This robin mom has a BIG job: feeding four hungry baby birds… 100 times a day! From laying her eggs to hatching her chicks to finding an endless supply of worms and bugs, she never stops working to keep her babies fed, warm, and safe. But how long can this bird supermom keep up the pace?
Special thanks to our friends at Epic Nature with Judy Lehmberg @JudyLehmbergEpicNature
Visit https://www.facebook.com/biopicsbyjudylehmberg/ to learn more
This robin mom has a BIG job: feeding four hungry baby birds… 100 times a day! From laying her eggs to hatching her chicks to finding an endless supply of worms and bugs, she never stops working to keep her babies fed, warm, and safe. But how long can this bird supermom keep up the pace?
We need your help! This animal is trying to tell us something but we can’t figure it out! Do you know what these two elephants are chatting about?
The wait is over: We’re ready to announce the winners of our Backyard Biologist Photo Contest!
We asked Earth Rangers all across Canada to take stunning snapshots of the natural world for a chance to win a brand-spanking-new Rebel R1 camera from Canon–and wow, did you all deliver!
Hundreds of you submitted your best photos in three categories: Backyard Safari, Critter Closeups, and Winter Worlds. It was a tough decision, but after lots of deliberation, we’re happy to share the winners in each category! Now, we’re sitting down to interview these budding wildlife photographers about how they took their photos, and why they love nature!
Enjoy the beautiful photos, and don’t forget to accept the Backyard Biologist mission in the Earth Rangers app! You’ll learn about the importance of citizen science, look for interesting plants and animals in your community, and figure out how to identify your finds!
After practicing for the other two photos with my mom’s phone, she helped me set up her camera on a tripod in our yard. We set up a bird feeder and had our very first visitor, a chickadee!
I used a long lens for taking the photo. I liked using the bigger camera because it had a bigger reach and better focus, but it was hard to hold it up but it was worth it. We had lots of fun taking photos and we liked that the chickadee landed in the trees.
I like the black cap on the black capped chickadee and the black stripe on the back of its neck. I would like to take more photos of the black capped chickadee and other species.
During my nature walk, I spotted a bee-like insect called a syrphus. In this photo, you can see the insect with open wings inside a yellow daisy feeding on pollen.
I think this photo deserves to win because in this close up you can see even the smallest details like the fur of the insect. I also admire the symmetry of this insects from the closest pattern on its body.
This photo captures the beauty of nature despite its small size and its ability to persevere to get food for itself even in this cold weather.
My picture is of ice crystals on a twig we saw on the ground in our yard.
Ice crystals form very pretty shapes and I really like how pretty it is. It is one of my favourite winter pictures.
Ice is cool.
The Backyard Biologist Photo Contest is generously supported by:
When Spruce the porcupine first got to Wild for Life Inc., she was in bad shape. She could barely move and couldn’t survive on her own. But after some medicine helps her feel better, a new mischievous side of her comes out. What kind of trouble will this escape artist get into? And will she ever be able to go back to the wild?
Special thanks to our friend Alexis Broz (and Bo) from Wild for Life Inc. Rescue and Rehabilitation.
Wild for Life Inc. is a special kind of rehabilitation center. It’s not just a place where animals can go to physically get better, but also a place for them to feel safe as they recover and get ready for a return to the wild. Whether it’s an injured bird, a sick squirrel, or a beaver like Bo, the Wild for Life team is ready to come to the rescue of animals in need.
Along with saving animals, Wild for Life Inc. also believes in conservation, education, and helping to preserve ecosystems. Earth Rangers is so proud of the great work they’re doing!
Visit www.wildforlifeinc.org to learn more
When Spruce the porcupine first got to Wild for Life Inc., she was in bad shape. She could barely move and couldn’t survive on her own. But after some medicine helps her feel better, a new mischievous side of her comes out. What kind of trouble will this escape artist get into? And will she ever be able to go back to the wild?
When rescuers found Zelda the coyote lying on the side of the road, she couldn’t move a muscle! No one could figure out what was making her sick. Luckily, the team at Geaux Wild Rehab was ready to do whatever it took to help her get back to the wild – laser therapy, raw chicken dinners and even a kiddie pool full of crickets! But will Zelda take her first wobbly steps… or trash the recovery room?
Special thanks to our friend Tisha at Geaux Wild Rehab for sharing Zelda’s amazing journey. @geauxwildrehab
Visit www.facebook.com/Geaux-Wild-Rehab/ to learn more
When rescuers found Zelda the coyote lying on the side of the road, she couldn’t move a muscle! No one could figure out what was making her sick. Luckily, the team at Geaux Wild Rehab was ready to do whatever it took to help her get back to the wild – laser therapy, raw chicken dinners and even a kiddie pool full of crickets! But will Zelda take her first wobbly steps… or totally trash the recovery room?
During the winter months, things get dark outside pretty early, which really cuts into key hours that could be spent playing outside. If only you could see better in the dark! Lots of animals have amazing night vision thanks to some pretty cool adaptations. Here’s a countdown of adaptations that help animals see in the dark.
The colossal squid has the largest eyes of any known animal, reaching up to 30 cm across. That’s larger than a dinner plate! This species of squid lives in water up to 2 km deep. It’s pretty dark at these depths so having large eyes is a really important adaptation to help them see. Even at these depths there is still some light, if there was no light at all the squid would not be able to see.
Tarsiers are small primates that are active at night. They can rotate their head 180°, which helps them to focus in the dark on objects at different distances. Tarsiers also have large eyes, just like the squid, this help them to see. In fact, the tarsier holds the record for the largest eyes in relation to their body size of any mammal!
Owls have a large lens that is very close to the back part of the eye called the retina. This large lens allows more light to reach the retina compared with other animals, helping them to see better at night. The eyes of owls take up about half the volume of their skull; that’s a lot of eye storage! Similar to tarsiers, owls can also rotate their head up to 270° allowing them to see their prey at different distances even in the dark.
The eyes of vertebrate animals (including humans) have two main types of light sensitive cells in the retina (the back part of the eye): rods and cones. Rods help us see in different amounts of light, while cones help us see colours. Animals that can see well at night have more rod cells and less cone cells. The trade-off though is that they see less colour.
Animals that can see well at night not only have more rod cells, but these rod cells are also specially designed to help focus light. The middle of the rod cell is very dense (or thick). This adaptation allows some mammals to make the most of the limited light that is available at night.
Humans have light sensitive cells (rods and cones) that help us know it is bright in the day and dark at night. For animals that can see well at night, their light sensitive cells are better able to tell the difference between light and dark. This increased sensitivity makes it easier for them to detect even the smallest movements in the dark.
Spookfish are deep sea fish that live 1-2 km below the water’s surface. These fish have some of the most peculiar eyes! The spookfish’s eyes are divided into two halves by tissue inside the eyeball. This tissue is lined with special crystals that work like a mirror that not only reflects light inside the eye but also focuses the light. This adaptation helps them see in the dark, and as an added bonus, it also allows them to look up and down at the same time!
Leaf-tailed geckos can see up to 350 times better at night than we can. They have incredible night vision, thanks to vertical pupils made up of tiny holes about the size of the top of a pin that get wider in low light.
Mammals that can see well at night have chromosomes (genetic material) arranged upside down inside the nucleus of their rod cells found in the eye. (Eskiw and Fraser 2009).
Animals like deer, raccoons and sheep have a special membrane on their eyes called the tapetum lucidum, which means “bright carpet”. The tapetum lucidum is a layer of cells that sits just behind the retina and acts like a mirror allowing more light into the eye. This special layer of cells allows them to see at night, and is also why these animals’ eyes glow bright yellowish green in the dark when light shines at them.
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