Wildlife

Leopard tortoises reach 10 to 18 in and live 50 to 100 years. What their size, price, diet and heat needs mean before you buy one.

Weasels, stoats, minks, martens, fishers, and the endangered black-footed ferret all share the ferret body plan. Size, tail markings, and range name every one.

Gopher poop is a hard tan pellet 0.25 to 0.5 in long that shows up in burrows and fresh mounds, not on open lawns. Here is how to separate it from mole, vole, and rat droppings.

The largest painted turtle subspecies, named by the branching blotch on its underside. Identification, range, legality and care.

Fisher scat is a twisted fur packed cord of 3.5 to 6 in, left on logs and boulders in mature forest. Size, contents, placement, and how it differs from marten, otter, and coyote.

Mouse tracks are four print groups under 1 in wide with a thin tail drag. Here is how to read them in snow, mud, sand and household dust.

Chigger bites are tight clusters of small red welts along sock lines and waistbands. Here is how they look day by day and what else gets blamed for them.

Gray tree frogs are harmless climbers that change color and freeze solid through winter. Identification, the Cope’s treefrog difference, call, range and care.

The southern leopard frog is a sharp-nosed, spotted frog of the Southeast that is not poisonous. Here is how to tell it from a pickerel frog and what its chuckling call means.

Turtles hiss, grunt, squeak and click. Which sounds are normal, which mean a respiratory infection, and when in the year you hear them.