With big eyes and ears and colorful bodies, a lot of creatures in nature look very cute. But don't be fooled by their adorable appearance. When provoked, these animals can easily injure or kill a person. Their defense mechanisms like poison and sharp teeth and claws can turn them from darling to deadly. Get ready to discover some of the world's cutest killers.
Imagine a creature that would gnaw on the tail of a crocodile or crush a seal's skull with its razor-sharp teeth. Are you picturing a grizzly or other tough-looking critter? If so, you're wrong! The animals that do these things are none other than adorable otters and fluffy polar bears! Many adorable animals can actually be pretty vicious. Find out which cuties are killers and see how they take down their prey.
All over the world, there are animals that use their venom, claws, jaws, and more to take down prey. From ambush killers like crocodiles to lions who stalk and pounce to kill their prey, this book has it all. Up-close photographs of deadly animals readers likely would never see in person, like the terrifying Brazilian wandering spider, accompany detailed facts about how dangerous each animal is as well as their size, body adaptations, and habitat. The relative danger to people is covered, particularly for animals, like hippos, that are known to harm many people.
Gorgeous eyelashes. Flashy feathers. Silky hair. You'll see the animals in this book are far from drab and dull. Outstanding photos combined with high-interest text perfectly supports reluctant or struggling readers.
When an animal's life is on the line, sometimes its best option is to pretend to be something it's not. From posing as poop to gluing dead bodies to their backs, check out some impressive ways that animals hide in order to survive.
From snakes and spiders to snails and jellyfish, all sorts of animals carry deadly venom. And they're not afraid to use it. Bites and stings from these creatures bring pain, swelling, and even death! Find out where venomous animals lurk, and learn how a teeny tiny scorpion can take down a grown human. Just watch where you step along the way!
Find out what a platypus has in common with a beaver or a dolphin. Learn what sets a platypus apart from a giraffe or a wild dog. Readers will compare key traits of platypuses—their appearance, behavior, habitat, and life cycle—to traits of other mammals. Charts and sidebars support key ideas and provide details. Through gathering information about similarities and differences, readers will make connections and draw conclusions about what makes this animal a mammal and how mammals are alike and different from each other.
A thrilling tale of encounters with nature’s masters of biochemistry From the coasts of Indonesia to the rainforests of Peru, venomous animals are everywhere—and often lurking out of sight. Humans have feared them for centuries, long considering them the assassins and pariahs of the natural world. Now, in Venomous, the biologist Christie Wilcox investigates and illuminates the animals of our nightmares, arguing that they hold the keys to a deeper understanding of evolution, adaptation, and immunity. She reveals just how venoms function and what they do to the human body. With Wilcox as our guide, we encounter a jellyfish with tentacles covered in stinging cells that can kill humans in minutes; a two-inch caterpillar with toxic bristles that trigger hemorrhaging; and a stunning blue-ringed octopus capable of inducing total paralysis. How do these animals go about their deadly work? How did they develop such intricate, potent toxins? Wilcox takes us around the world and down to the cellular level to find out. Throughout her journey, Wilcox meets the intrepid scientists who risk their lives studying these lethal beasts, as well as “self-immunizers” who deliberately expose themselves to snakebites. Along the way, she puts her own life on the line, narrowly avoiding being envenomated herself. Drawing on her own research, Wilcox explains how venom scientists are untangling the mechanisms of some of our most devastating diseases, and reports on pharmacologists who are already exploiting venoms to produce lifesaving drugs. We discover that venomous creatures are in fact keystone species that play crucial roles in their ecosystems and ours—and for this alone, they ought to be protected and appreciated. Thrilling and surprising at every turn, Venomous will change everything you thought you knew about the planet’s most dangerous animals.
