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    Nature's Champions: The Biggest, the Fastest, the Best
    Nature's Champions: The Biggest, the Fastest, the Best
    Nature's Champions: The Biggest, the Fastest, the Best
    Ebook121 pages56 minutes

    Nature's Champions: The Biggest, the Fastest, the Best

    By Alvin Silverstein and Virginia Silverstein

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    About this ebook

    Fascinating profiles of 29 of the world's most remarkable species of animal and plant life. Simple enough for young readers, this book abounds with intriguing information that will also captivate adults. Included are astonishing facts and illustrations of the world's fastest runner, the best jumper, and other natural wonders. 50 illustrations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9780486147345
    Nature's Champions: The Biggest, the Fastest, the Best

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      Book preview

      Nature's Champions - Alvin Silverstein

      Index

      The Fastest Runner

      THE CHEETAH

      The cheetah is the fastest runner in the world. It has been clocked at up to 70 miles an hour—faster than the fastest racehorse. (The fastest a human has ever run is less than 28 miles an hour.) The cheetah is a sprinter, not a long-distance runner. In its home in the grasslands of Africa, its speed helps it to catch food. In the cooler parts of the day, in the early morning or just before sunset, the cheetah hunts. When it sees an antelope or gazelle, it slithers through the grass until it is less than 200 yards from its prey. Then it puts on an incredible burst of speed. Within two seconds, it goes from a standing start to a speed of 45 miles an hour. If the antelope or gazelle sees the cheetah in time, it dashes off, zigging and zagging frantically. If it can stay ahead of the cheetah for just 20 seconds or so, the spotted speedster will probably tire and give up the chase. But if the cheetah catches up with its prey, it knocks the fleeing animal over with its paw and quickly pounces on it.

      Cheetahs are often called hunting leopards. Both cheetahs and leopards are members of the cat family, and both have yellow fur with black spots. Both big cats hunt for food, but cheetahs can be tamed and trained to do their hunting for human masters as well. Carvings on Egyptian tombs several thousand years old show people taking the big cats on hunting expeditions. Marco Polo told of how Kublai Khan, the Mongol conqueror of China, hunted with cheetahs in the thirteenth century. Tame cheetahs sat with their masters on horseback and then jumped to the ground when the game was sighted.

      Some people have kept cheetahs as pets. But these cats can be dangerous playmates. Although they are as playful and affectionate as kittens (they even purr when they are petted), they may accidentally give a nasty scratch with their claws. The cheetah is an unusual cat. It is the only one that cannot pull in its claws.

      Today cheetahs are in danger. They are fast disappearing from many parts of Africa and Asia. People have cleared so much land for farming that the cheetahs have fewer places to hunt. And in many areas the antelope and deer on which they feed have been wiped out. So many cheetahs starve to death. Hunters have killed thousands of cheetahs for their beautiful fur coats, or just for the sport of it. Scientists and nature lovers are trying to stop the slaughter of cheetahs and the other great cats. Unless they are successful, nature’s champion runner may disappear from the world forever.

      70 miles = 112.6 kilometers

      28 miles = 45.0 kilometers

      45 miles = 72.4 kilometers

      200 yards = 182.8 meters

      The Largest Reptile

      THE SALT-WATER CROCODILE

      Once, long ago, giant dinosaurs ruled the earth. The dinosaurs are gone now. Only some bones and fossil footprints remain to tell us that they once lived. But some of their relatives, the crocodiles and alligators, have survived. Scientists believe that they have changed very little over the last 70 million years.

      The largest of all the living reptiles are the salt-water crocodiles. The biggest one ever measured was a huge man-eater killed in the Philippines in 1823. It measured 27 feet from the tip of its snout to the end of its tail. Its weight was estimated at a full two tons.

      Crocodiles spend part of their time in water and part on land. They can lie in the water, mostly hidden, with only their nostrils and eyes showing above the surface. During the day, they often drag their long, scaly bodies up onto the bank to sun themselves. Basking in the sun warms their bodies. When they get too hot, they move into the shade or slide back into the water again.

      When a crocodile is basking, it is peaceful and drowsy. Shore birds may hop about it without fear and even walk right into the crocodile’s wide-open jaws to peck at the leeches clinging to its gums. But when a crocodile is hungry, it is a raging fury. It may knock its prey into the water with a swipe of its powerful tail, or grab it with a sideways snap of its huge jaws. The muscles that open a crocodile’s jaw are very weak—so weak that a person could hold them shut with one hand. But the muscles that close its jaws are incredibly strong. French scientists found that a 120-pound crocodile could close its jaws with a force of 1,540 pounds. And a larger crocodile would be even stronger. Once the crocodile has its prey in the water, gripped in

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