Label: Animals

March 1, 2011

It is Tuesday, so it must be time for…........TA DA! Cool Photo of the Week!

This 6-month-old panda cub was born in captivity, and now it is being taught how to live in the wild. Researchers at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature Reserve in China are moving the cub to the second phase of its training, where it will live at a higher altitude and encounter rugged living conditions.

So what is with the Halloween costumes, you might ask? The Chinese researchers believe that if the pandas are going to be successfully reintroduced into the wild, they must never have any contact with humans. So, they are dressed like grown up pandas! 

I wonder how they disguise their human smell?!

Photo courtesy MSNBC.com "The Week in Pictures"

February 25, 2011

I had a great day today at Churchville Elementary School in Pennsylvania. Students there have been VERY engaged with the website and my blog for weeks leading up to this visit, uploading a poll that they conducted about their favorite dog breeds, posting pictures and stories about their favorite animals, doing research and answering questions to enter contests in order to win personally autographed photos and books. 

So, I was very pleased to arrive today and discover that the students had continued to write about their favorite animals on this wonderful bulletin board display! Nearly 50 kids used pictures, drawings and their own writing to tell the world about animals that they love. It is great to see a school full of active, confident writers.

When I got back to my hotel tonight there was yet another lovely posting, from a Churchville student named Megan P. Her note is titled simply, MY DOG. 

Dear Seymour,

 

This is my neighbor’s dog. Her name is Nicci.  She is a boxer.  I love her, it feels like she is my own dog.  I loved the presentation that you did today at Churchville. 

I was very interested.

Your Friend,

                  Megan

 Thanks, Megan. I loved today, too, and look forward to returning to Churchville Elementary tomorrow!

February 23, 2011

Since my new book (coming out in August) is BUTTERFLIES, I was very excited to be able to visit Aruba’s Butterfly Farm. It is a large garden, all enclosed by netting, with cocoons, caterpillars, and thousands of delicate butterflies from all over the world. Have you ever seen a black and white butterfly? This beauty is called a Rice Paper Butterfly (Idea leuconoe), and they were quite curious, fluttering around us the whole time that we were there.

Readers often ask me what my favorite animal is, and I always reply that it is whatever animal I am writing about at the moment. I do a lot of research when I am writing a book, and the more I learn, the more fascinated I become. So, my favorite animal at the moment is the butterfly, and it was SO exciting to be in this relatively small space and surrounded by fluttering creatures! 

The one on the right is called a Scarlet Swallowtail (Papilio Rumanzovia) - isn’t it beautiful? Any butterfly that has the two long, trailing pieces at the bottom of their wings is some kind of swallowtail.

Butterflies protect themselves from predators in many ways. For example, when it is a caterpillar, the Monarch butterfly eats a leaf that is poison to many animals. By storing the poison in its body, the adult Monarch butterfly is avoided by predators who would otherwise eat it. Other butterflies protect themselves through an amazing natural phenomenon called "mimicry" - they appear to be something else altogether, like a leaf, a stick, or a piece of bark. While we were there, my wife Liz shot a video of a Dead-Leaf butterfly. Click on this link to play the video and you will see exactly how mimicry works.

Dead-Leaf Butterfly Video.

The scientific name for the Dead-Leaf butterfly is Kallima inachus. Whomever gave this genus of tropical butterflies the name Kallima must have been looking at the topside of the wings, since it comes from the Greek word for "beautiful"!

February 20, 2011

This iguana wandered over to see what Seymour was having for lunch on our last afternoon on the island of Aruba. Iguanas are herbivores (which means they eat plants); this one was probably hoping for a bite of salad!

Like all lizards, iguanas are cold-blooded, which means that their body temperature changes according to their surroundings. That is different from mammals - our bodies regulate our temperatures from the inside, and keep it pretty much the same all the time.

 Cold-blooded creatures seek the warmth of the sun, so you see iguanas sunbathing on rocks and rooftops all over the island.

There are lizards everywhere in Aruba. According to the official website, half of all the species of lizard on Earth are found only on this small island.

When the sun was out these beautiful, small turquoise lizards (left), called "kododo blauw," were constantly skittering around our feet and on the rocks.

Iguanas, which are bigger, move more slowly. Sometimes on Aruba you have to stop your car and wait for an iguana that is crossing the road in a leisurely way. Drivers are required by law to yield the right of way to iguanas on Aruba!

Iguanas/rooftop photo by Jacob Grygowski

February 16, 2011

Recently, Mr. K’s fifth grade class in Churchville, Pennsylvania read my book DOGS and created a poll about kids’ favorite dogs. That led to three weeks of students writing about their favorite dogs. We even ran a dog-related contest one snowy day in January.

I think it is time for cat lovers to have their say! Write and tell us about your favorite cat and why you love him or her.

Here’s an interesting, little known fact about cats to get you started: Scientists have discovered that a cat’s purr can coax its owner into giving them what they want by using a special noise that the human brain can’t ignore. According to the study, cats’ subliminal ‘feed me’ messages are disguised as ordinary purrs but have a high-pitched element that makes a human react as if it is an emergency, just like the cry of a baby.

Cats are highly intelligent animals. But you cat-lovers already knew that, didn’t you?

February 15, 2011

A Pennsylvania student named Marissa wrote this week with an unusual question. "I was wondering, what is your favorite fish? Mine is the Blobfish."

I happen to love fish. My favorite fish is known as "The Ram." Its scientific name is Epistograma ramarezi, and it is a dwarf cichlid. Cichlids (pronounced SIH-clid) are freshwater fish found in the tropical Americas, Africa and Asia, somewhat similar to our North American sunfish. The ram is a beautiful little fish that swims around with a great deal of determination. It is gorgeous when it is in breeding condition - a sparkly blue and red. I used to have tropical aquariums and I bred these fish and sold them. So now you know that I really like fish!

If you want to see Marissa’s favorite, the blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus), you can find a photo in my Science Dictionary under the definition of DEEP.....which might tell you something about where these very unusual creatures live!

February 11, 2011

Scientists have discovered that baby crustaceans - lobsters, crabs, shrimps, and barnacles - can hear, and they listen to underwater noise to protect themselves from predators.

Even though these baby shellfish are only the size of the flea, they have a hearing system that lets them hear grunts, smacks and gurgles made by fish and other larger creatures that would otherwise eat them.

Coral Reefs are the big "cities" of the ocean - teeming with fish and other marine life. "The coral reef is like a ‘wall of mouths’ to these animals, so when they hear noise, they avoid it," says Dr Steve Simpson, a marine biologist at the University of Bristol. "Otherwise, they’d always be eaten by fish."

Why does the fact that a tiny shellfish is able to hear matter to us? Humans make a lot of noise in the ocean, from boat engines to activities like dynamite fishing and deepwater drilling. If our loud noises mask the crucial natural sounds near coral reefs, vulnerable larvae will be in danger of being consumed by larger predators. Why should this matter? Humans are part of the web of life on our planet Earth. Each kind of life is like a single strand in the web. By itself, no one strand may seem so important. But all the strands make up the web and the weekness of one strand weekens the entire web.

Photo: AustralianMuseum.net

February 8, 2011

Over the summer, I got a call from Barnes and Noble. "Hey Seymour," they said. "We’re making the first color reader for kids. How would you like to write a book for us that we can give away to every single person who either buys a NookColor device, or downloads the NookColor app for their iPad?"

That sounded pretty good to me, so after some discussion, we decided to create a book called FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS. I did a lot of research to come up with unusual and surprising facts about common (and not so common) household pets.

The 11 pets profiled in this book are:

Bunnies, cats, dogs, goldfish, guinea pigs, hamsters, lizards, parakeets, pot-bellied pigs, snakes and Shetland ponies. 

 Do you know why cats go night crazy?

Have you ever heard that pot-bellied pigs are so smart that some can open the refrigerator when they are hungry?! And you’ll discover that dogs’ feet sweat (and why). The book is really a lot of fun, and to top it off, actress Leslie Carrara (Abby Cadabby) does a spirited, funny reading that gives the book a dose of extra pizzazz!

Thanks to all the folks at Barnes and Noble.com for working with us to make this special eBook available free to all my readers. Go to the page for FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS on my website, where you will find links to either download the free book for your NookColor, or a link to download the NookKids app for your iPad.

Happy reading!

February 8, 2011

Can you think of animals with webbed feet that act as paddles in the water? Pond and underwater frogs have them; so do ducks and other waterfowl. How about dogs? Dogs that are bred to work in the water - such as Newfoundland, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Portuguese Water Dog, Field Spaniel, and German Wirehaired Pointer - all have webbed feet.  Little known fact, but absolutely true.

Photo: Senior Airman Julianne Showalter

February 5, 2011

I recently received a letter from a mother which reminded me of my own experience when my kids were growing up. She wrote:

“I have a seven year old that I read your penguin book to. Now she wants to have a pet penguin. I’ve explained to her that she can’t own one as a pet at home, but she wants to know if there are any organizations that care for penguins that she, and/or her class could sponsor and call her/their own.

Her school mascot is the penguin and she was thinking about wanting to start a penguin club. Can someone adopt a penguin, and if so, how? Is there a place that we can contact? Is there a place that takes contributions to help care for them? Your book is terrific. It really moved her.”

This letter really touched me because my own son, Michael, also loved penguins when he was in elementary school. In fact, I dedicated my book PENGUINS to him, writing: “For my son Michael, who was President of the Penguin Club in elementary school.” When Michael (who is now an adult) read the dedication, he objected, saying “Dad, that was an appointment for LIFE!” Funny guy, my youngest son.

We’ve done some research and found an organization called the International Penguin Conservation Work Group (www.seabirds.org) which allows one to adopt a penguin!

Why should kids be concerned about the welfare of penguins? Well, like many marine animals, commercial fishing practices endanger penguin colonies, particularly when overfishing depletes the food sources near their breeding grounds. Governments, conservation groups and the fishing industry worldwide are working together to develop safe and responsible practices that will protect our precious marine wildlife, including penguins.

Parents and Educators can download a free, 5-page Teacher Guide that we’ve created to use with my PENGUINS book. It includes Questions to Ask Before and After Reading, Suggested Activities, Additional Resources, and a child activity page. Download it from my website and use it with your kids to help them get even more out of the experience of reading the book.

Photo: Lyn Irvine

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