Explore the Outdoors!
Here, I write about animals and their small curiosities, feeding habits, and their role in the ecosystem!
Gophers are mostly herbivores and feed on a range of plant materials, and their love for roots can cause damage to garden plants like trees, flowers, vegetables, and shrubs. Gophers are burrowing rodents that live in tunnels in the ground. They create these tunnels by moving through the soil with their teeth and chiseling it…
Squids are deep-sea animals. They spend their whole life underwater and are not able to survive on land. This is primarily because they cannot breathe (or walk!) on land. Squids use gills to breathe like fish and other sea creatures. It is the most common way for water-breathing creatures to get oxygen from the water…
Robins are a type of bird that is found in North America. They are brown and red or orange in chest color and have a white belly. Their beak is short and their body is rounded. For a backyard bird, the robin is medium in size (bigger than sparrows but smaller than crows) and they…
Monkeys in the wild like to eat fruits but do not normally encounter candy. However, they would eat it if they had a chance, but it is not good for them. They do like chocolate (or cocoa fruits in the wild) and it has the same effects, including that of caffeine and sugar, on monkeys…
Rainbow lorikeets (Trichoglossus moluccanus), also known in daily jargon as “Loris”, are parrot species that reside in Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. They have a very colorful appearance and can be found both in the wild and as pets. Rainbow lorikeets that live in the wild have a specific diet of nectar and pollen…
The babies of the American Goldfinch are referred to as nestlings. At this stage in life, the little ones are still very much dependent on their mother for survival. As far as diet goes, food will be brought to them by both parents. This diet of baby Goldfinches consists mainly of softer insects like worms…
Crows are big black birds that you’ll be quite familiar with if you spend time in cities or in your own backyard. Crows belong to the Corvidae family (their family has a lot of members including jays, ravens, magpies, rooks, and many other types of birds) and I have previously written about where Blue Jays…
Groundhogs (Marmota monax) are large rodents, also known as woodchucks, with a range throughout most of Canada and the eastern United States. They hibernate during cold weather but can be active year-round in more temperate regions. Groundhogs are animals that can quickly destroy a garden, but not only do they eat your precious vegetables and…
Gophers are omnivores but mostly herbivores. They eat plants, such as flowers, roots, and tubers. But gophers also enjoy grasses, fruits, and grains. Gophers don’t generally eat animals unless they need to survive in extreme conditions or if they are starving. So, gophers are mainly herbivores that do to a lesser extent prey on smaller…
When you talk of a groundhog most people probably think that they only eat plant-based food like tomatoes, squash, grass, and flowers. But they do also eat animals, just not as much as greens! Groundhogs will eat other animals but mainly in the form of smaller insects as a source of animal protein, but they…
