Sharks aren't the only scary fish!!

Today we are learning about a fish but it is not just any fish – it is a man-eating fish!

Once there was a 11 year old boy swimming in a river in India. Something came and dragged him under water and he was never seen again. A couple of days later a two year old went into the same river and something pulled him under the water too. Then a water buffalo came to drink and something pulled it under the water.
It was a mystery – what was pulling people and animals under the water?
The water was too cold and too far up the river for bull sharks. It was too cold and too far up for crocodiles, and a gharial's snout wasn't the the right shape to do it.
Some people went swimming and they found a fish called a goonch.  The name goonch means "man-eating catfish" and it was probably the what dragged the 2 boys and the buffalo under the water.

A goonch can get very very BIG and have a very very BIG mouth with backwards pointing teeth so its prey can't escape. The goonch can be more than six feet long and weigh more than 200 pounds. That's bigger than my dad!

In India, sometimes dead people are put into the river for a funeral. The goonches fed on the dead people and liked it. Then they started eating living people too! Some scientists think that a goonch can smell out human flesh.

The goonch is also known as the giant devil catfish.

Goonches are cool but my article is now over.

bye bye!

cassowarygirl

This cool picture is from Animal Planet

Blue and beautiful!!

The biggest and friendliest macaw. Some people call them gentle giants.

What's  your favorite bird?
Mine is the cassowary, but there's another bird that's one of my favorites -  its the …
HYACINTH MACAW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of you might be wondering, what is a hyacinth macaw?  Macaws are large parrots, and the hyacinth macaw is the biggest flying parrot in the world. Hyacinth macaws have blue feathers with bright yellow skin around their eyes and beak. Macaw feathers bend light to produce shimmery colours.

Since hyacinth macaw is a long name I'll just call them blue macaws for short.

Blue macaws are a endangered species in the wild. They live in the rainforest in Brazil and Bolivia. They eat nuts, seeds and fruit with their powerful beaks. Blue macaws nest between July and December.

Even his tongue is colourful!

Blue macaws are very, very smart birds - they use tools like sticks, twigs and rocks to get what they want. If there is a nut that the macaw can't reach, he or she might use a stick to get it.

Blue macaws are defiantly NOT flightless birds like the cassowary. Macaws like the hyacinth can fly and they are quite good pilots to be exact.

Since blue macaws are flying birds, I'll tell you how most birds can fly. All birds have hollow bones including flightless birds like the cassowary. Well, the bones are not completely hollow - there is this light spongy stuff inside. Also to fly, birds are covered in feathers. Flight feathers are strong and light and make flexible wings. Flying birds have to have big, strong breast muscles to flap their wings. 

Blue Macaws are great flyers!

Blue macaws can be the absolute PERFECT pets for you but I'm warning you blue macaws are usually quiet birds but when they're loud they're really loud! 

Blue macaws are very interesting birds but my article is now over -

Cassowarygirl.  
Bye bye!

Baby Macaws are really cute!!

Wild about turkeys!!!

We saw these wild turkeys at Lynde Shores Conservation area near Toronto!

Are you having a turkey for Christmas dinner? Guess what our article is about today?

TURKEYS!   You are probably thinking WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD WANT TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT TURKEYS? THEY ARE SO BORING!
But there is actually more to turkeys than you think!

Lots of people think that turkeys can't fly but they are WRONG. Wild turkeys can fly well. Wild turkeys are native birds in Canada and live in the woods. Turkeys are one of the biggest flying birds in North America.

To attract a mate and scare away other males, a male turkey puffs itself up and puts up its ginormous feathers on its tail. A male turkey is called a tom or a gobbler. A female turkey is called a hen. Babies are called a poult. 
 

This is a wild turkey hen. Not very pretty are they?

Turkeys like to eat acorns and sometimes they can get outsmarted by squirrels. A turkey sees a squirrel - the squirrel has an acorn. The squirrel knows that the turkey wants the acorn so he does a little trick. The squirrel digs a hole but he does not put the acorn in it. The turkey thinks that the squirrel put it in the hole so he walks over and looks inside the hole and puts his beak in to pick up the acorn…

ITS NOT THERE! The turkey has been fooled by the squirrel! So that shows you can never, ever trust a squirrel!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ps. I got a Cassowary stuffy and a Cassowary t-shirt from Santa!!

Meet Tiggy the Jaguar!

Reindeer!!!

Reindeer!!

Reindeer are very interesting animals. They live in Canada and in other arctic countries. In Canada, reindeer are called Caribou. Reindeer can be brown, white, grey and black. Reindeer are unusual because both males and females have antlers. Male reindeer use their antlers for fighting.

Reindeer are herbivores (that means they eat plants) but there is some evidence that reindeer also may eat small mammals, bird eggs and fish.

Reindeer are fast but there are some predators that are dangerous to them (predators are animals that hunt and eat other animals). Brown bears, polar bears, wolverines and wolves all eat reindeer. Golden Eagles will attack and eat reindeer calves.

STAMPEDE!!!

Reindeer have very good night vision. Lots of mammals (but not humans) have a gold layer at the back of their eye that reflects light and lets the animals see in the dark. Have you ever seen a cat's eyes shine in the dark? It is because of the reflector in its eye. Reindeer have this reflector too but in their eyes it can turn from gold to blue. The blue colour lets reindeer see even better in the dark than animals with gold in their eyes!

In Norway, sometimes people use reindeer to pull sleds. At the North Pole, Santa Claus uses magic reindeer to pull his sled too!

A reindeer sled in Norway

Reindeer are cool but my article is now over!

Bye bye!

cassowarygirl

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!