Label: Animals

March 30, 2011

Did you ever have a hermit crab as a pet? Lots of kids do. Part of the responsibility of owning a hermit crab is making sure it has a larger shell available when it outgrows the one it came in.

What you’ve probably never seen is what happens in the wild. Researchers in Belize discovered that when one crab finds a suitable empty shell, it waits until a crowd of other crabs join it. Then they climb, piggyback-style, onto each others’ shells, in a line from largest to the smallest. Once the first crab squeezes into the free shell, then the whole line follows, right down the row.

Photograph of Hermit Crab swapping shells © www.osfimages.com

March 29, 2011

Did you ever have an itch in the middle of your back that you just couldn’t wait to scratch? If no one was around to help, maybe you even backed up against a doorframe, or against a piece of furniture, and scratched your back against that.

This black bear solved the problem by backing up and scratching his back against a tree! It looks like it feels good, doesn’t it?

Wildlife photographer James A. Galleto won an award for this photograph, which he captured with some smart planning. "This black bear repeatedly scent-marked this particular tree," said Galleto, "so I positioned myself nearby and waited." Sure enough, he got this wonderful shot of a bear in need of a back scratcher.

This is our Cool Photo of the Week, and you can count on a new "cool photo" every Tuesday here on SeymourSimon.com.

Photograph: Nature’s Best Photography / James A. Galletto

March 28, 2011

This week I received letters from Chonlatorn S. and Alejandro D., both students at Rue Elementary School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. They had just read my book, ANIMALS NOBODY LOVES, and they were writing to defend the octopus, coyote, and other animals they think should not be in this book because they are not dangerous to humans. Chanlatorn wrote: "When skunks are in danger they will spray on you. They don’t bite you." I agree with both of these readers that no one needs to be afraid of these animals. In fact, that is one of the reasons I wrote the book!

Let me tell you about two Texas students I met last month who really go to extraordinary lengths to teach other students about "animals that nobody loves." Courtney (14) and Erik (12) are homeschooled, and I met them when they came to one of my presentations at a local school. This sister and brother work with an entomologist (pronounced en-toh-MAH-loh-gist, a scientist who specializes in the study of insects) and have started their own business, called NOT SO CREEPY CRITTERS. 

Courtney and Erik, pictured above, told me that this all started because they wanted to help other kids get over feelings of arachnophobia (ah-RACK-no-FO-bia, meaning "fear of spiders"). Spiders do much more good than harm, eating insects that damage crops and other plants. And as Courtney and Erik have learned, some of them even make interesting pets!

This brother and sister team do presentations in classrooms and at kid events, and they introduce their audience to a wide variety of "not so creepy creatures." Their traveling menagerie of live creatures includes 4 colorful tarantulas, 2 different scorpion species, Bearded Dragon, centipede, a snake, Leopard Gecko, Blue-Tongued Skink, Peppered Roaches and Madagascar Hissing Roaches! Last summer they wrote a book, and they are working hard to continue growing their business. They tell me that fainting goats and chickens are next on their list!

Courtney and Eric are well-mannered, dedicated defenders of creepy critters, and they have also built a very informative and interesting website. Check out the section called Arachnids for lots of fascinating spider photographs, and Critter Facts, where you are challenged to decide whether a statement is a fact, or simply an opinion.

March 24, 2011

Students in the Corpus Christi School system got a preview of Seymour Simon’s next book, BUTTERFLIES, when he visited their schools earlier this month.

Here is one of the fascinating facts Seymour shared about butterflies. Monarch butterflies start life as a beautiful, multicolored caterpillar (which is actually the insect’s larva). At least, it looks beautiful to us. To birds and other predators, the colors of this caterpillar say "Danger! Poison! Stay away!" The reason the larva is poison is that the monarch lays its eggs on the poisonous leaves of the milkweed plant. As the caterpillar eats the leaves, it is able to store the poison in its own body, therefore becoming poisonous to other creatures. Pretty good predator avoidance strategy, right?

Butterflies and moths exhibit some of the most interest camouflage coloring and behaviors in nature. Click here to read one of Seymour’s recent posts is about the Dead-Leaf butterfly, which uses another form of camouflage, called "mimicry."

In this photo from a story in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Seymour holds up a copy of the book, which will be published later this summer. You will be able to read more about this in BUTTERFLIES. The book is full of beautiful photographs and fascinating information about butterflies and moths. It will be in bookstores on August 23, 2011 (available for pre-order now on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble).

Caterpillar Photo:Mon@rch’s Nature Blog

March 22, 2011

A photographer at Nogeyama Zoological Gardens, near Tokyo, caught this baby Black and White Colobus monkey in the middle of a big yawn.

These beautiful primates ("primates" are animals with good eyesight and flexible hands and feet, including gorillas, monkeys and humans) are native to Africa, and they are herbivores, eating leaves, fruit, flowers, and twigs. Black and White Colobus babies are born completely white; as you can see, this one’s black hair is already starting to grow in.

Did looking at this photograph make you want to yawn? Researchers have found that between 40% and 60% of all people are susceptible to "catching" a yawn from someone else. No one knows quite why, although lots of experiments have been done to try to understand why.

Photo courtesy of MSNBC.com’s "Animal Tracks"

March 21, 2011

A reader named Sam uploaded this picture over the weekend, and asked some good questions about dogs. Here is what Sam wrote:

Hi, Mr. Simon, 

I found this and I thought IT was the cutest thing ever!  It reminds me of your book DOGS.  My favorite book of yours is DOGS.  How many types of dogs are there?  What is the most dog bought?  If you can answer these, you’ll be my life’s (favorite) answerer!   Hope you like it!      - Sam T.

The American Kennel Club (AKC) lists 185 official dog breeds. This does not account for the many mixed breeds (some people call them "mutts") that exist, and many of those are beloved companions and great pets.

As to which dog is the most popular, the AKC rankings of most popular dogs (determined by which breed is registered most often) has had the same number one for the past twenty years - Labrador Retrievers.

This puppy appears to be a toy breed - perhaps a Maltese, or a Shih Tzu. Anyone out there able to identify it?

March 15, 2011

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" is a 6-week-old snow leopard cub, sitting for her weekly weigh-in at Tennessee’s Chattanooga Zoo. This cub is the only survivor of three cubs born to the mother leopard in January, and she is a success story in the zoo’s conservation effort. The zoo works with the Snow Leopard Trust  to breed these endangered big cats, raise funds for research, and help preserve the species. Though snow leopard cubs only have a 30 percent survival rate, this baby is healthy and gaining about a pound a week.

 This little cub does not have a name yet, and the zookeepers are looking for suggestions. If you have an idea, write a comment here and we will pass your suggestions on. You could be the lucky reader to name this beautiful snow leopard! The zoo’s deadline for naming the baby is April 25, so send your ideas in now.

The Snow Leopard is a large cat native to the high mountain ranges of South Asia and Central Asia. They were nearly hunted into extinction because their bones are considered powerful ingredients in traditional Asian medicine. Researchers estimate that between 3,500 and 7,000 snow leopards are left in the wild (and another 600 - 700 in zoos). These beautiful cats are hard to spot, since they are naturally secretive and their white coats act as camouflage in the snow.  So, researchers rely on other ways of detecting a snow leopard’s presence, including looking for scrapes (snow leopards scrape their back legs in loose soil, leaving a small hole with a pile of soil next to it), scent markings (they claim their territory by spraying rocks and bushes with a strong-smelling liquid from a scent gland near the tail) and scat (also known as feces, or "droppings").

Photo: Chattanooga Zoo 

March 13, 2011

Noah from Hamilton, Ohio, wrote recently with a good question. He asked: "What is the biggest shark?"

I told Noah that the Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) is the largest shark in the world. In fact, it is the largest living fish species.

Then, I suggested to Noah that he do some research and come up with some more interesting information about the whale shark. Here is part of what he wrote:

"I found a lot of good facts about Whale Sharks. One is they have no known predators. Another fact is they use their stripes and dots as camouflage through disruptive coloration." 

Noah is correct. "Disruptive coloration" is a common type of camouflage that we see in nature. The mix of different patterns (in the case of the whale shark, both stripes and dots) is thought to hide the overall shape of the animal’s body, making it more difficult to spot in the water.

When I say that a whale shark is big, I mean really BIG! The whale shark can grow as long as 41 feet and weigh as much as 15 tons.

 To understand just how large that is, look at this drawing from Wikipedia, which shows the size of a Whale Shark compared to the size of an adult human. These huge fish are found in tropical and warm water oceans, and have been known to live as long as 70 years.

There is no reason to be afraid of whale sharks. They are not predators; rather, they are slow-moving filter feeders.  Animals who are filter feeders simply open up their mouths and take in whatever food happens to be in the water, while filtering out the undesirable debris. Whale sharks feed mainly on tiny bits of food like plankton, as well as microscopic plants and animals.

If you want to read more about sharks, you can probably find one or more of my books in your school library. There is a Smithsonian book called SHARKS and a SeeMore Reader called INCREDIBLE SHARKS, which is also available en Español: TIBURONES FABULOSOS. Some of you may have ordered my book SHARKS: 3D from the Scholastic Book Club.

If you are wondering why I have written so many books about sharks, it’s because they are fascinating to me, just as they are to you!

Note to Parents, Teachers and Librarians: There is a free, downloadable Sharks Teacher Guide on my website, which I invite you to use to enhance the reading experience of students who are reading these books.

Whale Shark Photo: Zac Wolf

March 8, 2011

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" was taken at the opening of the Grand Aquarium in Hong Kong’s Ocean Park. Although it looks as though these tiny fish are about to become lunch for the humongous Grey Nurse Shark swimming behind them, these fish actually work as a team.

The small fish are pilot fish, and they eat fish lice, little crabs, and blood sucking worms that live on the skin of the shark. The pilot fish suck on the shark’s skin and keep it clean, and in exchange, the shark doesn’t eat them. This is also a smart way for the pilot fish to avoid other predators, because most of their enemies are careful to stay away from sharks.

 There have even been reports of smaller pilot fish swimming into a shark’s mouth a cleaning away bits of food caught between its teeth…..like living dental floss!

Photo courtesy of MSNBC.com’s “Animal Tracks”

March 4, 2011

I’ve been speaking in schools in Corpus Christi, Texas this week, which means I have had a chance to walk near the salt marshes and see the huge numbers of birds - many, many species - which live here at the Gulf Coast.

We drove out to Portland, Texas ("over the bridge," as they say in Corpus Christi) and in short order saw a Great Egret, standing on one leg in the salt marsh, a White Ibis (given its name by the Ancient Egyptians, who considered ibis to be sacred birds), an American Avocet (sweeping its long bill through the shallow muddy water in search of food), an endangered Wood Stork, many Royal Terns (dapper in their black and white plumage, these elegant looking birds are cousins to the common gull), and a whole colony of Roseate Spoonbills. When we first saw this mass of pink birds, my wife and I thought they must be flamingoes (we’re from New York City, so we don’t know what we are seeing when it comes to Gulf Coast wildlife!). A very smart sixth grader told us what kind of birds these were.

And of course, we saw many brown pelicans, one of the most common birds of the Gulf Coast. I have always loved to watch pelicans feed in the ocean. They start by hovering high over the water, scanning the waves for fish. When they spot food, they make a steep, hard dive, sometimes from as high as 50 feet (15 meters), and explode into the water - it is like a bomb going off when they hit. I learned something new about pelicans this week. The reason they can dive that way without being injured is that they have air sacs in their shoulders and neck that act like air bags in a car, and protect them from the impact when they hit the water.

In order to identify and learn about all these birds, we bought a laminated bird identification folder with pictures and descriptions of typical bird life on the Gulf Coast. You can do this wherever you travel - hotel gift shops and souvenir stores almost always have them, to use for identifying local birds, fish, or wildlife. It is a great way to learn about nature wherever you go.

Thanks to all the students, teachers and librarians in Corpus Christi for sharing your great city with me. It has been a fun week! 

Sun rising over Corpus Christi Bay

Roseate Spoonbills photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Estatuary  

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