Clam or mussel

Ever think about what it’s like to be a clam? Well, try to imagine living underwater, within a shell, without eyes, with only one foot to get around, catching your food with your nose. That’s living like a clam. Our hard shells help protect us from animals like raccoons, turtles and muskrats who enjoy eating us. See those rings on my shell? Each ring equals one year’s growth. Can you count my rings and guess my age? I use my foot, which looks a lot like your tongue, to pull myself along the bottom of rivers and lakes where I live. I catch tiny plants and animals, called plankton, in my gills as I breathe. I can live only where the water is clean. Do you think clams are common in Maine ponds and lakes?

Leopard Frog

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to start out life swimming and end up hopping? Well, that’s what I do. After hatching from an egg, I spend several months as a tadpole, swimming with my long tail, eating algae, and hiding from hungry dragonfly nymphs, newts, fish and birds. I slowly grow legs, and my tail gets smaller, and I start breathing with lungs instead of gills -- I am now a frog! I like to live near ponds, and in wet meadows and woods where I can find lots of crickets, ants and other insects to eat.

 

Crayfish

You have probably seen crayfish before, but have you ever wondered what it’s like to be one? Imagine having only two fingers on each hand, your eyes sticking out from your face on stalks, and your skeleton on the outside of your body. Crayfish, like me, are an important part of the clean-up crew where we live. We not only eat living plants and animals, but decaying ones as well. If it wasn’t for us, dead plants and animals would pile up on the pond bottom. Because so many animals find us good to eat, we stay hidden during the day and come out only at night. If an enemy does find us, we make a fast getaway by swimming backwards. Just like a fish, we have gills that allow us to get oxygen from water. We need clean water to survive.

Leech

Have you ever considered sitting down at a table and feasting on a bowl of blood and decaying animals? If so, you’ve thought about eating like a leech. Leeches, like myself, enjoy drinking blood, but when times are tough and we can’t find a host, we eat decaying animals. My suckers, which are like suction cups, enable me to hang on tightly to an animal. I use my sharp teeth to scrape open a little wound so I can drink the blood that flows out. Since my meals are at the expense of other animals, I am called a parasite. I do not have gills or lungs; I simply breathe through my skin.