Gwen London, age 9, of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, for her question:

WHAT IS A MUD PUPPY?

A mud puppy is a salamander that you'll find living in American ponds and streams. Some grow to be 17 inches long, but most of the full grown animals are about eight inches long.

You'll find mud puppies in the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and in streams and ponds as far south as Georgia and as far west as Texas.

Mud pupppies have slimy bodies that are dark brown, gray brown or black in color. They have powerful flat tails and deep purplish red external gills behind their short, flat heads. This is the reason that the mud puppy is sometimes called the water dog.

Mud puppies live among water plants in between two and eight feet of water. They eat crayfish, fish eggs and other water animals.