June 2021 Factfile - some news from the past month, animals and our first plant of the month!

Hi Everyone!

We’re terribly sorry for missing last month’s fact file (May). We have all had a busy few months. This is actually the May fact file coming out very late. The June fact file is cancelled. Because of this, this factfile contains news from both months.

We are very sorry for the delay in this post. As announced in our last factfile, this post has a new feature to it; plant of the month. We hope you'll enjoy it!

News:

Sierra Leone has sold a rainforest for a Chinese Harbour

Sierra Leone has sold 250 acres of beach and protected rainforest for £39m to build an industrial fishing harbour. It was home to many animals, including several endangered species. This will also have a disastrous impact on local communities, tourism and as I've already mentioned, the environment.

Just click here - It's an article about all the environmental disasters that happened in May. It shocked me.

Red Squirrels were born in Northern Ireland

Red squirrels have been born for the first time in 30 years in Northern Ireland after a project was put in place to boost population numbers and re-integrate them into the area. They were born at Carnfunnock Country Park in County Antrim. A section of the park was cornered off and other measures were put in place to stop dogs etc interfering.

Animals Of The Month:

African Wildcat

African wildcats are members of the cat family. They live in Africa (obviously) and West and Central Asia. They are the closest living relatives of domestic cats. In fact, they look very similar to tabby cats.

African wildcats evolved from other wildcat species about 131 000 years ago. The first individuals were domesticated about 10 000 years ago. They are therefore the ancestors of all domestic cats.

They are listed as least concerned, however, due to breeding with domestic cats, this might change in the near future.

Water - Seahorse

The seahorse is a relatively immobile fish and they live in habitats such as mangrove forests and sea grass that provide food and camouflage shelter. They also wrap their tails around underwater plants. They are beautiful and graceful creatures that are very typical of the sea. A baby seahorse is called a seahorse fry and they eat 3000 pieces of food a day! An adult will eat shrimp and live for 1-4 years.

They don't have many predators as they are too bony but crabs eat them and sometimes the father will eat the baby seahorses! There are over 40 known species of seahorse. And one more fact- the males have babies!

Air - Barn swallow

Barn swallows are birds that you may have in your garden. In Europe, the term ‘swallow’ is mostly used to talk about barn swallows, not swallows in general.

Barn swallows can often be seen darting over fields and meadows in search of prey, flying insects. They fly low, normally no higher than a few inches over the ground.

They have a very distinctive forked tail, more deeply forked than other North American swallows

Plant Of The Month - Lily of the Valley

The lily of the valley is a pretty woodland plant with scented, white, bell-shaped flowers. It is native to Europe and Asia. However, in North America, it is considered invasive. The American lily of the valley is it's relative and is native to North America.

Despite their pretty appearance, the lilies of the valley are poisonous to both animals and humans! This is due to the high concentration of cardiac glycosides (cardenolides).

There are several other names for the lily of the valley, including May bells, Our Lady’s tears and Mary’s tears.

Thank you so much for reading this post and we will be back VERY soon with another post (a promise to not leave it as long, though we say that every time!).

P.S. Here's the next vote: Animals and plant vote

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/17/sierra-leone-sells-rainforest-for-chinese-fishmeal-plant
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/environment/environmental-disasters-across-globe-in-may-2021/2271185
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-57486252
https://africageographic.com/stories/african-wildcat/
https://www.britannica.com/animal/sea-horse
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barn_Swallow/overview
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/plants/wild-flowers/lily-of-the-valley/

Images:
Title image: This image is owned by a blog editor.
African Wildcat, owned by Wildlife Wanderer (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Seahorse, owned by Alex Griffioen (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
A Barn Swallow in flight, owned by Hari K Patibanda (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Lily of the valley, owned by hedera.baltica (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Comments

The life of ... an alcon blue butterfly

Hi everyone, Today we are going to be looking into the life of an alcon blue butterfly (Phengaris alcon). After mating, the females lay their eggs on marsh gentian, a blue-coloured wildflower. The eggs can only be laid on these flowers, as this is what the newly hatched caterpillars will eat. Although in some alp regions, they can also be found on willow gentians, a close relative of the marsh gentian. Once the caterpillars have hatched from the eggs, their main predator and danger are the ants that swarm below. But high on their plant homes, the caterpillars are safe. However, this isn't where the alcon blue caterpillars are going to stay forever. Eventually, they drop down to the ground using silk strings. With no protection, they are soon dragged off by the ants. The most amazing part is, the alcon blue caterpillars give off the same scent and chemicals as the ant larvae. So the ants take the caterpillars back to their brood chamber, wher...

Animals 11-15 in our '50 incredible animals' series

Hello, We have another five amazing animals for you today. Enjoy! 11. Dhole This is a dog species which looks rather like a red fox . They are difficult to put into any of the dog subfamilies. They aren't foxes, nor wolves, nor domestic dogs. Dholes are fast runners and live in packs of 5-12 individuals. Although sometimes, different packs will join forces to become a pack of 30 or more individuals! However, these super packs are broken up after a successful hunt. The different packs rarely attack each other as neighbouring packs are often closely related. Dhole packs live in burrows with multiple entrances. They can be found in eastern and southern Asia. They eat wild berries, insects and lizards and as a pack hunt deer, rodents and other wild mammals. Interestingly, unlike other dogs, they rarely kill by biting at the throat. They are also good swimmers! 12. Irrawaddy dolphin The Irrawaddy dolphin can be found in coastal areas of south a...

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....

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...

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

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 ...

April Top Tips: ten tips for environmentally friendly travel

Hi Everyone! We haven't been very present on the blog again recently but we are back today with ten top tips for environmentally friendly travel. Most forms of travel over long distances (unless you are willing to put in a lot of physical effort) use fossil fuels and are generally not good for our planet. So today we will be giving you a few tips which although won't mean that your travel is 100% planet friendly, will be a good start to doing as much as you can. Your Green World Blog Team💚 1. Use trains and boats rather than planes where possible Planes are awful for the environment. They are, however, extremely practical and so easy to use, cheap...It's hard to avoid them! They are so quick too so you don't have to spend as much time travelling. However, they are really bad for the environment. For example, you could fly once to Edinburgh from Heathrow for the same carbon dioxide levels as driving to Edinburgh 336 times! 2. Fly...

Energy comparison: natural gas

Hi everyone, Today we're talking about natural gas. Natural gas is a commonly used fossil fuel. So we thought we would go over the pros and cons of natural gas. So first of all, we can quickly cover what natural gas actually is. In its natural form it's a mix of mostly methane and then some other chemical components like propane and butane. However, it's normally processed so that it's almost pure methane. Natural gas forms when organic materials (like dead plants and animals) are crushed into the ground. So it's like coal in that sense. The most popular theory is that the different conditions like temperature and pressure then control whether coal, oil, or gas is formed. Natural gas reserves are found globally. The largest gas fields are in Russia, under the North Sea, in the United States, Canada, Algeria and the Middle East. It's often found near to or even in oil fields. Natural gas is colourless, odorless, tasteless and ...

Eco System, Galapagos: Part 2 Evolution

Hello and welcome to our second post in the Galapagos Series. Today we are going to talk about the iconic evolution in the Islands. The evolution on Galapagos is incredible. It was these islands that gave Charles Darwin the idea of Evolution by Natural Selection. He landed on the Galapagos island on September 16th 1835. The Galapagos Islands are home to hundreds of different types of animal. Creatures like the Galapagos penguin swam to the islands. Giant Tortoises and Marine Iguanas were carried to the islands by ocean currents. They can survive for months without food or water. Birds carried seeds to the islands when they stopped for a break. Insects like spiders got blown off branches and landed on the islands. The arrival of pollinators was crucial for plant life and therefore also the entire ecosystem. Carpenter Bees make nests in tree trunks. It is thought that some carpenter bees' nests were carried across the ocean as d...

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

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...

Ecotourism: what it is, the advantages and the disadvantages

Hi Everyone! Today we wanted to talk about the idea of ecotourism, including the advantages and disadvantages of this concept. If you are looking to reduce your environmental and social impact when travelling, then this is the post for you! Ecotourism is a form of tourism which limits the damage to the environment and local community. It can involve helping in community projects such as planting trees, as well as taking part in local customs and festivals. It helps to keep the local culture alive, while preserving the natural environment. The advantages are abundant. By helping in a project conserving the environment, tourists gain a new understanding and appreciation for the natural world and may be inspired to make changes in their "real" life to live more sustainably. It provides a valuable insight to a country and community, perhaps also inspiring more respect for different people and the lives they lead. The projects also provide sustainable income sources for locals, h...

Green World

Search This Blog