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)
...
*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
...
*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
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