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Show WOULD OUTDOORS CHORT shots concerning the furred, feathered, and finned: The pocket gopher is aptly named. Fur-lined pockets may be found on each side of the head and neck. A busy gopher may sometimes be seen stuffing one pocket and then the other with food or nesting materiaL A jackrabbit sometimes may weight seven or eight pounds and can leap 15 or 20 feet in a single hop if he really gets excited. Thousands of years ago, we're told, there lived in North America a giant beaver, longer long-er than a black bear. It measured meas-ured 7' a feet, counting Its tail. Our present-day beaver never stops growing but doesn't grow fast enough, or live long enough, to approach the size of bis giant ancestor. The fox family operates as a unit in the summer when the parents par-ents teach the young to hunt. Foxes, like skunks and badgers, are often abused. But each performs per-forms mankind a good service by keeping other animal life under control. It has been estimated that a single fox will kill more than a thousand rodents per year. The skunk often lends a helping hand to waterfowl. How so? Well, waterfowl will refuse to nest In marshes where too many turtles live for obvious reasons. Skunks keep turtle populations in check by destroying their eggs. |