Did You Know???

My boys, love animals!!!!!!

At this point in our lives however, Caeden can't get enough of them.  He loves reading books about them and seeing pictures of them and knowing what they eat, how they sound, 

where they live,

 etc.  

I found this animal slide show on the internet.  It was great, because it showed him a ton of wild animals over and over again.  

I realized there is a lot i do not know, like the difference between a  cheetah, a jaguar and a leopard.

We looked it up and did you know??

1)the jaguar is the largest and strongest, followed by the leopard, the puma and finally the cheetah

in fact it is the only cat able to kill with a single bite, having the strongest jaws in the Cat family,

2) The leopard is the most successul of all feline predators in that its generalist diet, supreme intelligence and absolute stealth makes them able to take on even human adversaries. In India and Africa, people fear the Leopard far more than the Tiger or Lion respectively as a result.

3) The Cheetah, the third of the large spotted cats, is native to Africa and Asia, but most commonly associated with the African savanna and is the fastest of all land animals, being the only cat whose claws cannot retract and appears therefore to be more doglike. It even chases down prey more often than stalking it.

4) A jaguar inhabits the jungles or rainforests of South America, while both Leopards and Cheetahs prefer the plains of Africa and Asia. Both Jagaurs and Leopards have been known to climb trees to rest and keep their prey safe from other roving predators such as wild dogs, hyenas and lions.

5) Jaguars (like Tigers) enjoy swimming and have shorter tails than Leopards who prefer the Savannas and need the tails to aid in balance while running down their prey. Jaguars also have more muscular bodies. 

6) Cheetahs can be thought of as the sprint athletes with thin bodies and individual black ,dots as opposed to Jaguars and Leopards with their black circles with brown centres and heavyweight boxer or wrestler build. The Cheetah' s head is smaller and has a black line running along the nose. 

The pictures above, were all taken by my Dad this summer during their vacation!!!!  He thinks they are just OK, He has such an Eye for Animal photography.  I need to take advantage of that, and decorate my house with his photos.  Growing up, we had "dad's photo wall" with a ton of his animals all over the living room wall.

The other avenues for animal learning that we are enjoying are:

1) Bindi the Jungle Girl (the crocodile hunters daughter)

she is on Discovery Kids Channel, and it is a very entertaining and informative show.  

2) Animalia,  is a phenomenal book.  Each page is crazy artwork of each letter of the alphabet.  Everything on the "A" page begins with the letter A, i mean everything.  As well, on each page is a little boy that you have to search for, kind of like "where's waldo."  This author is so creative, it blows my mind.