Page 25 - One Million Things: Animal Life - The Incredible Visual Guide

9

8 Crocodiles are large, 10 Albatrosses are large ocean
ectothermic (cold-blooded) birds that take years to become
creatures that feed occasionally mature. They mate for life and
during brief periods of intense produce just one egg during
activity but otherwise spend each breeding season.
much time immobile—an ideal
8 strategy for a long life.
11 Lake sturgeon females take
75 more than 20 years to reach maturity,
Y E A R S 9 Bottlenose dolphins and only breed every five years.
are intelligent creatures
that, in exceptional cases,
can live to 40 or 50 years. 20 12 Polar bears live for an average of
25 years in their harsh Arctic habitat.
Y E A R S
10

13 Mice are small endothermic
50 (warm-blooded) mammals with a
high metabolic rate—a rapid energy
17 consumption for their size. Animals
Y E A R S
12 like this tend to “burn out” faster and
have shorter life
spans.
25
16
Y E A R S
11
80

Y E A R S
6
H O U R S

13
14
2

Y E A R S

4
W E E K S 40

Y E A R S

17 Mayflies spend two to three
15
16 Ocean quahogs are bivalve years as nymphs feeding in
14 Elephants are large, intelligent, mollusks (mollusks with two shells). streams and rivers. In summer
social animals that look after their Specimens collected off Iceland in they emerge as winged adults.
young. They live for around 40 years. 2007 were found to be more than They mate but do not feed, and
400 years old, making them the die after just a few hours.
15 House flies have short lives, longest lived animals ever recorded.
during which they feed and breed
to produce another fly generation.
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