Page 7 - Kind News, Jr. November/December 2020

AMAZING WORLD
HUMANE HERO

HOW DOES A SNAKE SENSE
THE WORLD?

opposite page, redrover; this page, from top: life on white/bigstock; ruslankphoto/bigstock.

To learn about the world, people see, smell, touch, taste, and

hear. A black-tailed rattlesnake cannot hear like we do, but has
other sensing powers. Step into her skin and find out...

Imagine you are curled up on a trail. You can smell that a mouse was here
by flicking your tongue out to grab smells in the air. Two people come. You

cannot hear them talking, but you feel their feet move through the ground.
You cannot see them well because your vision is not good, but you can sense

their heat. This tells you they are much bigger than you!
Now see how much you can

sense outside! Bring a notebook
to write or draw what you see.

Then close your eyes and
sense what you can smell,

feel on your skin, and hear.

A black-tailed rattlesnake senses the world through her tongue
and skin. She can sense heat through special pit organs on her nose. If she senses danger, she shakes pieces of dead skin on
her tail. She moves the dried skin 60 times in a second. This makes a rattling sound that means “Stay back!”

CRITTER CLUES

1 I can weigh up to 1,200 pounds — as much as a car!

2 My hooves help me stand in the snow and on marshy ground.
3 When I am a male (boy), I have very long antlers.

4 Even though I am big, I can run very fast: up to 35 miles per hour!
I can also swim for a long time!

What am I?

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ANSWER:R: LET MINNOW WHAT YOU THINK. Nov/Dec 2020 | 7
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