Skip to main content

April 2021 Factfile - some news from the past month and animals that you voted for

Hi Everyone!

In this factfile we are bringing you some more news from the past month, animals you voted for, an exciting announcement and more!

News:

The Guardian reports that 'the new research shows that since the 1990s, the loss of hundreds of billions of tonnes of ice a year into the oceans resulting from the climate crisis has caused the poles to move in new directions.'
Previously, the poles could only move due to ocean currents and other natural factors. Apparently, glacial losses accounted for most of the change but some were also due to the pumping of groundwater which once pumped up by humans isn't replaced.
This shows just how much climate change is having an impact on our beautiful planet.
You may have heard about M&S's plans to release 30 million honey bees to the countryside. It has faced many complaints from experts saying that this could damage the balance of natural pollinators. It is important to have a range of pollinators and releasing honey bees on that scale could push other pollinators off the edge. These other insects are in sharper decline and this could put even more pressure on an already strained system.
Matt Shardlow, who is head of a conservation charity called Buglife, told The Guardian that 'It’s about creating a better countryside for pollinators, not chucking more pollinators out into the countryside – we need to get more pollen and nectar into the countryside'
We get that M&S was just trying to do something good but now let's hope they listen and take action to change their plans.

Animals Of The Month:

Land- Gorilla

Gorillas are a type of primate and share 98.3% of their DNA with us. The largest of the great apes, Gorillas can grow to 4 and 6 ft and weigh up to 440 pounds. Gorillas live in family groups of usually about 5-10. They are led by a dominant male, or silverback, who holds his position for several years.
Females only give birth to one baby every 4-6 years, which means she'll probably only have 3 or 4 over her entire lifetime. This means that it is especially hard for gorillas to recover from a drop in population.
Gorillas have been reducing in numbers for decades and according to a United Nations report, they may disappear from the Congo Basin in the Republic of Congo, where they live in forests, by the mid-2020s. However, a new protected area designed for gorillas has meant that they have gone down from being listed as critically endangered to being listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Water- Platypus

The platypus is a rather peculiar creature that lives in freshwater creeks and slow-moving rivers. They often build a simple burrow in a river bank among a tangle of roots and undergrowth.
Platypus reproduction is pretty unique. They are one of only two mammals (the echidna is the other one) that lay eggs. With a tail like a beaver, a body like an otter and a bill like a duck, the platypus is a really special creature. So unique that the first scientists to analyse them thought they were a hoax!
They eat small water insects and rely on a sensitive bill which can detect electrical currents in the water and help to find food.
However, the duck-billed platypus produces venom, but no one really pays it attention because you probably won't ever see one. Their venom can be lethal, but there are no recorded cases of them killing humans. Both males and females have a spur on either hind foot that excretes venom but females fall off at adulthood.

Air- Red Kite

The red kite (Milvus milvus) can be recognised by its red-brown body, angled wings and forked tail. It was once on the brink of extinction but a huge protection movement saved it and it has now been successfully re-introduced to England and Scotland.
They mainly eat worms and will occasionally be small mammals. They live in woodland, wetland and valleys. They can lay 1-3 and occasionally 4 eggs. They eat primarily dead animals but also sometimes rats, mice and voles. It's wingspan can reach 170cm! They usually live about 4 or 5 years but can live up to 26!

A TV program recommendation:

I recently watched Ade On The Frontline- an incredible documentary series. It follows presenter Ade as he explores the massive impact climate change is having around the world and what different communities are doing to combat it. He travels to many different places and I really love the way he explored these issues and what he covers- highly recommend it!

Announcement:

We are starting a new section to these factfiles with a plant of the month as well! Animal of the week which we did last year and now Animals of the month has been a great opportunity to find out more about a variety of animals and we want to broaden our research and learn more about plants too. Look out for it in next month's post! Click here to vote for next month's animals and plant!
Thank you so much for reading this post and we will be back VERY soon with another post (promise to not leave it as long!). 



Sources:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

November Top Tips | sustainable activities and hobbies

Hello everyone, So this week, we are going to be talking about sustainable free time activities. This area can quite big when it comes to environmental impact, so here are some things that you can do in your free time, that are more sustainable. 1. Reading So reading is one of our favourite things to do. However, books are made of paper and the paper industry isn't great. Some ways you can get around this is by reading online (for example, on a kindle), or through borrowing books from a library or using book boxes. If there aren't any in your area then at least try to support independent bookshops! 2. Running If you love being active then this one is for you. Running is probably one of the most sustainable forms of sport. All you need are some running shoes and somewhere to run. There is obviously more high-tech gear but that isn't really necessary if it's just a hobby. 3. Gardening If you've got a small area of land o...

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...

Ecosia

We all need to do something to save our planet: it is no use just leaving it to Greta Thunberg! She is very inspirational, yes, but she can only do so much. She isn't superhuman! The climate crisis is up to us; up to you. We all have to get stuck in. Research, learn, discover and most importantly: never give up! The world's animals need us. The world's trees need us and a simple way to do this is to switch to Ecosia. Ecosia is a search engine but it plants trees while you search the web. Okay, it doesn't have as many websites as google so you may want to have google as a backup but it plants trees: this is your opportunity to make a simple change. Just google Ecosia and search to plant trees. Make a difference. Image: This image  is owned by  Binyamin Mellish on  pexels.com .

Energy comparison: coal the pros and cons

Hello, Today we're talking about coal and how it's used as an energy source. As you've probably already noticed we're not really big fans of coal. So this post is going to be looking into the pros and cons of coal as an energy source. General facts Coal is a black sedimentary rock, made of carbon and hydrocarbons, that is found underground. It is formed by the remains of prehistoric plants and animals being buried deep in the earth under the right pressure. Coal, therefore, takes millions of years to form. Pros There are quite a few pros to using coal as an energy source. Firstly, it's cheap with a low cost per energy unit. It is also reliable as it can be burned at all times of day, during any weather and at any time of year. This is a big advantage because a lot of renewables are weather-dependent ( solar , wind , ...). There is also currently an abundance of coal, enough to last a few hundred years. It is also e...

January Top Tips // 5 ways you can individually tackle climate change

Hi Everyone! This is the first of our new monthly posts for 2022! We will be sharing top tips every month, near the beginning, for things you can do during that month for the better. It's almost like a whole year of new year's resolutions (though let's hope they are achieved)! In these posts, we aren't just going to talk about climate change , of course, there will also be posts about animals , plants, habitats, plastic pollution and so much more! They will not be huge tips though, they won't demand too much of you (usually!). We need rebellions and people in the public eye spreading the word of course but we also need people like you, who can just do their bit. So, welcome to our top tips posts! We all know that we need to come together to fight the climate crisis, but we don't seem to be doing that right now. So here are our top tips for ways you can individually tackle climate change, even if this means simply spreading ...

Rachel Carson 1907-1964

Hi everybody, Today I am going to tell you about a really inspirational environmentalist. Her name is Rachel Carson. I hope her story inspires you to be more careful about pesticides. As a girl, Rachel adored writing stories about animals. She got a degree in zoology but had to go home to care for her ageing mother. She wrote a series of radio shows about fish for a living. Rachel's program, called 'Romance Under Waters', was a big hit. Her ways of writing were different to anyone else and no one had made that sound so interesting before. It proved that she was talented in not only science but also writing. She wrote two books called 'The Sea Around Us' and 'The Edge Of The Sea'. When Rachel moved to the countryside, she realized the impact of pesticides. At that time farmers sprayed chemicals on their fields a lot to protect them from animals that may want to eat them. Rachel worked out that they were killing pla...

19.07.2020: Animal of the week: Honey Bees

Hi everyone, This week's animal is the honey bee. Enjoy! General Information An average honeybee hive is made up of one queen, hundreds of male drones and thousands of female workers. If the queen bee dies then a new queen is created. The workers select a young larva and feed it with a special food called ‘royal jelly’. The ‘royal jelly’ makes the larva grow into a fertile queen. Queens live for several years but the workers only live for five or six weeks. An average worker will make a twelfth of a tee spoon of honey during her entire life. Drones are turned out of the hive and left to die in Autumn. In the summer months, the queen bee is very busy, she can lay up to 2500 eggs in a single day. How they affect the world around them Honey bees are very important for flowers, fruit and vegetables. This comes from the fact that they are pollinators. They help the plants by transferring pollen between male and female parts, meaning the plants can g...

The life of ... a cicada

Hi everyone, We're back to talk about another animal. Cicadas ( Cicadoidea ) are invertebrates and are 1.9cm to 5.7cm in size. There are 3 000 species that can be divided into annual cicadas and periodical cicadas. Annual cicadas can be seen annually and are found worldwide whereas periodical cicadas only leave the ground every decade or two and are only found in North America with hotspots in the eastern and central areas of the United States. Most annual cicadas have a lifespan of about two to five years and periodical cicadas can live up to the age of 17. Female cicadas lay around 400 eggs split up over several places. They normally lay their eggs on twigs, branches or other vegetation. The eggs hatch after about six to ten weeks, now known as nymphs, and dig their way into the soil. The nymphs feed on the liquids found in plant roots. They fully develop underground, before molting their shells and coming to the surface, now fully deve...

March Top Tips // 10 little things you can avoid in daily life

Welcome to the Top Tips this month! We'll be talking about 10 things you can avoid using in everyday life. We know it's a really simple topic, but it can actually make quite a difference. The avoidable stuff will be things many use because they look nice or taste nice or similar, but aren't actually necessary. We will also write a couple of facts on these things, and give ideas on how you could substitute them if possible. Many might be very obvious, but think about it, do you actually not use them? Have fun! Chewing Gum Most people would not be surprised when told that lots of chewing gum have synthetic colouring and flavouring. However, most people would be surprised when told that chewing gum is largely made of plastic. What the companies call the "gum base" is plastic and partly made of the same stuff plastic bags are made of. The gum contains microplastics that, if you spit your gum on the ground often tend to get into the oce...

02.08.2020 Animal of the week: Owl

Hi everyone, This week's blog post is all about owls. Habitat There are many different types of owl: barn owls, long-eared owls, snowy owls and lots more. Different species live in different places. Here are a few examples. Snowy owls live in the Arctic . Great grey owls live in pine forests. Elf owls live in deserts. There are about 130 different species of owl. Owls can be found everywhere in the world apart from Antarctica . Owls live in trees, holes in the ground, barns and caves. Most owls do not migrate in winter. Diet Owls eat insects, spiders, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and small mammals. What they eat the most depends on the type of owl and where it lives. Screech owls feed mostly on insects. Barn owls mainly eat mice, shrews and voles. Eagle owls eat hares and young foxes. Some owls can even fish like the Asian Fish Owl. Even though some species prefer a certain type of food, most owls will eat whatever they can find...