A little Bonus post: True or False? Debunking myths about nature.

Hey everyone!! For this week's post, I wanted to debunk some myths that some of us are told about nature. I am excited to research this because I know there are probably things I think are true but aren't. 

1. If you lick a banana slug, your tongue will go numb. True or False? (Take a guess!) 

True! 

I do not recommend trying this, but licking a banana slug will make your mouth and throat numb! It's the slime on the slug that has this effect. It is a defense mechanism so that when predators try a banana slug, their mouth will go numb and not eat it. This fact is so random, but I had no idea that this was true!

2. Bats can get tangled in your hair. True or False? (Take a guess!) 

False

Bats use echolocation to get around. Echolocation is where the animals make sounds that will reflect off objects to navigate and get around. Bats have no interest in getting in your hair or touching you in any way at all. They may fly close to you, but only to look for insects, not attack to you. 

3. When you pull on a lizard's tail, it will fall off. True or False? (Take a guess!) 

True!

Another defense mechanism, lizards can voluntarily eject their tails. When a predator grabs the lizard by the tail, they can take off the tail easily, and the lizard can get away. Its tail also acts as a decoy, so the predator gets distracted or even thinks the tail is the lizard. This fact is not a sign to pull off a lizard's tail because it is very stressful for them, and it takes a long time to grow it back. 

4. Porcupines can shoot their quills at predators. True or False? (Take a guess!) 

False! 

Porcupines do have quills and do use them in defense, but they cannot shoot them. When a porcupine feels the need, it can raise its quills and quickly let them loose into its predator, but to do this, the predator has to touch them. 

Sources: 

https://www.crittersquad.com/portfolio/banana-slugs-the-slimy-fruit-look-alike/ 

https://batwatch.ca/content/bat-myths 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jonmichaelpoff/animal-myths

The story behind the California Condors

     The California condor has a fascinating story. In 1967 the condor was almost extinct in the wild. They were getting killed due to poaching, habitat destruction, and mainly lead poisoning. Lead poisoning in condors was due to people hunting with lead bullets. According to PNAS.org, the lead bullets would shatter upon impact throughout the body of the shot animal. Since Condors are scavengers, they feed on dead remains of animals. They would find the remains of these animals shot by lead bullets, feed on them, and soon after die of lead poisoning. In 1982, there was only 23 California Condors in the wild. All of these wild condors were captured in 1987 and put into a recovery program by the US fish and wildlife service. This program is what saved the condors from extinction.

Two California Condors grooming each other 

   During recovery, the condors were taken care of very cautiously. People didn't want the birds to get used to being taken care of and wanted to release them back into the wild as soon as possible. In this program, the condors were bred, and the offspring were taught how to survive in the wild. In 1992 condors were starting to be released again. According to di.org, these condors returned to the wild successfully. They were able to find food and travel.

A California Condor perched on a branch in Bitter Creek Wildlife Refuge

   California condors are now found in Utah, California, Arizona, and Mexico. I saw my first one at Zion national park in Utah during a backpacking trip. They roost on rocky cliffs, and their nests can be found as high as 6,000 feet in elevation. According to National Geographic, the California condor is the largest North American land bird. They have a wingspan of 9 to 10 feet, can fly up to 15,000 feet in the air, can fly as fast as 55 mph, and even live up to 60 years old. These birds are still critically endangered, but their population is rising substantially! According to The Guardian, condors are soon to be reintroduced to the Pacific Northwest. A captive breeding facility for these birds is also being put in the Redwood National Park. Scientists track all wild condors, and there are currently 160 in the wild, with more still in captivity. At the moment, life is looking pretty good for the California Condor population, and all of us nature lovers, are siked to see that happening. 

Sources: 

“California Condor, Facts and Photos.” Animals, National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/california-condor. 

Clifton, Ken. “California Condor #77 & 44.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 23 May 2011, www.flickr.com/photos/by-ken/5749320462/. 

“Endangered Condors Return to Northern California Skies after Nearly a Century.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 Mar. 2021, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/26/california-condor-reintroduced-yurok-tribe.

Finkelstein, Myra E., et al. “Lead Poisoning and the Deceptive Recovery of the Critically Endangered California Condor.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 10 July 2012, www.pnas.org/content/109/28/11449. 

Jeffrey P. Cohn, Saving the California Condor, BioScience, Volume 49, Issue 11, November 1999, Pages 864–868, https://doi.org/10.2307/1313644

Myatt, Jon. “Pacific Southwest Region: California Condor Recovery Program.” National USFWS Website, Fws.gov, 1 Apr. 2021, www.fws.gov/cno/es/calcondor/Condor.cfm. 

Region, USFWS Pacific Southwest. “California Condor #568.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 15 Aug. 2017, www.flickr.com/photos/usfws_pacificsw/35786702713. 

Icelandic Horses!

 

    Out of all the horse breeds, the Icelandic might be my favorite. Not only are they adorable with their fluffy, gigantic mane and sweet little faces, but they are also super important to the history of Iceland! Vikings used these horses for transportation and work. Icelandic horses have been on their little island without any other horse breeds, making them all purebred. They remain that way due to being strictly protected; no other horses are allowed in Iceland. A horse that is brought away from its home in Iceland can also never come back. Because of this, these horses don't need any vaccinations and suffer very little from any sicknesses. Due to their health, they live an average of 40 years old, whereas the average for other horse breeds is only 26 years. 

    After all this time, they have evolved to be some of the most sturdy and reliable horses out there. They are easy to ride, train, and are extremely friendly and gentle. 

    They run half-wild with their friends throughout the mountains and rivers of Iceland. In my opinion, they are some of the happiest horses out there. These horses are incredibly unique in that they have five gaits! Much like humans, a horse has the average gaits of walk, trot (like a jog), canter (a run)/galloping (like a sprint). Icelandic's have two more gaits, the tölt, and the flying pace. The tölt is where the horse puts its weight on its hind, allowing the front to move freely. The flying pace almost looks like a super extended trot and is quite fast. Here is an excellent video by the channel 'Horses Of Iceland' that shows each of their gates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV9P0w8vZi8&feature=emb_logo

<---A photo taken by my mom of my sister petting a sweet Icelandic horse.

Thanks for reading today's blog, and let me know if you want one of the horses as much as I do.

Please comment and tell my mom to get one for me and my little sister hehehe. 

Also none of these photos were taken by me!!! 

Sources:

Horses Of Iceland. "5 gaits of the Icelandic horse." YouTube, October 10, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV9P0w8vZi8&feature=emb_logo .

Klimaite, Vita. “5 Facts About the Icelandic Horse.” Adventures.com, 13 Nov. 2020, adventures.com/blog/icelandic-horse/. 

FEI. "The Uniqueness of Icelandic Horses | Equestrian World." YouTube, February 19, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieOl2BKOtBw.

Petersen, Simon. “The Best Way to See Iceland Is by Horse – Here Is Why!” Man vs World, 8 May 2020, www.manversusworld.com/the-best-way-to-see-iceland-is-by-horse-here-is-why/.  

Happy Solstice!

      Happy Solstice, everyone! Today is the shortest day of the entire year! I don't know about you, but I am so pumped for the long, sunny, days again and after today, daylight hours get longer and longer. So why is today shorter than any other typical day? 

  Today is especially short because the sun is right over the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude just south of the equator.  

The Tropic of Capricorn line

    It's the farthest south the sun gets before it goes north again, meaning that today is particularly short because the sun is moving across the sky closer to the horizon. We have these solstices because Earth doesn't orbit the sun upright, so each hemisphere gets more sunlight at different times. In this case, we receive less light in the northern hemisphere, and the Southern Hemisphere receives more because the north is tilted away. In contrast, the south leans towards the rays of the sun. There are also two solstices a year! So in June, we have another solstice that marks days in the northern hemisphere getting shorter. Pretty impressive, right! Today I am celebrating Solstice by staying inside, drinking coffee, and reading Stephen King's, The Shining, how are you celebrating? 

Sources: 

Grieser, Justin. “The Winter Solstice, Our Shortest Day and Longest Night of the Year, Arrives Monday.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 Dec. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/12/20/winter-solstice-shortest-day/.  

“What Is a Solstice?” Video, video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-video-shorts/00000160-7547-df2f-a17d-77d7ae7a0000.  

Why you shouldn't own an exotic pet!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like owning a tiger or a monkey? It would be interesting, that's for sure. But it is also extremely unethical. You see, these animals are recognized as exotic pets when privately owned. And an exotic pet is a rare or unusual pet that generally lives in the wild. For example, a chimpanzee, leopard, sloth, skunk, and squirrel are all exotic animals that should not be kept as a domesticated animal like a cat or dog would be. Today I will talk about the three reasons you shouldn't purchase an exotic animal—one of them being that these animals are crucial to the environment. For example:

Squirrels plant at least 100 trees a year 

Beavers help prevent floods and wildfires

Monkeys help disperse seeds and fertilize the soil

—another one of these reasons being that we can't keep up with the needs these animals have. In nature, there is consistently stimulation and there are always things going on. If you look at a big parrot being kept in a cage sometimes they have patches of no feathers and bare skin. These patches are due to the parrot being bored and plucking out its feathers as a result. Isn't that awful. And if you are still considering having a big cat, know that you have to have at least 5 acres of land. At least. These animals can roam freely in the wild, so 5 acres of land is really not that much. They also need at least 15 pounds of bleeding meat every day, a health hazard for people, and at least 10,000 dollars a year. Notice how everything has an "at least" before it? That's because this is the bare minimum. Saying that you can privately keep a happy wild cat in captivity is like saying you can fly. It's an utterly unrealistic thing to say. Finally, these animals can get very dangerous and unpredictable. There are many stories of attacks on people by these pets because the animal is merely bored and frustrated. When I was younger, I remember hearing about this lady who got her face torn off by her best friend's chimpanzee. And this chimp wasn't mean spirited; it was even a therapy animal and had been in captivity it's entire life. The chimp ended up getting shot. Imagine just being so confused and so angry that you do something terrible and get shot for it. What the chimp did was not right, but it was not supposed to be kept privately in the first place. You see, I understand that it would be cool to have an exotic, uncommon animal kept in your basement, but after you think about how cruel it is, it's not as cool. So, getting an exotic animal is not a good thing to do. To support animals having free, happy lives, you simply can choose not to purchase one. It's as easy as that.

Sources: 

“Getting Started with Your Pet Bird.” The Spruce Pets, www.thesprucepets.com/bird-basics-4162100. 

“10 Fun Facts about Animals to Make You Smile.” Goodnet, 19 Nov. 2020, www.goodnet.org/articles/10-fun-facts-about-animals-to-make-you-smile. 

“What It Takes to Feed Exotic Animals.” The Columbus Dispatch, The Columbus Dispatch, 20 Oct. 2011, www.dispatch.com/article/20111020/news/310209666. 

Spring Flowers!

              You know it's spring when all the flowers bloom and trees turn green. Most of my favorite flowers hide in the winter, fall, and summer but pop up in the spring. Why is that? Why don't the flowers come sooner or leave later? That's what I am exploring today.

               For a plant to thrive it needs oxygen, water, light, warmth, and dirt. A plant needs water to live and not dry up, and dirt to grow it's roots and be grounded. But why light and warmth? A plant needs light to photosynthesis. Photosynthesizing is the act of a plant getting light energy and transforming it into food (Long). It sounds kind of crazy right? Transferring light to food, how do they even get the light? Well, plants absorb light into their leaves and take that light energy and change the water and carbon dioxide they already contain into glucose. They then use this glucose (a type of sugar) to repair themselves and become stronger (PBS). This is also the reason why leaves are normally green. Chlorophyll, a chemical in the plant that traps the light, is what makes plants green. Surprisingly sunlight has many different colors in it and the plant can't absorb all of them. So, the plant absorbs the red and blue light from the sun and it then reflects as the color green (PBS). You may ask, what about the fall leaves? Leaves in the fall are a range of different colors as we all have seen they can be orange, yellow, green, red, brown, etc. This is because some plants stop producing chlorophyll in the fall because there is no more light energy to trap, so the plant no longer reflects green (PBS). That already explains why plants don't bloom in fall, there is a lack of sunlight and a lack of water. The lack of water is what causes the leaves to dry up and be shed from the trees (Indianapolis children's Museum).

Leaves during Fall

            We all know that winter isn't all too sunny. This is the exact reason plants hide during wintertime. There is no light to absorb and the light in the days become much shorter. Plants live off of the food they stored in the past spring and wait the winter out (Naik).
During summer some plants thrive and some don't. This is because of the heat. Plants need warmth but to much can cause them to wilt, some plants handle it better than others and live through the summer as well as the Spring. There is also less water which also plays a role in the wilting of flowers.

            This brings us to Spring, during Spring it is just warm enough, light outside, and just the perfect amount of water (Topmarks). Plants are really picky about their living conditions and that's why Spring is the popular time to bloom. Of course there are exceptions, some plants handle different weather better than others. That's because the plants have evolved to that certain type of weather. Thanks to evolution everyone gets their pretty flowers and trees.
            An example of a Spring flower is the arrow leaf balsam root.

Arrow-leaf Balsam Root

Roses

Dahlias

Lily

(Photos taken by me)

Works Cited:

“Blog.” Why Do Leaves Fall Off Trees? | The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Children's Museum, www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-do-leaves-fall-off-trees.

Long, Nicole. “The Importance of Light to a Plant.” Garden Guides, GardenGuides.com, 19 Nov. 2019, www.gardenguides.com/13404873-the-importance-of-light-to-a-plant.html.

Naik, Kavita. “Why Do Plants Need Water, Sunlight, Warmth & Soil to Grow?” Sciencing, Sciencing.com, 31 July 2019, sciencing.com/do-sunlight-warmth-soil-grow-5933400.html.

“Photosynthesis - NatureWorks.” New Hampshire PBS, PBS, nhpbs.org/natureworks/nwepphotosynthesis.htm.

“Why Do Plants Begin to Grow in Spring?” Topmarks, Topmarks.co.uk, www.topmarks.co.uk/Spring/PlantsGrowInSpring.aspx?age=ks2.

Earth Day! 🌎

Earth day is today! We all hear about earth day some way or another, by social media or maybe our calendars, but what is it really about? That's what I will be exploring today, the origins of Earth Day. It's pretty common knowledge that Earth day is a day where we take care of our Earth and celebrate the world we live in, but it's actually much more than that.

Earth day is a relatively modern holiday. The first Earth day was in 1970 and now over 190 countries celebrate it (various). It is April 22nd of every year because that was the day the modern environmental movement came along.  The modern environmental movement was made to target certain issues. Some issues that played a role in the birth of this movement are the oil spills of the coast of California, the endangerment of the Bald eagle, the pollution of the Great Lakes, etc. (Gordon). This was the beginning of environmentalism in the U.S. and inspired a lot of activism for our planet today. Earth day is what helped people speak up about environmental issues. According to Earthday.org, "Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts." In other words, Earth day gave people a voice and allowed people to share their thoughts about pollution and such. After the first Earth day the Environmental Protection Agency was created (various). The  National Environmental Education Act was then passed and so where the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Clean Air Act, the clean water act, endangered species act, and many more (various).  These new appointed laws not only protected animals from extinction but also protected people from deadly diseases. Earth day became a big day and went global and is now celebrated in many countries. So, I encourage people to take some time today to appreciate the world we live in. Thanks for reading today's blog!
Photos to remind us of our amazing home:

Lumi Island

Methow Valley

My dog Ada

Our garden

Thailand

Iceland

Thailand

Thailand

Methow Valley

Hawaii

Crater Lake

Star flowers

Thailand

Methow Valley

(Taken by me and my mom)


Sources:

Gordon, Erin L. “History of the Modern Environmental Movement in America.” American Center, American Center, June 2012, photos.state.gov/libraries/mumbai/498320/fernandesma/June_2012_001.pdf.  Accessed 2/22/20. 

“The History of Earth Day.” Earth Day, Earthday.org, www.earthday.org/history/. Accessed 2/22/20.