Skip to main content

January 2021 Factfile - a bit of news from the past month and more!

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the first monthly fact file! We are going to share a news article from last month as well as animals and more!

News

You might have heard that the UK has authorised the use of a pesticide harmful to bees. It has been authorised for use on sugar beet with their excuse being to do with the virus yellows disease.
But bees are in serious decline and this is not going to help. It is authorised for emergency use and only in specific conditions but, in our eyes, that doesn't make it okay. Farmers need bees to pollinate crops and now they are killing them with a horrible pesticide. What do you think? We would love your opinions below! For more information on bees in our honey bee post click here.
We have also found an article about some Indonesian monkeys from the island of Bali who steal anything expensive, that tourists have because they know they will get a reward! They know which items have the most value and will often not accept the first offer and will hold out their hands for more!
They steal things like phones and wallets and the people nearby have some of their favourite treats to give in exchange! Sometimes they can negotiate for a long time over holidaymakers' belongings!

Animals of the month

Air animal - European robin

Robins are birds that you have probably all heard of. They are a common sight in gardens and parks, especially at this time of year. European robins are easily identified because of the bright orange-red breasts and faces visible on both male and female birds. However, males have much more distinctively coloured breasts than females. This is so that the females can blend in with the environment and protect the nest and their eggs.
Although robins look quite peaceful and gentle, males will fight and sometimes kill their rivals. Their redbreasts act like red warning flags. Robins do not mate for life. They pair for a single breeding season.
Robins are quite small. They measure about 12-15cm. That's about the width of an A5 book.
Robins are territorial. A breeding pair will own a territory of about 1600 m² to 8300 m² (2000-10000 square yards). In the winter, when the robins are alone, their territories are about 650 m² to 5000 m² (800-6000 square yards) large. That's pretty big for such a small bird. A robin will only attack another robin if the latter is in the first robin's territory. Robins often trespass into the territory of others while feeding.

Land animal - lizard

Lizards are a very widespread group from all around the world, except Antarctica. There are over 6,000 species and they are very different from each other. Some, like geckos, are only a few centimetres long and others, like the Komodo Dragon, can be around three meters long!
They are carnivorous and many have the 'sit and wait' tactic. What they eat also varies hugely from the smaller species eating insects to the large eating mammals as large as a water buffalo! They can regrow their tales and, depending on the species, they can have other interesting skills too, like the use of venom. There are, however, only a few venomous types of lizard. 
The common lizard's lifespan is about 5-6 years, but this can vary hugely depending on the breed. They mainly breed in spring and it is like many animals a fascinating season.
A breed of lizard was discovered in the Mojave Desert that gave birth to live young and stayed in a family! Most lizards do not do this and tend to stay away from other lizards when it is not mating season and lay eggs. I find this really interesting and you can read about it all more here!
Lizards are fascinating creatures!

Waterdwelling animal - seal;

Seals can be found on nearly every continent on earth, although most live in cold-water environments. They are carnivores and most rely on eating fish to survive, however, some species like leopard seals eat larger animals and sometimes even other seals. With so much of their time spent in water, some types of seals have evolved to be able to hold their breath for up to 2 and a half hours at one time!
Hunters have targeted seals for hundreds of years for their fur. Due to this many types of seals, like the Caribbean Monk Seal are now extinct. However, climate change is the largest threat to seals, especially the ones who live on sea ice.
Unlike many animals, seals only give birth to one pup at a time. During the mating period, males get very aggressive and fight each other for territory. For this reason, male seals often don't mate until they are eight years old and strong enough to win the fights.
The average lifespan for seals in the wild is 30 years, and some of the largest seals can measure up to 30 feet and weigh 4.4 tons!

Eco Tip Of The Month!

Make the most of your leftovers by reheating food or making sure it goes in the compost for certain things!


Thank you for taking the time to read this post and we will be back soon (hopefully more than in January!) with another post!



Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/09/pesticide-believed-kill-bees-authorised-use-england-eu-farmers
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jan/14/balis-thieving-monkeys-seek-bigger-ransoms-for-high-value-swag-study
https://animalia.bio/european-robin
https://ebird.org/species/eurrob1
https://www.britannica.com/animal/lizard
https://animalcorner.org/animals/lizards/
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/seals
https://www.britannica.com/animal/seal-mammal


Images:
Title image: This image is owned by a blog editor.
King Bee, owned by Glyn Humphrey (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Bali Monkeys 2, owned by Rex Boggs (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
European Robin, owned by Sergey Yeliseev (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Spiny Lizard, owned by (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Harbor seal, owned by Thomas Haeusler (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

16.08.2020 Animal of the week: Elephant

Hello. On the 12th of August it was International Elephant Day, so we decided that this week's post should be about elephants. Elephants are the largest living land mammals. There are three types of elephant; the African bush elephant; the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. African elephants have larger ears, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears. Elephants use their trunks to breath, bring food and drink to their mouths and to grasp objects. Elephants' legs are like pillars. They carry the Elephant's massive weight. African bush elephants weigh 6000kg, Asian elephants weigh 4000kg and African forest elephants weigh 2700kg. Basically, they are very heavy.Elephants eat grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. Elephants can live up to 70 years old in the wild. They communicate by sight, touch and smell. Sadly, these wonderful mammals are in danger. African elephants are listed as vulne...

Climate change: what is it and what's the problem

Hello, I've noticed that we are always mentioning climate change. Not only us blog editors but also politicians, activists and so on. The words climate change are bounced around in the media and probably in your households, but do you actually know what it is or how it works? I know that for a long time, I didn't know what it really meant. I hope that this post changes that. What is climate change and how does it work? The words climate change describe a slow shift in the earth's temperature and changes in the weather patterns. Having a single warm winter does not instantly mean climate change. Climate change happens over a long period of time. If you look at a temperature graph over the years, it doesn't go up in one day and then stay the same for another hundred years. It curves up slowly but steadily. This is a average temperature graph from 1880 to just after 2000. You can see how the temperature gradually gets warmer....

30.08.2020 Animal of the week: Whale Shark

Hi! It is International Whale Shark Day today, so we thought, we would do this week's animal of the week about whale sharks. Are whale sharks, sharks or whales? Whale sharks are not whales and they aren't a mix of whale and shark. They are sharks. So, why are they called whale sharks if they aren't whales? Well, they are very big. Whale sharks normally grow to a length of 5.5-10 metres. However, the largest whale shark to be accurately measured was 18.8 metres long! That is about as long as a lorry or as high as a short oak tree. Basically, whale sharks are massive. Habitat and Diet Whale sharks prefer warmer waters. They live in all tropical seas. Every spring, they are known to migrate to the continental shelf of the central west coast of Australia. The whale shark is one of the three known filter-feeding shark species in the world. Like whales, they eat plankton.  Images: Image 1:  This image is o...

Heatwaves - what's so bad about them?

Hi everyone, Today we’re talking about heatwaves and what effects they have on us and the environment. Heatwaves are becoming ever more common, with 2023 breaking multiple world records. In China, 52.2°C were recorded at one point and the coastal waters near Florida, USA, were as warm as a hot tub. This is because of the combination of climate change and El Niño , both of which make the effects of the other worse. But we can’t push the blame onto El Niño. When analysed it became clear that without human made climate change the USA heat records would have been almost impossible. So what exactly are the effects of such high temperatures. A study in Europe found that the 2022 heatwave possibly caused over 70 000 heat related deaths. Although it is sometimes hard to tell whether or not someone died from the heat or from something else, after analysing the data the team found that their original estimate of 62 000 people (which is still a lot) was probably ...

Animals 46-50 in our '50 incredible animals' series

Hi everyone! Welcome to the final part in our '50 Incredible Animal series' where you can find out about animals 46-50. We started this series almost a year ago to celebrate our 50th post and it feels crazy to think that we are now nearing our 100th. To read all of the previous posts from this series, click here . Hope you enjoy it! 46. Spiny bush viper Spiny bush vipers, Atheris hispida, are a species of venomous snake native to Central and East Africa in tropical forests and shrubland. They are mostly solitary creatures but can climb trees, which is where they find the majority of their prey. Spiny bush vipers are carnivorous and feed on mammals, frogs and lizards, as well as birds. Independent from birth, Spiny bush vipers can have up to 12 'snakelets' at a time and are 15cm in length. Currently, there are no known threats to Spiny bush vipers, and they are categorized as Not Evaluated on the IUCN Red List. 47. Leafy sea dragon ...

An exciting initiative from Co-op and Sainsbury's...

Hi Everyone! Today I want to tell you about something I think is very exciting. If you want to recycle more plastic then this could be your chance! Co-op and Sainsbury's have both launched a new soft plastics recycling scheme where you bring your 'soft plastics' (things like crisp packets, chocolate wrappers and fruit and veg bags) into a designated area. For 'hard plastics' such as yoghurt pots, juice cartons and fruit and veg punnets, you can use either your local kerbside collection but not every area collects plastics in this way, including mine so we collect ours and bring it to the tip ourselves. To check if it's a soft plastic you can use the scrunch test- scrunch up the object and if it pings back then it is probably plastic. Then you need to clean it and bring it into one of the stores. Co-op even accepts plastics from other retailers! Co-op uses the plastic to make bin bags for use in the store which I think is a g...

How well do you know the Arctic and the Antarctic? - Quiz

Welcome back to Green World, As announced last week, we're starting our new monthly series: quizzes! This post contains the questions, you have to write down the answers and compare them with the solutions right at the bottom of this post.  Questions: True or False? The Arctic is not actually a land mass, it's a frozen ocean. How many people live in the Arctic circle? a) 500 000 b) 4 million c) 10 million True or False? Narwals don't actually have unicorn-like horns. That's just a legend. What percentage of the world's freshwater is frozen within the Arctic's ice? a) 10% b) 15% c) 20% True or False? The Arctic covers parts of 15 different countries. Scientists exploring Antarctica have measured winds of up to... a) 100 km/h b) 150km/h c) 200km/h True or False? The driest (natural) place on Earth is in Antarctica...

06.09.2020 Animal Of the Week: Seven-spotted Ladybird

Hello Everyone, Welcome to this week's animal of the week post. This time about the ladybird, and personally I can't wait to find out more about these creatures. Enjoy! Which ladybird we are investigating today? Today, I am telling you about the seven-spotted ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata), which is the most common ladybird in Europe. Other species include the Two Spot Ladybird and other uncommon ladybirds such as the 16 Spot and other peculiar types. Habitat The seven-spotted ladybird lives in a variety of habitats such as meadows, gardens and hedgerows. They can also be found on farmland, especially with crops such as alfalfa, clover and wheat and corn before it grows too tall. Diet The seven-spotted ladybird feeds on a range of aphid species. This is why they are often referred to as a gardener's best friend as they eat these creatures who can damage plants. They can also eat white flies and anything else that is soft-bo...

New IPCC Report 2022

Hi everyone, You've probably heard about the new IPCC report that was released earlier this year. In this post, we wanted to talk about what it is and how it could affect us. We haven't read the whole 3000+ page document, surprisingly, but people on the internet have so we have used information from reliable sources, including the IPCC website. What is the IPCC? IPCC stands for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is governments and scientists from all over the world work together to produce reports about the effects of climate change. When did that new report come out? 4th April 2022 What does the new report say and what does it mean for us? The report states that average annual global greenhouse gas emissions were at their highest levels in human history between 2010 to 2019, but the rate of growth of emissions has since slowed. Emissions must peak by 2025 and then must fall drastically (43% by 2030) if we are to limit the d...

Maria Sibylla Merian

Hello, Today we wanted to tell you all about Maria Sibylla Merian. Maria was born in Germany on 2nd April, 1647. Like many young girls at that time, she loved to paint. Every day she would gather flowers from her garden and paint them. Sometimes, the flowers would have caterpillars on them and she would paint them changing, day by day, into butterflies. At that time, not much was known about insects, and people thought that butterflies magically sprouted from the mud. Maria knew from what she had seen while she was painting, that this was not true, but no-one believed her. As time went by, Maria became a great watercolour artist. She wrote about her discoveries, but scientists only took books written in Latin seriously, and Maria wrote hers in German. When Maria and her daughter were living in Amsterdam, Maria found display cases in museums filled with exotic insects collected from South America. Maria thought that if she could study the bu...