July 2nd: The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest is one of the most biodiverse locations on the planet. One in ten species known in the world lives in the Amazon Rainforest, as do one in five bird species. The Amazon spans across nine different countries, but 60% of the rainforest is found in Brazil. It also represents over half of the tropical rainforest left on earth, and therefore has an unparalleled level of biodiversity.

Info on rainforests:

The Amazon River

The Amazon River runs Peru in the west, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean in the east of South America. It is said to be the second longest river in the world, after the Nile River in Africa. The river is the largest in the world by discharge of volume of water, as it drains over 20% of the freshwater entering the ocean.

There are many fish, amphibian and reptile species that live within and around the river, and therefore it is a significant habitat for wildlife. Two thirds of the river are lined with trees, and there is little human development and settlement on the Amazon River.

Sloths

Sloths are known as bring some of the slowest moving creatures on earth, and are in fact the slowest moving mammal on earth. They are found in Central and South America, and they are abundant in the Amazon Rainforest. There are two types of sloth, the two-toed and the three-toed, and six different species. Sloths spend most of their time in trees, and have long toes that are easily able to climb, cling to branches and hold them in place for long periods of time. Sloths sleep for 15-18 hours per day, often upside-down hanging from a branch.

Depending on the species, the diet of the sloth can be solely leaves, but the two-toed sloths are omnivores. They eat fruits, leaves, insects and small lizards. The three-toed sloths are herbivores and eat only leaves and buds of certain species of trees. The leaves that they eat are extremely difficult to digest, as they can contain many toxins, and it has be found that a single meal can take a sloth a whole month to fully digest.

Sloths are actually amazing swimmers, and one of the few times they come down from their tree is to go for a swim. They are able to use their long arms to propel themselves through the water.

Macaws

Macaws are long-tailed, often colourful parrots, and are native to Central and South America. They live mainly in rainforests, and are found in the Amazon. They are intelligent and social birds, and usually gather in flocks of up to 30 birds. Some species are able to imitate human speech, and their calls are distinct and the sound can travel far into the rainforest.

Many species of Macaw are going extinct, and the rarest species of bird in the world is called the Spix’s Macaw.

Macaws feed on fruit, nuts, insects and snails, but also often feed on dirt, which neutralizes acidity in their stomachs. They often lick clay on the sides of river banks in groups, which can be seen in this video:

Weekend Assignment:

After doing some research, choose one species that lives in the Amazon Rainforest, and come up with three interesting facts about the species. These facts can be about their behaviour, diet, habitat or threatening factors to them in the wild. Send them to me via email and we will talk about your research on Monday in class! 🙂

June 30th: Happy Canada Day!

July 1st is the national holiday of Canada, and has been since 1868. It is a day where Canadians recognize their history, culture and traditions, and they celebrate with various festivities.

History

Canada Day (July 1st) celebrates the anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867 (also called the Constitution Act), which united the three separate colonies of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. This created the Dominion of Canada within the British Empire, and gave Canada more political control and governance over its own affairs. British Parliament still had control over some areas, including foreign affairs and national defence, as well as constitutional changes. Canada did not gain full independence until the Constitution Act, 1982, where the constitution was patriated to Canada from Great Britain.

Traditions

Canada Day is celebrated all over the nation with parades, fireworks, performances, barbecues, carnivals, air and maritime shows. In the country’s capital, Ottawa, there is a celebration that is hosted every year on Parliament Hill. This generally includes a festival, with concerts, food stands and art displays, and people go early in order to get a spot for the evening fireworks show. A commemorative speech is given to the crowd, and the speech has been done by past Prime Ministers, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Queen Elizabeth II.

The Snowbirds

The Snowbirds are the military air show flight demonstration team of the Royal Canadian Air Force. They are officially known as the “431 Air Demonstration Squadron.” This team has been performing for citizens across North America since 1971, and they are recognized as one of the best precision aerobatics teams in the world. They perform crossovers with minimum space in between aircrafts, and they usually only fly about 1.2m (4 ft) from one another in formation going at speeds between 200 and 600 km/hour.

The Snowbirds have performed at every major event in Canada, and have participated in all major air shows in North America. The team is made up of about 80 people, with 11 pilots and the rest being technicians and support staff. The show team is made up of 24 people, and all of them are members of the Canadian Forces who have applied to be on the team. Every season, one third of the show team changes, and therefore a normal tour of duty for each pilot is three years.

Virtual Celebrations for Canada Day 2020

For Canada’s 153rd Birthday, celebrations will be very different from normal due to social distancing measures. Many shows and events have been scheduled to show online, and can be found here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canada-day/online-celebrations.html

Toronto Celebrates: https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/canada-day/

Fireworks! : https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canada-day/virtual-fireworks.html

Quiz Time!!

June 29th: LGBTQ+ Pride

Every year, the month of June is representative of LGBTQ+ Pride. This is a time for people to come together to celebrate the community, and this is normally done with parades, events and performances in Toronto. This year, due to Covid-19, there hasn’t been the same opportunity for celebration. Today we will be looking at the history of Pride in Toronto, and the significance it has had to promote inclusion and involvement with the LGBTQ+ community.

History of Pride in Toronto

Canadian cities have been hosting celebratory LGBTQ+ culture events since 1969, when Canada decriminalized homosexual acts for consenting adults over the age of 21. In Toronto, the first public event was a picnic with over 300 attendees in 1971 hosted by the Community of Homophile Association of Toronto and Toronto Gay Action.

In 1974, this picnic grew into Toronto’s first ‘Pride Week,’ which gathered people to march down Queen St in support of gay rights. This was not endorsed by the City of Toronto, and it was organized entirely by activists.

Although these events took place every year, there was still much hostility that the gay community faced from society, including the Toronto Police force. In 1981, Toronto police officers raided Toronto’s Gay Village, in ‘Operation Soap.’ This operation broke down doors and rounded up citizens from various bathhouses into the street, and arrested over 300 men. This publicly shamed and outed these men as their photos and names were printed in papers.

Operation Soap was met with a huge backlash from not only the city of Toronto but the rest of Canada as well, in protest that this raid went against human rights. Ten years later, the City of Toronto declared Pride Week as an official event for the city, which was a major victory for the community. In 1994, over 50 000 people marched in the Pride Parade, and in 1995 Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall was the first political leader to join the event. She started a movement that has largely continued until today, where Toronto mayors make an appearance to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.

In 2002, Ontario became the first province to recognize bans against same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, and therefore made them legal in the province, provoking other provinces to do the same. Canada was the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, the first country outside of Europe, and this happened on July 20, 2005. This came after The Netherlands legalized same-sex marriage in 2000, and Belgium legalized it in 2003.

For the history of the LGBTQ+ community in the U.S., check out this video:

Pride is celebrated in June all around the world! Here are some videos to celebrate 🙂

Here’s the Queer Eye video!

June 25th: The Andes & Machu Picchu

The Andes

The Andes is the largest continental mountain range in the world, and it runs all the way along the western edge of South America. In total, the Andes is 7000 km long, and 300-640 km wide. It goes through seven South American countries, including Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

The Andes has many high peaks, and it is the highest mountain range outside of Asia. It also has many high plateaus where several major cities are located. The Andes are also divided into three ranges, which include the Tropical Andes, the Dry Andes, and the Wet Andes. They therefore serve as a habitat for many different types of species.

The Andean Condor

This bird lives all along the Andes Mountain range of South America, and it is one of the world’s largest flying birds. The Andean Condor’s wingspan can be up to 11 ft in length (the largest wingspan of any bird), and they can weigh up to 33 lbs. Its habitat is mainly grasslands and alpine areas, up to 5000 metres in elevation in the mountains. Being so high up in the mountains is actually very beneficial for these birds due to their weight, as they need strong gusts of wind to be able to glide with little effort.

The Andean Condor is a vulture species, which means that it is a scavenger bird. To be a scavenger, the condor only preys on carcasses that are already dead, and therefore does not take part in the actual killing of an animal. They prefer large carcasses, including those of deer and guanacos. On the coast, they will prey on carcasses of marine species such as whales, fish, and seals.

The Andean Condor can live up to 70 years, but their population is slowly decreasing. This is due to human involvement, such as using poison to protect livestock. It is an illegal but known about practice that livestock producers may use poisoned bait against predators to protect their animals. It is also that Andean Condors are threatened due to a loss of habitat and food sources. These birds take a while to breed, as a female only has one chick at most every other year. This is because both parents spend over a year with the chick until it reaches maturity.

Vicunas

The vicuna is one of two species of camel which lives in the high alpine areas of the Andes, the other being the guanaco. This species is well known for their coat of very fine wool, which is very expensive due to its luxurious feel and the warmth that it can provide. It is very difficult to attain it, however, and this is because a vicuna produces very small amounts of this wool which can only be shorn every 3 years. One yard of vicuna wool is worth about $1000, making this wool the most expensive in the world.

The vicuna is much smaller than its closely related species, the guanaco. They are herbivores, and they spend most of their time feeding on grass. The vicunas predators include pumas and foxes. This species stays away from human activity, and is not kept for livestock. They survive best in the wild, and therefore need to be found in the wild to get their wool.

This species has been highly regarded with the people of Peru, including the Incas. It was said that only the royals were able to wear vicuna wool. The vicuna is the national animal of Peru, and it appears on the Peruvian coat of arms. Since 1964, major protections have been placed on this animal, as it was extremely endangered due to poaching and habitat loss. Since then, the population has grown tremendously, from 6 000 to 350 000 today in the wild, but many protections continue to be in place and enforced.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is located on a plateau in the Peruvian Andes Mountains. It was built by the Inca people, also known as the Inca Empire, which was a civilization of people who ruled the western part of South America from the 13th to the 16th century. They were then conquered by the Spanish in 1572.

Today, there are remnants of the Inca civilization, the most impressive being Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was built around 1450, and was abandoned by the Inca a century later around the time of the Spanish invasion. It was not known to the outside world until 1911, when American historian Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention.

Machu Picchu was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, and is considered to be one of the new seven wonders of the world.

June 23rd: Ibera and Iguazu Falls

Argentina is known for its many national parks, and protection efforts for many species of wildlife. In particular, Ibera National Park is the second largest wetland in the world in Northeastern Argentina, and was once home to many different types of species. Many animals were killed by humans for their skins in this region of Argentina, and this has made many either go extinct or become very endangered. There is now one of the world’s largest efforts for “rewilding” species back into this park. This means that researchers and conservationists are figuring out the best ways to reintroduce species back into the park, after their populations have been hunted and depleted.

Five endangered species, including the Giant Anteater, have successfully been reintroduced to the park since 2007. This year, the plan has been to release as many as five jaguars into the park. This is tricky because once in captivity, a jaguar has a very difficult time in the wild and have never successfully been returned to the wild.

For more info on Ibera, check out this article: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/ibera-national-park-argentina-new/index.html

Giant Anteater

The giant anteater is native to central and South America, and it is the largest species of anteater. Within Argentina, they live in the northern subtropical zone of the country. This species can grow to be 5 to 7 ft in length, and weigh up to 110 lbs. Its tubular snout is about 30 cm in length, and its tongue is as long as 50 cm. The giant anteater’s sense of smell is 40 times more sensitive than humans, making it very good at sniffing out prey.

The anteater is an insectivore, and feeds mainly on ants and termites. Once the anteater has found a nest of insects using its sense of smell, they tear it open with their front claws and then use their sticky tongue to collect insects. Giant anteaters can consume up to 200 nests, and 30 000 insects per day. They are prey for big cats such as jaguars and pumas.

Jaguar

The jaguar is a top predator throughout South America, and they are the largest cat in the Americas. Jaguars are the third biggest cat in the world after tigers and lions, and they resemble leopards, which can be found in Africa and Asia, but jaguars spots are more complex and often have a dot in the centre.

Unlike other large cats, jaguars do not avoid water but are actually very good swimmers. They can hunt fish and turtles, but their diet mainly consists of mammals such as deer and capybara. Female jaguars give birth to a little of up to four cubs, and they protect these cubs even sometimes from their father. The cubs stay with their mother and learn to hunt for about two years before going off on their own.

Jaguars once roamed from central Argentina all the way up to southwestern United States, but since the 1880s they have lost more than half of their territory. They mainly live in the Amazon Rainforest today, but they can be found in smaller number throughout South America. They can live in rainforests, wetlands and grasslands.

The population of jaguars in the wild continues to be threatened, as deforestation has resulted in a large loss of habitat, and has fragmented their habitat. This means that it is much more difficult for jaguars to find a mate, and therefore they are not able to breed. There is also the issue of jaguars going after livestock, to which livestock producers will kill jaguars in order to protect their animals. Lastly, there is still illegal poaching that continues to occur for jaguar pelts, teeth and bones.

For more on the Ibera Project and jaguar reintroduction, check out this website: http://www.proyectoibera.org/en/english/especiesamenazadas_yaguarete.htm

Iguazu Falls

The Iguazu Falls are a collection of waterfalls on the border of Argentina and Brazil. This is the largest waterfall in the world, with 275 individual drops that stretch for 1.5 miles. The falls divide the Iguazu River into the Upper and Lower Iguazu. On both the Argentine and the Brazilian side of the waterfall, there are national parks that have both been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The falls may be seen from the Brazilian side as well as the Argentine side, but can also be seen from neighbouring country Paraguay. Where the three countries meet is called the Triple Frontier, and it is where the Iguazu and Parana rivers meet.

June 22nd: South America & Argentina

South America known for….

• The Amazon Rainforest
• The Andes mountains (Netflix suggestion: Magical Andes)
• Patagonia Region

Argentina

Argentina is the second largest country in South America after Brazil, and it is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. The landscapes and wildlife of Argentina are diverse, which accounts for several different types of ecosystems and lots of biodiversity. The climate of Argentina is dependent on the region, but most populated areas are considered temperate. There are subtropical areas in the north and polar regions in the south, and average temperatures range from 5 degrees C in the south to 25 degrees C in the north.

Argentina is known for its biodiversity, and it is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. This is because there are many different ecosystem varieties, including continental, marine and Antarctic. For instance, the Magellanic Penguin lives in and around the southern Patagonia coasts of Argentina and Chile. Meanwhile, there are many tropical species that live in the northern areas of Argentina.

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located 90% in Argentina and 10% in Chile. This area of land includes the southern section of the Andes Mountains, lakes, fjords, and glaciers, as well as deserts in the eastern section.

In the southwestern side of Patagonia in Argentina there are more than 300 glaciers, many of them in the Glacier National Park which is a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. The world’s only growing glacier is in this park, and it is called Perito Moreno.

Capybara

The Capybara is the largest rodent species in the world, and it is native to South America. These animals are found living in woodlands and dense forests, close to fresh bodies of water. They are a social species and live in groups of 10-20, but have been known to live in groups as large as 100.

The capybara are semiaquatic mammals, and therefore are great swimmers. They can hold their breath for up to 5 minutes at a time, which can help them escape from predators. They are herbivores, and they mainly eat grasses and specific types of aquatic plants. This species is prey for many predators, including jaguar, puma, eagle and anaconda.

Although Capybara are a common prey for many predators, due to their ability to reproduce very quickly they have a large population throughout South America. Their life expectancy in the wild is about 4 years, but they can live to be 8-10 years old.

The Andean Flamingo

These flamingos are assumed to be the rarest species of Flamingo, and they live in the Andes Mountain range of South America. They are migratory birds, due to changing weather temperatures, and when in Argentina they stay in the northwestern part of the country in the Andes.

The Andean Flamingo are distinct looking due to their yellow legs and black tail feathers. They feed mostly on algae and diatoms in lakes and lagoons of the Andes Mountains. They are social birds and they form in flocks of sometimes thousands, and they also breed in these large colonies. Female flamingos lay one egg at a time and both parents share in incubating the egg. A flamingo does not reach maturity until the age of 3 years old, and by this point their colour will have turned pink.

Pumas (or South American Cougar)

The cougar is native to the Americas, and they have a large habitat ranging from the Yukon, Canada to the Southern Andes in Argentina. Due to its wide range, this species has many names including puma and mountain lion depending on location. In Argentina, puma is a common name for the South American Cougar.

After the jaguar, the puma is the second heaviest cat in South America, and they are about the same size as an adult human. They are at the top of their food chain in Patagonia, and they feed on most smaller mammals including livestock on farms. There has been a major issue of puma populations declining in Argentina because of farmers hunting them, due to their killing of livestock such as goats and sheep.

There are many legends about pumas in indigenous culture in Argentina, including that they help protect people from jaguars. Although pumas are prized by some cultures, they are seldom seen by humans due to their stealth, but also their shy and solitary attitudes. They need large spaces to roam, over 30 miles squared, and they stalk their prey for long periods of time before attacking.

There has been a large protection effort happen in Argentina in order to protect pumas since the mid-1990s, and this is largely due to other ways set in place to manage the issue for livestock producers.

A few more videos…

Check out these appearances by Steve Irwin on Jay Leno, and Robert Irwin on Jimmy Fallon!

Here is the link to the Australia Zoo for more info: https://www.australiazoo.com.au

June 18th: Steve Irwin & David Attenborough

David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough is a natural historian and broadcaster. He is known for many TV documentary series, including the Life series, as well as narrating Planet Earth, The Blue Planet, and Our Planet on Netflix. Earlier in his career, Attenborough wrote these documentaries and presented the wildlife in front of the camera, but more recently he has been narrating these documentaries.

David Attenborough is considered to be a pioneer in conservationism and environmentalism, and he has been spreading this message through his documentaries for decades. He is now 94 years old, but he continues to present at large meeting of political leaders, trying to encourage countries to implement environmentally conscious agendas.

The series, Our Planet, was made in cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund and took over 4 years to complete. This series on Netflix is meant to educate viewers on global warming, and how it is affecting the planet today. It also discusses habitat loss for species, and other human involvement. The episodes are available on YouTube, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/user/NewOnNetflix/search?query=our+planet

Steve Irwin

Known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” Steve Irwin was an Australian zookeeper, TV personality, wildlife expert, environmentalist and conservationist. He is known for his many tv shows, where he often put himself in seemingly dangerous situations with deadly animals, but these shows were educational about different species and their habitats.

The Australia Zoo was started by Steve’s parents, as a large reptile park. His mother also rehabilitated kangaroos before sending them back into the wild. Steve was considered a natural with wildlife, and soon began to volunteer for the East-Coast Crocodile Management Program for the Queensland government. Steve captured over 100 crocodiles in order to relocate them away from human populations, or he brought them to the family zoo.

Steve married his wife Terri in 1992, who was also very passionate about predatory species, and together they began filming The Crocodile Hunter series. They also took over the zoo, and changed its name to Australia Zoo. They created expansive habitats in exhibits in order for the animals to thrive, and they also built the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital. This facility’s purpose is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release thousands of animals every year.

Steve and Terri’s main mission throughout their shows and the expansion of the park was to stress the importance of conservation of wildlife, as well as promoting education of different species.

Steve Irwin passed away in September 2006, after being pierced in the chest by a sting ray while filming in the Great Barrier Reef. This was felt all over the world, and there have been many parks, zoos, streets and even an asteroid named after Steve Irwin.

David Attenborough was a large inspiration to Steve Irwin, due to his messages of conservationism. Terri presented Attenborough with an award after Steve’s death, and she said; “If there’s one person who directly inspired my husband it’s the person being honoured tonight…. [Steve’s] real, true love was conservation – and the influence of tonight’s recipient in preserving the natural world has been immense.”

David Suzuki said of Steve Irwin after his death; “humanity will not protect that which we fear or do not understand. Steve Irwin helped us understand those things that many people thought were a nuisance at best, a horror at worst. That made him a great educator and conservationist.”

For a whole documentary on crocodiles, done by Steve Irwin, check out this video!

June 16th: Australia

Australia is the smallest continent in the world, and also one of the world’s largest countries. Because of its size, Australia has many different landscapes. For instance, there are tropical rainforests in the northeast, and there are mountain ranges in the southeast. In the interior of the country, there is desert. This desert area is called the Australian Outback, and it is the largest intact desert on earth.

The Outback’s temperature ranges to on average from 36-39 degrees C in the summer, and temperatures as high as 50 degrees C have been recorded. Due to the difficult living conditions in the Outback, there is a very low human population, which makes the habitat for wildlife largely undisturbed.

Wildlife in the Outback consists of many different species of reptiles, including snakes, lizards and crocodiles. Australia has more lizards than any other continent, and a common species is goanna lizards. There are 27 subspecies, and some can grow up to 2 metres long. Most are carnivorous, and they will eat anything depending on their size. This includes insects, birds, eggs, small reptiles, and mammals. They have sharp teeth and claws in order to help them eat. Many species are desert dwellers, and their skin acts as camouflage against the orange-red desert sand.

Another example of a lizard that lives in the Outback is the Thorny Devil. These lizards only grow to be 4 to 6 inches long, and their only prey are ants, up to 3000 ants at a time. They are one of the best adapted species for the Outback, as their body is able to draw moisture from the sand and hydrate themselves this way. They also have a large hump on their upper back, which disguises itself as a second head to predators so that they are able to hide their actual heads.

Australia is also home to many species of venomous snakes, including the Mulga snake, or also known as the King brown snake. This snake is known to have one of the highest levels of venom output in the world, and therefore is among the most deadly of snakes. These snakes can grow to be 3.3 metres in length (11ft), and they often prey on lizards and other smaller snakes, as well as small mammals.

For more on venomous snakes in Australia, check out this video:

Aside from these dangerous reptiles that roam through the Outback, there are also many mammals that are native to Australia.

Kangaroos

Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia, and live all over the country, including in the Outback. Kangaroos have extremely powerful and large hind legs, which makes them well adapted for travelling at fast paces. They are the only large animals that use hopping as their way of moving, and they are able to travel at speeds of 70 km/hr in short distances. Kangaroos are also well-adapted swimmers, which can help them get away from their predators.

Kangaroos are herbivores, and graze on grass and other vegetation. They often live together in groups, called mobs, and there are up to ten kangaroos in a mob. Kangaroos are also known to fight one another, or “box,” where males fight each other over females, or over limited drinking access, and these fights are usually brief.

Female kangaroos give birth to their babies, called joeys, which are only a few centimetres long at birth. They are in their mother’s pouch for around 190 days, or 6 months, only just sticking their head out a couple of weeks before leaving. They leave their mother’s pouch around this time, but return to it for about 40 or more days, until they no longer return to the pouch. The average lifespan of a kangaroo is about 6 years old in the wild.

Koalas

Koalas are another species indigenous to Australia, however they do not live all over the continent like the kangaroos. Koalas live in the eucalyptus forests of southeastern and eastern Australia, and they depend on eucalyptus trees for their habitat and food. They can eat more than a pound of eucalyptus leaves a day, and because eucalyptus leaves are toxic, the koala’s digestive system works extra hard to break down these toxins. This is a reason why koalas are not highly energetic, and they can sleep for 18 to 22 hours per day. Koalas are able to live up to 20 years in the wild.

Because koalas depend so heavily on trees, they’re considered a vulnerable species due to their shrinking habitat. This has been an ongoing issue for decades, however the bushfires of 2019-2020 have significantly reduced their natural habitats and so there is a large effort in Australia right now to protect koalas.

June 15th: The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef contains the world’s largest collection of coral reefs, and it is one of the most significant habitats in the world. The Great Barrier Reef is located on the north eastern coast of Australia, and it covers about 348 000 square kilometres. Within it, there are about 2500 individual reefs of different sizes and structures, and contain thousands of different species of fish, mollusc, coral and birds.

What is a Coral Reef?

Coral reefs are large underwater structures that are alive, and these structures continue to grow over time. Coral reefs are made up of hard coral, but they can also contain soft corals which are flexible and often resemble plants. Most reefs grow best in warm, shallow water, often near a coast. They grow slowly over hundreds of years, and many of them are up to 10 000 years old. Coral reefs are home to many different species, and this is due to their abundance of food sources, as well as their ability to protect species from their predators. Reefs offer lots of hiding places as well as camouflage for brightly coloured fish. Although coral reefs occupy less than 1% of the ocean’s floor, they contribute to 25% of all marine life.

Species in the Great Barrier Reef

Within the Reef, there are 1625 species of fish, more than 3000 species of molluscs (shells), 630 species of echinoderm (starfish, sea urchins), six species of sea turtles, 215 species of birds, and 160 species of sharks.

There are six species of sea turtles that live in the habitat of the Great Barrier Reef, including the more common Green Sea Turtle.

The average life of a sea turtle is about 80 years, they can weigh up to 700 pounds, and be up to 5 feet in length.

These turtles are herbivores, and they feed on sea grasses and algae. Green turtles are unique as they are known for sunbathing on land to warm themselves, which they do on the 900 small islands in and around the Great Barrier Reef. They are some of the only sea turtles to rest on land other than at breeding times.

Green sea turtles make large migrations from feeding areas to mating areas closer to shore in warmer weather. Female sea turtles will nest on shore, usually on the same beach as their mothers, and lay their eggs. They dig a hole in the sand with their flipper, fill the hole with 100 to 200 eggs, cover the hole with sand and then return back to the water. The eggs generally hatch after about 2 months, and the most dangerous time for a sea turtle is the journey from the nest to the sea. Many predators including birds and crabs feed on the hatchlings as they try to get to sea.

The Giant Clam

The giant clam is the world’s largest mollusc, and they prefer the warm waters around the Great Barrier Reef. This species are able to grow to 4 feet in length, and can weigh more than 500 pounds. The clam chooses its home once, and when it finds the right spot it stays there for the rest of its life. These clams can live to be over 100 years old.

The Clown Fish (Nemo)

These small fish have one of the most symbiotic relationships within the Great Barrier Reef, due to their codependent relationship with anemone.

Anemone is a species of flowering plants, which are poisonous and deadly to most species of fish. Similar to jelly fish, they have venom-filled tentacles which are able to capture a fish. Underneath these tentacles is a large hollow body with a mouth, and so once its prey gets stung by the tentacles the anemone uses them to sweep the prey into its mouth.

The clown fish are not affected by the anemone’s poisonous venom, due to a mucous layer that covers their entire body. Therefore, the fish are able to hide within the anemone’s tentacles from larger predators. Food scraps are also provided from the anemone to the clown fish, which is another reason clown fish depend on the anemone. The anemone benefits from the clown fish because the bright colours of the fish attract other species of fish to the anemone, which are then killed and eaten.

The State of the Great Barrier Reef

Due to increasing global temperatures and higher levels of acidification in the ocean waters, coral in the Great Barrier Reef is dying at a rapid pace. This means that there is a large loss of habitat that continues to increase in scale. David Attenborough recently started an in-depth interactive journey online about the Great Barrier Reef in order to bring awareness to the issues that it is facing today. Here is the link to the webpage: https://attenboroughsreef.com/experience_intro.php

This website tells you about different areas of the reef, as well as different species and what is being done to help protect the Great Barrier Reef today.