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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.
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