Goodfellow’s tree kangaroos (Dendrolagus goodfellowi) live deep in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. These hopping tree lovers have beautiful coats that are chestnut brown with long black stripes on their back! The females have a pouch for carrying their young, which are called joeys. These kangaroos have very strong arms and short legs, this helps them in the trees but makes them less bouncy then their relatives. They can only do two ‘kangaroo hops’ in a row so they get around by using little hopping steps. These adorable kangaroos come out at night to eat the leaves of trees, fruits and even cereals that they find at the edge of the forest.
Today the Goodfellow’s Tree kangaroo is endangered, its population has declined by at least 50% over the last 30 years. Deforestation has taken away this kangaroo’s home and today they rely heavily on protected areas, like national parks, to stay safe. You can help the Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo by learning more about the environment and sharing your know-how with friends and family. You can also take action to live green and help to protect species at risk with your Bring Back the Wild™ campaign.
That kind of accuracy is pretty important for these globetrotting animals that swim thousands of kilometers every year to migrate. Researchers found out the secret of Humpback whale migration after following 16 of them on their epic journey. These impressive navigation skills have researchers thinking that Humpback whales use the sun as well as the magnetic field to keep them swimming straight.
Horton, Travis, Richard N. Holdaway, Alexandre N. Zerbini, Nan Hauser, Claire Garrigue, Artur Andriolo and Philip J. Clapham. “Straight as an arrow: humpback whales swim constant course tracks during long-distance migrations” Biology Letters. 2011, 7(2).
If you decide to travel around the world, you will run into some pretty interesting plants. We have compiled a list some of the ones we think are the craziest looking.
#1 Dragon’s Blood Tree (Dracaena cinnabari)
Dragon’s Blood Tree Photo Credit: Boris Khvostichenko
Where I’m from: The Island of Socotra, off the coast of Yemen in the Indian Ocean.
Foliage facts: This relative of the palm tree has leaves that can grow 60 cm long and 3 cm wide. This plant gets its name from the dark resin that it makes. This ‘dragon’s blood’ has been used since ancient times for medicine and dyes.
Foliage facts: Banyans are a type of strangling fig that grows on trees, eventually covering them completely. This fig has aerial roots (in the air) that can start new trunks and get as big as 200 m in diameter and 30 m tall.
Where I’m from: Originally from India but it has been introduced to Sri Lanka.
Foliage facts: Talipot palms grow for 30-80 years patiently waiting then when they have enough energy they spring into action. The palm will grow a flowering stalk with a dull green fruit and over 20 million flowers that take about a year to mature then the plant will die.
Foliage facts: This plant makes a bright orange or red flower but don’t get too close because it lets off a gross odor that it uses to attract insects, which help with pollination. Everything but the flower of this plant grows underground where it connects to other plants and feeds off of them.
Where I’m from: Native to Namibia and Southern Angola (Africa)
Foliage facts: This unique plant grows two leaves when it’s young, keeping them throughout its crazy long life, an estimated 400-1500 years! Welwitschia lay on the ground (they only ever reach 500 mm in height) and over time they get tattered and torn.
#7 Black Bat Flower or Devil Flower (Tacca Chantrieri)
Where I’m from: South East Asia
Foliage facts: This plant produces around 25 flowers that are said to look like spooky bat wings. They also have heavy berries and long (25 cm) “whiskers” attached to the flowers that look like a forked tail.
Where I’m from: Southern Africa, especially South Africa
Foliage facts: The Sea urchin is very rare in its natural setting but every year thousands are grown to sell. Make sure you are careful if you ever run into one, they make a milky subsistence that is poisonous!
Where I’m from: Warm-temperate to tropical regions of Asia and northeast Australia
Foliage facts: This lotus is a lot like a water lily, they both grow their roots in muddy shallow water with the leaves and flower floating on the surface. What makes the Indian lotus special is the thing in the centre that looks kinda like an ice-cream cone.
Where I’m from: Originally from Southern Asia and Malaysia but it can now be found throughout the tropics
Foliage facts: This vine is a hearty grower reaching up to 6 m and over 10 m when it has things to climb. The Velvet bean also grows funky looking pods that are 10 to 12.5 cm in length, curved and covered with grey-white silky hair.
Communication is important to these very social animals; it allows them to pass down information to younger generations and form strong bonds with one another. Since elephants don’t have the greatest vision they rely heavily on their other senses, like hearing. When elephants communicate they often use low frequency sounds, called infrasound, some of which is passed through the ground. Elephants are great at remembering calls and figuring out who’s doing the talking. These massive mammals can pick out when a sound is being made by a family member, some older females can even recognize the calls made by of over 100 different elephants!
With spiky feathers that are brown with red streaks, Brown kiwis (Apteryx mantelli) are like the punk rock heroes of the bird world. They love to stay up late because they are nocturnal (nighttime loving) and have a crazy long bill with nostrils at the end. If that isn’t enough, they produce one of the largest eggs in proportion to its size – their eggs are 15% of the female’s body weight!
Male Kiwi. Photo Credit: Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust
Despite all these cool things, the Brown kiwi is endangered. As much as 90% of their population having been lost since the start of the 20th century. Loss of habitat and the introduction of new predators have spelled trouble for this bird. But today lots of people are working hard to save the Brown kiwi by protecting their habitat. You can help by sharing their story with friends and family, finding out more about biodiversity or protecting species at risk with your own Bring Back the Wild™ campaign.
Like shiny things? Well put aside your love for jewelry and check out these gold (Chrysina aurigans) and silver beetles (Chrysina limbata) whose shiny metallic shells come in handy for blending into tropical rainforests of Costa Rica.
Chrysina aurigans, Chrysina limbata. Photo credit: Eduardo M Libby
Water droplets are everywhere in a tropical rainforest, reflecting light in all kinds of directions. This creates the perfect place for a shiny gold or silver beetle to blend in and appear as a flash of light, fooling potential predators. These beetles have a great disguise for the tropical rainforest, but they sure would stand out if they lived somewhere else. Can you imagine one of these guys trying to blend in on a field of grass! What helps you stay incognito in one environment might make you stand out in another, so what kind of camouflage would you use to blend into a city, park or your backyard? Green and brown splotches, black stripes or a shiny blue coat? Tell us your answer in the comments section below.
Male Hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) are inflatable! Well a sac above their nose is anyway. When this sac is blown up it covers their nose like a hood (that’s where they get their name from). This sac looks like a red balloon and it is quite an extravagant sight that males will use to attract females and possibly threaten other males. Can’t imagine what a seal would look like with a red balloon on its face? Check out this picture to see what we mean.
Hooded Seal. Photo credit: Sea Mammal Research Unit
What’s the deal with the Hooded seal?
Hooded seals hangout around Bear Island, Norway, Iceland and northeast Greenland, this map shows just where these seals call home. Hooded seals usually spend time on their own but they come together for breeding and molting. They are able to dive as deep as 100m and dives have been recorded that lasted over 30 minutes! These amazing swimming skills come in handy when they are on the move following a yearly migration that keeps them close to drifting patches of ice. Hooded seals also have the shortest nursing period of any mammal, 5-12 days. In this short amount of time pups will double in size while the mom loses 7-10kg every day! Today Hooded seals that live in the northwest Atlantic have fairly stable populations but the northeastern Atlantic seals have seen their numbers drop by 85-90% over the last 40-60 years. To help out the Hooded seal learn more about how your actions have an impact on species that live in the North or start spreading the word about protecting animals and their habitats with your Bring Back the Wild Campaign.
Fun fact: The Hooded Skullcap is part of the mint family but it doesn’t taste like mint! One of its relatives is also famous, the plant, called mad-dog weed, was used in medieval times as a remedy for rabid-dog bites.
I’m named this because… an Englishman in the early 1800s said that the tree would be a puzzle for a monkey to climb, even though there are no monkeys where this tree grows!
Fun fact: These trees can live for many years; the oldest is over 800 years old! These trees can also grow as big as 150 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 7 feet.
Fun fact: This is the most heat tolerant plant in the Dicentra family. It will continue to grow throughout the summer, as long as the soil does not dry out.
I’m named this because… I form in a large cluster (the hen) surrounded by smaller patches (the chicks)
Fun Fact: Hen and Chicks were originally planted on roofs as protection against lightning because they are linked to Thor and Zeus, the two mythical gods of lightning.
Also known as: Fat Hen, White Goosefoot, Wild Spinach
I’m named this because… the word Lambsquarters comes from lammas quarter which is a harvest festival that was held on August 1st in 9th century England where this plant was eaten. The nickname goosefoot comes from the leaves that look like a goose’s foot.
Fun fact: This plant can produce 75,000 seeds and can grow in many soil types. Lambsquarters is also very healthy for you; it contains more vitamins and essential minerals than many vegetables, especially Lettuce, Spinach and Cabbage
Ever wonder how small creatures like beetles and ants can stand up to bigger species? How about frogs and fish? Well take a look at this list of the top ten strangest animal survival strategies.
#1 Porcupinefish (from the family Diodontidae)
PufferfishPufferfish inflated
Predators will have to think twice before messing with this big spiky fish. When the Porcupine or Pufferfish is feeling threatened, it can inflate its body using air and water, extending its sharp points out up to 5 cm (2’’).
Watch out this animal uses a wolverine style attack! They will poke sharp bones through the skin on their toes and use their spiky feet to keep predators away.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080623125003.htm
When the worker ant is under attack and knows it’s going to lose, it explodes! It sucks in the walls of its abdomen so fast and with so much force that the walls burst open spilling out toxins.
Hölldobler, Bert and Edward O. Wilson. The Ants: Volume 2; Volume 514. Harvard University Press, 1990: 243. Available online at Google books: http://bit.ly/iaNh6v
#5 Wood Frog (Rana Sylvatica)
Wood frog. Photo Credit: Ontley
Meet the incredible self-freezing frog! In winter 35-45% of the frog’s body may freeze and turn to ice. The Wood frog pulls off this trick by storing glucose in its liver, which gets released while its ‘playing dead’. The glucose acts as antifreeze, working to keep this little guy alive while staying still. As the temperature drops the Wood frog will stop moving and breathing, its blood stops flowing and even its heart stops! Once things warm up a bit the frog comes back to life (so-to-speak) and returns to normal.
This beetle knows just how to keep enemies away hot liquid eek! The beetle collects chemicals in a special chamber then when it’s under attack it heats this liquid up and sprays it from the end of its abdomen.
The electric eel uses 2 types of electricity; the first kind is for electro location (figuring out what’s in the environment) the other is for keeping predators away. For electro location the eel uses a low voltage discharge (about 10 V and reaching about 25 Hz) but the eel soups-up its discharge to high voltage (about 500 V and reaching several hundred Hz) to keep predators away.
This fish loves water fights, which can come in handy when it’s looking for a tasty insect to snack on. The Archerfish shoots down insects by spitting beads of water at them! This fish can spit water with such force that it can knock a bug off of a plant that’s up to 150 cm away.
These termites build amazing homes that help them survive by keeping the temperature inside perfect, even if the world outside is too hot or cold. These mounds are so well designed that we have started to take a closer look at them to try and help us build better homes that don’t need as much energy to keep them the right temperature. Termite mounds can reach up to 9 meters high, are water resistant and use ventilation ducts too keep them at a constant 30 degrees Celsius.
Unlike most turtles this endangered species has a soft shell that is flexible. Its shell is made up of bones under its skin that gives it a protective plate. This turtle’s flat body helps it hide which is key for it to find food because this guy’s an ambush feeder! This turtle will lay in wait then jump into action with fast movements of its neck and head to grab some of the speediest and most agile prey, like a tasty fish.
Some insects, lizards and spiders are amazing climbers, what gives them this super power? Well their incredible feet sure do help!
The tiny hairs (called setae) on the leaf beetle’s feet come in three different shapes; pointed, flat and disk-like each arranged in patterns across the feet. Researchers at the University of Cambridge, England believe that it is this combination of hairs and the different amount of force that is needed to peel them off of things that lets the beetle stick so well. It is hoped that by looking more closely at how these different hairs are used we can develop better nature inspired adhesives or sticky things. It may still be awhile before you can buy beetle feet tape from the store but you can go check out other amazing nature inspired designs like Velcro.
