Tag Archives: America

Great Blue Hole

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Great Blue Hole

Don’t fall down the Great Blue Hole.

  • The Great Blue Hole is an underwater sinkhole or cave, located near Belize of Central America, in the Lighthouse Reef.
  • The Great Blue Hole is 300 metres (984 feet) in diameter, the largest of known blue holes in the world, and it measures 124 metres (407 feet) in depth.
  • The Great Blue Hole is part of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
  • In 1971, explorer and naval officer, Jacques Cousteau from France, publicised the Great Blue Hole as one of the best scuba sites in the world.
  • The Great Blue Hole is the home to numerous limestone formations that are affected by karst phenomena, including stalactites.
Great Blue Hole, Cave, Water, Central America, Natural, Wonder, Amazing, Belize, Reef, Ten Random Facts, FlickrThe Great Blue Hole
Image courtesy of Eric Pheterson/Flickr
  • The Great Blue Hole is the home to many species of fauna that live around the reef that surrounds the outer rim of the hole, including the occasional reef shark.
  • The Great Blue Hole is a popular tourist destination and diving site, due to its great size, clear water, cave formations, and surrounding wildlife, and snorkeling is also popular.
  • The Great Blue Hole is said to have been originally a cave above sea level, that eventually filled with water and collapsed.
  • The Great Blue Hole can be viewed from the air, or accessed via watercraft, and boats can only anchor in specific areas, as they have caused reef damage in the past.
  • The official depth measurement of the Great Blue Hole was recorded in 1997 by the Cambrian Foundation, and the expedition’s primary focus was to collect seafloor samples from the hole.
Bibliography:
Blue Hole Natural Monument, 2008, Belize Audubon Society, http://www.belizeaudubon.org/?page_id=3603
Great Blue Hole, 2014, Atlas Obscura, http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/great-blue-hole
Great Blue Hole, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Hole

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Scorpion

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Scorpion

You’ll regret being stung by a scorpion.

  • Scorpions are anthropods belonging to the order Scorpiones, which is also their scientific name, that consists of 13 families and approximately 1750 species, plus around 110 that are extinct.
  • Scorpions have two claw-shaped pedipalps; a long segmented body, and a long segmented erect tail, tipped with a stinger and venom.
  • Scorpions are related to spiders, and of the thousands of species, only around 25 to 40 can actually cause a human fatality, and they are preyed on by birds, lizards, rodents and possums.
  • Scorpions are native worldwide, with the exception of Antarctica, although they were introduced to some Pacific Islands, including New Zealand, as well as Europe’s Great Britain.
  • Scorpions can be found in a wide variety of habitats, and typically live in holes in the ground or other similar shelters during the day, and are active during the night.
Scorpion, Yellow, Orange, Arthropod, Close, Animal, Ten Random Facts, Flickr, Amazing
Scorpion
Image courtesy of Matt Reinbold/Flickr
  • Scorpions are capable of living up to a year without food, and their diet mainly consists of insects, spiders and some small reptiles and mammals, that are trapped via their pincers and/or dangerous venom; and they liquidize their prey before consumption.
  • Scorpions produce from 1 to 105 young over a period of a few weeks, while the young are dependent on their mother and live on her back until their first moult.
  • Scorpions are fried and traditionally consumed in Asia’s China, where a wine made from the creature is also used as medicine.
  • Scorpions range from less than 1 centimetre (0.4 inches) in length, to 21 centimetres (08.3 inches) and weigh 10 to 100 grams (0.4 to 3.5 ounces).
  • Scorpions are typically coloured black, white, red, brown or yellow, and when placed underneath an ultraviolet light, they may emit a fluorescent colour.
Bibliography:
Scorpion, 2013, A-Z Animals, http://a-z-animals.com/animals/scorpion/
Scorpion, 2014, National Geographic, http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/bugs/scorpion/
Scorpion, 2014, San Diego Zoo, http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/scorpion
Scorpion, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion

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Yellowstone National Park

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Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is a magical place.

  • Yellowstone National Park is a protected reserve, the majority of which is located in Wyoming, a state in the north-western United States of America.
  • Yellowstone National Park was first declared a national park on 1 March, 1872, by then president Ulysses Grant, and is said to be the first designated national park on earth, and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978.
  • Yellowstone National Park covers an area of 8,983 square kilometres (3,468 square miles), and is filled with water bodies, rock formations and a variety of habitats.
  • Yellowstone National Park has a notably large lake at high altitude that covers America’s biggest super volcano and the largest caldera in the world, while the caldera spans a distance of 45 kilometres by 75 kilometeres (27 miles by 45 miles), and is said to be still active, and has shaped much of the surrounding land.
  • Yellowstone National Park features up to 465 active geysers of the 1280 or so that exist in the park, including the famous ‘Old Faithful Geyser’, and they total approximately 66% of the world’s total number of geysers, and the park also boasts 10,000 geothermal features, of which the world has approximately 20,000.
Yellowstone National Park, Grand Prismatic Spring, Hot Spring, Tree, Valley, Amazing, Beautiful, Ten Random Facts, Flickr, North America,
Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park
Image courtesy of Frank Kovalchek/Flickr
  • Yellowstone National Park is hit by minor earthquakes annually by the thousands; one of the greatest being a 7.5 magnitude quake that created a lake due to a dam collapse in 1959.
  • Yellowstone National Park is the home to 1700 native flora species, such as trees, as well as the endemic Yellowstone sand verbena; 311 bird species and approximately 60 mammal species, including wolves, elks, bison, grizzly bears and lynx.
  • Forest fires commonly occur in Yellowstone National Park annually, generally caused by lightning, and the fires are necessary events for the park’s habitat.
  • Yellowstone National Park is visited by approximately two million tourists annually, that are catered for by hotels, lodges and cabins that as a whole, contain more than 2,000 rooms, as well as campgrounds with more than 2,000 campsites.
  • Yellowstone National Park can be accessed and driven through in automobiles, and there are hiking paths totalling 1770 kilometres (1100 miles) in length.
Bibliography:
Yellowstone National Park, 2014, Montana, http://www.visitmt.com/national_parks/yellowstone/
Yellowstone National Park, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park
Yellowstone National Park, 2014, World Heritage Convention UNESCO, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/28

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Woolly Mammoth

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Woolly Mammoth

There is a lot of information about the extinct woolly mammoth.

  • Woolly mammoths are large, extinct mammals from prehistoric northern Europe, Asia and America, that are said to be relatives of Asian Elephants.
  • Woolly mammoths have the scientific name of Mammuthus primigenius and are one of ten species of mammoth from the family Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths.
  • Woolly mammoths reached 1.8 to 4 metres (6 to 13 feet) in height and weighed up to 4 to 8 tonnes (4.4 to 8.8 tons); had dark hair coats coloured mostly black or brown; as well as small ears and short tails that reduced the chance of frostbite.
  • Woolly mammoths boast some of the most collected data of all prehistoric animals, due to extensive skeletons, preserved bodies, fossils and cave depictions.
  • Woolly mammoths had two long, sloped tusks that grew to be 1.5 to 4.2 metres (5 to 14 feet) in length, and three quarters were generally visible, while the tusks were probably used for defense and species fighting in the form of hitting.
Woolly Mammoth Royal BC Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, Fake, Replication, Musuem, Ten Random Facts, Flickr, MammalReplica of a Woolly Mammoth
Image courtesy of Rob Pongsajapan/Flickr
  • Woolly mammoths lived in large herds similar to today’s elephants, while weak and young mammoths were preyed on by pack dog species and large animals from the cat family, and the typical life span ranged from 25 to 80 years.
  • The diet of woolly mammoths probably consisted of vegetation including shrubs, trees, fruit, moss, nuts and smaller plants.
  • Woolly mammoths are often depicted in ancient cave paintings, while the bones were used by people to create human shelters and the tusks made into weapons and tools.
  • Woolly mammoths probably became extinct due to hunting and habitat changes, and the last mammoths probably lived isolated in the Arctic Ocean on Wrangel Island.
  • Some frozen woolly mammoths contain DNA that could possibly be extracted and cloned, although this popular theory is controversial, due to financial costs and ethical issues.
Bibliography:
Woolly Mammoth, 2013, A-Z Animals, http://a-z-animals.com/animals/woolly-mammoth/
Woolly Mammoth, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth

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Beaver

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Beaver

Do you beaver around a lot?

  • Beavers are rodents that are generally active at night, and their habitat is primarily water bodies in forest areas of North America, Europe and Asia.
  • Beavers spend significant quantities of time constructing and maintaining dams and other aquatic structures like lodges, that provide protection and housing, as well as water movement that allows resources to float, and they use trees that they cut down with their sharp teeth, as well as rocks, other vegetation and mud as their building materials.
  • Beavers have the scientific name Castor, while they are the only living members of the family Castoridae, and there are two extant species of beaver – Castor fiber which is known as the Eurasian species, and Castor canadensis, the North American species.
  • Beavers are able to move easily in water, and their diet consists of vegetation, particularly material from a variety of trees, including bark, leaves and twigs, as well as aquatic plants and sedges.
  • Beavers grow to lengths of 60 to 120 centimetres (23 to 47 inches), making them the second largest rodent on earth, and weigh 16 to 27 kilograms (35 to 60 pounds).
 Beaver, Brown, Two, Dam, Construction, Ten Random Facts, Flickr, Animals,
Beavers
Image courtesy of flinchlake2000/Flickr
  • Beavers have beige, red-brown, brown, almost black, or grey fur; the back feet are webbed; they have see-through eyelids; and a flat tail that acts like a rudder and provides a loud warning when slapped against water.
  • Beavers live in families in their lodges that consist of as many as ten rodents, and they are preyed on by wolves, bears and lynxes, and the animal has a lifespan of 15 to 20 years, although they can live up to 24 years.
  • Beavers body parts have been used in traditional medicine; the secretions from their castor sacs or scent glands are used in the perfume industry and as a flavouring for food; and the fur coat is a commonly poached item.
  • It is illegal to hunt or kill beavers in some countries and areas, while in other places, including parts of the United States, it is legal to trap or shoot the animal.
  • When introduced without sufficient predators, beavers can overrun habitats, causing extensive forest removal, landscape change and water flow changes, as well as other problems, and they can be a pest on farms and properties.
Bibliography:
Beaver, 2013, A-Z Animals, http://a-z-animals.com/animals/beaver/
Beaver, 2014, National Geographic, http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/mammals/beaver/
Beaver, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver

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Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

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Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park has water in a ‘desert’ – who knew?

  • Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is a national park in northern Brazil’s state of Maranhão, in South America.
  • Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is a sandy area with sloping dunes that incorporates lagoons, and while it appears to be a desert, due to the lack of any obvious vegetation across much of the area, it receives too much rain to be classed as one.
  • Lençóis Maranhenses National Park covers an area of 1550 square kilometres (600 square miles) and includes approximately 70 kilometres (43.5 miles) of coastline and stretches as far as 50 kilometres (31 miles) inland.
  • Lençóis Maranhenses National Park became a national park in 1981 and in 2014, it was managed by the Brazilian Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation of Biodiversity (ICMBio – Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade).
  • Lençóis Maranhenses National Park cannot be entered by any vehicle type except 4-wheel drives, and tours are available for a fee.
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Desert, Water, Amazon, South America, Natural, Wonder, Flickr, Ten Random Facts
Part of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park
Image courtesy of Danielle Pereira/Flickr
  • The blue-green freshwater lagoons of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park are formed by the 1194 to 1524 millimetres (47 to 60 inches) of rain that falls each year.
  • Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is a popular tourist destination, and the best time to visit is said to be from July to September when the lagoons are full, and during this time, fish inhabit the ponds, including the mud-dwelling wolf fish.
  • Even though Lençóis Maranhenses National Park receives significant rain, due to persistent winds it has only small quantities of vegetation in certain areas.
  • Fisherman, during the wet season, fish in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, but work in agricultural sites during the dry season, when most of the lagoons have dried up.
  • Lençóis Maranhenses National Park sand dunes can reach heights of 40 metres (131 feet), and there are no public facilities like toilets and food outlets in the park.
Bibliography:
Geiling N, How Do Thousands of Clear Blue Lagoons End Up In These Brazilian Sand Dunes?, 2014, Smithsonian, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Lencois-maranhenses-brazil-thousands-clear-blue-lagoons-in-sand-dunes-180951756/?no-ist
Tours in Lencois Maranhenses, n.d, Parque Lençóis, http://www.parquelencois.com.br/english/lencois_maranhenses_passeios.php
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len%C3%A7%C3%B3is_Maranhenses_National_Park
Murano G & Wilkinson J, Coastal Dunes, Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil, 2014, Coastal Care, http://coastalcare.org/2011/06/coastal-dunes-lencois-maranhenses-brazil/
National Park of Lençóis, n.d, ICMBio, http://www.icmbio.gov.br/parnalencoismaranhenses/guia-do-visitante.html

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