Meet some of our critters

Amazon Tree Boa

Corallus hortulanus

Habitat and Range: Amazon Tree Boas can be found climbing trees or tall vegetation and occasionally on the forest floor in tropical regions of Central and South America.
Diet: Small mammals, birds, frogs, and lizards.
Unique Trait: Amazon Tree Boas are polymorphic, displaying many different colors and patterns within the species. This defense mechanism makes it more difficult for predators to recognize the tree boa as a prey item.

Ball Python

Python regius

Habitat and Range: This well camouflaged snake can be found in grasslands and dry forests of the West African savanna. Although they spend most of their time in underground burrows, Ball Pythons have the ability to climb trees.
Diet: Small mammals and birds.
Unique Trait: When threatened, the Ball Python coils into a ball and hides its head for protection.
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Bearded Dragon

Pogona vitticeps

Habitat and Range: Bearded Dragons inhabit the deserts and dry forest of Australia.
Diet: Bearded Dragons are omnivores eating plants, invertebrates, and occasionally small mammals and other reptiles.
Unique Trait: Bearded Dragons are so named because of their expandable throat containing spiny scales that can become darkly colored. Their beard may be displayed when threatened or to attract a mate.
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Blanding's Turtle

Emydoidea blandingii

Habitat and Range: Blanding’s Turtles live in shallow ponds, swamps, and lake inlets where there is aquatic vegetation, cover, and muddy bottoms. These turtles can be found in the Great Lakes region as well as southern Quebec and Ontario.
Diet: Blanding’s Turtles eat insects, snails, crustaceans, fish, and occasionally aquatic plants.
Unique Trait: Due to a notch in the upper jaw, it appears that Blanding’s Turtles are always smiling.

Cecropia Moth

Hyalophora cecropia

Habitat and Range: These moths can be found in forests where host tree species live from Canada to Florida and as far west as the Rock Mountains.
Diet: While the Cecropia Moth caterpillar can eat several types of tree leaves, they feed mostly on Black Walnut tree leaves here at LSNC.
Unique Trait: As an adult, the Cecropia Moth does not have a mouth and does not eat anything! They only live as an adult moth for just over a week and die soon after they produce eggs.
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Common Snapping Turtle

Chelydra serpentina

Habitat and Range: These turtles can be found in lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams from parts of Canada all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.
Diet: Snapping Turtles will eat anything they can catch! If a small fish, frog, or worm gets close enough they reach out their long necks to capture them.
Unique Trait: Common Snapping Turtles have a small wiggly tip on their tongues that they use to fool their prey into getting close enough to capture!
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Crested Gecko

Rhacodactylus ciliatus

Habitat and Range: Crested Geckos are arboreal geckos, native to the tropical forests of southern New Caledonia.
Diet: Insects and soft or rotten fruits.
Unique Trait: Despite their inability to blink and lack of eyelids, Crested Geckos are sometimes called eyelash geckos because the projections above the eye resemble eyelashes.

Domestic Rabbit

Oryctolagus cuniculus

Habitat and Range: Many breeds of domesticated rabbit can be found throughout the world used as pets, meat, and fur. Wild rabbits can also be found around the world, living in underground burrows in meadows and hillsides.
Diet: Rabbits are herbivores, grazing on vegetation and grass.
Unique Trait: Rabbits have a nearly 360-degree field of vision due to their large eyes on the sides of their skull. This helps them to avoid predation.

Eastern American Toad

Bufo americanus

Habitat and Range: Eastern American Toads live in a variety of habitats including woodlands, prairies, agriculture fields, and gardens. They need loose soils and a shaded or covered area for cover during the daytime. These toads inhabit the eastern United States to southeastern regions of Canada.
Diet: Insects and worms.
Unique Trait: These toads are able to secrete toxins from glands on their skin that give them an unpleasant taste to predators.
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Eastern Box Turtle

Terrapene carolina carolina

Habitat and Range: This terrestrial turtle lives in forests or grasslands, preferring habitats that provide shrubs or thicket for cover. Eastern Box Turtles inhabit the eastern United States including parts of southern Michigan.
Diet: Box Turtles are omnivores, consuming insects, worms, berries, mushrooms, and vegetation.
Unique Trait: Box Turtles have a hinge on the bottom of their shell, or plastron, that allows them to completely close their shell, providing protection from predators.
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Eastern Tiger Salamander

Ambystoma tigrinum

Habitat and Range: These amphibians spend most of their time up to 2 feet below ground in moist soils near wetlands, ponds or streams. Eastern Tiger Salamanders are terrestrial as adults and only return to the water for breeding. This species of salamander is wide ranging and can be found throughout the Midwest and southern United States to Northeastern areas of Mexico.
Diet: As nocturnal hunters, Tiger Salamanders eat insects, worms, and even small frogs and mice.
Unique Trait: If environmental conditions are poor surrounding their aquatic birthplace, Eastern Tiger Salamanders may retain traits of their larval stage and live underwater. Although they still appear to be an immature salamander, they are able to reproduce. If conditions improve, they will leave the water and become a terrestrial adult salamander.
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Green Frog

Rana clamitans

Habitat and Range: Green Frogs live in ponds, lakes, streams, and marshes found in the eastern half of the United States.
Diet: Insects, spiders, tadpoles, fish, and other frogs.
Unique Trait: Green Frogs can make six different calls depending on the situation. They have different calls for defending territory, attracting a mate, and alerting danger.
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Green Iguana

Iguana iguana

Habitat and Range: Green Iguanas live in tropical tree canopies throughout the Caribbean, South America, and Central America.
Diet: Iguanas eat leafy greens and fruit but will occasionally eat invertebrates, especially when young.
Unique Trait: Although called the Green Iguana, their color can vary depending on temperature, mood, age, social status, or sex.

Map Turtle

Graptemys geographica

Habitat and Range: Map Turtles inhabit ponds, rivers, and lakes that provide aquatic vegetation and plenty of basking areas. Map Turtles can be found in the Great Lakes region as well as areas of Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. They also inhabit parts of Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
Diet: Map Turtles are omnivores feeding in water on crustaceans, snails, insects, fish and aquatic vegetation.
Unique Trait: Map Turtles get their name because their shell and skin marking resemble contour lines and waterway markings on a map.

Painted Turtle

Chrysemys picta

Habitat and Range: Painted Turtles live in streams, ponds, lakes, and marshes spending time in the muddy bottom or basking on logs and rocks. They can be found from north central to eastern United States and southern regions of Canada.
Diet: Aquatic plants, insects, and fish.
Unique Trait: The Painted Turtle is Michigan’s state reptile! During the winter, Painted Turtles can survive burrowed in the mud underwater for months at a time.
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Wood Turtle

Glyptemys insculpta

Habitat and Range: Wood Turtles live along flowing rivers or streams, spending time on nearby land during warmer temperatures. Wood Turtles are distributed throughout the northeastern United States including parts of northern Michigan.
Diet: Feeding in water and on land, Wood Turtles eat vegetation, flowers, berries, fungi, worms, and insects.
Unique Trait: The name Wood Turtle was given because the top of its shell resembles chiseled wood.