Red SRed CRed S

Explorers Team

Mammal Research

by First and Second Grade Students in Miss Fradette's Classroom


Woodchuck by Christopher
The Bear by Gaelyn
Lynx by Ryan
 Rabbits by Sarah
Bear by Thomas
The Rabbit by Megan
The Moose by Kathryn
The Bobcat by Allison
The Mink by Eric
The Otter by Dylan
 Moose by Grace
Wolves by Alex
The White-Tailed Deer by Olivia

Woodchuck
By Christopher  

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The Woodchuck is brown, straw yellow and reddish brown.  Its feet and tail are almost always black or dark brown.  A woodchuck has a flat head.  A woodchuck’s habitat is forest clearings, open grasslands, farmlands, and tree roots.  It loves fresh greens and it will eat almost any plants it can find like crops, cattails, soybeans and eggs too!  The woodchuck has three enemies: the red fox, coyotes, and eagles.  A woodchuck can live for ten years and it can have six babies!  A woodchuck can be two feet long.  These are some facts of a woodchuck:  A woodchuck is famous for this tongue twister.  How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.  That’s hard to say.  Woodchucks are found all over America.  Good-bye!

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The Bear
By Gaelyn  

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The Bear is 5 feet long.  It can be black or brown.  The bear is 700 pounds.  The Bear is very big and very curious.  The bear can not pull its claws back.  When the bear stands on its hind legs it is 5 to 6 feet tall.  Its hearing and smelling is very good.  Its usual habitat is the forest.  It dens for the winter and they live in Northern Mexico and North America.  The bear eats beavers, fish, honey, and after hibernation the bear is a complete herbivore.  80 to 90 % of their diet is vegetarian and the rest of the time they are carnivores.  The enemies of the bear are people and other bears.  The cubs are born with blue eyes and they gain 7 pounds of fat per day.  Bears live up to 25 years of life.  The bear does not like water on its ears.  The cubs are born in winter.

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The Lynx
By Ryan

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The Lynx is part of the cat family.  The Lynx has long fur.  It has big paws that are like snowshoes.  The Lynx weighs 15 to 25 pounds.  It looks bigger than it really is.  The Lynx lives in the forest in logs, caves, and trees in North America.  The Lynx’s food is the showshoe hare, deer, mice, voles, squirrels, and grouse.  The Lynx is a nocturnal hunter.  Wolves and cougars are the enemies of the Lynx.  They feed their young. The Lynx can have 1-6 kittens.  Kittens can not hear when they are young.

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Rabbits
By Sarah

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Baby rabbits are 41/2 inches long.  The adult rabbit is 16 inches long.  It has good smell and good hearing.  It is brown in summer and white in winter.  The rabbit is very soft and furry.  It can have black fur or sandy colored fur.  It has pointed ears and weighs 4 pounds. The rabbit lives in forests, trees, riversides, open fields, balsam swamps, and they nest in the grass instead of underground.  The rabbit is a vegetarian and they eat plants, carrots, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, clovers, leaves, and daisies.  They eat 500 grams of fresh green food a day.  Their enemies are foxes, hawks, badgers, weasels, skunks, wolves, bobcats, and lynx.  30 days after mating the babies are born.  The babies have all their fur a week after mating.  When the babies are a few days old they start to move out of the hole.  The rabbit has 3 or 5 babies each year.  One kind of rabbit has a rusty red patch on its back of its neck.  It has white under parts.  The rabbit is a good swimmer.

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Bear
By Thomas     

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A Black Bear weighs 700 pounds.  When it stand on its hind legs it can be 5 to 6 feet tall.  It can not pull its claws in and it has very good hearing.  Bears are very good at getting into mischief.  But you’d better be careful because bears are curious.  Most bears live in Northern Mexico and America mainly in forests.  After hibernation most Black Bears eat grasses.  It also eats beavers, fish, honey, and they make 80-95% of their diet on vegetables.  But still being a carnivore it can still eat meat.  The enemies of bears are people and other bears.  Cubs have blue eyes and before hibernation the adults gain about 8 inches of fat!  They live up to 25 years old.  They do not like water on their ears.  During hibernation they may loose 2 pounds a day.  After hibernation they immediately start to look for food.  They have cubs in winter, and cubs gain 7 pounds each day. 

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The Rabbit
By Megan  

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Most rabbits can hear very well.  They could probably hear a mouse in the nearest field.  The rabbits have a very good sense of smell.  Most rabbits have sandy colors in the summer and also brown too.  In winter some rabbits change color.  Rabbits are very, very soft.  Rabbits have pointed ears.  The adult rabbit is about 16 inches long. 

Habitat

The habitat of the rabbit is trees.   They nest in the grass.  It can also live in the forest, balsam swamps, brushy areas, and riversides. 

Food

Food is plants like cabbage, grass, carrots, spinach, lettuce, parsley, clover, daisies, and other green food.  They are vegetarians. 

Enemies

Enemies are fox, hawks, badgers, weasels, rats, wolves, dogs, lynx, snakes, and bobcats. 

Babies

The babies are born 30 days after mating.  Girl rabbits have six young.  A week later the babies have all their fur.  In a few weeks the babies are out of the hole.

Other Facts

There are many kinds of rabbits.  Did you know that a snowshoe rabbit is a hare?  A rabbit weighs about three pounds.  Did you know that rabbits are good swimmers?  

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The Moose
By Kathryn

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The color of a Moose is light brown or dusty black.  The Moose has a little tail.  Moose have big shoulders that form a hump.  Under the throat there is a flap of skin called the bell.  Moose usually grow to be 7 feet tall and 1800 pounds. Moose are the largest of the deer family.  A male Moose is called a bull and a female is called a cow.  Male Moose get new antlers each year.  A Moose is a very good swimmer.  The mating season for a moose is in the fall.  A male may mate several female in one mating season.  Usually moose don’t live in herds.  Moose live in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern Asia, Europe, and North America.  The largest kind of moose lives in Alaska.  Moose eat:  trees, shrubs and are herbivores.  The enemies of a Moose are:  Bears and Wolves.  Females may have 1 to 2 babies or rarely 3.  The baby moose are called calves.  The baby Moose stay with their mother until next spring or until its mother chases it away.  A Moose can live 8 to 25 years.

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The Bobcat
By Allison  

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The bobcat has thick fur to keep warm.  Cubs open their eyes 10 days after they are born.  Bobcat’s tail helps animals know what it is.  A Bobcat can swim.  They are 3 feet long.  Bobcats have reddish-brown fur.  They also have long legs.  They are also good climbers. The Bobcat weighs about 20-25 pounds.  It grows to be 30-45 inches.  It can also grow to be about 76-114 cm.  It has short hair but it is still thick.  Bobcats have short tails and pointed ears.  Females are 7 kilos and 16 pounds.  Females are bigger than males.  Their habitat is North America, Mexico, Southern Canada, swamps, mountains, wooded shrubby areas, caves, woodlands, rocky crevices, hollow trees, and under rocks.  For food they eat rabbits, rodents, deer, opossums, shrews, small mammals, and snakes.  It also eats mice, porcupine, ground squirrel, rats, birds, gophers, chipmunks, sheep, and chickens.  The enemies are hounds but not just a hound about 6 or 7 hounds.  They also can climb trees; mate in late winter, or in early spring.  They only have 2 or 3 babies.  The babies are also in their mother for about 65 days.  Bobcats are nocturnal.

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The Mink
By Eric  

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The mink has a dark brown body and a white chin patch.  It has a smaller tail than a marten or a fisher.  The mink also has a slender body.  It also has short legs.  The length of the mink is 60 cm or 20 in or 2-3 ft.  In weight it is about 2 to 16 pounds.  The adults are bold.  The female is smaller then the male.  The habitat of the mink is shores of lakes.  What it eats is fish, crayfish, frogs, birds, fruits, nuts, muskrats, meadow voles, cottontails, and other small mammals.  The enemies of the mink are the great horned owl, bobcats, wolves, and coyotes.  The mink carries its babies by the scruff of the neck.  The number of babies they have at once is five to six.  Babies are the size of pea pods.  The mink is nocturnal.  People make mink fur into coats, capes, and other clothing.

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The Otter
By Dylan

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The otter can be dark brown.  It has a long thick tail.  The body is 23-32 inches long.  The otter lives in rivers and streams.  It eats fish, deer mice, frogs, and insects.  The otter has 2 or 3 babies.  The otter has its babies in a hole.  The otters babies are born in the spring.  The babies ride on their mom’s back.  People use otters for their fur.

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Moose
By Grace

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The color of a moose is a light brown to dusty black.  It grows to be 7 feet tall.  And it can weigh 1800 pounds.  Its flap of skin at its throat is called a bell.  The moose is the largest of the deer family.  They get new antlers each year.  It has a little tail.  Sometimes a group of 3 or even 4 moose may stay in one spot if there is plenty of food.  Female moose are called cows.  The moose’s mating season is in the fall.  Their big shoulders form a hump.  The moose is a very good swimmer.  Male moose are called bulls.  Bulls may mate several cows in one mating season.  Forests of Northern Asia, Europe, North America in the Northern Hemisphere is where they live.  The moose eat trees, shrubs, maple twigs, aspen twigs, and are herbivores.  Chief enemies of the moose are bears and wolves.  The moose can live 8-25 years.  Cows may have 1 or 2 or rarely 3 babies.  Baby moose are called calves.  Calves stay with their mother till next spring or until the mother chases it away.

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Wolves
By Alex  

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There are four colors of fur in a wolf.  They are gray, black, white, yellow, and red. The male is 95 pounds and the female is about 10 pounds less.  Wolves are 2 ½ feet high.  It has 42 teeth. Wolves live in the woods and in caves.  Wolves eat deer, rabbits, mice, moose, and squirrels.  Wolves enemies are bear and people.  The wolf has the same mate for life.  The wolf has 3 to 7 pups.  When the babies are born they are blind.  Wolves live in packs.  The pups are born in May.  They can’t hear when they are pups.  They drink milk from their mothers.  Dogs and wolves are related.

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The White-Tailed Deer
By Olivia  

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The White-tailed Deer has a reddish-brown coat in the summer and grayish brown coat in the winter.  It has brown antlers.  Long legs are part of a white tailed deer also.  With the long legs they are fast moving.  The deer weighs up to 400 pounds and they are about 3 to 3 ½ feet tall.  The habitat of a white-tailed deer is the woods, under evergreen trees, and all over. They eat plants like mushrooms, apples, berries, leaves, and nuts.  Enemies to a white-tailed deer are dogs, bobcats, coyotes, and man.  They smell and hear for enemies.  They run and sleep for most of the day.  White-tailed deer can get hit by cars and get killed.  It can choose to run, hide or fight.  They have babies in late spring.  Baby deer are called fawns.  One to two fawns are born in the den.  Woodland trees give white-tailed deer shelter from the summer sun and the winter wind.  They make their beds out of grasses and dried leaves.  

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Last updated: July 18, 2003