March 4 was a day to see bighorn sheep. At Westward Look Wyndham Grand Resort and Spa, scopes were set up by the Arizona Fish and Game Department to see sheep. We didn’t see any because it was too windy and they usually stay on the other side of Santa Catalina Mountains. 

In Arizona, there are about 6,000 bighorn sheep. Translocations were done to get bighorns to our mountains. There are many reasons why bighorns disappeared in the 1990s. It could have been that people were building too close to their habitat, or drought, or disease or even the lack of wildfires. 

Kindness has been tossed around a lot these days. And Qizai, the 7-year-old panda who is the only brown panda in the world, knows how it feels to be treated unkindly. Qizai was abandoned by his mother at 2 months old. He was weak and neglected. He was found in the Qinling Mountains in China.

For a doggone good time, head over to the Phoenix Zoo. In 2002, the event was called “Boo at the Zoo.” In 2015 it was re-named “Howl-O-Ween,” which according to Addison Gardner, Special Event Planner, combines scary and merry activities for everyone to enjoy.

Nature has a funny way of doing things! Sometimes it might be a freaky forest or a crazy mountaintop. But have you ever seen some freaky animals before? Be prepared to see animals that you don’t see every day.

The seven-legged lamb: This crazy lamb was found in 2007. It is said that he suffered from a misprint in the embryo formation.

The two-headed snake: This is my worst nightmare. This snake suffers from polycephaly, meaning having more than one head, and despite how scary it is, it is fairly common.

Photograph by John de Dios/Bear Essential News for Kids

Would you ever want to eat an insect? Now you can! On Sept. 18, several thousand people went to the Arizona Insect Festival hosted by the Department of Entomology (the study of insects) at the University of Arizona. The festival, which started in 2011, is held in September each year. There were sautéed mealworms and onions on a chip, cricket cookies and protein bars. It may sound gross, but my brother, dad and I tried them and they were actually very good.