I took a terrific trip with my family to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. recently, and we saw many of the animals from my books there. If you get a chance to go, check out the giant squid in the huge tank that was too big for me to photograph, plus the other weird creatures in the Deep Ocean exhibit, and of course the awesome fossils.
As I explain in my Baby Otter book, young river otters are sometimes unsure about getting in the water, because they don’t know yet that they will be good swimmers. The mother otter helps them out, but she sometimes has to give them a firm but gentle push. Check it out!
I went to visit some of my favorite animals at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. last week, and I wanted to share some of my pictures with you. See how many of these animals you can find in my books, and tell me about your favorite animals!
I also got a request from someone asking to see fainting goats, which are included in my book FAKE OUT! Animals That Play Tricks. Here’s a video that shows you just how silly they are.
A student recently asked me during a school visit where she could see Lipizzaner stallions (which are featured in my book FAR OUT! Animals That Do Amazing Things) dance. These beautiful horses tour around the world, but you can watch this video to get an idea of the tricks they can do.
Here is a video of a young kangaroo joey coming out to check out the world and then quickly jumping back in. It’s amazing to see how much kangaroo can fit into what looks like a pretty small pouch. There will be lots more interesting updates on marsupials, as that’s the next book I’m working on now: Pouch Babies and Their Marsupial Moms.
Check out this cool video of the vampire squid and how it can turn itself inside out!
One of my favorite places to visit is the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. But if you can’t get there, you can still check out the animals on these live webcams. Many of these animals are featured in my books, including cheetahs, kiwi birds, golden lion tamarin monkeys, otters, and my favorite gross animals, naked mole rats. See what the animals are up to day and night, but be patient because they might be somewhere else in their enclosure sleeping or eating but will eventually come back to the cams. Have fun spying on the animals!
Naked Mole Rat
This is my new favorite animal, discovered while researching my next book, Pouch Babies, about marsupial mammals. It is blind and uses its shovel hands and hard nose to swim through the Australian desert, looking for food.
