Creature features

If you’ve ever heard someone calling out in the woods, “Who cooks for you?” there’s probably a barred owl nearby. These distinctive-looking owls are best known for their hard-to-miss call, which sounds like they are calling out: "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?"

Boa constrictors are among the most well-known snakes in the world thanks to how they are portrayed in popular culture. If the movies were to be believed, boa constrictors are a major threat to people. The reality is a little different. Boa constrictors are large snakes, and they do kill their prey by wrapping their bodies around their catch and constricting it. That’s why they are called boa constrictors.

What's faster and smaller than a butterfly but still somehow a butterfly? A skipper! Like moths and butterflies, skippers belong to the insect order Lepidoptera. At one time, skippers were thought to be their own distinct group within the order, but scientists now classify them as a type of butterfly.

Great horned owls can live in many places, including in your very own neighborhood. These large owls are at home in forests, wetlands, grasslands and even cities.

Sugar gliders are marsupials that live in Australia and New Guinea, but they may remind you a little of the squirrels we see all over Illinois.

What looks like a lizard but isn't? A salamander. Although salamanders share some physical characteristics with lizards, they have plenty of differences. They aren't even closely related.

Creepy-crawly earwigs have a bad reputation. Their name alone can give you the heebie-jeebies! Earwigs? Why are they called earwigs? Surely because they love crawling in small cavities ... like human ears! Luckily, that's not the case. They are actually named for the shape of their wings.

When we think about rodents, we usually think first of small creatures, but not all rodents are small. A squirrel is a rodent, and they are certainly larger than mice and gerbils. Muskrats are rodents too. Even beavers are rodents, but they aren't the largest rodent of all. That title goes to the capybara, a curious looking animal that can grow to be twice the size of a beaver!