Buffy Silverman - Do You Know about Mammals?

To Jake,

One of my

favorite mammals

Copyright 2010 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except
for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.
Lerner Publications Company
A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
Website address: www.lernerbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Silverman, Buffy.
Do you know about mammals /by Buffy Silverman.
p. cm. (Lightning bolt booksTM Meet the animal groups)
Includes index.
ISBN 9780822575399 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)
1. MammalsJuvenile literature. I. Title.
QL706.2.S55 2010
599dc22 2008008729
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 BP 15 14 13 12 11 10
eISBN: 978-0-7613-8884-5

Contents

page

page

page

page

page

page

Glossary

page

Further Reading

page

Index

page

Mammals
Have Hair

A giraffe chews on some leaves.
Her calf chews some too. A
skunk sniffs beetles to eat. Her
kits follow. Giraffes and skunks
look different. But in some
ways, they are alike. Both
animals are mammals .
What are mammals?
Mammals are
animals with
fur or hair.

Skunks have
black and
white fur.

Giraffes have
short fur with
brown spots.

Squirrels are covered with fur
from head to tail.

A squirrel has thick fur.
It helps the squirrel stay
warm in winter.

All mammals have some hair.

Mammals are endotherms .
They make their own body
heat. Their temperature
always stays about the same.
In snowy forests or sunny
fields, their bodies stay warm.

A lynx sits under the hot sun.
But its body temperature
stays the same.

Some mammals live in frozen
places. Polar bears swim in
chilly waters. They run across
ice. Thick fur keeps them warm.

Polar bears
stay warm in
the coldest
places.

Mountain goats climb snowy cliffs.
Fur keeps their body heat inside.

Other mammals live in hot
deserts. A camels furry coat
protects it from the hot sun.
Desert pocket mice stay cool
underground. They find food
at night. Its cooler then.

Camels have fur.
The fur helps
them stay cool in
the desert.

Baby
Mammals

A mother wolf feeds her pups.
This wolf pup is drinking milk.
Baby mammals drink milk from
their mother. Are wolves
mammals? Yes! Wolves have
fur, and their pups drink milk.

Wolf pups
drink milk.

A baby deer
drinks its
mothers milk.

Most mammal babies grow
inside their mothers bodies.
The babies look like their
parents. Piglets look like pigs.

Piglets drink their mothers
milk. Pigs are mammals.

Kangaroos give
birth to babies called
joeys. A joey grows
in its mothers pouch.
It drinks its mothers
milk. Kangaroos are
mammals.

A joey looks
out of its
mothers pouch.

Koalas climb into their
mothers pouches and
drink milk.

At birth, koalas
are the size of
jelly beans. They
grow bigger and
look like their
parents.

A few mammals lay eggs.
A platypus is a mammal that
lays eggs. After platypus eggs
hatch, the babies drink milk.
A platypus is a mammal.

Platypus babies do
not have fur when
they hatch. Their
fur grows later.

A jackrabbit eats
leaves from a tree.

What
Mammals
Eat

Baby mammals drink milk.
They learn to eat different
foods as they grow up. What
do mammals eat? Beavers
nibble on branches and leaves.
Mammals that eat
plants are called
herbivores.

Beavers eat
bark and
leaves.

A tiger creeps close to a deer
and pounces. Mammals that