What's The Difference? - Animals

What's The Difference?
ANIMALS

 

ALLIGATOR vs. CROCODILE
ALLIGATOR - wide snout; teeth hidden when mouth is shut; lives near freshwater; will see you later
CROCODILE - narrow snout; teeth show when mouth is shut; lives near saltwater; tends to be aggressive; will see you after a while
*one way to remember is by rhyming ‘crocodile’ with ‘smile’, which is what they appear to be doing with their closed mouths

AMPHIBIAN vs. REPTILE
(Both are cold-blooded animals)
AMPHIBIAN - begins life in water then develops lungs; skin is smooth
*Examples: frogs, toads, salamanders
REPTILE - always breathes air with lungs; skin is scaly
*Examples: snakes, chameleons, Komodo dragons

BEARS
BLACK
*short claws for climbing
*can weigh up to 600 pounds and stand six feet tall
*lives (naturally) throughout North America
*diet is mostly vegetarian
*can sometimes be brown or white
BROWN
*all grizzlies are brown bears but not all brown bears are grizzlies; there are subtle differences between the two but the major one is Geographic- grizzlies live inland
*can weigh up to 1,000 pounds and stand nine feet tall
*lives (naturally) in forest and mountains of Asia, Europe, and North America
*diet includes fruit, plants, and fish
*largest sub-species is Alaska’s Kodiak bear
*Lewis & Clark described the bears they saw as ‘grisley’, meaning ‘silver-tipped fur’ and/or ‘horribly terrifying’
MOON (a.k.a. Asiatic black bear)
*easy to tame and therefore exploit
*can weigh up to 300 pounds and stand over six feet tall
*lives (naturally) in Asia
*diet varies with the seasons
*has crescent shapes on chest, giving the species its name
PANDA
*can weigh up to 300 pounds and stand four feet tall
*lives (naturally) in China
*99% of diet consists of bamboo (averaging 40 pounds per day)
*red pandas are not bears but small mammals in their own scientific family group
POLAR
*largest bear species
*can weigh up to 1,300 pounds and stand 10 feet tall
*lives (naturally) in Arctic regions of Canada, Norway, Russia, and Alaska
*diet is mostly carnivorous
*skin is black and covered by thick fur
SLOTH
*can weigh up to 300 pounds and stand six feet tall
*lives (naturally) in southern Asia
*diet is mostly insects and fruit
*named by European explorers who saw them hanging from trees
SPECTACLED
*can weigh up to 275 pounds and stand 6 ½ feet tall
*lives (naturally) in South America’s Andes Mountains
*diet consists mostly of plants and fruit
*named for facial markings that look like glasses (spectacles)
SUN
*smallest bear species
*can weigh up to 143 pounds and stand 4 ½ feet tall
*lives (naturally) in southern Asia
*diet consists mostly of insects and honey
*named for chest-patch which resembles a rising Sun
KOALAS
*not bears but marsupials, because they have pouches like kangaroos and wallabies

BEE vs. WASP
(only females have stingers)
BEE
*wide body with small hairs on it for temperature regulation and collecting pollen
*A honey bee is small with a yellow appearance, produces a lot of honey, nests above ground mostly in trees, can only sting once due to its stinger’s barb
*A bumblebee is large and round, produces little honey, nests in or on the ground, can sting multiple times
WASP
*all wasps are noticeable because of their narrow waists
*A yellow jacket is small with yellow and black stripes, nests above or below ground in large structures, capable of multiple stings (sometimes for seemingly no reason and even occasionally biting the victim first)
*A paper wasp can have stripes but is commonly dark-colored, builds gray paper-y nests in protected places, is able to sting repeatedly if threatened
*Hornets are the largest kind of wasp, usually have black and white stripes, build nests similar to paper wasps that can be huge, can sting many times if provoked (sometimes more dangerously than other creatures because of their size)
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*Though difficult and unnatural, the best thing to do when in the company of these creatures is to calmly vacate the area

CAMELS: DROMEDARY vs. BACTRIAN
DROMEDARY - one hump
BACTRIAN - two humps
*Dromedary starts with D, which looks like one big sideways hump; Bactrian begins with B, which looks like two sideways humps

DONKEY vs. MULE vs. HINNY vs. PONY
(all are in the same biological family as horses)
DONKEY (a.k.a. ass) - Usually domesticated and used for manual labor; more like a cousin of a horse than immediately related
MULE - Born from donkey father and horse mother
HINNY - Born from donkey mother and horse father
PONY - A small horse, not a baby

FROG vs. TOAD
(both are amphibians)
FROG - Small; slender; smooth skin; large hind legs for hopping; lives in or near water; has bulging eyes
TOAD - Chubby; bumpy skin; hops short distances or walks; can live away from water

HARE vs. RABBIT
(scientifically not rodents because they have four upper incisors, not just two)
HARE - Large body; long ears and hind legs; lives in grasslands or above the Arctic Circle
RABBIT - Small body; short ears and hind legs; lives in areas with plants or underground

INSECT vs. BUG
(all bugs are insects but not all insects are bugs)
INSECT - three defined body parts (head, thorax, abdomen); two antennae; six legs; hard outer exoskeleton
*Examples: ants, bees, mosquitoes, flies (including butterflies and moths), beetles
BUG (scientifically called true bug) - flat body; mouth for piercing or sucking to get food; see-through wings
*Examples include cicadas, aphids, stink bugs
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*Not insects - centipedes, worms, spiders
*Not bugs - ladybugs, which are beetles

SASQUATCH vs. YETI
SASQUATCH (a.k.a. Bigfoot) - From North America, specifically the northwestern areas
YETI (a.k.a. Abominable Snowman) - Similar creature from the Himalaya mountains in Asia; much older in the folklore world
*believers think the two beasts are in the same biological family and somehow survived when the rest died off a long time ago

TURTLE vs. TORTOISE
(both are reptiles in the same scientific order, have protective shells, and lay eggs on the ground)
TURTLE - Flat shell; spends most of life in or near water
*Terrapin (Algonquin word for ‘little turtle’) is a sub-species
TORTOISE - Dome-shaped shell; lives in forests and deserts