Recently, I’ve been spending a fair bit of time at the Kew Bridge Eco-Village in west London. This fascinating project aims to create a sustainable community garden on an acre or so of derelict urban land which has been the subject of a now decades-old planning wrangle between the prospective developer, local residents and the borough council.

Sitting empty, unused and unloved on the banks of the Thames for almost two decades, the site was soon taken over by Mother Nature, and the eco-village is now home to an amazing array of wildlife, including bees, butterflies, ladybirds, foxes, a rare type of biting spider (!), as well as several neighbourhood cats who have obviously viewed the site as their very own private feline fiefdom for almost as long as it has been derelict.

I first visited the eco-village back in the summer, when the whole area was covered in the familiar pink of patches of rosebay willow-herb and the vivid purples of newly-seeded buddliea bushes, as well as any number of other, more curious and less common plants and herbs – all of which attract wildlife of all kinds, even on such a resolutely urban patch of land as this.

However, despite the fact that they are becoming more and more common in urban areas, and that the eco-village provides an ideal habitat for them, there is one species I have yet to see there – bats.

Everyone has their favourite animals, and bats are definitely one of mine. Not only are they remarkably cute little creatures (they are, honestly!), but they also play a crucial part in the maintainance of a green and healthy environment, which makes them doubly cool in my eyes. They really are extraordinary – and extraordinarily important – animals.

So here are a few fascinating Bat Facts to explain precisely why that is…

- Bats are the only true flying mammal, which makes them unique in the animal kingdom, although they actually make up as much as a quarter of all mammal species in Britain (and a fifth worldwide). Some British bats are much less common than others, but they are all threatened by the encroachment of humans onto their habitats.

- Many people would understandably assume that bats live solely in the countryside, but it is becoming more and more common to find them in urban habitats, where they roost in buildings and feed in local parkland. I have certainly seen bats in London. All bats need certain things in their habitat, whether rural or urban, in order to survive, including water, trees (which provide both food and navigational landmarks), and somewhere quiet and sheltered to protect them against predators and allow them to roost.

- Bats can live up to about the age of thirty, which makes them one of the longest-lived of all mammals. And they go back a long way. Fossilized bats have been found which scientists calculate are in the region of fifty million years old. These fossils show that these ancient bat ancestors were very similar to 21st century bats, suggesting that they have actually been around a lot longer than a mere fifty million years.

- The scientific name for bats is Chiroptera, which translates as ‘hand-wing’. If you look at a bat with its wings outstretched, you can see exactly where this name comes from. In fact, bats appear to have shared a common ancestor with us primates at some point in their evolution, which makes them genetically closer in some ways to humans than to other flying creatures like birds, or even mice.

- In the UK alone, there are seventeen different species of bat (of 1,100 worldwide), including a selection of bats with wonderfully descriptive names – such as the whiskered bat, the soprano pipistrelle, the Natterer’s bat, the lesser horseshoe bat, and the greater mouse-eared bat. All seventeen of these British species are very small creatures indeed, ranging from the pipistrelle, which weighs a little less than a £1 coin (approximately 5g), to the greater mouse-eared bat, which is the biggest bat in Britain, but would still easily fit on the palm of your hand.

- All of these different species of British bat are also insect eaters, and they all hunt their favourite bugs in different ways. Most bats actually catch and eat their prey on the wing, which is probably the very definition of fast food. And they need those calories. Flying and hunting expends a lot of energy, meaning that even the tiniest bat can eat upwards of 3,000 insects in a single night.

- Bats are very clever hunters. They aren’t blind, they actually see almost as well as humans, but they have a very acute sense of hearing, and they use a natural sonar-like system called echolocation to track their prey and estimate distance at night (which puts them at a distinct advantage, no matter how quietly that tiny midge thinks it is flying through the dark). It is the very existence and super-accuracy of echolocation which can finally and fully disprove that old canard about bats getting caught up in your hair.

- At this time of the year, most bats are quite sensibly contemplating hibernation. They’ll have mated (the female bat actually stores the sperm until it is safe to become pregnant in the warmer spring weather), and, like many mammals in autumn and winter, are getting sleepier and sleepier. In only a few weeks time, they will be hibernating somewhere cool and quiet until the spring.

- And spring is, of course, the time of year when baby bats start to appear. Female bats will group together in a ‘maternity roost’ to give birth, often at the same site every year. Bat pregnancies last between six and nine weeks, with some variation depending on the climate and the availability of insects. Similarly to human females, bats tend to give birth to a single baby, which they then feed and nurture for about a month until the baby bat is able to fly and fend for itself.

- It is during this maternity season that bats are most vulnerable to disturbance, but they are actually under threat all year round. This threat comes mostly from us humans, and mostly because so many of us do not understand how important bats are in the greater scheme of things. Despite the fact that all British bats (and their roosts) are protected by law, they are still threatened by everything from urban building work and renovations to loss of rural food sources, habitats and flightlines – as well as less obvious threats, such as intensive farming methods, lighting and wind turbines.

It seems that being a bat in Britain (and in other parts of the world) is an increasingly risky business, particularly for bats in urban environments. Rather than running from them, screaming, we should be admiring and protecting these remarkable and often endangered creatures. If the general public were aware of the good that bats do in keeping our natural world going – that they hunt insects, pollinate and re-seed plants, and that bat droppings make an excellent natural fertilizer, as well as providing enzymes used in the laundry detergents we use every day – I would hope that many more people would join me in wanting the best for these endearing and helpful animals.

For more information on British bats and helpful advice on the legal status of roosts etc., visit the Bat Conservation Trust website. If you are in America, try the Bat Conservation International website for useful information on bats there.

Life in the Boreal Forest

Brenda Z. Guiberson

Illustrations by Gennady Spirin
Henry Holt and Co., 2009
ISBN #978-0-8050-7718-6

K-5^th grades

NF PB

“Tika tika tika swee swee! A Tennessee warbler sings in a forest so huge that it covers one third of the earth’s total forest area. It grows across Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia. A swath of trees this big has many names, like taiga and boreal forest. Boreal means northern, fro Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind.”

This gorgeous book describes the variety of life in the boreal forest in its natural context of habitat and the food web. Including even a bit on the relationship of the predators and prey, the text portrays the life cycles and habits of the life within the forest and the effects the environment cause to its inhabitants. The text explains the reasons for the dwindling amount of boreal forest, a primary premise of the book, but does so in a slightly heavy-handed manner. The information is detailed and ecologically oriented, and includes the food web relationships of the organisms along with their adaptations for survival in the rugged climate.

The illustrations are beautifully rendered in lifelike paintings positioned across three-fourth of the spread with the text in the remaining space, positioned on one side or the other of each spread. The starving animals make an interesting, if pitiful, addition to the realities of life in the boreal forest and its harsh conditions and illustrator Spirin has done an excellent job with them. The animals in action are fascinating and I personally love the snow covered, frozen pond with the beaver lodge and a passing dogsled team.

Activity 1

List the adaptations that enable the inhabitants of the boreal forest to survive the harsh conditions.

Activity 2

Create a food chain using some of the organisms from the book.

Activity 3

Look up information about tropical rain forests. Compare and contrast the differences in the rain forest and the boreal forest. Look for adaptations the organisms in the rain forest have that help suit them for that biome.

Rain forest biome information.

More details about rain forests.

This site has information and facts about the loss of rain forest habitats

Read more information here.

This site has good general information.

 This site has good information and games; however, some links wre not not working. If you have patience, there were a couple of them, including one about The Lorax, that looked fun.

National Science Standard: organisms and environments

Book supplied by publisher to Librarian’s Choices review committee

Ward, Jennifer. 2009. The Busy Tree. Ill. by Lisa Falkenstern. Tarrytown,NY: Marshall Cavendish.

With oil paintings that are both realistic and beautiful, Busy Tree informs readers of the many uses for a tree. In first -person rhyme, the “tree” tells of its many denizens,
“This is the spider that lives in my bark, spinning a web from dawn until dark.” A simple and powerful introduction to trees.

In late August a team of 20 volunteer ecologists undertook the first ever comprehensive habitat mapping of the Brede Valley. The data from the survey will be written up and presented in the form of a map and made widely available. The volunteers were all staff from The Ecology Consultancy, Local landowners were helpful in facilitating access for the project and providing camping accommodation. The team covered the majority of the land between Doleham and Winchelsea Station below the 5 m contour.

Whilst in general the grazing meadows proved to be of restricted interest, some of the ditches, of which there is an abundance, and other wetland areas were of more interest. Seven species of pond weed Potamogeton spp were found including flat stalked pond weed, which is uncommon nationally and with no other recent records in East Sussex, along with rootless duckweed Wolffia arrhiza the UKs smallest flowering plant and a local specialty.

Invertebrates were surveyed in the extreme west and in the central part of the valley. In the west the tall fen habitats ‘tick the right boxes’ for several groups of flies including the snail killing flies (Sciomyzidae). In the central areas the main interest was the ditches and their water beetles. Samples from both sites are currently being identified but invertebrate ecologist Graham Hopkins has high hopes of some very interesting discoveries.

The Ecology Consultancy team plan to visit the area again in 2010 and subsequent years in order to extend the mapping to as much of the valley as possible. Consultation with interested parties will take place over the winter to ensure that local naturalists are involved and help guide the process. Important wildlife features will be highlighted with the general aim being to provide guidance to landowners as to where nature conservation benefit can be best and most easily achieved.

Oenanthe fistulosa – relatively common in the ditches of the Brede valley

Sparganium erectum a common plant in the Brede Valley ditches

The Brede Valley comprises miles of valuable ditch habitat

Before the holidays we were looking at habitats, and how animals were adapted to live where they do. Everyone worked in teams to make a new animal out of vegetables and things Mr Quinlan brought in. They had to think carefully about why they were making the animals look like they did, and how their features helped them to live.

When they had made the animals everyone made a fact file about them, saying what features they had and how they needed these to cope in the habitat they lived in.

We had some pretty creative creatures!

Retell: Barbara Bush zooms in on gothic building structures, bridge towers and overpasses to describe the adaptations of birds who thrive in urban areas.

Topics: birds, pigeons, urban areas, cities, habitats, migration, camouflage, adaptation, roosts, crows, shelter

Units of Study: Content-Area, Nonfiction

Reading Skills: envisionment, questioning, determining importance, synthesis

My Thoughts: I’m currently looking for books that will support the current Nonfiction unit.  I considered reading this book immediately, but I think I’m going to save it for our Content-Area unit.  During that unit we’ll be studying Food Chains and Habitats in Science making this book a perfect fit.  Urban Roosts is a book that will encourage urban readers to reconsider the common pigeon, finch or crow–a great book for modeling envisionment in nonfiction.

I was really excited to get the quarterly edition of BirdLife Cyprus (the magazine of BirdLife Cyprus, as it’s always packed with informational goodies. One article in particular was worth sharing, by Campaigns Officer Eleni Zissimou. I wanted to quote from it, as it details the situation in Cyprus for Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) representing the core efforts to protect the most vital habitat areas in Cyprus and in Europe.

A note of distinction: IBAs are descriptions on paper to signify value to ornithologists, designated by conservationist NGOs. SPAs however are designated by EU legislation, under the Birds Directive 79/409/EEC. Thus, SPAs are legislatively supposed to receive greater protection, although IBAs sometimes receive greater attention because they do not have the legal protections afforded to SPAs.

From the article:

According to the latest BirdLife Cyprus IBA inventory of 2004, there are 19 IBAs on the island, of which 16 are in the Republic. Of those, 15 have already been designated as SPAs, while the Akamas Peninsula is still outstanding. Additionally, there are a further 13 SPAs which today do not overlap with any IBAs. These were designated by the competent authority, the Game Fund in Cyprus, using ornithological data after 2004.

Protection on paper or in practices?

The 27 SPAs of the Cyprus Republic at first glance seem impressive, relative to the 15 IBAs. It is, however, ironic that these areas which are on the whole beautiful and which should be effectively protected, often seem to act as magnets for various developments that have the potential to degrade them or even destroy them, and as a consequence many today are seriously threatened. There are many reasons for this such as ownership of the land, the often not so strict implementation of the European law for environmental impact assessment, the sheer number of proposed developments and finally the apparent general lack of engagement by the Government.

Unfortunately, as with other countries, these areas are often treated as a problem and not a benefit for the future. Despite the fact that all advertisements of Cyprus abroad show beautiful areas, free of buildings and disturbance, i.e. areas like many of the IBAs or SPAs, and that it is likely that many foreign visitors expect to see on the island what they see in the pictures these areas are not effectively protected so as to remain such.

That is an excellent description of the conservation situation in Cyprus.

A beetle is commonly known to many of us. But what it really does is not known by many of our people. The one unique feature about the beetle is that it is having the most number of species that is ever known. Other feature of this is that the beetles are common in all habitats. The reason for the beetles to be available in all habitats is due to the fact that   beetles adapt to any climate and the other thing is that their reproduction rate is far higher than any other living beings. In a square mile the beetle population is 70 times the human population. They mostly feed on the plant and fungi.

Why is beetle harmful?

The reason for the farmers to worry about the beetle is that due to their two ways of causing damage to the farmers. The first one is due to their food habit. As they feed on the plant and fungi they largely damage the plants which form the major source of income for the normal farmer. If the plants are eaten by these pests then automatically the price of these fruits and vegetables will go down causing a large loss of money for the poor farmer. The second case is that when the beetles decompose the dead things. They also have the capability to decompose dead decaying matter. So they will be attacking the skin of the living beings too. This represents the sheep. This will also result in a large amount of money loss for the people who are living on them.

Ways to solve this problem?

The one and only way to solve this problem is to go in for the usage of pest control beetles. This also a spray of insecticide similar to the maggot pest controls. They work similar to the maggot pest control in all their procedures. They two work in two fashions. The preventive and the killing way and thereby eliminate the beetles once and for all. The only difference that it has over the other is that it would be more intense in its concentration. This would cause the plants to react fast to the control spry than the other pest control sprays.

The methodology of the pest control usage:

The pests eat away the plants so it is mandatory to use the pest control methods. The usage of the beetle pest control is much simpler when compared to maggot pest control. The only thing to be kept in mind is that the concentration must be kept low and the spray must be done only once in three months.

Growing mountains may give rise to new species ” and not simply provide a refuge to species whose traditional habitats have been lost, US scientists suggest.

Source:
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090925/full/news.2009.952.html?s=news_rss

Retell: In this book, readers learn how animals ‘play games’ in order to adapt to their habitat.  In order to survive they play hide-and-seek, play dead, and even play pretend.

Topics: animals, adaptations, habitats, marine life, mammals, mimicry, camouflage

Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content Area

Reading Skills: envisionment, questioning, synthesis, determining importance

Writing Skills: developing voice in expository writing, including conclusions that sum up and release the writer

Thoughts: I’m worried about a boy in my class.  He dropped four reading levels over the summer.  He’s distracted during Reading Workshop and his reading log shows he’s not reading at home.  However, he’s obsessed with the books in the dinosaur bin and carries around a gaming magazine.  He’s a nonfiction reader trapped in a unit of study focused on fiction.  I think of him as I plan my read alouds.  I want to make sure that I’m finding time to tuck in nonfiction read alouds throughout the week, even though we’re not currently in a nonfiction unit.  Fake Out! is a high engagement nonfiction read aloud that just happens to look like a “low level” book.  Reading this book aloud ‘blesses’ this struggling reader’s level and will hopefully make “All Aboard” books cool to read.

Today we looked at a real pond, brought to us by Ms. Monsees (Grade 2/3 intern).  We got to see minnows, snails and beetles in their own habitat!

Free Printable Jim Arnosky Animals to Color
Jim Arnosky has created a series of over 100 of his wonderful animal illustrations. You can print these and other activities. Here’s how.
Read on…

Habitats or biomes include the flora and fauna of a particular climate; the animals that live in an area and the plant life that sustains them. Here are several free printable dioramas that depict plant life and animals in particular habitats. Use these for life science or social studies. Useful for several grade levels. Great interactive, hands-on activities. Read more…

Monday, rather than roasting meat over open flames or guzzling beer, my husband and I went to the Detroit Zoo. At 9AM. On a holiday. Turns out earlier IS better at the zoo. There was hardly anyone there when we got in. And the place was crawling when we left. We started out waking up two water weasels. They were just the first thing we stopped in to see.

The one on the right really wanted to go play in the waterfall. And the one on the right wanted to chew the others arms off and go back to sleep. Drew and I couldn’t help but feel like we were looking into a mirror.

Were you aware that the Detroit Zoo allows peacocks to roam freely on its grounds? Yup. They do. You can find them almost anywhere at the zoo. We spotted some females too with babies (!) but I didn’t want to spook them to get any decent shots. This one wasn’t feeling very opportunistic about my camera as it was. He plopped off right after this.

I wasn’t joking when I said we’d gotten there early. The deer weren’t awake.

Neither were the tigers. They remind me of my cat.

But the lions were awake! I’m pretty sure they had just finished their morning coffee though. Awake but still out of it. Did I say lions? I meant lionesses. They don’t like to be generalized in with the males. Wait… where’s the lion?

Can you see him? Me either.

Still nothin’. He was shy.

The rhinos were shy too. They were also waiting in line for their morning belly rubs. I’m not kidding.

And bears! Ok, I went a little out of order. But bears! I’ve seen a black bear with no wires and fences between him and me, but never a brown bear. They are a lot bigger.

And bison! I suddenly fail to recall how many they have there… I know he wasn’t the only one, but he was munching happily away at some grass at the perfect angle for me.

Speaking of bears…

You can stand next to the pool where the polar bears relax.

There’s only a 4 inch piece of pyrex between you and them.

This bear weights 1100 pounds. I think that’s more than my car.

He’s playing with a box. He really loves this box…

Ok maybe not…

The polar bears are always my favorite place to stop at the zoo. They got a brand new habitat a few years ago. There’s another part of it where you walk in a glass tunnel under their tank.

And they like to stand on it.

And that was most of our trip! I have more pictures here, lots more of the polar bears

If anything this trip to the zoo has taught me one important thing:
I need a telephoto lens.

SESSION PLAN

Teacher-Assistant Link Sheet

After a long summer of blog negligence, I have returned with some photos of our most recent project.  We are doing a small project on animals, their habitats, and their coverings (fur, feathers etc.) and ability to blend in.  We read What Color is Camouflage?, How the Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots, and I See Animals Hiding about animal coverings and about animal habitats we read Guide to the Planet and Animals at Home.  Then each of the kids picked an animal and habitat with the stipulation being that they would each be doing a different habitat.  We printed out pictures of their animals from the internet and they made models of them using model magic.  Then the kids colored pictures of their habitats which we glued into plastic bins to give their model animals each a home.  In order of the pictures above, Jack made an anteater living in the rainforest, Zeke made a rhinoceros living in the savanna, and Ukiah made a bat living in a cave.  They all made some cute details!  Jack drew a colorful snake hanging from a tree in his rainforest.  Zeke really concentrated on getting the colors right and drew acacia trees, and Ukiah put slime and cave paintings on his cave walls.  It was fun and I’ll follow up shortly with pictures of our trip to the zoo scheduled for tomorrow.

A really pretty Small Tortoiseshell butterfly was hovering around the Bergamot (Monarda didyma) that was waiting to get planted in the Potager Garden today, and a Small White (male) as well. But the best place in the church gardens at present for butterflies is the potato “avenue” we planted at the entrance – the potato plants are in flower and since Sunday I have seen several Peacocks and a Small Tortoiseshell on them. Small Tortoiseshells seem to be declining in Central and Southern Scotland, so it’s good to have them here.

Today by the potager there was also a Two-spot Ladbybird, and a BEAUTIFUL Shield Bug, which might have been Troilus luridus, but I am not sure. We planted the bergamot and other herbs to attract more insects.

Thistles, docks and clover appearing in the wild flower meadow and will have to be dealt with.

Yesterday, twenty Arabian oryx – a kind of white antelope, native to the Middle East – were released into the wild at Wadi Rum in Jordan, as the latest step in efforts to reintroduce the animal to the wild after its near-extinction in the 1970s.

A bit of background: oryx once roamed widely from Egypt to Syria to Oman. They were a prize target for hunters, who celebrated the chase in epic poems: oryx became symbols of grace and fortitude, mythologized like bulls in Spanish culture or stags in British culture. The arrival of 4WD vehicles and automatic weapons in the 1940s meant that hunters could finally outpace the oryx – and in twenty years, they massacred virtually the whole population. A few breeding pairs were saved and flown to Phoenix, Arizona, to form the nucleus of a ‘World Herd’, from which all surviving oryx are now descended.

Since then various countries have brought in reintroduction programmes, but almost none meets international guidelines. Oman could not control poaching at its huge reserve on the Jiddat al-Harasis plain, reduced the boundaries and was struck off UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list. Dubai has a desert reserve, centred on the Al-Maha luxury hotel. Abu Dhabi has crammed hundreds of oryx (along with giraffe and heaven knows what else) onto the small Sir Bani Yas island and called it a wildlife park with – predictably – a luxury hotel. They’re repeating the theme at a desert reserve in the south, due to open later this year with another luxury hotel, Qasr al-Sarab. Jordan’s habitats have been destroyed by overgrazing of sheep and goats; its oryx have remained penned in a small reserve at Shaumari for the last 30 years.

Only in Saudi Arabia, where there is much less pressure for tourism development, has oryx reintroduction worked, at the immense Uruq Bani Maarid reserve in the Empty Quarter.

Now Abu Dhabi has struck a deal with Jordan to release oryx at Wadi Rum. Twenty animals were flown over earlier this year for acclimatization, and the enclosure gates were opened yesterday. Abu Dhabi newspaper The National sent a journalist – her report is here.

All looks great, eh? Nice, feel-good story.

Unfortunately, this is not good journalism. Jordan’s RSCN nature conservancy society has been conducting experiments in oryx release at Wadi Rum for the last 7 years – but Wadi Rum is not an oryx habitat. It’s too sandy and too mountainous: the oryx always roamed south and had to be brought back. Several died from broken legs sustained on the scree slopes. The RSCN eventually called a halt and pulled out. Then the semi-autonomous Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (a commercial body, not a conservation organization) stepped in to try and boost local income through increased tourism to the area. It is they, not the Jordanian government in Amman, who have struck the deal with Abu Dhabi: this oryx release is a laudable effort, but it has little or no scientific basis. It is economic. I have talked to several conservationists, including independent scientists with no axe to grind, who are well aware the release will fail.

The article is also littered with factual errors. Sheikh Zayed did make a contribution to saving the species from annihilation, but the real work had been done years before with the establishment of the World Herd. Oryx conservation projects are not ‘planned’ for Saudi Arabia, but have long been under way there.

And why did they send someone with poor Arabic? “Aion elmaha” – or, more properly, “ayoun al-maha” – does not mean ‘beautiful eyes’, but ‘the eyes of the oryx’.

As for a professional journalist recycling the sentimentality of the father standing with his hand on his son’s shoulder – well, there’s no accounting for taste.

A lazily written story, presented as if it’s the conclusion – save oryx, breed oryx, release oryx, job done.

In truth, this is just the start. What is now involved is a pouring of resources into making sure the oryx survive: manpower, cars, data collection, analysis, maintenance of GPS collars and monitoring equipment, perhaps intervention, enforcement of anti-poaching laws, environmental education for local people, development of tourism strategies… the list goes on! This is why poor countries like Jordan can’t afford to do it alone – and why a highly-placed source within the Jordanian conservation community told me that, given a choice, he’d prefer to drop the whole oryx programme and focus attention on something less expensive and more likely to succeed.

But the oryx has become a popular symbol of conservation (see logo), like the panda or the tiger – despite the fact that conservation science has moved on from spotlighting big mammals and is now devoted to broader, but less sexy, preservation of habitats (which ensures survival of hundreds of species together).

Once the oryx was allowed to be eliminated in the wild, reintroducing it means we have now become entangled in a never-ending story of management and control, pretty much in perpetuity – rather like with the bison in North America.

The Wadi Rum release is an interesting experiment, but it is not a “success story”. I’m disappointed in the usually excellent National, leaving its readers so ill-informed.

UPDATE (12 Sept 09): To their credit, The National sent the same reporter back to cover the story again a short time later – her second story, published 6th Sept, covers the issues much more clearly and accurately, I think. Thanks (and kudos) to her and the newspaper.

UPDATE 2 (also 12 Sept 09): My article on the conservation status of the Arabian oryx throughout the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula was published last week in Saudi Aramco World magazine – click here to read it. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below…