My Science School

The word ‘hibernate’ comes from the Latin and means ‘winter sleep’. Certain animals hibernate during the winter months to escape the severe weather conditions and because food is hard to find. The sleep of a true hibernator, like the hedgehog, is almost like death and is quite unlike ordinary sleep. The temperature of its body decreases until it is only a little warmer than the air of its den. Because of this, the animal burns the food stored in their bodies very, very slowly. They need less oxygen, and as a result their breathing is slower and their hearts beat only faintly. When spring comes, the animals are awakened by the change in temperature, moisture, and by hunger.

Fact File: Many mammals, like the bear, do not really hibernate. They do sleep more in the winter than in the summer, but it is not the deep sleep of hibernation.

 

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Although hedgehogs like woodland scrub and cover, as their name suggests, they prefer well cropped or cut grassland to find the worms and insects which are their staple diet. Hedgehogs do not tunnel, but wrap themselves up in dense collections of leaves to form solid hibernation nests under cover, and hide breeding nests in similar places.

Hedgehogs roll themselves up into a ball with spines to protect themselves from most predators. The spines are erect when they roll up, and these form a sharp defence. Born with soft, white ones, dark spines soon grow between these. Fleas, ticks, and lice enjoy life among these spines.

Fact File: The porcupine is another mammal that uses in spines for defence. Porcupines are heavyset, relatively short-legged rodents, essentially nocturnal and herbivorous in habit.

 

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Badgers have distinctive black and white faces, with broad bodies on powerful short legs. They live in colonies, underground (called sets), throwing out obvious heaps of soil at the entrances to their sets at dusk to forage for food. They prefer hilly districts on the borders of woods or thickets with easily worked soils.

They feed on earthworms and other small animals, fruits, cereals, and vegetables, using well-worn paths to their chosen pastures or clearings. Badgers take care to keep their sets warm and clean. Damp bedding in thrown out, and fresh, dry grass or straw is scratched up and gathered in animal.

Fact File: It is fairly easy to spot the entrance to a badger’s set as it is much larger than that of a rabbit or fox. The opening to the tunnel has smooth rounded edges, and there is often a musky smell close to it.

 

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Bats are most easily spotted on open ground near ponds and rivers at dusk. Insects hatch and fly from the water in large numbers, which attracts the bats. The bats catch the insects by a process known as echolocation. This is a technique in which an animal processes sounds and listens for the echoes reflected from surfaces and objects in the environment. From the information contained in these echoes, the animal is able to perceive the objects and work out exactly where they are. Bats change their roosting places from season to season. They choose caves, old ice houses and trees in which to hibernate. These give a constant temperature just above freezing.

Fact File: A bat called the pipistrelle has adapted to warm cavity walls or hanging tiles in our homes as their normal woodland habitat has been lost and natural roosts have become scarce.

 

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Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and certain other organisms transform light energy into chemical energy. During photosynthesis in green plants, light energy is captured and used to convert water, carbon dioxide, and minerals into oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds.

The plant contains packets of a green pigment called chlorophyll that carries out this process. During photosynthesis water and carbon dioxide from the air are converted into sugars that nourish the plant. At the same time the plant releases oxygen into the air.

Fact File: The process of photosynthesis takes place mostly in the leaves of a plant. Leaves are large and flattened so that a large area is exposed to sunlight.

 

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Many years ago the greatest threat to areas of standing water, such as ponds and lakes, was neglect. They gradually filled in and were occupied by shrubs and trees. Today, however, pollution from the modern world is the most serious threat to all water life. Farming practices pollute the water with fertilizers and pesticides. Sewage and waste from industry is also discharged into the rivers. On top of this, rivers and canals are often used as unofficial dumping sites for household waste. One of the saddest sights is to see dead fish floating on top of the water. Hopefully, tough laws controlling pollution may make this a thing of the past.

Fact File: Frogs produce large quantities of spawn in the spring. Keep a small amount in a jar with pond weeds and watch it grow into tadpoles.

 

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There are few birds that are so specialized as the woodpecker. These birds are rarely seen away from the trees that they need to supply their food and nest sites. They are particularly noted for their habit of probing for insects in tree bark and chiseling nest holes in dead wood.

Most woodpeckers spend their entire lives in trees, spiraling up the tree trunks in search of insects. In the spring you can hear the loud calls of woodpeckers, often accompanied by drumming on hollow wood or occasionally on metal. These are the sounds that are associated with the males marking their territories. Most woodpeckers tend to be rather solitary or travel in pairs.

The green woodpecker’s tongue is long and sticky, with a barbed point. It probes into anthills and the ants are dragged out and swallowed. When not being used the tongue winds back, liked a coiled spring, into a groove under the top of the woodpecker’s skull.

Fact File: Most woodpeckers eat insects, but some feed on fruits and berries, and sapsuckers regularly feed on sap from certain trees in some seasons.

 

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Owls are thick-set, rounded birds with large, flat or rounded heads and legs. Owls are difficult to see because they really come to life at night, and its whole body is especially suited to this kind of life. Once the owl has startled its prey and heard its movement, it can even see it in the dark. This is because the eyeballs of the owl are elastic. It can focus them instantly for any distance. The owl can also open the pupil of its eye very wide. This enables it to make use of all the night light there is. The owl’s eyes are placed so that it has to turn its whole head to change the direction and its glance. Even the owl’s feathers help it to hunt for its food. The feathers help it to hunt for its food. The feathers are so soft that the owl can fly noiselessly and thus swoop right down on to its prey.

Fact File: Some owls are helpful to farmers because they destroy rats, insects, and other enemies of crops. But there are owls that are fond of chickens and other domestic fowl, and these owls cost the farmer a lot of money.

 

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Plants living in very dry regions are specially adapted to stop them from losing too much water. They have smaller leaves, which are often thin and spiny, or they may have no leaves photosynthesis takes place in the swollen barrel-like stems, which are often covered with protective spines.

Desert plants also conserve water by having a thick waxy coat over their leaves and stems, and by storing water after the rain. Some desert plants have fat, swollen leaves or stems that are filled with water. Desert plants also have extremely long roots that burrow deep into the soil.

Fact File: Because plants need to store food and water over the winter, or in dry conditions, underground storage organs develop from roots, stems or leaf bases. We use many of these organs for food.

 

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Water bugs are found in all sorts of different types of freshwater have to return to the surface of the water from time to time. Ponds and lakes are the best habitats for water bugs. Only a few species live in streams and rivers, except where the current is slow-flowing.

Adult water beetles have to breathe air. They do not have gills. Many have a supply of air beneath their wing cases or under the body which they renew from time to time. Watch a beetle in a tank. Some species come to the surface tail-first, while a few come to the surface head first. Count the number of times a beetle will visit the surface in an hour.

Fact File: Place a needle on a piece of paper in some water. As the paper sinks, the needle floats, showing surface tension. This same process allows the water boatman to ‘walk’ on water. It uses its legs like oars to swim.

 

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The glow worm is not really a worm at all. It is a firefly in an early stage of development called the larval stage. Most adult fireflies never eat because they did all their eating when they were larvae. They hide during the daytime among the vegetation. After dark, the female climbs up plant stems and the top of her abdomen glows. The light from a larva’s glowing body attracts tiny flies and mosquitoes for the larva to eat.

The Waitomo Caves in New Zealand house a memorable type of glow worm. Tourists entering the Glowworm Grotto in small boats see thousands of lights on the cave ceiling. The glow worms look like stars in a night sky. If you cough or use a camera flash, the lights instantly go off. But wait quietly for a few minutes and they flicker back on, until the cave-ceiling ‘sky’ is again filled with ‘stars’.

Fact File: Woodworm, the larvae of the furniture beetle, cause lots of damage to timber both in buildings and in the wild. The damage is evident from the holes they leave behind.

 

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Bees constantly make honey because it serves them as food. So the whole process of making honey is a way of storing up food for the bee colony. The first thing a bee does is visit flowers and drinks the nectar. Then it carries the nectar home in the honey sac. This is a bag like enlargement of the digestive tract just in front of the bee’s stomach. There is a valve that separates this section from the stomach.

The first step in the making of the honey takes place while the nectar is in the bee’s honey sac. The sugars found in the nectar undergo a chemical change. The next step is to remove a large part of the water from the nectar. This is done by evaporation, which takes place because of the heat of the hive, and by ventilation. Honey stored in the honeycombs by honeybees has so much water removed from the original nectar that it will keep almost forever! The honey is put into honeycombs to ripen, and to serve as the future food supply for the colony. Honeys differ in taste and appearance, depending on the source of the nectar.

Fact File: Honey is removed from the hive by various methods. It may be squeezed from the comb by presses, or it may be sold in the combs cut from the hive. Most honey, however, is removed from the combs by a machine known as ‘a honey extractor’.

 

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Dragonflies are impressive insects with two pairs of powerful clear wings which enable them to catch insects on the wing. They have large eyes for spotting their prey. Dragonfly nymphs live in water and so the adults are usually seen near ponds, rivers and lakes. Some species have a feeding territory which they guard from other dragonflies – their clattering wings can sometimes be heard as they battle. When they mate, most species fly around in tandem before they lay their eggs in the water or among the waterside vegetation. Dragonfly nymphs are active carnivores. They feed on other insects, but can catch tadpoles or even small fish. On the underside of the head is a flap called the mask. This is armed with sharp jaws and fangs. At rest it is folded, but it can shoot out to catch its prey.

Fact File: A dragonfly’s eyes are large and five it almost all-around vision. They are sensitive to the slightest movement around them. If you look closely you will be able to see the individual facets of the eye. Each one contains its own lens; together they help form the image seen.

 

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Young insects develop in two main ways. Butterflies, bees and beetles, go through a process called metamorphosis. This means that their eggs hatch into larvae or caterpillars. Later these become a pupa or chrysalis, within an imago, or an adult insect, develops. The larvae may live in a different habitat from the adult and require different foods.

In species such as grasshoppers and locusts, the young that hatch from eggs look rather like small adults, and are called nymphs. As they grow, the nymphs shed their skins, looking more and more like adults each time.

Fact file: The wings of a bee or wasp can beat as many as 250 times per second during flight. The wings of midges can beat as many as 1,000 times per second – which accounts for the high-pitched whine that these tiny insects make.

 

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Plants growing in bogs and peaty areas often need to supplement their food supply by catching insects. Bog water contains very little nitrogen, but some bog plants can obtain this substance by catching and digesting insects. They are known as insectivorous plants. Other insectivorous plants are covered with sticky tentacles that trap flies. The most remarkable is the Venus flytrap plant. It has two clawed plates that slam together when a fly walks over them and touches a trigger hair. Other insect-eating plants are aquatic, catching tiny crustaceans in bladder-shaped underwater traps. Some of the largest insectivorous plants live in the tropical rainforests.

Fact file: Some insects use camouflage to blend into their environment, protecting themselves from predators.

 

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