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Ff

farrow To give birth to a pig

feces Bodily waste discharged from the bowels

fecundity The number of offspring produced per unit of time per individual of any given age. Also referred to as "birth rate," maternity rate" or "fertility."

feral Referring to domesticated animals which have adapted to living in the wild.

fern . In damp places in woods, ravines, and rocky crevices grow the feathery green ferns. They may be recognized by the shape of their leaves, known as fronds. These have a single midrib, with small leaflets branching off from either side. The leaflets may be delicately cut into toothed or lobed edges. Most of the familiar ferns grow from a creeping underground stem called a rootstock.

fig Figs are fleshy, hollow, pear-shaped fruits with tiny flowers on the inside and a little hole at one end. The hole is too small to allow pollination by wind and ordinary insects. Most varieties, however, mature without pollination and so bear no seeds.

finch . Small, stout birds with conical bills adapted to crushing seed make up the finch group. They are closely related to the grosbeaks, sparrows, and buntings. All of them are members of the family Fringillidae, the largest of all the bird families. Its members are found in most of the world. (eg. Cardinal; Goldfinch; Grosbeak; Sparrow. )

fish A fish is a cold-blooded animal that has a backbone and lives in water and breathes by means of gills. It normally has two pairs of fins in place of arms and legs, as well as several other fins. Many fish are covered with scales. All fish hatch from eggs. Usually the females and males release the eggs and the milt (fish sperm) into the water. When they meet, the eggs are fertilized. Eggs may be released in long, sticky strings that cling to rocks or seaweed, or they may float on the surface, becoming part of the plankton. Many species simply dig a depression on the bottom of a lake and deposit the eggs there. Some eggs are covered with oddly shaped leathery cases . Sometimes the eggs are fertilized in the female's body and hatch there.

flower Most plants pass on life to future plant generations by seeds. It is the work of a flower to make seed. All its beauty serves this one purpose. Color and perfume attract insects and hummingbirds to aid in the flower's pollination. Some flowers are so formed that they admit certain insects and no others. The chief seed-making parts are the stamens, pistil, and ovary. Many interesting flower shapes have developed that protect these parts.

fluke One of the lobes of a whale's tail

folivore An animal that eats mainly leaves.

forbs A general term applied to ephemeral plant species (not grasses); in arid and semi-arid regions they grow abundantly after rains.

fossorial Referring to a burrowing life-style or behavior

freshwater lake An aquatic biome

freshwater river An aquatic biome

frog (frôg) - n. any tailess stoutbodied amphibian of the order Anura, including smooth, moist-skinned frog species that live in a damp or semi aquatic habitat and the warty drier-skinned toad species that are mostly terrestrial as adults. 

frugivorous Referring to an animal that eats mainly fruits

fruiting body An organ of a fungus which carries or produces spores for the fungus' reproduction. For example, a mushroom is a fruiting body of a fungus; the main body of the fungus is underground and comsists of a network formed from a mass of tubular, branching filaments

fungus The Latin word for mushroom is fungus (plural, fungi). The word fungus has come to stand for a whole group of simple plants that contain no chlorophyll and lack such complex plant structures as roots, stems, leaves, and flowers. Included among the fungi, along with mushrooms, are molds, mildews, rusts, smuts, truffles, and yeasts.

furbearer An animal whose pelt has commercial value and is subject to being harvested

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BE AWARE. BE CONCERNED. SAVE THE ANIMALS. SAVE US. SAVE THE EARTH.

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