The San Francisco
garter snake :
There are 13 kinds of
Garter snakes. They live in many parts of North America and Central
America. Three kinds of garter snakes are very rare and the rarest
is the San Francisco Garter snake. Garter snakes got their name
because the thin stripy bodies of the snakes looked like garters,
the thin bands that men used to wear round their legs to keep their
socks up.
Garter snakes live in
large groups. In cold weather, they crawl into some sheltered place
and spend their winter together, coiled close to each other to keep
them warm. When spring comes they come out again.
Garter snakes do not
lay eggs, like other snakes. They give birth to babies, about eighteen
at a time. The babies can take care of themselves as soon as they
are born. Garter snakes are good hunters both on land and in water.
They eat frogs, fish, earthworms and other small creatures.
As they are not poisonous,
garter snakes are popular as pets. If the land they live is completely
occupied by people, it is possible that there won't be any San Francisco
garter snakes left on the earth.
The whooping crane
:
The
whooping crane is a big bird. It is the tallest bird in North America,
more than one and half meters tall. On it's long legs a whooping crane
wades through the water to look for food. It eats frogs, crayfish,
shellfish, snakes, insects and many small kinds of plants. They make
a loud cry similar to a trumpet call.
In winter they live
in a marshy place on the coast of Texas in the United States of America.
In spring they fly to Canada. They spend summer in a wet, marshy place
like in Texas. There the cranes build nests, lay eggs and hatch the
chicks. In autumn they fly back to Texas.
The lands where they
lived have been destroyed to build roads and houses. The birds have
been shot. Egg collectors have raided the nests. There are only over
a hundred of these beautiful birds left.
back
to under threat
