Mammals - Animal Questions.org

Do Porcupines Live in Trees

Many porcupines live in trees. Other porcupines find refuge in caves, hollow logs and old buildings. The North American porcupine lives in Canadian and Northern American and Mexican woods and grasslands. Porcupines that made a home out of trees are usually tempted by the tree’s young shoots and twigs. Some of them prefer to live on trees to avoid their natural predators. Porcupines are known to climb tress at the first sign of danger. This is because most predators do not know how to climb. Porcupines are well adapted for tree-living as well. Their paws are strong and embedded with curved claws that help them climb trees. Their feet are textured for a better grip on tree branches and trunks. They also have a tail that helps them balance on trees. The porcupine will lift and lower its tail to help it feel its way down a tree. Porcupines have backward-pointing stiff hairs. These bristles help the porcupine to adhere itself on a tree trunk.

Porcupines are also the only North American mammal that has a special antibiotic coating on a layer of its skin. This antibiotic layer prevents possible infection at the event where the porcupine falls from a tree and gets pierced by his own quills as it hits the ground. Accidents of these kinds are rather typical for the average tree-dwelling porcupines. Porcupines have poor eyesight but their acute sense of smell and hearing makes up for this short-coming.

Only 3 North American mammals have eye catching black and white coats—the skunk and wolverine and the porcupine. Due to their well-equipped defense mechanism, they have nothing to fear—giving away their position—even in the darkness of nighttime. Many predators know better than to approach a porcupine. An attack from a porcupine is really painfully and can be potentially fatal. Natural predators may try to strike the porcupine’s face to surprise or injure them. Next, they will spin them to their vulnerable unquilled underside. Predators who do so run the risk of being heavily quilled by the porcupine. The quills are very long, sharp and barbed so they are very difficult to remove.

Can Foxes Retract Their Claws?

Retractable claws are a feature most commonly found within the cat (Felidae) family of animals, and also in some members of the Viverridae family such as genets and civets.

Foxes, however, are members of the dog (Canidae) family. Because of this, foxes cannot retract their claws, with the exception of one particular species: the gray fox. Gray foxes have partially retractable claws, capable of lifting off the ground when running. This means that gray fox tracks typically do not contain visible claw marks, as is found in other fox tracks.

Are Chipmunks Carnivores, Herbivores, or Omnivores?

Chipmunks are considered to be omnivores, which means that there diets include both plant and animal sources. A majority of a chipmunk’s diet will typically be plant-based, such as seeds, nuts and fruits. However, they will also eat worms, arthropods (such as centipedes), bird eggs, and insects. Some chipmunks have even been known to eat small frogs!

Are Giraffes Descendants of Dinosaurs?

When looking at the pictures above, it’s easy to see why some people have thought that perhaps giraffes, with their long necks, are related to long-necked dinosaurs such as brachiosaurus. The similarities go even further than appearances, with both the giraffe and brachiosaurus being plant eating herbivores.

So what is the truth? Are giraffes the descendants of dinosaurs?

No, they are not!

Dinosaurs like brachiosaurus were sauropods that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, and went extinct 65 million years ago at the end of the cretaceous along with all other species of dinosaur.

The only modern-day descendants of dinosaurs are birds.

Giraffes are ungulate (hooved) mammals, and share common ancestry with horses and camels. Interestingly, giraffes are more closely linked to humans than any dinosaur!

Are Giraffes Born Head First?

Technically speaking giraffes are born head first. When a mother giraffe is ready to give birth, she normally gives birth to one calf or on rare occasions, twins. She will give birth to her young standing up. The calf emerges head and front legs first, having broken through the fetal membranes, and falls to the ground, severing the umbilical cord.

The calf’s mother can typically then be found grooming her newborn and helping it stand up on its own. Within only a few hours of birth, the calf will be able to run around and is almost indistinguishable from a one week old.

Are Giraffes Born Standing Up?

Giraffe gestation usually lasts around 400 to 460 days, after which a single calf or on rare occasions twins are born. The mother giraffe give birth to her young standing up. The calf emerges head and front legs first, having broken through the fetal membranes, and falls to the ground, severing the umbilical cord. So in a nutshell, the mother gives birth standing up but the calf is not born standing up.

Generally, the mother giraffe can be found grooming the newborn soon after birth and helping it stand up. Newborn giraffes are about 6 feet tall and within a few hours after being born can usually run around. For the first few weeks of life, they will spend most of their time hiding.

Are Giraffes Born With Horns?

Giraffes are in fact one of the few hoofed animals born with horns. Both sexes have these prominent horn like structures that are referred to as ossicones and are formed from ossified cartilage, covered in skin and fused to the skill at the parietal bones. The giraffe’s upper jaw has a grooved palate and lacks front teeth, while their molars consist of the rough ossicones, which have lain flat while the giraffe was in the womb. These ossicones become erect within a few days after the giraffe is born.

Being vascularaized, these “horns” or ossicones may have a role in thermoregulation and are also used in combat between male giraffes. Appearance of the ossicones help identify the sex and age of a giraffe, with the ossicones of females being young and thin, displaying tufts of hair on the top, and adult male’s ossicones ending in knobs and tending to be bald on top.

Can Giraffes Be Homosexual?

It is true that just like humans, all kinds of animals, including the giraffe can be homosexual. For these animals, there is documented homosexual behavior of one or more of the following kinds: sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding, or parenting.

Another interesting fact is that giraffes have actually often been referred to as “especially gay” due to the fact that they are often found engaging in same-sex sexual behavior, more than male-female (heterosexual) sex. Newer research has shown that same sex behavior is a nearly universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, common across species. Furthermore, homosexual behavior is best known from social species.

Are Giraffes Endangered?

While most species of giraffes are not endangered, some species such as the West African And/or Nigerian Giraffe are endangered due to the fact that human poachers often hunt them for their skins, meat, fur and tails. Unfortunately these creature’s tails are often made into good luck bracelets.

Other reasons for certain species of giraffes becoming endangered include loss of habitat, slow rate of breeding, and increasing change in climate. Drought and flooding are two examples among these changes in climate affecting these endangered species of giraffes. Giraffes are widespread throughout Africa and their population totals more than 100,000. Sadly, there are now less than 200 West African Giraffes in existence today, and fewer than 2,500 Ugandan Giraffes.

Are Bats Dangerous To Humans?

Very few bats will actually come in contact with humans. In fact, bats are shy creatures that prefer habitats away from direct contact with humans. Interactions may occasionally occur when and if one of these winged creatures enters a living space and is found nesting in an attic, porch, wall, garage, etc.

It is not uncommon for bats to find their way into your home as a means to avoid certain environmental elements and steer clear of predators. They might enter structures through roof edges, vents, improperly flashed roof valleys, gable ends, chimneys, and/or siding and can sometimes be found nesting with their recently born young. Contrary to what many believe, bats cannot chew through walls or wood as rodents do. It is however, very easy for a bat to fit through small spaces.

These creatures of the night have been known for causing damage to structures and being a pest with their loud chirping noises. While they typically prefer to roost in caves, attics, or wall structures, some bat colonies have even been found in sewers, mausoleums, sheds, trees and water wells. Contrary to popular belief, bats do not swoop down from the night sky and attack humans or get tangled in hair. If you have ever seen a bat fly nearby, chances are it was only chasing after a mosquito or a moth to make into its dinner. Bats also do not drink human blood. This myth most likely came from horror movies like Dracula, and were most likely based off of the vampire bat, which also unlike the movies does not consume human blood, these creatures only drink the blood of small mammals.

Another common misconception is that all bats have rabies. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, less than 1% of bats carry rabies and most who contract the deadly virus will die soon after. It should be noted that although your chances of coming across a rabid bat are very rare, most people who contract rabies from bats got it because they tried handling the creature. If you find a bat that seems to be ill, injured, or out during the day or somewhere where you would not normally find a bat, do not try handling the bat, especially not barehanded. Contact a wildlife professional to have the creature safely and properly removed from the area.

In addition to rabies, bats like all other living creatures, do deposit droppings and urine. Bat droppings are referred to as guano. Guano is used as fertilizer in some parts of the world and plays a very important role to the environment. While it may be great for helping plants and crops grow, what many people do not realize is that the waste may act as a growth medium for microbes, including those that can cause disease such as histoplasmosis. For this reason, individuals should practice extreme caution around bat waste. If possible try to keep your animals away from guano as well, as it can make them very sick if consumed.