ScienceAnimals, plants, habitats, and the connections between living things.
155 articlesTurtles are not one dietary category. The order Testudines splits into carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores by family, and most species land in the middle: roughly 70 to 80 percent of turtle species are omnivorous at some life stage.
Let's find outAre Thoroughbreds good for beginners? Usually not, and the honest answer is that most off-track Thoroughbreds are a poor first horse, while a minority of calm, retrained, older Thoroughbreds can work well under a knowledgeable trainer.
Let's find outVampire bats are not dangerous to humans in the way movies suggest: they do not attack people, drain meaningful blood, or transmit vampirism, and confirmed human bites are rare. The real danger is indirect and small but serious.
Let's find outYes, there are wild wolves in Georgia, USA, but only one confirmed species: the red wolf (Canis rufus), and its presence is limited to a handful of state and federal recovery zones.
Let's find outYes, pine cones contain seeds, but only the female cones do, and the seeds sit on the upper surface of each woody scale rather than inside a sealed chamber.
Let's find outYes, there are squirrels in Phoenix, and at least seven species have been documented within Maricopa County, but the picture is stranger than most people expect.
Let's find outYes, white butterflies are real, common, and found on every continent except Antarctica.
Let's find outAre tuna endangered? It depends entirely on the species and the population you name.
Let's find outYes, skunks live throughout Arizona, and four species occur in the state: the striped skunk, the hooded skunk, the American hog-nosed skunk, and the spotted skunk.
Let's find outAre tomatoes annual or perennial? The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a true perennial that commercial and home growers treat as an annual. In its native tropical range it lives and fruits for two to four years or more.
Let's find outNo, there are no established wallabies in Hawaii. No wild population of any wallaby species lives on any Hawaiian island, and none has ever been documented breeding there.
Let's find outYes, tiny black spots on cauliflower are safe to eat in the vast majority of cases.
Let's find outYes, Massachusetts has poisonous spiders: every spider is venomous, but only two species in the state can deliver a medically significant bite to humans.
Let's find outNo, there are no squirrels in Australia. The continent has no native squirrel species, and none of the world's roughly 280 squirrel species (family Sciuridae) has ever established a wild population there.
Let's find outYes, there are otters in New York, and two different species live in the state: the North American river otter in fresh waters statewide and the sea otter in the coastal ocean, where sightings are rare but increasing.
Let's find outThere is no established breeding population of mountain lions in New York State, and state wildlife officials consider the species functionally absent, probably extirpated by the late 1800s.
Let's find outYes, there are crocodiles in Mexico. The country hosts three crocodilian species across its coastal and riverine habitats: the American crocodile in brackish lagoons and river mouths, the Morelet's crocodile in freshwater rivers of the…
Let's find outNo, brown recluses do not live in Arizona. The state sits entirely outside the established range of Loxosceles reclusa, which is anchored in the central and southeastern United States and stops well short of the Arizona border.
Let's find outYes, mosquitoes are still active in the fall, and in much of the United States they remain a biting nuisance well into October. The season does not end on a calendar date; it ends when sustained cold arrives.
Let's find outYes, crab farms exist, and they are a major global industry.
Let's find outNo, Utah has no resident population of brown bears or grizzlies. The last confirmed grizzly in the state was killed in 1923 in the Wasatch Mountains, and the species has been absent as a breeding animal for roughly a century. The U.S.
Let's find outYes, there are bears in the Finger Lakes, but they are black bears (Ursus americanus), not grizzlies, and they are sparse residents rather than a fixture of the region.
Let's find outYes, Tennessee has wild hogs, and they are an invasive species found in roughly 80 of the state's 95 counties.
Let's find outYes, crocodiles exist in Spain, but not as a breeding wild population. No native crocodilian lives in mainland Spain or the Balearic Islands.
Let's find outYes, there are bears in Lake Tahoe, and the population is larger than most visitors assume.
Let's find outYes, tarantulas are venomous, but almost none are dangerous to humans. Every one of the roughly 1,000 described species carries venom in paired glands to paralyze prey, yet no tarantula species has a bite proven to kill a healthy adult.
Let's find outYes, bot flies live in the United States, but the picture is narrower than most people fear.
Let's find outYes, there are bears in Arizona — an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 black bears live across the state's forested highlands, and a small population of reintroduced Mexican black bears occupies the Sky Islands near the Mexico border.
Let's find outSunflowers are both pollinators and pollinated plants, depending on which side of the relationship you examine.
Let's find outNo, squirrels are not in the rat family. Squirrels belong to the family Sciuridae, while rats belong to the family Muridae.
Let's find outThe short answer is no: no animal can perform photosynthesis in the way a plant does. Not a single animal species has chloroplasts, the organelles that convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into sugar.
Let's find outTardigrades are extremotolerant, not extremophiles. The distinction is precise: an extremophile requires extreme conditions to complete its life cycle, while an extremotolerant organism merely survives them without depending on them.
Let's find outShrimp and prawns are not the same animal, though both are decapod crustaceans and both land on the same dinner plates.
Let's find outStick insects are not poisonous or venomous to humans. No species injects venom, and none carries toxins that cause harm when touched or eaten.
Let's find outSquid occupy both levels, and the answer depends on the species and its life stage rather than the group as a whole.
Let's find outYes, small scorpions are poisonous, and in many cases they are more dangerous than large ones.
Let's find outYes, horseradish leaves are edible, and people have eaten them for centuries in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
Let's find outAre scorpions poisonous or venomous? Scorpions are venomous, not poisonous, and the distinction is a mechanism, not a technicality. Venomous animals inject a toxin through a wound, usually a stinger or fang.
Let's find outAre service berries poisonous? No. The fruit of serviceberry trees and shrubs (*Amelanchier* species) is edible and non-toxic to humans when eaten ripe, and the plant is not listed among poisonous plants by the FDA, CDC, or American…
Let's find outYes, slow lorises are venomous, and they are the only venomous primates known to science. A bite from a slow loris can produce severe pain, swelling, and slow-healing wounds in humans.
Let's find outAre scorpions deadly? Mostly no. Of roughly 2,500 described scorpion species, only about 25 carry venom potent enough to kill a healthy adult, and in the United States the lone dangerous family, the bark scorpions, has not produced a…
Let's find outNo, sequoias and redwoods are not the same tree. They belong to three distinct species in three separate genera, all surviving in the family Cupressaceae.
Let's find outAre red bugs dangerous? For most people, no. The bright red bugs people call red bugs are usually red velvet mites or boxelder nymphs, and neither bites humans or transmits disease.
Let's find outNo — raccoons are not marsupials. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are placental mammals in the order Carnivora, family Procyonidae, and they give birth to litters of three to seven young after a 63- to 65-day pregnancy.
Let's find outAre rats cleaner than dogs? Measured by self-grooming frequency, rats are the more fastidious animal: a healthy rat grooms itself 20 to 40 times a day and spends roughly 30 to 40 percent of its waking time on coat care, while dogs groom…
Let's find outAre Pit Bulls inherently dangerous? No. The scientific consensus is that no dog breed is inherently dangerous; aggression is a product of genetics, early socialization, breeding for fighting, and environment acting together, not a fixed…
Let's find outYes, poison ivy's underground roots are dangerous, but not in the way most people assume.
Let's find outPepper plants are perennial in their native tropical range and are grown as annuals in temperate gardens because frost kills them before they can complete a second season.
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