Junior Science Book 3. Camouflage.
I have just created a new creature, the Aqua Water Glider. This creature is a carnivorous bird living in a
swamp biome. This bird has adapted to living in its new habitat.
The bird lives in a colourful,
tropical swamp land. So, its feathers are brightly coloured for camouflage.
However, it has a sky blue underbelly so it's camouflaged against the sky when
it swoops down on to its prey, both on land, and in water. On land, it hunts
birds, mice, rats and maybe the odd fruit if it can't find any meat. It has a
very long, sharp beak and sharp talons to grip on to its prey. It has also
evolved to eat poisonous fruit and creatures such as toads that would normally
be fatal if anything else ate them. Even though it doesn't have webbed feet, it
is very efficient in water and it is really good at catching fish with its
sharp eyes and stabbing beak.
The bird lays only
one egg every year which it protects fearlessly in the shallow water's edge. It builds its
nest out of poisonous thorns and lines it with soft feathers to protect the egg;
so the nest is a protective cage. Any predators that come to steal the egg will
get a nasty poisonous sting from the thorns. The birds have adapted to have
immunity to the poison. The other Aqua
Water Gliders will not steal the egg and in fact, the mothers help each other! This means, even though there is only one
egg, it will be protected by all the mothers and will have a large chance of
survival.
The egg takes four weeks to hatch after it has been laid.
The mother and father will keep on surviving on their own when the egg is laid
and safely caged by the thorns. Every now and then, the parents will return to
make sure the egg is still alive, and whenever the proper parents aren't
around, the other mothers and fathers will take on the responsibility of
watching the egg and protecting it. If the egg was destroyed or the parents
failed to breed, they will just have to wait another year or look after someone
else's egg.
These birds love
being together. They are very sociable. The pair of birds stay together for
life and will keep on loving each other until they die.
I think my bird has adapted well to its environment and has
a very good chance of survival and avoiding extinction. These birds have no
real predators right now, but there is one that is bound to come, the worst
predator ever. . . man.
Sorry that the pics haven't come yet. I'll try to upload them as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe pic is in Picasa!
DeleteSorry the pic took so long... Better late than never I guess :-)
ReplyDelete