Skip to main content

March 2021 Factfile - some news from the past month, animals that YOU voted for and more!

Image
By
Hi Everyone!

We hope you are all okay and will enjoy this month's wrap up post. We have managed to post a little more this month but we are off school soon so we may be able to post more!

News!

Recent European droughts and heatwaves are said to be worst in 2000 years

The British newspaper, 'The Guardian' reports that the series of droughts and heatwaves since 2014 have been the worst in 2000 years. These heatwaves have disastrous consequences such as early deaths, crop failure and forest fires.

For more information, click here.

This is definitely the final bit of proof that climate change exists and that it needs to be stopped!

Rise in deforestation in 2020

A horrifying 42 000 squared km of forest was chopped down in 2020, making it the third worst year since 2002. The most affected areas were humid tropical forests such as the Amazon, the Congo and other forests in South America and South-East Asia. These forests are vital for slowing and stopping global warming. Also they are known for their irreplaceable ecosystems.

Animals of the month!

Animal of the month - land: Komodo dragon

Despite its name, the Komodo dragon is not a dragon. It is actually a lizard. Their name comes mostly from their size. Also, the yellow colour of their forked tongue reminds some people of a mythical fire-breathing dragon!

Komodo dragons, also known as Komodo monitors, live on the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores and Gili Motang. They weigh about 70 kilograms and can, in rare cases, grow up to three meters long. Because of this, Komodo dragons dominate the habitats where they live.

The mating season is between May and August. In September, the females lay the eggs. They hatch in the following April, which is when insects are most plentiful.

Komodo dragons were discovered by scientists in 1910. Their territories have grown smaller due to human activities. They are listed Vulnerable by the IUCN.

Animal of the month - water: Walrus

The Walrus is a large marine mammal. They live around the North and South poles.

Walrus are considered vital for the ecosystems of the Artic and Antarctic. They are listed Vulnerable by the IUCN.

Walrus normally live in the shallow waters above the continental shelf. They spend a lot of time on the sea ice, looking for food.

Walrus are very heavy. Adult males can weigh up to 2 000 kilograms. That's about the weight of a small car. They also have tusks and flippers.

The mating season stretches from January to March. The calves are born from April to June the following year. Males are known to be quite competitive during the mating season.

Animal of the month - air: Kestrel

Kestrels can be found in a variety of habitats, from on the moor and heath to on farms and in towns and cities. They are can be found almost anywhere in the UK and are a familiar sight beside main roads and motorways.

Kestrels eat small mammals and birds, as well as worms and insects. They measure 32-35cm in length and have a wingspan of 71-80cm! Kestrels are easily recognisable, with an orange body, blue head and yellow front.
We hope you liked this month's post.

P.S. Please use our online vote to decide, what animals you want to read about next month.



Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/15/climate-crisis-recent-european-droughts-worst-in-2000-years
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/31/destruction-of-worlds-forests-increased-sharply-in-2020-loss-tree-cover-tropical
https://www.britannica.com/animal/Komodo-dragon
https://www.britannica.com/animal/walrus
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/kestrel/


Images:
Title image: This image is owned by a blog editor.
Forest fire: This image is owned by Yuri Meesen (on pexels.com).
Komodo dragon: This image, owned by David Stanley (on flickr.com) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Walrus: This image, owned by Daniel Enchev (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Kestrel: This image, owned by Heather Smithers (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Tara02/04/2021, 01:18

    A fantastic March Factfile, Green World! Keep up the great work you are all doing. Looking forward to next month's update :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adèle02/04/2021, 07:50

    This month's posts have been very interesting to read, especially about how small Kestrels are! (32cm to 35cm!)
    Well done!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ecosia

By
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 .
Post a Comment
Read more

Announcement: Factfile

By
This image is owned by a blog editor.
Post a Comment
Read more

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the environment?

By
Hello and welcome back to another post! The pandemic has affected us all in many ways but what about the environment. How has it been affected? Today we'll be going into that. How did it start? So COVID-19 broke out in late 2019 in China but how it started is still a greatly controversial topic. Prof Stephan Turner told  The Guardian in an online article in April: [...] says what’s most likely is that virus originated in bats. However, how it transferred to humans still isn't 100% certain. Scientists mostly agree that it didn't come directly from a bat, but instead was transferred through another animal. Regardless of how it reached humans, the main idea is that it came from a live animal, either in a food market or in the meat industry . Either way, it was our mistreatment of animals that lead to this disastrous pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 6.5 million people! Emissions When many businesses, industries and...
Post a Comment
Read more

16.08.2020 Animal of the week: Elephant

By
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Linking climate change and inequality - 'The Great Carbon Divide'

By
Hey everyone, Have you heard of 'The great carbon divide‘? It is often referred to as the 'carbon footprint gap' or the 'emissions imbalance‘, and produces frightening numbers. The great carbon divide describes the huge gap between the amount of carbon dioxide the rich versus the poor emit, and these numbers shocked even us.  What does this mean?  There have been many different studies, and all of them show terrifying results. One study from the Guardian and Oxfam, reports that the richest 1% of the world's population emit more carbon than the poorest 66%. The richest 1% consist of 77 million people, which may seem like a lot at first, but the poorest 66% refers to over 5 billion people! Africa, which is home to 17% of the world's population, only causes 4% of the world's emissions. This top 1% emitted 16% of global CO2 emissions in 2019, that's 5.9 billion tonnes of CO2. Modelling suggests that it would take someone who isn't in the top 1% about 150...
Post a Comment
Read more

LGBTQ+ animals | Pride month special 2022

By
Hi, As you probably know, it's pride month! Here on Green World we fully support the LGBTQ+ community. Many homophobes and transphobes will tell you that being LGBTQ+ isn't natural. But what they don't know is that over 1 500 different animal species are indeed part of this community! So, today we are going to being covering just a few of these animals. Note: We do not tolerate LGBTQ-phobic comments. All hate comments will be deleted. Sexual Orientation Within the LGBTQ+ community, there are many sexual orientations and most of them can also be found in animals! Here are just a few examples: Rams You probably didn't know, but up to 8% of rams are homosexual. This is quite a lot considering that only 1.7% of US adults identify as homosexual. Laysan albatross 31% of all pairs were lesbian in one study. That is a lot. Bottlenose dolphins One gay pair had a 17 year long relationship. This goes to show that same sex pai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ways to help make your household environmentally friendly

By
We have told you a bit about the problems that the environment is facing in previous posts but we haven’t told you how to help the environment around the house. You don’t even need a garden to make a difference! Ways to help stop global warming Tip 1: Turn the lights off when you leave a room. Tip 2: Walk or cycle on short journeys. Tip 3:  Don’t have the windows open and the heaters on at the same time. Tip 4: Never leave your engine running Tip 5: If you can, buy an electric car as these produce less Co2.   Ways to help stop plastic pollution  Tip 1: Buy a water bottle. It seems simple but every year the UK uses an estimated 13 billion plastic bottles. Tip 2: Use a bar of soap and a bar of shampoo instead of shower gel and bottled shampoo. Some say soap can dry your skin out but if you do your research you can find plastic-free high-quality soap, perhaps at a price but it depends on where you get it from. Tip 3: Make...
1 comment
Read more

10 Animals on the Edge of Extinction No. 10- The Javan Rhino

By
The Javan rhino is listed as the 1st animal on WWF’s list of the 10 world’s most endangered animals, and I for my part, had never heard of it! If you hadn’t either, we’re changing that now.  A bit about the rhino’s lifestyle The Javan rhinos are now exclusively found on the island of Java in Indonesia, but were once found in vast regions of northeast india and Southeast Asia. They have a dark grey colour which looks almost black when wet, and their (often pink) skin folds look a bit like plated armor. Both males and females have lower incisors which resemble tusks that they use to fight. Males have one relatively short horn of about 25 cm (10 inches).  Javan Rhinos live in tropical forests, marshy areas and in the thick bush. They are mainly browsers and eat over 100 plants species they find in the forest, weigh between 900 and 2300 kg (1984-5071 pounds) and are between 3 and 3.2 meters (10- 10.5 feet) long.  How endangered are we talking?  Javan rhinos are the most ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Animals 41 - 45 in our '50 incredible animals' series

By
Hi everyone, 41. Ghost shark So first of all, this is a real animal and not a horror movie! Ghost sharks, often referred to as chimaeras, include around 50 species. They mostly live in the deep ocean and are seldom seen, hence the name. They can be found all over the world. Some species have a large range, for example, the rabbit fish which inhabits the entire northern Atlantic Ocean, or a small range, like the Galapagos Ghost shark which only lives in the waters around the Galapagos . Not much is known considering their population status however they are currently not considered threatened. It is assumed that they reproduce in the same way as most sharks. Not much else is known about ghost sharks. They are as mysterious as their name suggests! 42. Sea pig Again, this is a real animal! But it is not in any way like a pig (I have no idea why they called it a sea pig ). It is a type of sea cucumber, that lives in the ocean depths. Their bodies are fille...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pollination

By
Hello everyone, Today we're talking about pollination and its importance in the world's ecosystems.  First a bit of basic plant biology. To reproduce most plants do have a differentiation into male and female, but not in the same way that we see in mammals. Both male and female reproductive organs can be found on the same plant, although not in the same place. Male gametes are produced in the stamens and are then found in pollen. On the other hand, female reproductive organs are called pistils and egg cells are found in the ovule (normally in the flower heads). Pollination describes the process of transporting the pollen to the egg cells, making it an essential part of the reproduction of plants. Nearly all seed plants worldwide require pollination to reproduce. Cone bearing trees also need pollination.  Pollination is almost always assisted by other organisms such as insects, birds and mammals to transport the pollen. In some species wind ...
1 comment
Read more