Oh My Godwit!

Today Annabelle from the NZ Department of Conservation visited us.

She talked to us about the adaptations of sea birds and showed us 2 taxidermied 

Little Blue penguins.

A bird Annabelle was particularly passionate about was the amazing Godwit. She told us about the incredible journeys these birds make each year.

Godwits spend the summer in New Zealand, fattening up on Pipis, worms and other delicacies in preparation for their 11,000km journey from New Zealand to Alaska (Alaska is where the Godwits breed) with one stopover on the way. Before they leave, these birds have doubled their body weight so that they are strong enough to last them through their long, arduous journey. 

Very sadly, the numbers of Godwits are decreasing so we as human beings, need to look after the tidal areas where Godwits feed. We can do this by:

1. Keeping dogs on leashes.

2. Allowing the Godwits to be safe by not frightening them and keeping our distance.

3. Thinking about pollution and what we are doing to protect our planet such as reusing and recycling.

Watch this interesting video...

Adaptations

Since there are over 250,000 species of marine animals, we decided to focus on fish when finding out about adaptations. Each species has unique features which enable it  to survive in a particular environment.

We began with doing a variety of activities to help us discover the interesting adaptations of Midnight Zone fish and Sunlit Zone fish as they live in contrasting environments.

This is what we've discovered so far...

Hagfish - a video about this amazing creature of the sea!

Adaptations

We are learning about the adaptations of marine creatures in different zones of the ocean.

We found out that the Midnight Zone (Bathypelagic Zone) is really, really cold, has no light  and the water pressure is very high.

In order to experience what it might feel like in that part of the ocean, we used blind folds, buckets of water to create pressure on our chests and ice!

We experienced difficulty in breathing, numb hands that became painful and a strange sensation of feeling slightly unsafe with not being able to see.

From here, we discussed what features fish might need to survive in the Midnight Zone. We also watched a fascinating video!

 

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Human Impact on Marine Life