Totally True Tuesday - Guess Who?

I have bright yellow and green patterns on my shell and body. I can live in fresh or brackish (partly salted) water and I’m commonly found in ponds and river beds. I love to bask in the sun on rocks and logs. When I get too warm, I plunge into the water and use my webbed toes for swimming, and my claws for climbing. Often times my type is found in pet stores.

Who am I?

A Slider Terrapin. If I had jaunty red stripes along my face I’d be a Red-Eared Slider.

Do you know someone who keeps a terrapin as a pet?

Are You a Turtle?

Like a sturdy truck, I’m built for the rugged terrain and live strictly on land. I have thick, stumpy legs and claws that help propel me forward and dig deep holes. Plus, I prefer veggies to meat and am purely vegetarian.

Who Am I?

A Tortoise

Tortoise-Truths

~ the Gopher Tortoise is able to dig underground tunnels over 40 feet long and 10 feet deep.

~ the Galapagos Giant Tortoise can weigh in at well over 400 pounds. Plus, its shell can get to be five feet long and 3 feet high.

True Turtles

Sea turtles live exclusively in the ocean waters. The only time they come ashore is to lay their eggs on a sandy beach. Unlike terrapins, their front legs are more like flippers. This enables them to swim and dive in the water.

Turtle Facts

~ the Leatherback Turtle is the biggest sea turtle. It measures 6 feet long and 4 feet wide. Its average weight is 880 pounds, with the biggest one weighing in at 2015 pounds. How can he get so big? This turtle’s diet consists mainly of jellyfish.

~ the Stinkpot Turtle gives off a powerful skunk-like odour when it feels danger is near. So don’t try to pick this guy up or you’ll be a stinkpot too!

~ there’s actually around 300 different species of turtles, tortoises and terrapins. So the next time you see an animal that wears a shell, ask yourself…is this really a turtle?

Fun Facts Friday - What Am I?

Did you know there’s a species of plant that smells like a rotting corpse?
The rafflesia (rah-FLEEZ-ee-ah), also known as the meat or corpse flower starts off like a brown, cabbage-like lump, but once it’s in full bloom it’s 3 feet across, and weighs up to 36 pounds!

The Biggest Stinker

The arnoldii species of rafflesia, found in Sumatra, is the biggest known flower in the world. However, the petals on this one aren’t typical. Each blossom has five meat-red, fleshy petals with white or cream coloured spots. These spots look like itchy, raised mosquito bites. If you were to peer deep inside the flower, you would see a round disk with plump spikes poking from it. But hold your nose cause this beauty reeks like rotting flesh.

The Stinky Trickster

Why do you think the rafflesia smells so bad?

a) to scare away animals
b) to attract flies
c) to help spread it’s pollen

If you guessed b and c, you’re right!

Mother fly thinks this big, stinky, mound is a pile of decaying flesh. It should make a good place to lay her eggs, so her larvae can feed on it once they’re hatched. But she’s wrong. The rafflesia is tricking her. As the fly wanders around inside the flower, pollen is getting stuck on its feet and back. When she visits another rafflesia, perhaps one even more stinky, the pollen will be deposited into the new flower. This is how the rafflesia’s reproduce and seeds can now begin to grow. Once the seeds mature, small animals such as squirrels and tree-shrews eat and spread the seeds around the forest floor. These seeds now have a chance to become big, reeking, piles of fleshy petals, too.

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