The Colorado Adventure

For presentation club the topic was endangered animals or ways animals help us. Joel did prairie dogs. Target is about to build on the prairie dog site by our house, we also found out there are burrowing owls on the site (which are federally protected.) It remains to be seen if Target can evacuate the prairie dogs and owls.

(Joel)
When land development occurs what happens to the land and wildlife? Natural land is necessary for animal habitats and it is also nice to look at an area in its primitive state. Plants and trees in an undeveloped area support our atmosphere. The air you breathe may depend on land areas remaining uncultivated. The safety of where you live may depend on animals having a proper food source. The chain of cause and effects of homebuilding in our area is rapidly growing into a huge problem.

As a result of the new homes, prairie dog colonies are sucked up with a special machine and relocated to prairie dog farms. Shea homes ships more and more prairie dogs until the farms are full; consequently Shea homes turns the animals over to a ferret program to be used as food. Soon they might just have to kill the prairie dogs as the farms are full and the ferrets have plenty of food. Some people think prairie dogs are a nuisance but they are a vital part of the food chain in their natural environment. In fact, we now have a problem with coyotes by our house because their main food sources, prairie dogs, are slowly being eradicated by Shea homes. Now the coyotes are eating small dogs and cats in our neighborhood.

Bethany did lady bugs, no they’re not endangered, but they do help gardens. We brought our ladybug habitat. We now have some eggs around the tank too.

(Bethany)
The life cycle of the ladybug is between four to six weeks. In the spring the adults lay up to three hundred eggs in an aphid colony. The eggs hatch in two to five days. The newly hatched larvae feed on aphids for up to three weeks, and then they enter the pupa stage.
The adult ladybug emerges about a week later. However, they usually do not have their spots for their first 24 hours of adulthood. There may be as many as six generations of ladybugs hatched in a year. There are nearly 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs worldwide and 400 which live in North America. A female ladybug will lay more than 1000 eggs in her lifetime. A ladybug beats its wings 85 times a second when it flies. Aphids are a ladybug’s favorite food.

Grace did blue whales (which are endangered.) She used her blue whale puppet she got for her b-day and I asked it questions (M = Mama, W=Blue whale.)

(Grace)
W: Hi, I’m a blue whale and I am the largest animal that ever lived on Earth.

M: What do blue whales eat?
W: Krill.
M: How do they eat them?
W: I eat them with my mysticeti.
M: What’s that?
W: It’s baleen.
M: How many blowholes do you have?
W: 2 blowholes.
M: What other kind of whale are you?
W: I am a rorqual whale.
M: What does that mean?
W: I have throat grooves.
M: How many do you have?
W: 50-70.
M: Is it true you grow to be 80 feet long?
W: Yes and I weigh about 120 tons.
M: How big is your heart?
W: As big as a Volkswagen bug car.