How do Whales sleep?

podcast

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April 25, 2024

How do whales sleep? On the sea-bed of course. But jokes aside… Marine mammals are facing a challenge: they need to breathe air regularly, so what do they do when it’s time to sleep? I’m jumping into the ocean with my brand-new SCUPA gear to find out!

Ahhhh-hhaaaaaa. Don’t you feel like yawning? I sure feel tired! But this is no time to be sleeping! There’s an underwater mystery to be solved! Today Emma throwing on her scuba gear to investigate something BIG!

Sleep is super important for everyone! A great night’s sleep helps you feel good and have nice dreams. When you get enough sleep, you stay healthy, give your mind and body a break, and feel rested. Not enough sleep can change your mood completely and even hurt your health in the long run!

THE QUESTION OF THE DAY:

How do Whales sleep?

When you live on land (like humans) there’s a soft ground to sleep on. You can find a comfy mattress, couch, or pile of pillows to sleep. Cats curl up, monkeys climb trees, and even birds make nests! Some animals are known for how they sleep! Bat hangs upside down, sloths are always sleepy looking… but who is the SLEEPIEST animal on Earth? Vote on the answer you think is right! If you have any thoughts, share them in the comments below.

So… what’s the answer? Be sure to listen to know the full reason why! One thing you might notice: All of these animals sleep on land. They’re safe when they lie down and rest. But what about sea creatures? Do they swallow water as they sleep? Does floating cause problems?

Some fish rest by reducing their activity, but don’t sleep like you do. Sea turtles can hold their breath for up to 7 hours, which allows them to sleep underwater for a short time if they can’t find land. What about bigger animals? Whales sleep by “turning off” part of their brains. Like humans, whales have a left and right side of their brain. To sleep, they keep one side on to work on breathing and paying attention to their environment.

Why do they do this? And why don’t we do it too then? Breathing: that is the key! Humans do what’s called “involuntary breathing” – we breathe without thinking about it. Whales are different – they do “voluntary breathing” – this means they must think to take a breath.

Sounds hard? It sure is! When diving deep down, whales are actually holding their breath! The longest whale to have held its breath was the Cuvier’s beaked whale at 222 minutes. This means they are always moving, even just a little. That is why to sleep they turn on only one part of their brain, to have the other work on breathing.

Talk about a strange biologic answer to this mystery! Do you know any other animals who sleep weirdly? What about you? Do you like sleeping on your back or sides? Or… maybe it’s a secret! I’m knackered, good night Earth Rangers!

Do you have a fun animal mystery you want us to explore?
Let us know in the comments in the Earth Rangers App!

Vegetable Rose Tartlets

Creative Corner

Earth Rangers

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April 25, 2024

21

Vegetable Rose Tartlets

Time:60+ min

Difficulty:Hard

A gift for lunch or dinner, some’bud’y is going to love this lovely rose!

Here’s what you need:

Carrots
Zucchini
Potatoes
Tartlet shells
2 Eggs
¼ cup cream cheese
¼ cup grated cheese (parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella)
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil
An adult to help with baking

Here’s how you make it:

Step 1: Beat eggs, cream cheese, salt, and grated cheese in a bowl.

Step 2: Peel your carrots, zucchini and potatoes into long thin slices.

Step 3: Start by rolling oner vegetable slice into itself. Roll two or three others around it to form a cute rose!

Step 4: Pour the egg and cheese mixture into your mini tarts. Carefully place your vegetable roses in the tartlets one after the other.

Step 5: Ask an adult to help preheat the oven to 375°F. While waiting, brush some olive oil over your vegetable roses. This will prevent them from burning!

Step 6: Once ready, put your mini tarts into the oven. Let them bake for 30-40 mins.

Let your tarts cool for 10ish mins, and then they’re ready to eat!

Voilà! You’ve got yourself a beautiful vegetable rose field; one you can dig into and eat! Enjoy!

Quiz: Are you ready to join our CFI team?

Earth Rangers

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April 23, 2024

301

Quiz: Are you ready to join our CFI team?

Join us on our Carbon Footprint Investigation Mission and test your skills as a savvy shopper! Take this quiz to see if you can figure out what causes some products to have a higher carbon footprint than others!

How did you do? Let us know in the comments below!

Did you know you can lower your carbon footprint by making smarter choices when you shop? Learn more in the Carbon Footprint Investigation Mission in the Earth Rangers App!

Animals Affected by Climate Change

Earth Rangers

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April 23, 2024

128

Climate change is about more than warmer weather – it’s a big problem pushing some animals towards extinction. Let’s learn more about the different ways climate change affects animals worldwide, and find out how you can help!

Polar bear

With their massive claws and even bigger (and sharper!) teeth, polar bears take the cake for the fiercest-looking hunters. You might be surprised to learn, however, that their hunting style is more laidback than on the attack. These cold-weather carnivores will trek across the ice looking for holes, where they’ll wait patiently for an unknowing seal to pop its head up for air.

As temperatures in the Arctic increase and sea ice keeps disappearing, the polar bear loses the important hunting grounds it needs to survive. Without ice, it takes a lot more energy for polar bears to reach their prey, and this energy is hard to come by during the winter months when food is already limited. If climate change continues, scientists predict that over half of the polar bears in the world could disappear in the next 100 years.

Frogs

If you’ve ever been quick enough to catch a frog, you know their slimy skin feels thin and delicate, but did you know this is because they breathe through their…bodies?? Frogs can absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide through their skin, which is an important feature for these cold-blooded creatures that spend lots of time underwater and are buried in soil. Unfortunately, their thin skin also leaves them vulnerable to changes in the environment, especially changes in temperature.

Tadpole with front and hind legs — Flickr Credit: the1pony

Frogs will only lay eggs when the time is just right, and spring’s warm weather usually means there will be enough food around to support their growing tadpoles. But what happens if the weather gets warmer earlier in the year? If frogs lay their eggs early and the food they need isn’t available, it could cause the newly hatched tadpoles to starve.

It’s not only the direct effects of climate change that are causing problems for our frog friends. Warmer weather can cause shallow ponds to dry up, leaving the frogs that would use these ponds to lay their eggs without this important habitat.

Woodland Caribou

Living in the cold Canadian north is tough, but the woodland caribou has it all figured out – and they know that lots of hair is the key to staying warm in the winter! Their bodies are covered in fur, but not just any kind of fur; the caribou’s hair is semi-hollow, which lets it trap warm air close to the caribou’s body to help insulate it and keep it warm. That’s pretty cool!

caribou boreal forest — Photo Credit: Ron Thiessen

Sadly for the woodland caribou, this amazing adaptation to surviving the cold is no help in the face of climate change. Caribou spend most of their summers searching for the nutritious food they need to fill up to survive the winter, but warmer weather can melt the snow and ice that the caribou uses to get from place to place to find its food. Higher temperatures can also cause the plants that the caribou needs to survive to grow less and be less nutritious, and eating less healthy food in the summer can make it even harder for the caribou to survive the winter.

Sea turtles

You’ve probably heard that an elephant never forgets, but did you know that sea turtles have a memory that could give them a run for their money? Even though they spend most of their lives cruising the seas, sea turtles will swim back to the same beach they hatched on to lay their eggs – even if this beach is hundreds of kilometers away!

One of the many impacts of climate change is rising sea levels. Just one higher-than-normal tide or a storm that creates big waves at sea can flood turtle nests, suffocating the eggs or washing them away completely.

Penguins

Penguins are easy to spot thanks to their tuxedo-coloured coats and tiny flipper-like wings, but did you know that their characteristic colours are more functional than fashionable? Their black and white feathers might not scream camouflage to you, but they do the trick! The black backs of penguins make them hard to spot from above, and their white bellies look like the reflection of the sun on the water’s surface, helping them avoid predators while still looking like cool customers.

Unfortunately for the penguins that live in Antarctica, the melting sea ice is causing big problems, and even their camouflage can’t help. Penguins travel hundreds of kilometers across the frozen water to get to their breeding grounds, but as the ice melts this journey becomes harder and harder. If females can’t lay eggs in time, fewer new penguins are born, which can shrink colonies over the years.

How can we help?

You can do your part to help slow down climate change by reducing your carbon footprint when you shop. Join our team of Carbon Footprint Investigators today!

Did you know you can lower your carbon footprint by making smarter choices when you shop? Learn more in the Carbon Footprint Investigation Mission in the Earth Rangers App!

Would you Rather #64

Earth Rangers

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April 22, 2024

209

Would you rather have…

Super-strong punches like mantis shrimp or super-strong shells like sea turtles?

Tell us which one you pick in the comments!

Caption This: What are these raccoons saying?

Earth Rangers

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April 19, 2024

136

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 raccoons are saying?

Post your ideas in the comment section below.

The Echidna Enigma

podcast

Earth Rangers

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April 18, 2024

65

Today’s burning question is: “Are there Mammals that lay eggs?”
You bet, and where in the world could we find such a creature? Australia of course.
Earth Ranger Emma is back in the outback to investigate this new animal mystery… Get ready to meet some perfectly precious puggles.

Howdy Earth Rangers, we’re out in the Down Under (that’s Australia and New Zealand) today to solve a new mystery… but not just any mystery – an animal mystery!

Australia is filled with strange animals. There’s the “Tasmanian Tiger”, which isn’t actually a tiger – but the now-extinct Thylacine! There’s also the Tasmanian Devil that’s the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial to date. This isn’t even mentioning all the big insects found there. So what can we find in Australia that may answer today’s question?

THE QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Are there Mammals that lay eggs?

The echidna is a mystery of its own… is it a bird? A mammal? Is it like an anteater? Just what is it? The echidna lays eggs, like a bird, it also has a long snout-like beak, like a bird. But this nose is more like an anteater’s, with a long tongue used to slurp up ants and termites. It also feeds its babies with milk, just like a mammal! But unlike a mammal, they have spikes instead of teeth!

Whew! That’s a lot, isn’t it? But just what is the echidna?

Echidnas are monotreme, mammals that lay eggs. Echidnas are one of the only two animals IN THE WHOLE WORLD to belong to this order…which makes them super-duper special! The only other monotreme (besides the echidna) is the platypus…which is a whole different mystery.

Who would have thought that there was a one-word answer to this question? Going to Australia, and seeing baby echidnas (called puggles, isn’t that cute?), the adventure was worth it! We’re on our way to answering our next set of questions, but don’t hesitate to send us more of your own!

Do you have a fun animal mystery you want us to explore?
Let us know in the comments in the Earth Rangers App.

Wildflower Seed Balls

Creative Corner

Earth Rangers

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April 18, 2024

16

Wildflower Seed Balls

Time:20 min

Difficulty:Easy

Did you know you can create a meadow oasis in your backyard AND have fun doing it? Seed balls help disperse plants, and reinforce your local pollinator population. Here’s one way to make them!

Be sure to wait until after the last spring frost to try this! After a rainy day is ideal.

Here’s what you need:

Mixing bowl
Tap water
3 sheets of scrap paper: could come from newspapers, flyers, or construction paper (whatever you can find!)
2-3 tablespoons native wildflower seeds or native meadow seeds
Tip: Make sure only to use native wildflower species. Invasive species can cause large environmental problems and can wreak havoc on the local ecosystem.
1/2 cup of peat-free compost soil (optional)
Blender or food processor
Help from an adult

Here’s how you make it:

Step 1:

Shred your scrap paper into small pieces and place them in the mixing bowl.

Step 2:

Fill the mixing bowl with water and leave your paper scraps to soak for 20-30 mins.

Step 3:

Once your paper scraps have softened, drain the water. Place the paper scraps into the food processor or blender and blend the paper until a mushy pulp forms.

Squeeze the paper pulp to drain some of the water (if needed) and place it in a separate bowl.

Step 4:

Add your wildflower seeds and compost soil (if you’ve chosen to use it). Mix everything together well and then form the mixture into small balls (about the size of a golf ball).

Step 5:

Set your seed balls aside for a few hours to dry a little. Don’t wait any longer than a day, though, to play with the seed balls! Whatever game you make up, be sure it ends with the seed balls on the ground and spaced out appropriately. They will need contact with the soil to grow out eventually!

Be sure not to throw your seed bombs on private property or in someone’s garden without permission. Find a place that is neglected and won’t cause disturbances! Don’t forget to check on the spot, but be patient – remember that seeds take 15-25 days to germinate.

Pawsitively Hilarious Jokes #24

Earth Rangers

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April 15, 2024

123

Where do otters keep their money?

At the River Bank!

Pixel Puzzler #43: The Great Reveal

Earth Rangers

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April 12, 2024

57

We got tons of great guesses on Part 1 of this Pixel Puzzler and now it’s time for the answer. Are you ready for the great reveal? Find out if you got it right!

The answer to this Pixel Puzzler is (drum roll please) a Moose! How did you do? Tell us in the comments!