The Eastern Bluebird has tremendous eyesight and is capable of seeing an insect 100' away.  The bluebird will generally return to the same nesting site year after year if it is properly maintained.
• The Northern Cardinal is very territorial and has been known to attack its reflection in windows. 
• The Blue Jay is very aggressive and often scares other birds away from feeders.  It's a very bold bird and commonly taunts and mobs birds of prey such as hawks and owls.  It also raids the nests of other birds and eats their eggs and young. 
• The Common Loon has solid bones (unlike the bones of most birds which are hollow and lightweight), which helps it to dive to depths up to 150' in search for food.  A loon's legs are located so far back on its body that it has great difficulty walking on land so spends most of its time in the water.
• The Great Horned Owl can eat nearly 1,000 mice each year and is one of the few animals that will kill skunks. 
• The American Robin occasionally uses anting to rid itself of lice and other parasites.  It positions itself near an anthill and allows ants to crawl all over its body.  Robins must turn their heads from side to side to look at things because their eyes are placed far back on the sides of their heads. 
• The average lifespan of a Snapping Turtle is 30-40 years!

I hope you enjoyed these random tidbits of information :)