Beaver’s front teeth, called incisors, never stop growing, so they must gnaw on hard surfaces like wood to shave them down. Their incisors appear to be yellow because of the iron present on their incisors tooth enamel, which also makes them tuff and resistant to acid. Beavers’ incisors are sharp and historically made for perfect tools 11,000 years ago.

Not all ducks quack only female mallards make the classic quacking sound, while males make a quieter raspy noise. Mallards are common around waterways, but feeding them bread or crackers isn’t healthy. These foods are like junk food and not part of their natural diet. In the wild, mallards eat plant matter, insects and crustaceans.

There are about 1,000 different kinds of tardigrades, or moss piglets, in the world, but only one can be found in Illinois - the Milnesium tardigradum. They can survive extreme conditions, even in outer space, and can live just about anywhere. Moss piglets live in moss, lichens, and freshwater and are fierce, microscopic predators with eight clawed legs, a straw-like mouth, and a soft cuticle. They can survive years without water or food, reanimating when moisture returns.

Real maple syrup comes from maple trees. In late winter or early spring, trees are tapped to collect clear and slightly sweet sap. The sap is mostly water, about 98 percent, so it is cooked to evaporate the water and leave behind sweet syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Real maple syrup is thin like water and much sweeter than imitation syrup found in stores.

Rings around the sun or moon, called halos, form when light passes through ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. These 22-degree circles are usually white but can show faint color. Moon halos may signal rain as the clouds often come before storms. Sundogs are rainbow-like spots beside the sun and sun pillars are vertical beams of light seen at sunrise or sunset. All are caused by sunlight interacting with ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Red-headed and red-bellied woodpeckers are often confused, but they look quite different. Red-headed woodpeckers have fully red, deep crimson heads and bold black-and-white bodies. Red-bellied woodpeckers have red patches on their heads and faint red bellies that are hard to see. Both live in wooded areas, nest in dead trees, and eat insects and plant matter. Red-bellied woodpeckers visit feeders more often, while red-headed woodpeckers rarely do.

Raccoons are omnivores that eat both plants and animals. In spring and summer, they mainly eat insects, birds, small mammals, and turtles. In fall and winter, they add fruits, grains, and seeds to their diet. In residential areas, raccoons often raid unsecured garbage cans for food scraps, earning them the nickname “trash pandas.”

Eastern gray squirrels love nuts and seeds and bury many for later. However, they forget some, which can grow into new trees and plants. By burying mostly healthy nuts and eating the damaged ones first, squirrels unintentionally help with reforestation. Their forgotten food plays an important role in spreading and growing new plants in the forest.