Sammy’S Science Arizona

By Chester Thompson

In this second installment called Sammys Science Arizona, I deal solely with animals and plants inhabiting the state of Arizona. As always, I tell the science facts in this book using my mixed species animal family characters from our radio broadcast. The main characters are Sammy Skunk, the dad; Daphne Skunk, the mama; Erasmus, the teenage porcupine; Ewald, the middle school-age roadrunner; our pet orange tabby cat, Bonkers; and Tremor, the wee skateboarding mouse. In this book, Randy Raccoon, Eddy Beaver, Donkey Dan, Beanie the Goat, Big Red, and a few other characters also appear.

Though we have many dangerous animals in the state of Arizona, most are small, including the coral snake, several species of rattle snakes, scorpions, centipedes, Gila monsters, several spiders, and many other small creatures. There are also a few dangerous desert plants. Then we also have six medium-to-large carnivores that call our state their home. I hope that by reading this book, visitors, new residents, as well as those that have been residents for a few years will learn to be careful while hiking in the states wilderness areas. Enjoy your everyday lives, and be careful while hiking, camping, biking, or hunting in Arizona. Never go hiking without a friend or two along, and like me, carry a big knife, plenty of water, a good hat, plenty of sunscreen, and a good walking stick with you.

Enjoy Arizona.

Sammy

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546253662

Chester Thompson

Chester Thompson was born on January 18th, 1945 at Amarillo, Texas on poultry ranch owned by his grandfather and father. His parents were told that he would die before he reached age two, but by age two he was very much alive. When he was two his grandmother died and his parents left Amarillo to move to Philadelphia to be near his mother’s family. However when he was in the third grade the family doctor told hismother that she and his younger brother Tom, needed to move to a dryer climate. So the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Chester entered the fourth grade when school started and attended school in Phoenix until he graduated from high school. He began his writing career doing reports on animals during his fifth grade and sixth grade school years. He was turned onto mystery books at the Maricopa county library branch in his Phoenix neighborhood while in the sixth grade. Being an avid reader he read many books on several topics. Detective and mystery books were among them. Books like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and Franklin W. Dixon’s ‘The Hardy Boys’ to name a few. Today at nearly 74 Chester enjoys writing on various topics but especially detective mystery. Mr. Fenton and ‘The Halloween Moon Case’ is just such a book.

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© 2018 Chester Thompson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5367-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5366-2 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

The Eight Legged Pest

The Cowboy Trees

Arizona’s Tarantula And It’s Flying Enemy

A Visitor At One O’clock

The Monster Of Arizona

Don’t Hug The Teddy Bear

What’s Shaking

The Hundred Legged Problem

Don’t Invite Them To Your Picnic

The Coral And The King

The King

The Eight Legged What?

Not Wiley- E- Coyote

A House Cat It’s Not

Coming Back Gradually

Lions, Bears, But No Tigers

Stealth On Four Paws

Mah-Toh?

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all of the students

of nature but especially to their brave mothers

who put up with their creature collecting.

THE EIGHT LEGGED PEST

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E WALD CAME RUNNING IN YELLING, Dad Randy was stung by a large scorpion!

Where is the scorpion right now, asked Sammy?

Oh, I killed it with a piece of wood, said Ewald.

Sammy went out to where Randy Raccoon was sitting and looked at the dead scorpion closely. He discovered it was a Giant Hairy scorpion which is rare in the area because they prefer the saguaro forest where they eat centipedes, spiders, and other scorpions.

Well I will take you to the hospital but this giant is only mildly poisonous so you will be alright, said Sammy.

How can a scorpion that big be only mildly poisonous, asked Ewald?

Sammy decided to teach the boys about the four most common Arizona scorpions while driving to the hospital.

It’s not because of it’s size Ewald. It is however the least poisonous of the four most common scorpions in Arizona, said daddy skunk.

How many types of scorpions are there anyway, asked Randy?

Actually our state is know for a variety of scorpions. They thrive in our type of climate but tend to be located mostly in the southern parts of Arizona, said Sammy.

I heard you say that when you lived in Phoenix you would check the insides of you shoes before placing them on your feet, remarked Ewald.

Yes I did. We also checked our beds for scorpions when we lived in an area where they were often found in houses, said Sammy.

If the one that stung me was only mildly poisonous, what are the other three most common ones, asked Randy.

The venom is meant to kill their prey which is mostly their size or smaller. Which means that deaths from a scorpion sting happens rarely. Now the Arizona bark scorpion is yellowish in color but in high elevations it is often stripped. Also it has long slender tail with the stinger at the tip, said Sammy.

This is the one that is typically found in their houses by home owners in Arizona. These are also some of the most venomous of the scorpions in our state. They get their name from the fact that you can find them in and around tree bark and rocky desert areas, continued daddy skunk. This is the guy I looked for in my shoes and bed.

I think I will also look in my shoes, said Randy.

The most common scorpion found in Arizona is the stripe tail. They are yellow in color with dark stripes on the top side. They do on occasion find themselves in homes but they normally live under rocks. The males are normally under 3 inches with the females being the bigger of the two. I turned over a rock when I visited my grandfather in Phoenix and I found one that my teacher said was a stripe tail scorpion", said Randy.

They are very common in that area as well as other counties in Arizona, said Sammy.

The yellow ground scorpion is very much like the bark scorpion in appearance and is often mistaken for it. The biggest difference in their appearance is the yellow ground scorpion’s first two tail segments are as wide as they are long. These scorpions are found in southeastern Arizona.

The giant hairy scorpion is the largest scorpion in the United States. That is the one you have already met. It gets its name from the dense hair coverage. While their appendages are yellowish their body color is normally dark.

Here we are guys. Lets get you in to see a doctor, said Sammy. Later back at the tree house Randy was doing very well and had no ill effects at all. Tremor mouse didn’t like scorpions even more than he didn’t like cats.

All was quiet in the old oak tree house.

THE COWBOY TREES

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