Sometimes called "Federation Squirrels" because the pattern on their back looks like stars and stripes.
Lions, tigers, and bears-oh my!! Frogs, turtles, spiders-eek! Birds, butterflies, worms-How fun! Let’s go see what creatures we can find in our backyards!
Amphibians are cold-blooded, smooth-skinned vertebrates. Most live some of their life in water and some on land. The most common amphibian critter is a frog but there are many others.
A fish is a cold-blooded animal that lives and breathes underwater. Fish typically have scales, gills, fins, and a streamlined body.
Insects are invertebrates. Their bodies are clearly divided into a head, a thorax, and abdomen. They also have three pairs of jointed legs and usually two pairs of wings.
Mammals are warm-blooded vertebrates. Most mammals have fur, start life inside their moms, are born live, and nurse milk from their mothers' bodies.
Insects aren't the only animals without backbones. There are many other invertebrates! How many can you name?
Reptiles are cold-blooded vertebrates. Their bodies are covered with scales. They lay eggs or give birth to live young.
Sea lampreys are members of an ancient family of "jawless fishes" that were around before the dinosaurs.
When spongy moths have an "outbreak," the caterpillars defoliate trees (eat all the leaves).
Believe it or not, these once-scarce pouched birds are now appearing in ever-growing numbers in Wisconsin.
Just like people at a mall, these tiny wingless insect-like creatures mill around in huge numbers.
This colorful bird is well suited to life in the prairie. Its tan, black and white markings hide it well in the yellow-tan grasses.
These tiny, uncommon animals have pairs of bristles on each segment. They are sometimes called feather duster worms!
Hundreds of thousands of Canada geese (not "Canadian" geese) pass through Wisconsin in their famous V-formations, honking up a storm.
You'll probably never see a lynx in the wild. They are uncommon in Wisconsin and pretty secretive.
You may know this fish by another name such as king salmon, spring salmon, blackmouth, tschawytscha, chin, king, magnum, or shaker.
You're sitting on a dock, minding your own business, when you notice a snake swimming by in the water.
If you like to play freeze tag, you might want to take a few lessons from the cottontail rabbit.
You can find this snake in oak savannas, prairies, marshes, old field, and under trash in vacant city lots.
Many people mistake this snake for a venomous copperhead. We don't have copperheards in Wisconsin.
Elk are members of the deer family along with moose, caribou, mule deer, and white-tailed deer.
Both false and southern map turtles are very wary and will flee at the slightest disturbance.
Watching butterflies is a fun summer activity and you can invite them to your very own yard.
Butterflies go through a complete metamorphosis. This means they have four stages to their life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
Voles are easy to find by their "runways" that are lined with grass and other material from where they were digging.
You'll never walk this critter on a leash because the mudpuppy isn't a dog and it doesn't live on land.
Winged mapleleaf, rock-pocketbook, monkeyface—sounds like World Wrestling Federation wrestlers?
The females of this species have large broad heads and jaws adapted for cracking mollusk and crayfish shells. Ouch!
A famous bird expert once described the male purple finch as "a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice."
Find any wet or moist habitat in Wisconsin and there you'll find the common red-winged blackbird.
With a name like racerunner, you'd have to be fast. And, as their name suggests, racerunners are very fast.
The name for this lizard is appropriate. When it's caught sometimes its tail breaks into many pieces like glass.
Softshells are easy to recognize by their long, pointed snouts and scuteless top shells (carapaces).
This hare changes its coat twice a year, exchanging a thin brown summer coat for a heavy, white winter coat.
2006 marked the first year that whooping cranes hatched in the wild in the Midwest in over 100 years!
