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Birds
by Jonathan K. Alderfer
Birds can fly. (Most of them except penguins.) Birds can fly because they have lightweight bones. Like paper, but way stronger. Birds are mammals, which means they have fur or hair on them. Birds are mostly small. Some are only one color, and others may be all the colors of the rainbow! Some are awake at night, like an owl, and there are awake at the day, like a parrot. Birds can be as pets in a cage. Birds live all over the world. Even Antarctica! The penguin lives there. Birds are warm blooded. Instead of giving live birth, birds hatch from eggs (I think everyone knows that, but I just want to mention it.) The ostrich is the world's biggest bird. The world's smallest bird is the hummingbird. Even chickens are birds! (Although they can't fly.) birds have a beak instead of a mouth. Bird beaks are useful. For instances, a beak is useful for woodpeckers so they can peck wood. There are around 10000 different species of birds worldwide. Scientists believe that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs. Fun fact, a flamingo can only eat if it's head is upside down. The Archaeopteryx is the earliest known bird which lived approximately 147 million years ago. This bird was so different to today's birds, as not only did it have a long bony tail, it also had teeth! A chicken with red earlobes will produce brown eggs, and a chicken with white earlobes will produce white eggs.
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Hippos
by Anne Schreiber
Hippos are big. There are two times of hippos, the regular hippo and the pygmy hippo. Pygmy hippos are smaller than the ones we see in zoos and Africa. Hippos run 19 mph (miles per hour) on land. Hippos have big jaws and eat plants. They can eat up to 80 pounds of grass a day! Hippos are aggresive. They kill about 500 people a year. But people called poachers hunt hippos for their teeth, ivory, and meat. Male hippos weigh about 3,300 to 4,000 pounds, whereas female hippos, (smaller) weigh only about 2,00 to 3,300 pounds. Baby hippos stay in their mothers stomach for 243 days before it is born into the wild or into the zoos. Hippos live in water and land. They live in Africa. Hippos mostly live for 40 to 50 years but the world's oldest hippo was 65 years old. Did you know that, a hippos jaws are so strong, they can bite through a CANOE with ONE BITE. Hippos are strong. They can fend off tigers. The tiger may be able to do some scratches, but that is about all it can do to the hippo. Whereas, the hippo can snap a tigers neck with a huge bite. if you are caught by a hippos sight, run from it and climb a tree, because most likely, you will get chased down. Unless your like some sort of Usain Bolt II (the second.) A hippo can also beat a gorilla in a fight. It has far stronger jaws then a gorillas muscle.
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Rodents
by David Armentrout, Patricia Armentrout
Rodents are mostly small. Rodents are mammals. That means they feed milk to their young and have hair. Types of rodents are red squirrel, capybara, mouse, rats, beaver, chipmunk, squirrel, grey mouse, hamster, and prairie dog. Rats are the most known type of rodent. Rats are small. A small one like the pocket mice, and fit in your pants pocket! Wild and pet rats are very different. First, wild rats carry diseases. Second, pet rats get fed and wild mice don't. If you want to get two pet rats, consider getting the same gender rats as they will not mate and too many babies which will overwhelm your pet cage and you would need to feed every last one of the babies. Plus, if you get both rats, it will be more fun and entertaining instead of just a less fun and entertaining pet rat or mice. Did you know that rats are a bit bigger then mice and mouses? The rats that live alone will be lonely. If you get a littermate, they are less likely to fight, but that doesn't mean that they don't fight 100% of the time. They just fight like 20% and not a littermates will maybe fight 50% or more maybe. One of the more popular color picks for rats pets are pink eyed white rats.
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