Ranger Rick articles from September 1997

Ranger Rick archives from September 1997

Up up and away. (how different insects fly)
September 1, 1997... Buzzing like a mighty bee, a longhorn beetle rises from the forest floor and flies into the night. For two or three years it has lived as a grub inside a dead tree trunk. And now, as an adult, it's off in search of a mate. Beetles are big and...

Freeze, please! (how photographs of flying insects are taken)
September 1, 1997... As you can see, the insects in these photos have been "frozen" in flight. "That's very difficult to do, because insects fly so fast," says Nic Bishop, the photographer. Insects don't know they're going to get their picture in Ranger Rick, so...

Tyrannosaurus Tex and other sillysaurs.(poem)
September 1, 1997... Drawings and rhymes by Robert Byrd Deep in the land of the cactus, One "cowboy" stands out from the rest. TYRANNOSAURUS TEX, he's called. At twirling a rope, he's the best! BRONTOTOURIST tours the world, By boat, by train, by car....

Pipecleaner critters. (craft project; includes supplies and techniques)
September 1, 1997... Look at what you can make just by bending a bunch of fuzzy wires! THE BASICS First, get some pipe cleaners of different thicknesses from a craft store. Then learn the five steps below. That's it--you're all set to make the critters shown...

They came from beneath the sand: is one lurking near you? (creatures that hide in the sand to find prey)
September 1, 1997... DESERT HORROR SHOW WHAT A SHOCKER! That face on pages 18 and 19 may look scary. But don't worry--unless you're a little fish, it can't hurt you. The face belongs to the stargazer above, a fish about as long as your arm. See how the eyes and...

A peaceful picnic turns into a sky-high adventure. (short story)(Adventures of Ranger Rick)
September 1, 1997... Boomer Badger leaped into the air and nabbed the neon-orange Frisbee with his right paw. Then he did a double spin and heaved it back toward Becky Hare. Ranger Rick Raccoon and Cubby Bear watched. They were sprawled on the ground around a picnic...

More facts. (about the environmental dangers of clearcutting forests)
September 1, 1997... Mudslides can happen even on slopes with lots of trees. But they're more likely to happen where the trees have been clear-cut. As timberland becomes more scarce, logging companies may cut on steeper and steeper slopes. Mudslides (and muddy...

Return of the "passenger pigeons." (pigeons ride the subway trains in London, England)
September 1, 1997... Passenger pigeons became extinct in the United States many years ago. But now people in England have spotted a new kind of "passenger pigeon." Many people in London have reported that ordinary city pigeons seem to have learned a new trick. The...

Rockin' robins. (baby robins that were raised on a boat)
September 1, 1997... Do baby robins like being rocked to sleep? No one knows for sure, but a few of them did get plenty of rocking--by growing up in a nest on a boat! "The parents built their nest on our boat, and we didn't have the heart to get rid of it," says...

Tattle-tale crows. (police find car thieves by listening to crows make noise)
September 1, 1997... Police found a stolen van parked next to a woods. Two teenage boys had been seen riding in the van, but where were they now? Twelve police officers joined the hunt. A neighbor who knew a lot about birds had a clue. She told the police to look...

Troublemakers on the tracks. (crows in Japan put rocks on the railroad tracks, which is a great hazard)
September 1, 1997... "Who's putting rocks on the train tracks?" people in Japan wondered. More than half a million people ride Japan's high-speed trains each day, so there was good reason to worry. The egg-sized rocks could have thrown the trains off the tracks....

Million-dollar bills. (woodpeckers peck holes in space shuttle Discovery)
September 1, 1997... Two little woodpeckers called flickers caused two-million-dollars' worth of trouble--that's a million dollars a bird! They pecked more than 200 holes in the orange foam protecting the space shuttle Discovery. That delayed the shuttle's launch...

Do other mammals besides primates have fingerprints?(Ask Scarlett)
September 1, 1997... Not really. Only primates have these complicated skin patterns on their fingertips. (Primates are the group of animals that includes monkeys, apes, and humans. You can read all about them in next month's special issue.) No two fingerprints are...

Why do zebras have a black spot on the inside of one of their legs?(Ask Scarlett)
September 1, 1997... That "spot" is a rough, horny growth called a chestnut. All members of the horse family have one on the inside of each front leg, right above the "knee" (which is really a wrist). Most horses--but not zebras--also have chestnuts on their hind...

Do fish have lips?(Ask Scarlett)
September 1, 1997... You probably wouldn't hear a scientist talk about fish lips. But many fish do have fleshy edges around their mouths. If you want to call those lips, I'm sure no one would mind. At least the fish won't. Maybe you've seen little aquarium fish...

Why do snails leave shiny stuff behind them when they crawl?(Ask Scarlett)
September 1, 1997... So you can tell where they've been! Just kidding, Caitlin. Actually, the shiny stuff is dry slime. Snails don't leave slime trails behind them for any reason. But there's a very good reason for the slime itself: It helps snails get around....

Rangers. (explanation of why human babies are born helpless and animals babies are born ready to move)
September 1, 1997... Did you read the poem called "Already Ready" on page 16 in last month's issue of Ranger Rick magazine? It compared a baby llama with a baby human. The poem ends with this verse: "Why are llamas born ready to run? Why do humans come out...

Little fox on the prairie: how will this swift fox save his family?
September 1, 1997... How will this swift fox save his family? Rusty, a male swift fox, peers into his underground den on a cool spring evening. His mate, Sandy, and their young pups are safe inside the den . . . and he's hungry. It's time for him to go on his...

Go on a wolf hunt. (finding wolf spiders)
September 1, 1997... Did you know that a wolf may be right outside your door? In fact, there may be hundreds of them! The wolves we're talking about here don't have tails or howl at the moon. They're wolf spiders. They live on every continent in the world, except...