Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Cabe readers study state's wild animals

About 20 Cabe Library summer readers attended a program on Arkansas wildlife on July 11, and inspected furs, skulls and antlers.

The Cabe readers are 12 years old and under, and each received a free flying disc after the lecture.

The speaker was Alex Hinson, a regional education coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Hinson, who talked about mammals falling into the category of Arkansas wildlife, said he has been presenting animal facts to places such as schools and libraries for about 15 years.

"I did this presentation for the Gurdon library once before, but it has been a few years ago," he said.

Hinson brought out a variety of furs, skulls and antlers for the children to look at and touch.

The type of animals discussed were black bears, beavers, white tail deer and coyotes.

"The animals we have in our state are carnivores, omnivores or herbivores," Hinson said. "This means they either eat all meat, both meat and plants, or just plants. These animals all need four things from their habitat. They need food, water, shelter and proper space.

"For example, you can not put a horse in a dog pen."

Hinson said wild animals have to hunt for food, find water, a shelter and adequate space to fit their particular survival needs.

"If they can not meet their needs at one spot, a wild animal will move on to where they can," Hinson said.

Hinson said a wild animals shelter might be a cave, a forest, a barn or a hole in the ground.

"They might also hide in piles of recently dead trees," he said.

"Humans who clear land to build a house are the worlds worst at disturbing the environment so many wild animals have to move on. And most of us dont realize we are even bothering their habitats."

Hinson told the children a mammal is an animal that nurses their young.

Bears

He pointed out that part of the black bear fur was nearly brown.

"A few years back, our bear population was so low we started getting more black bear from Minnesota to repopulate Arkansas," he said. "Those Minnesota bears are still the black bear breed but have a little brown and cinnamon color in their fur. Even after repopulation efforts, Arkansas has still ended up with the black bear breed only."

Hinson said a black bear has teeth designed to rip flesh and yet they have a sweet tooth for honey.

"The bears are omnivores, that is they eat meat and plants," he said. "They have large claws designed to get down into the honey combs."

Hinson said black bears are hunted on a limited basis in Arkansas as a population control measure.

Beavers

Unlike the meat and honey eating bear, whose eyes are in the front of his head, a beaver is classified a rodent and has eyes on the sides of his head to detect danger sooner and have a better chance to run, Hinson said.

"Animals like beavers and deer, who also have eyes on the sides of their head, have flight as a first line of defense to get away from predators," he said.

Hinson also showed his young audience beaver skin and fur. He said a beaver skin hat was popular during pioneer days because the animals hide and fur was naturally water proof.

"President Abraham Lincoln had that tall hat we always see in the movies. They say it was a beaver skin hat," he said. "The beavers eat trees mostly, and of course are famous for moving branches to build dams in a creek."

He showed the children on a beaver skull how the mouth is designed to grab hold of a large stick so it can be moved to a dam.

"The back feet of a beaver are webbed," Hinson said. "The front part have strong toe nails and claws.

"And that big, flat tail a beaver is famous for helps beat things into place on a dam," he said. "A mother beaver will have her first kits when she is two years old."

Hinson said in the beaver world an older sibling helps take care of the young kits.

"That tail is an alarm system and will slap the water in warning if danger is near so the family of beavers can dive under to a safe place in their lodge," he said. "It is their flight pattern of protection."

Deer

Hinson said most deer also run away to stay safe.

The white tail deer of Arkansas got its name from Native Americans, Hinson said. He said they would see the white tail of the deer as it ran away.

He showed the children the deer antlers and said deer will shed antlers every year.

The antlers come off from the fall until the last of February, Hinson said.

"An older male deer will sometimes fight instead of run," he said.

"The deer are different than say a bull, goat or sheep. Those type of animals get horns and keep them for life. Our deer grow antlers, shed them and then grow more antlers back."

Hinson told the children a very young white tail deer will have orange shaded spots. He said Arkansas also has an elk population. An elk is a lot bigger than a deer.

Coyote

Hinson said those baby deer with the spots are vulnerable to Arkansass only wild dog, which is the coyote.

A carnivore, or meat eater, the coyote mostly eats smaller animals, such as rabbits.

"They have been known to attack and eat the baby deer," he said. "But in addition to rabbits, their regular diet consists in part of eating dead things. If a coon or possum dies, the coyotes and buzzards are there for the clean-up."

Hinson said the coyote has the traditional predator eyes, that is they look forward instead of being laid in the sides of the head.

"Bears, coyotes and people have the predator eyes, but animals like our white tail deer have prey eyes on the side," he said.

The prey eyes have a much wider vision area which helps animals such as a deer to survive an attack.

Julie Watson, childrens librarian, asked , "Are there any black bears around Gurdon?"

Hinson said the closet black bear population is south of Clark County. He admitted there are a few big black bears around who should be regarded with caution as predators.

"But you dont see as many in this part of the country because the timber harvest prompts the bears to move."

Watson told the readers the book logs would be due the following Friday, July 14, and the last reading program for the summer would be at 2 p.m. on July 18, with a magician as the guest and an awards ceremony for the summers top readers.