| I live near standing water where I can keep my smooth skin wet. I have a fast tongue for catching flying insects. My long legs help me jump away from turtles and birds that want to eat me. My name comes from the spots on my skin. When I was a young tadpole, I used gills to help me breathe underwater but now I have lungs and can live on the shore. I lay my eggs in the water, attached to plants or to the bottom. |
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| I often sit at night on floating plants with my companions. Our voices join in a trilling song. When danger approaches, I quickly disappear underwater. When I was a tadpole, I lived underwater all the time. Then I ate plants, but as an adult I eat insects. My striped body helps me hide from turtles, birds and mammals. Fish eat my young. In the early spring and fall I am active during the day, but when it gets hot in the late spring and summer I come out at night. |
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| I move very fast on my four legs. I have stripes and light spots along my back. My tail is bright blue when I am young but changes to gray with a gray-green tip when I am grown. I like dry, open areas where I can sit out in the sun. I also seek shade under big trees and shrubs. I sleep through the cold winter. I eat insects and spiders. Roadrunners and other birds like to eat me. I have only sisters, because there are no males of my kind. My young hatch from eggs. |
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| I am a reptile without any legs or arms. I have a long yellowish-white stripe down my back. I eat fish, frogs, toads, tadpoles, lizards and worms. I can dislocate my jaw to open my mouth very wide for large prey. I swim well, but usually I slide along the moist ground under plants. Herons, roadrunners and some mammals try to catch me. If I get caught, I can release a stinky material to scare off the predator. My young do not hatch from eggs—they are born live. |
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| I have a long, slender body with brown and black patches. When disturbed, I shake my tail in leaves on the ground and sound like a rattlesnake. But I do not have a rattle and I am not poisonous. I like to eat mice, rats, eggs, lizards and small birds. I am a constrictor. I squeeze my prey, and then I swallow my food whole. I can even eat prey bigger than my head. I hunt all through the bosque and surrounding uplands. My young hatch from eggs during the summer. |
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| My shell can bend, and it is covered with a leathery skin. My arms, legs and body are flat and my toes are webbed, which helps me swim well. I have a long nose which I stick out of the water for air. I eat earthworms, snails, crayfish, insects, fish, frogs, tadpoles, and some aquatic plants. I like to stay in the river in areas with a sandy bottom and strong currents. On sunny days I like to bask on the river bank or on logs. I am very fast on land and in the water. |
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| Most of my body stays hidden inside my hard shell. When I am threatened, I also pull in my striped head and legs. I like areas with quiet water, a soft bottom and lots of water plants. In the winter, I stay in mud under water. When it’s warm I climb onto mudbanks, logs or rocks to sun myself. Often many of my friends and I share a log to bask. I eat insects, spiders, earthworms, mollusks, crayfish, fish, frogs and tadpoles. As I get older I eat more aquatic plants. |
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