Wherever you go, you will find animals. Be it the highest mountain, the lowest valley, so hot nothing grows or so cold it's snowing all the time. You will find animals in all of these places. And some of them are pretty amazing!
  A dragon is a made-believe animal that breathes fire and smoke. A Komodo dragon is a real animal. It's the biggest lizard in the world. Full-grown males weigh as much as three hundred pounds and some are as long as a rowboat.

So even if they don't breath fire, Komodo dragons can still be pretty scary.    Komodo dragons are fierce fighters. They have strong teeth and a powerful tail. These huge lizards kill and eat animals as large as deer and wild boar.

   The chameleon is a much smaller lizard. Chameleons have sticky tongues that are longer than their bodies. When they are not eating, chameleons keep their tongues rolled up inside their mouths. When they get hungry,  they shoot out their long tongues to catch insects.

Light, heat, and cold make chameleons' bumpy skin change color! Sometimes chameleons change color to frighten their enemies. They also scare their enemies by puffing up their bodies and hissing like snakes.

Chameleons can look in two directions at the same time! They do this by moving each eye by itself.

Tarsiers' bodies are only about as long as your hand. But their tails are twice as long. Their unusual feet help them get from tree to tree. They have flat, round toes with strong suction pads at their tips.

Tarsiers leap from one tree to another. They land on a tree trunk and hold on with their toes. Sometimes they even sleep holding tight to a tree. Little tarsiers also have strange eyes. Their eyes are so huge so that the animal can see in the dark. To watch danger, tarsiers can turn their heads almost completely around in a circle.

Vampire bats sleep hanging upside down! They hang from cave walls using the sharp claws of their toes.

Yes, it's true. Vampire bats really do drink blood. At night they fly out of their caves and drink blood from sleeping animals. Vampire bats land so softly, the animals are probably unaware that they have been bitten when they wake up.    A vampire bat can fly, but it has unusual wings. Loose thin skin is spread between the bat's long fingers. The skin is also stretched between its hind legs and tail. When the fingers and legs are spread, the skin is pulled tight. With these wings, the bat is ready to fly.

The giant flying squirrel's legs and tail are joined together by loose skin. This animal doesn't really fly. It glides! The squirrel opens its four legs as it leaps into the air. The loose skin spreads out and catches the air under it.

This squirrel lives in the jungle trees. Not many people have seen one because the squirrels hunt at night.

The three-toes sloth doesn't fly, in fact it is the laziest animal in the world.It sleeps hanging from a tree and hardly even moves.


A baby lies on its mother's chest. It sleeps most of the time, too.
A sloth's fur looks green. That's because tiny plants grow in it!

Koalas also spend a lot of time in trees. A baby koala will often ride on its mother's back as she moves from tree to tree. Koalas will only eat leaves from eucalyptus trees. These leaves have a strong odor. Because they eat so many of them, koalas smell like the leaves! Imagine eating so many pizzas that you smelled like a pizza!

The giant panda looks like a big black and white bear. But it is not a bear. It belongs to the raccoon family. Pandas live in the high mountains and have thick fur to keep warm.

     Giant pandas eat sitting up. Most of the time they eat only bamboo. Pandas hold on to the bamboo with a pad on their paws. The pad works like your thumb. This is very rare in the animal world.    When giant panda babies are born, they are no bigger than mice. As adults they may weigh up to three hundred pounds!

Wild boars have white stripes when they are born, as they get older the stripes dissapear. A wild boar can smell its favorite food (roots) growing under the ground. It digs them up with its tough nose.

   A long, sharp tooth grows from each side of a boar's mouth. These teeth are called tusks and help the boar to dig. They are also used for fighting. Wild boars are very strong fighters.

    The male proboscis monkey is really strang to look at. He has regular teeth, but he also has a huge nose! The nose is so big that when the monkey eats, his nose often gets in the way.    But this nose comes in handy when danger is near. Then the monkey makes a honking sound with his nose. This warns other monkeys. When it honks, the proboscis monkey's nose gets stiff and sticks out.

    Proboscis monkeys spend a lot of time sitting in the sun. Afterward they like to cool off in the water. They can swim and dive just like people.