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The Call of the Wild—Wildlife Biology Member's Manual Book IChapter 3: Marvelous Mammals
 Can you run 60 miles an hour? Or jump across a basketball court with one leap? Have you ever built a dam with your long, yellow teeth? Maybe you can't do these feats, but you are part of a group of animals that can do all of these things. These animals are mammals. What Is a Mammal???The first mammals roamed the earth with the dinosaurs about 200 million years ago. Most scientists think they developed from reptiles—snakes or crocodiles. Mammals are vertebrates (have a backbone). They are also warm-blooded (like birds). Mammals have three traits that make them different from any other animals:
Like anything in nature, there are exceptions to the rules--some mammals lay eggs, for instance. But animals that have all or most of the mammal traits are put into the mammal group.
Eagles, Blanding's turtles, perch, and dragonflies lay eggs. Baby mammals grow inside the body of their mother, not inside an egg. Mammals are the only animals with fur or hair. Brown bears and beagles have a thick coat of fur that keeps them warm. Whales (yes--whales are mammals!) have just a few coarse hairs on their faces. Besides providing warmth, hair also gives protection. A prickly porcupine is actually just a hairy porcupine. Whiskers and hairs on the head, cheeks, and lips help star-nosed moles feel their way around home and sense intruders. Your lashes and brows protect your eyes from dust and dirt.
Female mammals have mammary glands that produce milk for their young. The milk provides nutrients that help the young grow. The milk also protects babies from disease. No other group of animals have these special glands that help them take care of their babies. Like birds, mammals are warm-blooded. Their body temperature stays the same even if the air temperature changes. Warm-blooded raccoons can be active during cold or hot weather, while cold-blooded snakes stay curled under cover. Warm-blooded animals must eat more than cold-blooded animals to keep their temperature even. Mammal PartsArms, legs, feet, hands, and tails are important body parts to mammals. When animals have special body parts to help them swim, fly, dig, or run, they often lose the ability to do other things. Bats can fly, but they aren't good at walking on land. You can move on land, but you can't hang from the ceiling of a cave! The arms and legs of mammals come in all different shapes and sizes. As mammals have adapted to different kinds of habitats, their arms and legs have changed. Bats have arm and finger bones that spread out to make wings. Horses and deer have long, slender legs for running quickly. Dolphins have arms that shortened to flippers to move them through water. The hands and feet of mammals are adapted to their lifestyle. Beavers have flaps of skin between their toes and fingers to help them swim. The feet of the American bison have a hard material to help them walk on rough, uneven ground. Both a river otter and you can hold food, branches, or tools in your paws! Most mammals have tails. Tails help an animal balance, protect itself, and communicate. Gray squirrels use their tails for balance to climb high trees. Porcupines swing their prickly tails at attackers. White-tailed deer raise their tails to let other deer know there is danger. Make a MammalMake a mammal! You will need:
Make your own mammal by choosing parts from the mammal parts worksheet. Use the space on the next page to put your mammal together. Name your mammal, and fill in the blanks below. (See end of book for Make A Mammal Parts.) Mammal name:_______________________________________________________
Mammal GroupsMammals are divided into groups. Animals in the same group look like one another and are thought to be closely related. Primitive primates. Humans, gorillas, and monkeys belong to the group of mammals called primates. The primate's thumb is different from that of other mammals because it can touch the fingertips. The thumb allows a primate to pick up small objects, peel a banana, or play video games. Other mammals can't do these things.
Monkeys are PRIMATES  Oh Give Me a Home, Where the Ungulates Roam
Bison have HORNS 
Moose have ANTLERS
Deer, antelope, cows, horses, and other hoofed mammals are called ungulates. Their hooves are made of the same material as our fingernails. Ungulates eat plants. Have you ever tried to eat grass or twigs? It's not easy! Animals that eat lots of plants have special stomachs to help them get energy from food. Cows and many other ungulates chew their food more than once. They chew, swallow, and then regurgitate their food and chew it again (called chewing their cud). They also have bacteria in their stomachs to help them digest plants. This type of digestion is slow; it takes ungulates several days to digest one meal. Ungulates often have horns or antlers that they use for fighting. Antlers grow quickly and fall off each year. Horns grow slowly and usually do not fall off an animal. Rodent RumorsBeavers are busy, industrious little . . . rodents? That's right! Beavers, like their relatives the mouse and muskrat, have sharp front teeth that grow continuously. These teeth are for chewing (gnawing) on wood and other hard food. Rodents must use their teeth often or they will grow too long! Rodents make up the largest group of mammals. There are more than 1,500 types of rodents! The biggest rodent is the capybara. It weighs close to 150 pounds. (Which weighs more--you or the capybara?) The smallest rodent is the harvest mouse, which weights less than half an ounce (the weight of a pencil!).
Rodents are famous for having many babies. Mice, for example, can have babies fourteen times a year and can have eight babies at once! Not all these offspring grow to have babies of their own, however. Many become tasty meals for owls, snakes, hawks, and foxes. Beaver have typical rodent's teeth 
Lions and Tigers and Minks, Oh My!Lions, tigers, minks, and wolves belong to the mammal group carnivores. The name "carnivore" means meat-eater. Most, but not all, of the animals in this group actually eat meat. Carnivores hunt for food or eat dead animals. Teeth are important for most carnivores. The ones that hunt and kill animals for food have sharp cutting teeth. Carnivores also have claws. Claws help them climb trees and protect themselves from danger. Cats have folding claws that they can tuck away when not in use. Carnivores also have a great sense of smell, sharp hearing, and good eyesight.
Insectivores (Say It Three Times Fast)Insectivores are the smallest mammals. They depend on insects for food. They also eat other small animals, such as spiders, lizards, and mice. They're hard to find because they're nocturnal (active at night) and hide during the day. Shrews are the smallest insectivores, weighing less than a dime! They look like small mice with pointed noses and heads and tiny eyes. Because shrews are so tiny they have to eat constantly to stay warm. Shrews have venom in their bite that paralyzes small prey. Marine MammalsThousands of years ago, the relatives of marine mammals lived on land. Then they changed to survive in the ocean. Now, more than 100 kinds of mammals live in the sea. Dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals can dive (and hold their breath) for a long time. They store more oxygen than land mammals. Dolphins also save oxygen by slowing their blood flow to the skin and other "less important" organs. Have you ever been swimming outside in December? Porpoises do it all the time! They stay warm in the cold ocean water with the help of a special fat called blubber.
Strange But True MammalsThere are many interesting and unusual mammals that don't seem to belong to any of the other mammal groups. Some mammals, like the platypus and two kinds of spiny anteaters, even lay eggs! They are considered mammals because they have other mammal traits like fur and mammary glands. Members of another group of unusual mammals have pouches where they keep their young until they are old enough to be on their own. This group, known as the marsupials, includes kangaroos, opossums, and koalas. Did you think that only birds can fly? Well, now you know that bats, can fly too! They also can climb, walk, swim, and hang upside down for long periods of time. There are almost a thousand kinds of bats that live all over the world. Bats find their way through the world using echolocation--a radar system of sorts that help bats locate objects around them. Bats eat a variety of foods. Fruit bats eat fruit, nectar, or pollen from plants. Some of them have long tongues to slurp nectar from flowers. Most other bats eat insects. A few have special hook-like claws for grabbing fish. Vampire bats (not found in North America) have special parts on their face that help them find blood in animals.
Making TracksSome animals are active at night (nocturnal) or run when they hear you coming. So how do you learn about these animals? Studying animal tracks can give you information. A long line of tracks made by one animal is like a sentence. If you follow a set of tracks you can learn more about the animal. The best place to find animal tracks is in mud, sand, soft soil, or fresh snow. Use field guides (available at your public library) or the tracks on the wildlife cards at the end of this book to help you identify tracks you find. Patterns of tracks will be different depending on if the animal is running or walking. If the track is in deep snow or mud it may lose some of its shape. Tracking Tricks--Things to Look for When Sleuthing Animals: Does the animal have claws? Does it walk or hop? Where was it going? Are the tracks of paws or of hooves? Are there other animal signs, animal holes, or feeding places around?
Mystery TracksSee if you can tell what animal left these tracks. Draw a line from the animal to the tracks in the pictures. 
What Do I Do Now?It's a tough world out there for mammals. They are chased by enemies and have to survive long, cold winters. How do the mammals of the world cope with all the dangers and demands? They have a few tricks up their sleeves (er, fur). Fight or Flight. When a mammal is about to become a hungry animal's meal, it has two options--stay and fight, or run away. Most mammals try running away. Gophers run to a safe place such as a hole in the ground. Larger mammals usually try to outrun their enemies. If an animal decides to fight it may bite, scratch, or kick for protection. Tricks of the Trade. Some mammals use special defense tricks on nosy predators. A porcupine's quills keep most enemies at a distance. A skunk sprays a stinky liquid on unwelcome guests. By changing color with the seasons, a snowshoe hare can keep itself hidden from enemies. An opossum's habit of playing dead fools most animals into leaving it alone. Sticking Together. Prairie dogs live together in colonies. Wolves in packs cooperate in hunting and raising young. For other animals, living in a group offers protection from danger. If one animal sees an enemy it signals to the others. Then all can escape the danger. Chill Out. Instead of traveling when the weather gets bad or food becomes scarce, bats hibernate through the bad times. A mammal's whole system slows down when it is hibernating. The energy it does use to stay alive comes from fat stored in the fall. If you chase bats in a cave during the winter, you can cause them to use up all of their stored fat, and they may die before spring. Migration. Just like birds, many mammals migrate. Bighorn sheep may only migrate short distances from summer pastures in the mountains down into the valleys for the winter. Other mammals may travel hundreds or thousands of miles to find what they need to survive.
Exercise: Mammal Word Search. Find the following words hidden among the letters above. Words may run up and down, across, or at an angle. Available only in publication form. Career ConsiderationsNaturalists often work with mammals and people. They may teach at a school, zoo, nature center, or park. They may raise animals or show people how to find mammals in the wild. To be a good naturalist you need to be excited about mammals! Additional ActivitiesPlay the Great Mosquito Chase. To learn more about echolocation, get six or more players together. Form a circle about 10 to 15 feet wide. Choose one person to be the bat. Blindfold the bat, and have him or her stand in the middle of the circle. Choose three players to be mosquitoes. The mosquitoes will join the bat in the middle. The object of the game is to have the bat tag as many mosquitoes as possible. Both the bat and the mosquitoes may move, but they must stay inside the circle. (Once a mosquito is tagged it must sit outside the circle.) Whenever the bat calls out "bat," the mosquitoes must answer "mosquito." Each time the bat calls out "bat," it copies a real bat sending out a high-pitched noise. The noise bounces off the mosquitoes and comes back to the bat (copied by the mosquitoes calling out "mosquito"). You also can add obstacles for the bat. Make some players "trees." When the bat calls out "bat," the mosquitoes must call out "mosquito," and the trees must call out "tree." If the bat runs into a tree, the bat is out. Hold a mammal bowl. A bowl is a quiz contest between two teams. You need two teams of three to six people. You also need a moderator and a judge. Finally, you'll need 15 to 20 questions about mammals. The moderator asks the questions. There are a few different ways to ask the questions, as follows:
Scoring is the same for all types of questions. Points go to the team that answered the question correctly. If a wrong answer is given, the other team gets to answer that question. Each question is worth ten points. The team that scores the most points is the winner. Manage a piece of land for wildlife. By planting native trees, bushes, and grasses, you can attract more animals. Leave brush piles for rabbits and snags for cavity nesters in woodlands. Fair Projects/Exhibit IdeasStudy the behavior of a mammal that lives near you. Watch it every day for 15 minutes (if possible) for about two weeks. Observe the animal at different times of the day. Take notes. How many babies did the animal have, if any? What does it eat? Where does it sleep? What does it do when you get near? What does it do when other animals or birds approach? Construct a three-sided display with pictures describing the animal's behavior. Build a bat box. Bats are losing many of their natural roosting areas. By building a bat box you can provide more habitat for bats. You can send for plans to build a bat box at the following address:
Keep a record of the tracks you collect--where you found them, what type of animal, and the date. Display your track casts with your record in a display box. Make a diary of a mammal. Make a three-sided display that shows the life cycle of a mammal you are curious about from your area. Draw or make a model of different parts of the mammal's life (the den, nest, and its young, etc.). Show the type of habitat where the mammal is found and some important foods of the animal. Show some natural predators, the average life span, how it survives the winter, and any other interesting information. Answers to Mystery Tracks 
Answers to Mammal Wood Search. Available only in publication form.
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