Animals

The March of the Red Crab
A Moth Find a New Home
Suicidal Birds
A leopard and A cheetah
The Spectacular Hornbill
The Antelope with an extraordinary nose
Masquerading Males
Tiny But Powerful
Electric Fishes
Paternal Care
Hairless Cat
Passionate Parrot
Calling Out To Mother
Hot Wheels
Discs On Their Wings
Two-humped Camels
Frozen Frog
Silken Chambers
Earth Pig
Swordsman of the Sea
The Ostrich Trick
Electrifying Meal
Bizarre Turtle
Grey Whales
The Flying Lemur
The Winged Fishing Creature
Llamas
A Different Sort of a Parrot
The Tailless Cat
The Ancestor Of The Rhino
Acquisitive Wood Rats
The Butterflyfish
The Amazing Jumper
The Largest Deer
The Devil’s Coach-Horse
The Porcupine With A Prehensile Tail
The Irritating Fencing
The Acrobatic Otter
The Busy Termite Colony
Superb Mimics
The Canary
Snow Monkey
Jumping Spiders
Glass Lizard
Beetle Rhino
The World’s Smallest Bear
Hygienic Ants
Flat as a Pancake
The Carpet Shark
The Centipede Walk

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Hot Wheels

If a traffic policeman ever ran into the caterpillar of the Mother-of-Pearl moth he would give it a speeding ticket! It can travel 38.1 cm per second, the larval equivalent of 241 km/h, the fastest among caterpillars. When threatened, the caterpillar curls itself up and rolls away, travelling at about 40 times its normal speed!
In the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, the Mount Lyell salamander uses the same method to travel. It curls itself up into a ball, tucks in its legs and head, and then it simply rolls down the hill, just like a tyre. Its rubbery body cushions it on stony ground.
Its normal gait is also strange. It uses the tip of its muscular tail as if it were a fifth limb, to steady it on steep slopes.

Salamanders are amphibians and most of them are found in fresh water where they feed on snails, worms and insects. In India, one species, the rare Himalayan newt, is found in Darjeeling.

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Last updated on :7/28/2006