Fascinating Fact Friday: Woodpeckers

Did you know that woodpeckers have incredibly long tongues? They stick their tongues into the holes they have pecked in trees in order to reach insects. Their tongue actually curves around their skull and is connected to the base of their beak! Wow!

Fascinating Fact Friday: Sperm Whales

Did you know that sperm whales can dive up to 10,000 feet to catch its prey? It is a mammal and must surface to breathe air, but it can hold its breath for up to two hours. During a deep dive, its lungs collapse to only one one-hundredth of their normal volume.

The sperm whale dives this deep to capture giant squid which live near the bottom of the ocean. Giant squid can be up to 60 feet long. The sperm whale uses sonar or sounds to find the squid. Sperm whales will also eat fish, rays and other squid.

Do you want to know more about the ocean? Steve Jenkins has written a wonderful book about the ocean entitled Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea. This book is where I learned about the sperm whale and giant squid as well as many other interesting creatures.

I highly recommend this book as well as any other book by Steve Jenkins.

Elephant Communication: Fabulous Fact Friday

Did you know that elephants communicate by sensing vibrations in the ground? This summer I read a very interesting book about elephants called The Elephant Scientist by Caitiyn O'Connell. O'Connell is a biologist and she and a team of others were trying to prevent elephants from raiding farmer's fields. She wanted to find a way to protect crops without hurting the elephants. As she studied the elephants, she noticed that they seemed to be using their feet and trunks to sense sounds traveling through the ground. She set up a series of experiments, and found that she was right. They use these vibrations to find watering holes and to protect the group from danger.

Elephants are such cool animals!

By the way, this summer I took my own children to the zoo. While there, we were watching the elephants. There is a mother elephant with a three year old baby. The mother pooped and the baby came over and started eating the poop. I don't know if this is common behavior for elephant babies or not, but my kids were quite surprised by it and have talked about it for the past three months.

Fascinating Fact Friday

Been a crazy couple of weeks, and while I've shared fascinating facts with my students, I haven't blogged about them. So here is this week's fascinating fact.

This week's fact comes from this darling book Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett:

Meerkats live in southern Africa. They live in groups in underground burrows. They take turns watching for danger. They eat scorpions, lizards, and spiders.

This darling book is about a young meerkat that feels his burrow is too crowded, so he sets off to visit some of his mongoose cousins. He sends home postcards (which include facts about his various mongoose relatives) that detail his travels. Super cute book. I highly recommend it.

Fascinating Fact Friday

I've decided that since I love to learn new things, I am going to record one fascinating new fact I learn each Friday. I will post it here and also post it in my classroom.

My facts today come from my husband who was watching a show on Hulu Plus called I Predator. This particular episode was about lions.

*Lions can jump 35 feet! (The lion can outjump Olympic long jumpers!)

*A lion's canines are exactly four inches apart...the same width as a buffalo's throat, making for an easy kill.

*You can tell a lion's age by the color of its nose. Its nose darkens as it ages.

Have you learned a fascinating fact this week? What is it? Be sure to leave it in a comment...or better yet...blog about it and then put the link in the comments!