And as most rodent-lovers know, a hamster's fat cheeks are not fat at all they actually act as grocery sacks to carry his grub until he gets home to unpack it into his pantry.Īuthors Jenkins and Page also unpack the mysteries behind the features of such strange creatures such as the pufferfish, the leaf-nosed bat, the frilly lizard, and the colorful mandrill in their latest fact-filled nature science expose'. The icky-looking pink growths on the star-nosed mole's nose are actually finger-like feelers which help him navigate his dark tunnels. The spicebush swallowtail caterpillar has a faux snake face on his rear end to fend off angry birds who might otherwise slurp him up. The thorny devil (a spiny Australian desert lizard) sports his spikes to discourage predators from trying to swallow him, but his thorns do double duty, also sluicing rare rainwater toward his mouth. While Jenkins' and Page's creatures hold their tongues about how funny we look to them, they are happy to describe the perfectly sensible reasons why they look the way they do. and as you can see, I have a lot of tongue to protect. My tongue, which I use to pluck leaves and grass, is dark purple so that it won't get sunburned. I live in Africa, where the sun is very bright.

Here's lookin' at you, Human!ĭEAR AXOLOTL: Why do you have feathers growing out of your head? If the bald-faced truth is what you want, have I got the book for you! Steve Jenkins' and Robin Page's forthcoming curious critter book, Creature Features: Twenty-Five Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), tells it like it is.

I'll tell you.I stick my face into the bodies of the dead animals I eat, and the feathers would get pretty messy.

DEAR EGYPTIAN VULTURE: Why no feathers on your face?

Creature Features by Steve Jenkins