Talk about Beetles!

Two weeks ago I went to the ROM to see a lecture about beetles with Dr. Art Evans. Dr. Evans is an entomologist from the United States. An entomologist is someone who studies bugs. He is also an author. He has a radio show about beetles and a blog too. Its called ''Whats bugging you?"

His talk was awesome! I really liked the pictures of beetles on the giant screen. Dr. Evans told us about the places he went to study beetles. I really liked the part where he talked about Blister beetles. I've seen Blister beetles in the park near my house!

Before the lecture I asked Dr. Evans if I could send him some questions for my blog. He said yes!
Here are his answers to my questions:

What were the first bugs you studied? How old were you?'
I was five years old when I saw a movie on television that included an ant farm. From that point on I became fascinated with ants and wanted to learn as much about them as possible.

What is the biggest beetle you have ever seen?
When I was a grad student in South Africa, I saw a goliath beetle, Goliathus albosignatus, flying through the trees. When I worked at the Insect Zoo at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, we had a male Hercules beetle, Dynastes hercules, on display. It was found in a post office where it had clawed its way out of a package that had been posted illegally from Costa Rica.

A male Hercules beetle! Cool!

Have you been bit or hurt by the beetles you study?
Twice I have been blistered by blister beetles. I also had a large ground beetle squirt acetic acid in my eye.

Raccoons dig up our lawn for grubs. What are grubs and what do they grow up to be?
I would have to see the grubs to be sure. My guess is that they are the larvae of May beetles in the genus Phyllophaga, which is a type of scarab beetle.

Is it true cockroaches can live without their head?
I have heard that they can live for a while without their head, but I do not know this for a fact.

If you could be a beetle, what beetle would you like to be?
Great question! I am not sure. My wife Paula thinks the Hercules beetle would be a good choice for me!

You write books on insects. What is a good book for kids who like bugs?
Another great question! I always liked books with lots of pictures and natural history information about insects, so field guides were always my favorite books growing up. My field guide to Insects and Spiders of North America might be a good book with which to start.

Find out all about Dr. Evans' books and radio show on his Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Dr.Art.Evans.entomologist

Amazing Sea Turtles!

Hi its Cassowarygirl and today were learning about SEA TURTLES!

Sea turtles have so many amazing things about them!

Its dangerous in the corral reefs with all those white tipped reef sharks. The sea turtles have a very very strong and hard shell that sea turtles actually use as shields. If the shark gets a fin or tail in its mouth the turtle is done for! The turtles turn their shell to face the shark so the shark will bite the shell not the turtle. But if that doesn't work, the turtle has another plan – the turtle will find a crack in the coral or rocks that it can fit in. The shark cannot fit inside the crack – it swims away. The turtle stays in the crack – the shark could still be around. When the turtle is sure that that the shark is gone, he goes out of the crack and the swims away. 

Sea turtles are great swimmers! They use they use their front flippers to swim through the water and their back flippers to turn and change directions. They don't have a rounded shell like a land tortoise, they have more of a flat shell so the water goes over the shell easily.

Sea turtles are reptiles, so they have to come to the surface to breath. The Hawksbill Turtle puts its snout out of the water – it just breaths through its nostrils.

Sea turtles eat many different things. Some like the green sea turtle eat sea grass. Some turtles like the leatherback sea turtle eat jellyfish. But the hawksbill turtle is the only sea turtle that eats sea sponges.

Some sea turtles eat jellyfish

This green sea turtle is eating sea grass

People are killing sea turtles for their shells – its really sad. It doesn't matter what type of sea turtle it is – all species of sea turtle are endangered. Sea turtles have been around for millions of years. It be a very very sad sad thing if the sea turtles became extinct forever.

And if you want to help sea turtles, you can donate to the World Wildlife Fund.
Go to http://www.wwf.ca/donate/

Bye bye!
Cassowarygirl
 

Baby sea turtles are cute!

There she blows!

Sperm whales love to eat squid! This picture is from National Geographic

Hi! Its CasssowaryGirl and today we will learn about…

WHALES ! The blue whales are the largest animal in the world. Blue whales are even larger than dinosaurs! There are two different families of whales – there are the toothed whales and there are the baleen whales.

The toothed whales have teeth and eat things like squid, fish and penguins. Orcas, Sperm Whales and Belugas all have teeth, unlike Blue Whales, Right Whales and Bowhead Whales who have baleen.

The baleen whales eat small things like shrimp and krill. Baleen whales don't have teeth, they have baleen. Baleen is like the bristles on a broom. The whale uses the baleen to catch food. The little critters in the water like the krill all float into the baleen and the whale squirts all the water out and it eats the little animals that are caught in its baleen. 

Baleen whales have large throat pouches for feeding on small sea animals.

 

 

Whales are NOT fish – they are mammals. Sperm Whales are the deepest diving mammal. They can dive down all the way to the twilight zone to catch Giant Squid and Colossal Squid. Down there the whales and the squids have epic battles. Usually the whale wins but sometimes the squid does. Sperm whales find the squids by echolocation. Echolocation uses sounds that the whale makes. The sound bounces off something and then back to the whale. This give the whale a picture of what the sound bounced off of. 

A battle between a Giant Squid and Sperm Whale

Some whales migrate long distances. I will tell you a little bit about the Humpback Whale migration. Whale brains are like compasses – they always remember the route to the place the place they are migrating to. The Humpback Whale travels all the way from British Columbia to Hawaii!

Some whales live in very cold water so whales have lots of fat to keep the whale warm. This is called blubber.
Male whales are called Bulls, female whales are called cows and baby whales are called calves.

Whale sharks are NOT whales. Whale sharks are sharks. Some whales have little animals on them those animals are called barnacles are those bumpy yellow things on whales. Whales tails when they swim they go up and down a fishes tail goes side to side.

Bye bye!
CassowaryGirl

Whale sharks are big like whales, but they are actually sharks!

Oropendolas are cool

The Tortoise and the Cowbird

I have a Russian Tortoise. His name is Ivan. I call him mostly Ivy. 
Ivan does not like to be in his container for a long time so we have to sometimes take him to the backyard so he can walk around. Once we took him outside and he was walking around but then…
 
A BIRD! THERE WAS A BIRD! It was a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird. Ivan was not happy. The cowbird was in HIS territory. Ivan started to chase the baby cowbird. The cowbird jumped onto a lump of grass. Ivan still chased it. The cowbird jumped off the lump of grass. Ivan still chased it. Ivan followed the cowbird around the yard until it flew away!

A young Cowbird looking for bugs

Ivan chasing the bird

Now I will tell you a little bit about Ivan. Ivan is a Russian Tortoise and these tortoises eat dandelion lettuce, celery, clover and kale. Russian Tortoises are NOT from Russian they live in Afghanistan. Tortoises have a nice strong shell. That shell is used to protect the Tortoise. But when we take Ivan out to the backyard we still have to watch out for predators. By that I mean we have to watch out watch out for racoons. Racoons are smart critters they would probably find a way to pull him out of his shell. Some tortoises are smart other are not so smart. A tortoise can recognize its owner sometimes. 

Now I will tell you a little bit about Brown-headed cowbirds. These birds lay their eggs like the Cuckoo bird. They don't make a nest like other birds, they do something different. The female cowbird finds an other bird's nest. She lays her eggs in the other bird's nest.  The cowbirds eggs hatch and the other birds eggs hatch. The mother bird thinks that the cowbird chicks are one of its chicks, so she takes care of them too. Cowbird chicks are sometimes bigger than the other bird, so cowbird chick eats most of the food. The other chicks don't get a lot of food and can die.



Now that it is cold Ivan can not go to the backyard anymore. But maybe next summer Ivan will see his cowbird buddy again!



Bye for now!

But remember Nature is every where! Even in your backyard! 



CassowaryGirl
 

What the heck is a Cassowary?

The most dangerous bird in the world. I found this photo here: http://goo.gl/dxeQLn

You must be wondering why I am called CassowaryGirl. You must be thinking WHAT THE HECK IS A CASSOWARY! I will finally tell you what the heck a cassowary is. Well, I will tell you the first thing you will want to know about  cassowaries – THEY ARE TOTALLY AWESOME !

Okay, I will actually tell the first thing you want to know about cassowaries. They are the most dangerous bird in the world. But don't think that a cassowary is a little tiny song bird like a finch or something because its much more like a velociraptor or a deinonychus. Believe it or not but a cassowary has five inch long talons on its feet and it can be taller and heavier then a full-grown man. A cassowary has not only five inch talons on its feet, those talons can really really badly injure someone or even kill someone.

Scary talons
I found this photo at: http://goo.gl/4OaC2W

Cassowaries are fast runners but they can not fly. They have very small wings that no one could fly with. But why don't cassowaries fly? Why did they not get the gift of flight ? Well the answer to that question is that they don't need to fly. They have no natural predators.

Cassowary chicks look much different from their parents. They are all brown! An adult cassowary has a blue neck and head but they have no feathers on their neck and head, just skin. But the Yellow Neck Cassowary has yellow at the front of their neck. Cassowaries have a wattle like a turkey. They also have a cool crest on their head that is brownish yellow. Some scientists think that cassowaries  uses there crests for pushing leaves and plants out of the way in the rainforest. Other scientists don't agree. 

Cassowary chicks.
I found this photo at: http://www.reddit.com/r/cassowary

Cassowaries are endangered. When their rainforest home gets cut down, they enter towns searching for food. It is dangerous for cassowaries in towns. There are lots of roads, and lots of roads means lots of cars, and lots of cars means danger for cassowaries. Most cassowary deaths happen on roads,  so now there are only a few hundred cassowaries left in the wild.

To learn more, look up cassowaries on YouTube.
And rember nature is everywhere! Like in Australia with the most dangerous bird in the world.

CassowaryGirl

My new Blog

Hi! 
I am CassowaryGirl and this is my new Blog. It is all about nature and animals – I love animals!

I hope you like it!

Me and a friendly Chickadee!