Ways to Learn about Baby Animals

How to Study Animal Babies that are Born in Spring

Mar 31, 2009 Elece Hollis

Observing the new life on a farm in spring may not be an option, but you can have fun studying baby animals wherever you may be this time of year.

When Easter comes around many people think of baby rabbits and chicks. Spring is also time for calves, colts, lambs, kids and many other baby animals to make a showing.

You may get a look at baby farm animals while out for a drive in the country. Cows and horses will have their calves and colts alongside. A baby donkey is not called a “dinkey,” although that name might fit. They are called colts or foals because donkeys, mules and burros are members of the horse family.

An alpaca or llama may be more rare a sight. Their babies are called crias. Deer babies are, of course, fawns. Any car trip you take affords you with an chance to see some animal babies – sheep with their lambs, or puppies and kittens.

Use the Internet

You will find many pictures and details of baby animals on the internet. Enchanted Learning is a safe site for students and not only gives the correct terms for baby animals, but includes terms for what adult male and female and juveniles are called as well as what a group of each type of animals is (deer/herd, birds/flocks, dolphins/ pods, fish/schools, cheetahs/coalitions). Try sketching some of the animal babies from photos on the internet.

Library and School

Libraries and encyclopedias can also supply pictures and information about animal babies for study. Take along a sketch book and a couple of sharpened pencils to sketch with. Look in the easy book section for picture books on animals which often provide great photos and paintings of baby animals. Ask the librarian to allow you to look at oversize, reference, and art books that have animal babies pictured.

Your classroom may also provide some books that you can read and study. A study of art, science, even literature can find you studying animals. Wildlife is a topic that is enjoyed by people worldwide.

Visit the Zoo

A trip to the zoo in the spring may give you an opportunity to see many different animal babies that you wouldn’t see in the wild or on a farm. A baby kangaroo is called a joey. The joey keeps hitching a ride long after he will comfortably fit in his mother’s pouch. A study of the kangaroo may lead you to interest in the marsupials who have pouches for their young. The possum is a marsupial and like the monkey ( not a marsupial) may carry her babies on her back.

Do you know that a baby bat is called a pup, like a dog’s baby or a gerbil’s baby? If the zoo has a cave you may see some of these bat pups. Some of the giants at the zoo – the hippopotamus and the elephants might give birth in the spring and then you would get to see their calves. The platypus and otter are less likely to let anyone spy on their puggles and whelps.

Pet Shops and Farm Supply Stores

A pet shop might be the place to see kittens, puppies and gerbil pups. Baby birds hatched in the spring may be seen there. Fish babies – fingerlings swim in schools in the tanks. Try finding lizards, turtles, snakes, guinea pigs, and ferrets. Ask the pet shop owner if there are any baby animals you can see.

The farm supply stores stock baby chicken, turkey chicks, goslings, and domestic ducks for farmers. Remember how fragile they are and don’t handle them at all. Many also stock baby rabbits for farm children to raise. Most of these would not survive if purchased for children outside a farm setting.

Tour Your Own Backyard

Though it is not likely that you will spot fawns, bear cubs, tiger cubs or giraffes in your back yard, there are baby animals to be seen there. Robins, bluebirds, and hummingbirds as well as sparrows and many other birds may nest and raise their baby birds right outside your window.

Frogs may be raising tadpoles in any natural water, sometimes even mud holes. Grasshopper nymphs and other insect babies will make their home in your backyard. Look for moths and butterflies hatching out in the first warm spring weather. Even a city home or an apartment complex may have a park or play area where you can observe animals and their babies – turtles, frogs, birds, and bugs are all out there. Baby spiders will be hatching so watch for their streamers of web that they use to launch themselves with.

Many baby animals are being born in the spring. Keep an open eye and be ready to observe, photograph, sketch, study, and learn about these terrific animal babies.

The copyright of the article Ways to Learn about Baby Animals in Kids Activities is owned by Elece Hollis. Permission to republish Ways to Learn about Baby Animals in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.