My Report on Otters

     Hey guys!  I was looking at some old files and I found my report on otters from my writing class.

Enjoy my report on otters.

River Otters: The Children with Tails

      River otters, the children with tails.   Remarkably, they have some of the strongest family bonds in the animal kingdom.   Swimming gracefully, river otters skillfully hunt together, live together, and play together.  We will learn, in the following report, about the different aspects of these beautiful creatures.  Get ready to be amazed by these creatures of the water!

      

     River otters, which weigh about 30 pounds, are strong and graceful creatures.  They grow to be 3-4 feet in length, while other otters are much larger.  Through the water they glide, with short legs and webbed feet.  A rope-like tail helps these incredible animals slide through the water gracefully.  They have warm brown fur, with much lighter underparts.   Surprisingly, the fur is dense, and keeps the otter’s skin dry.   Swimming freely, the otter swims in cold waters while its fur keeps it warm.  These lithe mammals are amazing at surviving.           

     

      River otters, which are nimble, use their dexterity to help them find food.  Their diet varies with crabs, fish, frogs, clams, and salamanders.  Skillfully, they use their front legs to dig for their food. Swimming effortlessly, they hunt fish with their vision, whereas they hunt crabs with their adroitness.  They are opportunistic, and devour whatever is available.  In fact, they break down beaver dams and eat the fish as the water rushes past.  Sometimes they will even eat a baby beaver!  In the winter, river otters hunt under the ice.  They are one of the few creatures that use tools to hunt.  These animals are agile hunters.

      

     Family is important to river otters.  In the family, the young are called pups.  There are    1-5 pups born at a time.  The pups, which cannot see for a few weeks, are extremely vulnerable to predators.  For 3 months, the mother suckles and cleans the pups.  She defends the den courageously.  Surprisingly, she will not even let the dad in when she defends the den.  The pups will not meet the father for a few months.  Once they leave the den, they are afraid of water. Some mothers will let them ride on their stomachs, whereas others force them into the water.  If not forced, the pups will be sliding through the water in a few days.  They will hunt and travel together for 1 year before the otter will form his or her own family.  These amazing mammals have incredible families.

      

     River otters sure do have amazing families.  River otters, which are clever hunters, are built flawlessly for their remarkable adventures.  Effortlessly, river otters glide through the water, as other animals fall behind.  Playing joyously, they turn everything into a game.  River otters are the children of the animal kingdom.

Bibliography

Fulbright, Jeannie.  Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day,                          Anderson, Indiana: Apologia Educational Ministries, 200.

“Otter.” Britannica School. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 206. Web. 28 Feb. 206.

            http://library.eb.com/levels/youngadults/article/57672.

                                       (Required login)

Swanson, Diane. Welcome to the World of Otters, North Vancouver, BC:

            Whitecap Books, 202.

  Here are some cute otter pictures to laugh at until my next post

Happy 2017!

Hey Guys!  Sorry I haven’t posted lately!  Happy 2017!  If you’re asking for some content, here is some stuff I learned on batteries!

   Have you ever seen someone stick a nail and a penny in a lemon and attach a little light.  If you have you know that the little light begins to glow, as if it was attached to a battery.  WHY?!  To  simplify things we will start off with a real battery.  It is connected to a wire connected to a light bulb, connected back to the battery.  To give a simple answer:  The electrons from the atoms (usually lithium ions) go from the negative end of the battery to the positive end.  You want to dive deeper you say?  Ok here we go!


 

    Ok, now I’m going to tell you, there’s simple physics involved.  Wait! Don’t leave yet!  Take a deep breath and let’s dive in!

    It all started with a frog.  Really!   I’m not kidding!  There was this guy named Luigi Galvani who stuck different metals in a dead frog’s legs and found that it produced electricity.  Galvani thought the legs were releasing their “animal energy”, but Alessandro Volta, who had commented on the experiment, discovered that it was the difference in the metals that produced the current (electricity), and is quoted as saying

"It is the difference in metals that does it."

Alessandro Volta

But what about the batteries you use in your flashlight?  You don’t put lemons in those, right?  Correct, you use little round tubes and if you put them in right the flashlight flickers on.  Are there little men putting little pennies and little nails into tiny lemons?   No, but they use the same concept.  Let’s start with the magic tubes you buy at the store.  You have two ends of the battery: The cathode and the anode.  But what does that even mean?  Ok, starting from the beginning, the cathode is the positive end, the end that generally has a bump. The anode is the negative end without the bump.  When you attach the two ends of a battery with a conductor, an object that lets electrons flow through it, and the electrons from the anode (negative) to the cathode (positive), giving you a circuit.  But what if you hook up a light bulb?  We will call our light bulb our resistor, but are generally called a load.  When the electrons from the anode travel to the cathode, but meet a resistor, they drop off some electrons, causing our resistor, the light bulb, to light up.  Then they continue to the cathode.  When the both ends of the battery have the same number of protons and electrons, the anode and cathode neutralize, and the battery dies causing the light bulb to go out.



     Thank you for reading my article!  I hope you enjoyed it, and learned as much as I did.  I work hard to get these articles out, and I appreciate your patience!  Bye guys!  

Here is the website I used for my research if you want to learn  more about batteries!
(http)

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/batteries.html

Happy Fall!

Hey guys! Happy fall! I’ve been so busy lately, that I haven’t had much time at home. Recently I

went to Plymouth Plantation with my cousins! We learned so much! For example, did you know

Wampanoag men couldn’t wear long sleeves as they would get in the way? Instead, they would put

bear fat on their arms, which clogged up their pores. This would not let any of their body heat out,

which kept them warm. Also, did you know that when the Native Americans were sewing their clothes,

the used animal bones as needles and animal tendon as thread. Bone needles actually go through

leather and animal hide better then metal needles! Metal needles snap before they get through the

leather, while bone needles won’t. I also learned that Pilgrim children couldn’t go to school. The best

the adults could do was to homeschool them! I guess I’m carrying on the tradition of the pilgrims, huh!

We also visited Plymouth Rock! It was so amazing! I had a great time! I gotta go! Blog you later!

Emily.

At a Wampanoag house

Talking with the Pilgrims

Plymouth Rock

The Mayflower II

Blog you later!

­     Today I watched a documentary called “Microcosmo,” about insects.  It is officially rated G, for general audience.  I do not agree, as it has some show of the insect reproduction system, and in my opinion should be rated PG, for parental guidance.  It has very little speech and is an almost a silent documentary.  3 things that I learned are the following.  1. Insects can seek refuge in flowers as they close up at night. 2. How spiders wrap up their prey in a mummy like wrapping.  3. How bees see the world in ultraviolet colors, with their compound eyes.  Something I really loved is, with the help of the cameras, how they put things that we could never see, or notice, in real life, into such vividness, you felt like you were an insect bystander.  Some of this amazing footage includes: a sundew eating an insect, a flower closing for the night, and an insect hatching out of its egg.  If I could change anything, I would give more identification to everything, as we have to guess the insects, and sometimes didn’t have the chance.