Kandula the very smart baby elephant!

Kandula is a young Asian elephant that lives at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park in Washington D.C. He is very clever! Scientists have been watching Kandula solve a problem in a way never before seen in elephants. Scientists have attached pieces of fruit to a branch of a tree that is out of reach for the little elephant. Kandula did something different from other elephants he instead, rolled a plastic box so that is sat underneath the branch. He then stood on the box and lifted his trunk and easily pulled the branch down and ate a yummy piece of fruit. Elephants have very good memory and they can use simple tools. Insight is the ability to solve the problem in a flash. In previous tests elephants showed no signs of insight. Preston Foerder a comparative psychologist at the City University of New York was a part of a team who were looking for elephant insights. He designed some very tricky problems for Kandula and to other elephants at the zoo. These elephants usually live in tropical rainforests so they solve regular problems in their lived. The challenge for scientist was seeing whether the animals complete tasks by trial and error, by watching animals or by quickly realizing the solution on their own. First the scientists placed trays of fruit outside the animals enclose. The food was just out of reach. But they also placed some sticks nearby. The elephants tried but they failed they never used sticks to draw the food closer. But the elephants did use the sticks for beating the against the walls, floor, and also there toys. Then they put the fruit on the trees and brought out a box and a stick. Kandula tried 7 times to get the fruit but then failed. But then it stuck him that he could move the box and stand on it. So he did that and solved the puzzle. But other elephants where not able to do what Kandula did. So maybe elephant’s brains are able to make easier connections amount bits of information.

Again I wanted to do a topic about what I am learning about in class. But I decided to go to a different website this time. I went to "Science news for Kids". And I found the article about Kandula the smart little elephant. What grabbed my attention is first I just really love elephants it is my favorite animal. Also I had connection with it when I went to the zoo in Berlin Germany first it was snowing and at the elephants enclosure the big pool of water was all frozen and the elephants where braking int and then sucking on the ice and it made me think how smart they are. So I agree with this thing of elephants having insight because its true a small baby elephant was able to fix a problem that not many other elephants can do I do believe that is is true. So this is my current event for this week.

Bibliography

"An Elephant’s “aha!” Moment | Science News for Kids." Science News for Kids | Publication of the Society for Science & the Public. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. .

By Stephen Ornes / September 7, 2011

I am Afraid of Shark attacks! So how can I prevent that?

The biggest thing that surfers and swimmers fear when they head out in the ocean is being attacked by a shark. A new study released by Australian scientists have discovered that sharks may be colour blind. This can make waters safer for people in the ocean and it also might prevent animals form accidentally getting entangled inside fishing nets. Using a technique called microspectrophyotometry, scientists examined the cells of seventeen species of sharks, caught of the shores of New Zealand and Australia. The retina(a delicate, multilayered light sensitive membrane lining the inner eyeball and connected by the optic nerve to the brain) of a normal living creature is made up of two kinds of light receiving cells. Which light sensitive and help measure brightness, allowing normal eyesight day and night out. Scientists were able to find many Rod cells in the different species of 10 of the seventeen sharks but the other seven did have some Cone cells. But only of a single type, sensitive to colour wavelengths of about 530 nanometer, which is the wave length of the colour green. This means while fish are able to distinguish between shades of grey and in some cases even blue/green, they cannot see any other colours. This research is also similar to other research for other sea animals like whales, dolphins, and seals that all have the green Come cells. So scientists believe that bright colours are not important to these sea creature because colours are quit useless in the dark waters they live in. Instead they seek their prey on how much contrasts stand out compared to the surrounding waters. So since there are over 400 different types of sharks, more studies must be done to see if the colour blindness extends to all of them. So if swimmers and surfers change their colours of clothing to darker they might not get attacked by any sharks in the ocean.




Again this time I wanted to do research on an article about animals but for a change a type of sea animal. So again I went to DOGO news because I really liked the articles they have there. And I cam across an article and it was the title that just got me interested in it. It was called,"Afraid of Sharks? Wear dark colours!" so of course I clicked on it. I learned a lot from this article because for a start I didn't even know that sharks had this problem with dark colours. And I agree with scientists because well for a start this can save more people and more sharks.

Bibliography
"Afraid Of Sharks? Wear Dark Colors! - Kids News Article." DOGO News - Kids News Articles! Kids Current Events; plus Kids News on Science, Sports, and More! Web. 22 Sept. 2011. .

Person who wrote this
Meera Dolasia on 01/28/2011

Luna the Galloping Cow

For my first current events post I decided to do something about biology so I went on to DOGO news and I searched up animals. And one of the things that came up was Luna the Galloping Cow.
We are so programmed to think that animals can do only what we believe they are capable of. So whenever a animal does something out of the ordinary we are surprised and stunned. For example who would believe that a pig can be trained like a dog, or like this a cow can gallop almost as well as a horse. Luna is a two year old bovine who lives Germany. Regina Mayer is the owner of Luna. She first started of slowly by taking the young calf on long walks across the countryside. Once Luna was comfortable with it she began taking her through more populated areas, so Luna could get use to more humans around he, and also fitted her with riding equipment. About six months into this, Regina decided to mount Luna and see how the cow would react. After a few minutes she could see that Luna was starting to show signs of being nervous and excitement. Turns out that the sweet loving cow had a very stubborn side to her, making training a little harder at times. To get through the issues, Regina called Anne Wiltafsky, a cow trainer in Zurich, Switzerland for some tips. Even though Regina still hopes to have a horse she loves riding Luna very much. She says no matter what she and Luna will always stay the best of friends!



First why I chose to write about this event is because first I wanted it to do something with biology because we are learning it at the moment. So as I said before I went onto DOGO news and I searched animals. There were some interesting things but nothing really made me feel interested and amazed. But then I saw the an article that was just very interesting and I just never thought that type of animal could do. that. So I learned many things from this article and the first thing was that animals cannot just do what we think they can do. Like I said before pigs can be trained like a dog and that though never even crossed my mind! I also learned that really animals do have many things in common. I agree that animals can do more things then we expect them to because its true! Pigs can be like dogs, Birds can make sounds like humans, and cows can gallop and jump like horses!
Bibliography

"Luna The Galloping . . . . . Cow? - Kids News Article." DOGO News - Kids News Articles! Kids Current Events; plus Kids News on Science, Sports, and More! Web. 18 Sept. 2011. .