Animals that start with S

Salamanders are amphibians that look somewhat like lizards. They need to live in moist enviroments. Some salamanders live entirely in water, others come out of the water. Their skin is always damp as it produces mucous just like the inside of your mouth does. If you cut the leg off a salamander, it can regrow.

Samoyeds are large, long-haired white dogs from Siberia. They were bred to herd reindeer, to pull sleds and to keep their owners warm at night. They are a very energetic breed and need lots of space and regular exercise or they will get bored and destructive. They are friendly dogs and don't make very good guard dogs. One of their interesting features is they don't have a 'doggy' smell and they don't shed much, so are classed as 'hypoallergenic'.

A scarab is a type of beetle with a hard, shiny shell and strong legs built for digging. Many scarabs live in warmer, drier climates. Some species bury dung or roll it into balls, while others feed on leaves, roots, or decaying plants. Scarabs are known for their tough bodies and their useful habit of moving things around in the ground.

Scorpions are arachnids found all over the world except for New Zealand. They live in all kinds of areas, from rainforests to deserts and can vary in size from a few centimetres to a few inches long. They are related to the spider. All scorpions are venomous, but only some scorpions are big enough and poisonous enough to kill a person.

Scottish terriers are a small dog that is usually black, from the Scottish highlands. They were originally bred to hunt rats and badgers, and they have strong tails so their owners can pull them out of holes they have dug. They are determined, stubborn, fiesty and territorial. They make good watch dogs.

A sea slug is a soft, slow-moving animal that lives in the ocean and comes in a wide variety of colors and patterns. It lives in shallow water, and like land slugs, it doesn't have a shell like other molluscs.

Sea urchins are a small, round, spiny creature related to the starfish. They move very slowly on hundreds of small tentacle-like legs that use suction to stick to rocks. Their mouth is at the bottom of the sea urchin, and they eat algae as they move around.
Different kinds of sea urchin have different colours and different lengths of spines. The spines are hinged and can move around. Sea urchin shells don't have spines and look very different to a live sea urchin.

A seahorse is a type of small fish. They live around coral reefs and in seagrass. They eat tiny fish and other small sea creatures.
Male seahorses look after the babies. The female lays her eggs in a pouch on the male, and he looks after the eggs for several weeks until they hatch.

A serval is a medium sized cat closely related to the caracal. Servals are from Africa, and have relatively the longest legs of any cat. They have a fairly short tail. Servals are spotted and look similar in some ways to cheetahs. Cheetahs are thought to have descended from an ancient serval.

Sharks are a type of large fish that live in the sea. There are many different varieties of shark. Some eat smaller fish, some eat penguins and seals, and others eat the same way as large whales, by sifting out tiny sea animals from the water.
Sharks constantly grow new teeth, and can lose thousands in their lifetime. Their skeleton is not made of bone, unlike most fish and animals, but is made from something softer and more flexible called cartilage. In people, cartilage is found around the ends of our bones to make our joints easier to move.