Are you looking for something super fun to do this weekend? Build habitats for animals in your neighbourhood! Accept the Habitat Hero Mission and you’ll learn how to make 8 awesome animal habitats including…
The Best Butterfly Snack Bar in Town
Toad-ally Awesome Toad House
Bird-tastic Bird Bath
Ladybug Lair
Bird Nest Supply Shop
Creepy Crawler Cottage
Bee’s Knees Bumblebee Nest
Pile Up for Nature
Which of these habitats are you going to make first?
Saving energy is an important way to help slow down climate change, but it isn’t always easy. If you’re looking for some inspiration to help you reach your energy goal, look to the animal kingdom! Check out these animals that go on low power mode during the summer and be inspired to save energy in your home!
Snails
Just when you thought these guys couldn’t get any slower, they have a surprise for you: they can! When it gets too hot during the day, many land snails take a “dryness sleep” and slow all their body functions down. During this time, they will close their shell with a membrane of dried mucus (yuck!). This protects them from the elements and keeps them from drying out in the heat.
Hedgehogs
We’re not talking about your spiky pet; we’re talking about wild hedgehogs from Africa! These hedgehogs are used to a hot, dry climate—but when the temperature rises too high and the earth gets too dry, their food gets harder to find. Instead of starving, they will go into hiding and slow their body functions right down to save energy. While they’re hiding, hedgehogs live off fat stored in their bodies until the outside conditions are better.
Turtles and Tortoises
Some turtles and tortoises aren’t fans of the hottest or driest part of the summer. Tortoises will look for an open burrow or a spot under logs or rocks, while turtles will swim down and hide in the muddy bottom of a pond or river. During this time, these shelled reptiles won’t move or eat, and their heartbeat and breathing will drop from 20-30 times a minute all the way down to once a minute or less.
Crocodiles
When it gets too hot and dry outside, some crocodiles will dig caves in river banks and hide out in them to beat the heat. Not only is the temperature in the cave cooler than the outside, it’s also a safe space for them to settle down until the weather gets better. This can mean several months without food so they need to do everything they can to save energy. During this time, they’ll drop their heart rate, breathing and body temperature, surviving only on the fat and water they have stored in their body.
Lungfish
During the dry season in Africa, ponds and rivers can dry up. This can mean trouble for most fish, but not the African lungfish! They have special lungs that allow them to breathe outside of water. During this time, they will burrow deep in the mud and create a cocoon of mucus around them, which helps them keep moist. They can stay this way for up to 2 years, feeding off the muscle in their tail, but thankfully they don’t have to wait that long. After a few months the season changes, rain comes back and the lungfish can return to the water.
These animals take being energy efficient to a whole new level! The survival of many animals and plants depends on their ability to only use energy when they need it. The same is true for us humans—the better we are at using our energy wisely by saving energy in our homes and using renewable energy, the healthier our planet will be.
Be inspired by these energy-saving animals and go save energy at home!
Generously sponsored by:
Sources: molluscs.at/gastropoda/index.html?/gastropoda/dormancy.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnQKnMZbQnk www.aboutanimals.com/reptile/nile-crocodile/ www.nationalgeographic.org/media/west-african-lungfish/ Stefoff, Rebecca. Turtles. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark (2008). Pg 39. Accessed July 23, 2019. Available at: https://bit.ly/2JYAwAe Warwick, Hugh. Hedgehogs. London: Reaktion books ltd (2014). Accessed July 23, 2019. Available at: https://bit.ly/2OdgO9a https://www.awf.org/blog/cute-tough-african-hedgehog
With the world’s population growing bigger and bigger, we need more food than ever to feed everyone. Unfortunately, with the impacts of climate change (like drought), it’s getting harder to grow enough food to go around and get it to where it is needed. Luckily, there are tools that can lend a helping hand to farmers and it’s all thanks to STEM! Let’s take a closer look…
Farming Challenges
Imagine you’re a farmer. Your days are
long, busy, and full of MANY different decisions. It’s your job to plant crops,
figure out how much water they need, keep them healthy and free from disease,
try to keep pests from eating them, and then harvest them on time. Plus, if you
have animals on your farm, you need to take care of them too. Talk about a long
To Do list! Good thing Watson is coming to the rescue!
Who’s Watson?
Watson isn’t a who, but a what! It is a
collection of super cool technologies that use artificial intelligence,
research and data to help solve problems. These technologies make it easier for
us to communicate with computers using English and other human languages. They
also dig through tons of data, looking at more than what a person could review
in a lifetime. There are a bunch of different Watson tools, including one that
farmers can use called the Watson Digital Platform for Agriculture. Created by
IBM, this amazing tool can help farmers have super successful growing seasons.
How does it work? First, Watson creates an
electronic field record (EFR) for each farm. This record contains all the data
this tool needs to make decisions. It includes weather information from ‘The
Weather Company’, information about soil quantity and moisture, data gathered
from equipment (like seed drills and sprayers) using the ‘Internet of Things’,
data about how the farm works on a day-to-day basis, and pictures from
satellites. That’s a LOT of information! Now what?
Using the Data
After gathering ALL that information, the
Watson tool uses Artificial Intelligence to review the data and makes
suggestions to the farmers about how to run their farms more smoothly. Farmers
can see all the information and suggestions and then decide what’s best for
their farm. For example, if Watson looks at drone footage of a crop that shows
it has been attacked by pests, Watson can alert the farmer and make suggestions
for what they can do to save their plants.
But stopping pests isn’t the only thing Watson
can help farmers do. It can also help them figure out the best time to plant
and harvest, show them ways to keep their crops healthy, and alert them of
diseases or other threats. Watson is there to go through the massive amounts of
data so we can make better decisions.
What can you do to help?
Want to do your part to make sure there’s enough food to go around? Don’t waste the food you have! Check out the Food Waste Warrior Mission and challenge your family to stop wasting food. When you accept this Mission, you’ll learn how you can help stop food waste at home and at the store.
Accept the Food Waste Warrior Mission today!
Farms and farmers will always be incredibly important. We need more food than ever to keep people on our planet fed. That’s why it’s up to smart STEMologists like you to think about how STEM can be used to help people with all sorts of different jobs – even ones that don’t traditionally use STEM. With Science, Technology, Engineering and Math we can all make the world a better place!
Series in collaboration with:
IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.
Did you know that there are animals that can light up like a light? In this article we highlight (ha!) 5 animals that glow in the dark and explain how and why they do it. Check it out!
Firefly
squid
Photo credit: Chiswick Chap
Measuring only about 3 inches long, firefly squids are found in the waters surrounding Japan, and they use their glowing ability in a surprising way: to hide. When they lie horizontally and light up the underside of their body, they camouflage with the lights shining down from the surface. You can see the difference it makes in the picture on the right. This allows them to hide from predators swimming below them.
These squids also use their lights to attract mates and to communicate with each other.
Anglerfish
The female anglerfish certainly isn’t what we’d call cute, but she’s definitely pretty cool. She has a light that hangs from the top of her head that she uses to attract prey. In the dark waters, a bright light like that can bring in all sorts of curious creatures, big and small. But she’s ready for anything that crosses her path, as she is able to swallow prey 2 times her size!
Railroad
worm
Photo Credit: Aaron Pomerantz
This railroad worm isn’t actually a worm
– nor is it a railroad – but actually a type of beetle. While the males look
more like you would expect a beetle to look, the females will always look like
a larva, but they have something that makes them extra special: they glow in
the dark! Their bright lights act as a warning to predators that they are toxic
and to stay away. Only the females and juveniles can glow and when they do, they
look like a passenger train at night, which is where their name comes from. Choo!
Choo!
Lantern
shark
Photo Credit: Chris Bird
That’s right; there are glow-in-the-dark
sharks! The lanternshark is another deep sea creature that glows. These sharks
only grow to 50 cm long, and they have light-emitting cells that line their
belly and underside of their fins. Scientists aren’t 100% sure what the sharks
use the lights for but they think it is probably a form of camouflage, just
like the firefly squid.
Firefly
Photo Credit: Emmanuelm
Of course, this list wouldn’t be
complete without fireflies! These insects
are perhaps the most famous light-up animals. It’s not unusual to see these
insects flash their lights in the summer but why do they do it? They put on a
whole light show just to attract a mate!
So
what makes them glow?
All of the animals on this list are
bioluminescent! This is what it’s called when a light is produced by a chemical
reaction in a living organism. The chemicals, stored in the animal’s body, are
mixed together and create a bright and colourful reaction that the animal can use
to do things like attract a mate, lure prey or escape from a predator.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could glow in the dark? Think of all the energy we’d save by not using lights! Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’re going to be saying goodbye to lights any time soon but we can still save energy by being smart about how we use them.
Accept the Flip the Switch Mission to learn how you can save energy and help save the planet.
Have you ever wondered what zoos do with all the poop their animals make? Well, how about turning it into renewable energy? That’s exactly what some zoos are planning to do!
How does it work?
The Toronto Zoo has teamed up with Zooshare to start using their poop to make energy. This type of energy is called biogas. If you remember back to our series on renewable energy, you know that this is energy made from organic matter, like plants, animals and even poop.
All of the animal poop from the zoo, along with food from the zoo goers and nearby grocery stores will go into a big machine that has special microorganisms to help break it down. As it does, it releases gas, which is then collected and cleaned up. From there, the gas can be turned into electricity, or renewable natural gas, which can be used to heat our homes and cook our food.
Keeping Poop out of landfills
If it wasn’t turned into energy, this food and poop might have ended up in our landfills, where it would not only take up a lot of space, but also be a big climate change problem. Organic matter releases gas no matter where it breaks down and those gases aren’t exactly good for the planet. They are greenhouse gases, and they go up into our atmosphere, causing our planet to warm up faster than it has in the past.
So biogas is a form of clean energy AND it reduces greenhouse gases coming from landfills – double win!
Energy of the future!
Zooshare and the Toronto Zoo are working hard to get this project up and running, but they aren’t the only ones. A similar project has been planned for the Detroit Zoo, and Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo is already in the biogas game. Hopefully this is something all zoos can do in the future.
Maybe one day your home could be powered by animal poop! Now, that’s an idea that certainly doesn’t stink!
Emma is one hard-working Earth Ranger…in fact, she’s decided that it’s time for her to take a little break. And you get to tag along on her vacation to the cottage! You never know what will happen when you’re in the Canadian wilderness…but one thing’s for sure: it’s guaranteed to be an adventure!
Just click the play button on the player below and get ready for another adventure!
Round 3: Which of these jokes do you think is the best? Vote for your favourite!
What is the Ant eater looking for? Ants...and maybe uncles! (47%, 264 Votes)
What do you give a dog with a fever? Mustard. It’s the best thing for a hot dog. (Maybe relish too) (39%, 222 Votes)
What’s a seagulls favourite snack? Squackamole! (14%, 79 Votes)
Total Voters: 565
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Don’t forget to vote for your favourite joke from episode 7 and episode 8
Earth Ranger Emma has a mysterious dream and goes on a quest to seek out the “real” unicorns of the animal kingdom. Plus, we speak to an actual rhino keeper! Can you guess how much food a Rhino eats every day? Hint: you’re going to need a wheel barrel. Get ready for an amazing adventure!
Just click the play button on the player below and get ready for another adventure!
Round 2: Which of these jokes do you think is the best? Vote for your favourite!
What does a frog do if it crashes? It gets toad! (43%, 202 Votes)
What’s the best animal at playing hockey? Score-pions! (32%, 150 Votes)
What do you call a fish without an eye? FSH! (26%, 121 Votes)
Who would you say is the best father in the animal kingdom? It’s a tough competition, but a little monkey from the forests of South America would definitely be in the running for #1 Dad!
Meet Charlie!
Charlie is an owl monkey from a forest in Argentina’s Chaco region. He loves climbing trees and jumping from branch to branch. As a nocturnal animal, he sleeps during the day and is most active at night, when he snacks on fruit from the trees around him. To Charlie, there’s no better place to be than in a forest.
It’s an exciting time for Charlie because he just became a father! Unlike many other primates, it’s his job to take care of the baby, and it’s a job he takes very seriously.
Mom is on duty for nursing, but it’s up to Charlie to carry his baby around as he ventures through the forest. He’s also in charge of grooming, as well as feeding when the baby is a little older.
Some scientists believe that when Charlie and other owl monkey fathers take care of their young, it helps the mom recover and allows her to save her energy for nursing.
Photo Credit: WolfmanSF
At the end of the night, when it’s time to sleep, Charlie will carry his baby back to his favourite tree to snuggle up with his baby’s mom for a good rest. He’ll need it because when the sun goes down, his fathering duties start all over again.
We think Charlie is a great father and while his baby might not celebrate Father’s Day, you can celebrate it with your dad!
Check out the Fantastic Crafts Mission for some homemade craft ideas to show your dad how much you care, and help protect Charlie’s forest habitat at the same time!
Today is World Environment Day! There’s no better time than now to start a Mission and help save the planet. Why not start with Food Waste Warrior?
Did you know that a lot of Canadians are wasting food? As a country, we throw out more than $31 billion worth of food each year and that’s a big problem!
Photo Credit: Dgolnik
But the problem isn’t just the fact that we’re wasting money. Think about all of the stuff that went into getting that food from the farm to your plate:
There’s the electricity used on the farm to feed and house animals
Plus, the energy used to power the machines that tend to the crops
Don’t forget about the gas used to transport the food to the store
And then there’s also the energy used at the grocery store to keep the food fresh
All of that energy is wasted when we throw away perfectly good food. To make matters worse, generating energy creates greenhouse gases which are leading to climate change, so wasting energy is definitely not something we should be doing.
But the story doesn’t end there…
After you throw out the food, where does it go? We hope that if you do throw food away it goes in the organics bin or composter, but for a lot of households, it ends of in the trash. No big deal, right? Wrong!
Food that ends up in the garbage hurts the planet:
It causes landfills to fill up faster, which means we need to convert more land into new landfill sites sooner
It attracts animals like seagulls and bears, and they can get sick from eating rotten food or hurt themselves by accidentally eating hazardous materials
When the food breaks down, it releases greenhouse gases into the environment
There are a lot of problems that come from wasting food. Will you become a Food Waste Warrior and do your part?
This year’s Annual Report is titled “Setting Records”, celebrating the major milestones Earth Rangers and our members across Canada have achieved throughout the year. Thank you for your support!
The Toronto Zoo has teamed up with Zooshare to start using their poop to make energy. This type of energy is called biogas. If you remember back to our 
So biogas is a form of clean energy AND it reduces greenhouse gases coming from landfills – double win!
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