Coyote The lone coyote howling at the moon is a symbol of the American West. In reality, coyotes are not solitary animals. They mate for life and sometimes hunt in packs, mostly at night. The coyote's name sounds Spanish, but it actually traces to the ancient Aztec Indian word coyotl. The coyotes use at least 10 different sounds to communicate, including barks, yips, growls, and howls.

Scorpions Scorpions are venomous arthropods of the class Arachnida and are considered relatives of the spiders, mites, ticks and harvestmen. There are approximately 1,300 species of scorpions worldwide, characterized by an elongated body and a segmented tail that is tipped with a venomous stinger.

As arachnids, scorpions have mouthparts called chelicerae, a pair of pedipalps, and four pairs of legs. The pincerlike pedipalps are used primarily for prey capture and defense, but are also covered with various types of sensory hairs. The body is divided into two main regions, a cephalothorax and an abdomen. The cephalothorax is covered above by a carapace (or head shield) that usually bears a pair of median eyes and 2 to 5 pairs of lateral eyes at its front corners (a few cave and litter-dwelling scorpions are eyeless).

The abdomen consists of 12 distinct segments, with the last five forming what most people refer to as the "tail". At the end of the abdomen is the telson, which bears a bulb-shaped structure containing the venom glands and a sharp, curved aculeus to deliver the venom.

Desert Bighorn Sheep The Desert Bighorn live in dry, desert mountain ranges, foothills near rocky cliffs and permanent water when seasonally available -- an environment that is almost waterless and relatively barren of vegetation.

Mexican Free-Tailed Bat Bats are unique in the animal kingdom because they are the only mammals to have evolved true flight. Most species also possess a system of acoustic orientation, often called "bat radar," but technically known as echolocation. Free-tailed bats, also known as Mastiff Bats, or Bulldog Bats because of their facial resemblance to dogs, comprise about 90 species of bats in the family Molossidae.

A subspecies of the Brazilian Free-tailed Bat, the Mexican-Free-tailed Bat forms colonies of several million individuals. Females migrate from Central Mexico to Texas and adjacent states each spring, returning south in the fall. Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico was discovered as a result of the Mexican Free-tailed Bat's emergence. Here, in five large caves, they form summer nursery colonies, where they produce about 100 million young . While females occupy the nurseries, their daily flights to and from the caverns is a major feature of this national park.

Prairie Dog Prairie Dogs are stout, burrowing rodents among the many varieties of ground squirrels. Settlers called them "dogs" and "sod poodles" because of their high-pitched, bark-like call. As members of the genus Cynomys (Greek for "mouse dog"), all 5 species of prairie dogs belong to the Squirrel Family (Sciuridae).

In 1804, Meriwether Lewis, traveling west across the Great Plains, reported seeing these animals in "infinite numbers." At the turn of the century, as many as 5 billion prairie dogs occupied millions of acres of grass prairies across the West.

Black Bear Black bears are sighted in many areas of Big Bend National Park, but most live in the Chisos Mountains. The Chisos offer essential components of bear habitat: food, shelter, and water. Black bears thrive in the juniper, piñon pine, madrone, oak, and persimmon trees of the Chisos Mountains where they find shade and shelter. They eat pine nuts, madrone berries, and acorns, as well as prickly pear fruit, sotol, and yucca. Mountain pools provide drinking water much of the year.

Recent studies in the nearby Black Gap Wildlife Management Area has demonstrated that some black bears have also taken up permanent residence in the low elevation desert. Although these are mainly non-breeding bears, at least one female with cubs has used the desert as their normal range.

Birds of Prey - a collection of original realistic plush beanbag birds with authentic sounds. These beanbag marvels are a perfect replica of the original species in the way they look and sound. Each bird's lifelike design and detailing is the result of input from Audubon. In addition, the authentic sound in each bird has been provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and represents hours, months and even years of extensive fieldwork conducted by expert recordists.