Animals | Wild Animals - The Animal Kingdom

Our world abounds with animals of every shape, size and description both wild and domestic.

Specific species of insects and other small animals can be very useful to humans. For example, the praying mantis eats grasshoppers which can destroy crops, the lady bird eats plant lice, the spiders help to control the insect population and the house cat eats mice which can spread disease and ruin stores of crops.

Conversely, other animals can be a nuisance or even harmful to humans. Mosquito's and ticks are carriers of disease, and many spiders, snakes and caterpillars can be poisonous. With man continuously encroaching on wild habitat and many animals ability to adapt to the presence of man, exterminators have become an essential part of most households pest control plan to rid them of harmful insects and rodents.

There are two principal groups of animals. The vertebrates to which belong the mammals like the dog and the cat and other domestic animals, and invertebrates as the insects which do not have internal skeleton (endoskeleton).

Some animals are carnivorous and others are herbivores, some have hair and others feathers... The animal kingdom is full of species which have adapted to their specific environments to present tremendous diversity in animal life.

Animals have a role in the balance of native environments. Some, as the insects, seem not to have utility but they are food of the birds, lizards... they are not useful for us, but essential for the good of other plants and animals.

You will find information and photographs of animals gathered by friends and family and collected from internet archives to learn more about the beauty, diversity and complexity of our domestic and wild animals.