Animal Facts

The first four legged animal known to humans was the Acanthostega, which had eight toes to each foot of it’s four feet!

It would use its toes to grip the plants in the water as it swam, although the Acanthostega spent the majority of its time in the water not on land.

The now extinct Acanthostega was among the first vertebrate animals to have recognizable limbs and was considered to not be suited to come onto land – which is why it spent most of its life underwater.

Yes, all British bats and the places they roost are protected by law.

Because trees and woodlands are cut down to aid the development of homes and roads, the bats food supply and shelters diminish, so there are fewer bats in existence.

The law protects them by ensuring that permission is given by the authorities’ before any alterations to the land can be made, thus safeguarding the bats homes and food chain.

A noctule is one of the largest British bats in existence.

These are the bats that you will see flying in straight lines during the early evening, just as it begins to darken.

The Noctule bat is approximately the same size as a starling and has distinctive narrow wings.

Amphibians are creatures that can live on land and in water. and there are more than 6,000 different species in the world.

Most of them start their lives in water and even when they are fully grown they cannot live on land all their lives.

Amphibians such as toads, frogs and salamanders are born in water, where the eggs are laid.

These creatures that are spawned in water do not have limbs and look more like fish.  They breath through gills and have tails to help them swim.  As they grow so do their lungs and legs and this process is known as metamorphosis.

Most frogs live in and around water, but there are some that live only on land and on tree, where they extract moisture from the air to live on.

Frogs catch their live prey like flies and bugs by darting out their long sticky tongue.

A newt is a salamander that lives in water as an adult.   Salamanders are short legged and have long tails.

Some rainforest frogs are very poisonous, like the poison arrow frog which are brightly coloured.  The poison from them is traditionally used in the tips of a arrows and darts.

A scorpion is part of the arachnid family and there are over 2,000 species of scorpions around the world.

A scorpion has six legs which have sensory hairs and slit organs on them to help them navigate their way along and have have two large pincher claws at the front.

Scorpions use their pincers to grab their prey and stick them into their mouth or finish them if the poison takes too long.

Scorpions usually eat insects, but when food is scarce they have an amazing ability to slow their metabolism down and eat only one third of their normal amount of food.

Scorpions can actually live without food and survive in harsh conditions but they can’t live in an area where there is no loose soil.

They are sometimes referred to as ancient animals as scorpions have been on this Earth for over 400 million years which means they were here before the dinosaurs arrived.