自然英语

Today, we willtalk about the Giant Water Lily, which is also known as the Amazon water lilyand royal water lily. Water lilies, also known as lily pads, are floweringplants that grow on water, and their leaves are large and round and float onthe surface of the water.

The Giant WaterLily is the largest water lily in the world, since its leaves can grow to bearound 3 meters in diameter, or around 10 feet. Imagine a plate that is 3meters long floating on the surface of the water. The stem of the plant can beup to 8 meters long, or up to 26 feet. Their flowers are 40 centimeters indiameter, or 16 inches. An interesting thing about these flowers is when theybloom, the first night the flowers are white, but the second night they arepink. These flowers are also pollinated by beetles instead of bees.

The giant waterlily was once an interesting part of the lives of people in the Victorian era.This started when two nobles, the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke ofNorthumberland were looking for interesting plants to impress their friends.They decided to compete with each other to be the first to cultivate and bringto flower the giant water lily, which was difficult since the plant was thetropical Amazon basin, but the two nobles live in England, which is a lotcolder.

Hello, welcome to wildSuzhou, Today I'll be talking about Wilson's bird of paradise.
The wilson's bird of paradise is part of theParadisaeidae family, or birds of paradise family. Birds of paradise are knownfor their amazing feathers and mating displays. They will start off the displayby choosing a place, and they make sure it's clean. They will perform a dancethat shows off their bright feathers to attract their females. But the danceisn’t the only thing they show off, birds of paradise have calls and soundsthey use during mating. For Wilson's bird of paradise, it sounds similar to acar alarm or children‘s toy.
The Wilson’s bird of paradise is around 21centimeters, or a bit more than a foot. It has many bright colors, such as itsturquoise crown, yellow nape, emerald chest, and the red stripe going down itsback. They also have quite unique tails, two thin feathers that swoop in theopposite direction. Due to sexual dimorphism, which is the difference between thesexes, the female birds are mostly brown but still have the blue on theirheads. The birds can symbolize wealth and power in some cultures.
Like the other birds in the family, it lives intropical areas. This bird lives in West Papua, its habitat is lowlandrainforests. It eats both small insects and fruits. To find insects the birdshave spotted tearing bark apart to get the food inside. It’s bright colors arebeautiful, but that makes them more valuable to poachers who want to sell thebird its feathers for this reason, their population is decreasing.

Hello, this isWild Suzhou.

Today, we willtalk about plateaus, which are a type of beautiful and unique landform.

First, what is aplateau? A plateau is large, flat piece of land that rises out of the ground.It looks kind of like a table, which is why plateaus are sometimes calledtabletops. Unlike mountains and hills, they don’t slowly rise up out of theground, but look like the land has been pushed up entirely. Plateaus can befound on every continent and take up around a third of the Earth’s surface.They can even be found underwater.

There are twotypes of plateaus: dissected plateaus and volcanic plateaus. Dissected plateausform when the earth’s crust moves and a piece of land is pushed upwards.Volcanic plateaus are formed by lava build up in areas after volcaniceruptions.

Gradually, theshapes of plateaus can change, usually because of erosion. Erosion is whensystems like water and wind wear down the earth and change its shape. Forexample, there is often a lot of soft rock at the top of plateaus which caneasily erode. Erosion can also eventually split up a plateau into smallersections, called outliers. Rivers can also cut through plateaus and graduallyform valleys.

For Wild Suzhou,I’m Ciana, thanks for listening and see you next time.

The sumatran rhino started to disappear in the 80’s. This animal used to be found in many places which were Most of southeast asia, as well as malaysia, indonesia, and other islands. Their range got smaller and smaller as they became more endangered.
The main reason for their endangerment was poaching. Their horns are considered very valuable to poachers because they are often used in traditional medicine but have no science proving it. This rhino is very important to its ecosystem since it used to be very common.
Despite being quite a big animal, the sumatran rhino only eats plants. Their diet includes fruits, leaves, twigs, and sometimes crops. Their habitat also contributes to their diet, they like low altitudes where the plants are abundant and easy to reach. It also protects them from natural predators, such as tigers. There are only around 100 sumatran rhinos left. They are able to start mating at the age of 7-10 and only have one calf every 3-4 years.
There are some rhinos in captivity, but due to the fact they rarely mate they still need time for the species to get better. Sumatran rhinos are dark grey and around 8 feet long. They are special because they have two horns and have a little bit of fur on them.
For wild suzhou i’m palm tree and thank you for listening.

The atlas moth can be found in South East Asia, the Moths reside in tropical forests where the climate is just right for them. Something very unique about the Atlas moth is that it doesn’t have a mouth, so instead of dying of old age or being preyed on it dies of starvation most of the time. It survives out of the cocoon for about a week and relies on stored energy like fat from before they went into the cocoon. They try not to use lots of energy as they try to mate before they die.
Even though they have a super short lifespan, they still have adapted ways of protecting themselves. Like other moth species, they utilize camouflage to help them stay protected. Their wings are mostly orange and brown like the plants in their habitat, and have white patches outlined in black, which is meant to scare predators by looking like eyes. Some of the Atlas moths predators are birds, small reptiles, and small mammals.
Most of the time they are alive is when they are still caterpillars. For about 5-7 weeks the caterpillar eats leaves all day until it has enough energy to go into a cocoon. The main purpose of the moth is to reproduce, and it’s important to the ecosystem because it provides food to other animals. The Atlas moth is one of the biggest insects and also the biggest moth. Its wingspan is 27 centimeters across.
For wild suzhou im palm tree and thankyou for listening.

The pygmy three toed sloth is a sloth species only found in panama. It’s habitat is exclusive to an island, named escudo de veragua. The climate in panama is warm and tropical, with lots of rain during the cold seasons. these small animals live in mangrove forests, which directly impacts their diet.
 They eat the leaves of the mangrove trees and it finds good by slowly getting around all day finding and eating leaves. Since sloths are so slow, it’s pretty difficult to run away or defend itself from predators, so they rely on camouflage and staying up in the trees. the predators can include wild cats, but if they’re in the water, they also have the ability to swim well.
The reason three toed pygmy sloths are incredibly important, it’s because they’re extremely endangered, it’s estimated there’s only around 30 left.  Some things leading to their endangerment is loss of habitat, because the trees are cut down.  These sloths are so slow, that some of them onto travel 49 yards a day. They spend most of their day in their tree, meaning they’re arboreal. The reason they’re so slow is because their metabolism is very slow, so they can’t use too much energy at once and they need to conserve it. Pygmy sloths are only 20 inches and weigh as much as a few books.
for wild suzhou i’m palm tree and thank you for listening.

The golden toad is an extinct toad species, the last sighting being 1989, that could only be found in a small region of Costa Rica called Monteverde. It’s habitat was a cloud forest which is an area with a high altitude with lots of moisture. Most of the frog's time was spent underground where it was moist and safe, but it would come above ground during mating season. Mating season was only a week in April. Like most other frogs and toads, this animal ate insects by going around on the forest floor.
This species of toad was last seen in 1989, which coincided with its habitat getting hotter and dryer, it’s presumed extinct. It was already a rare animal living in a very small area so climate change was enough to push it to extinction. El Nino, which is a warm current created by water in the pacific is thought to be what made the climate uninhabitable for the toads, since they required a cold and wet environment. It also affected how much rainfall the area got.
Another thing that made them go extinct was the chytrid fungus, which caused their skin to have sores and eventually would lead to infection and they would die. The toads were a bright golden and glowy color, as described by the scientists who had a chance to see them. The females were dark with yellow blotches all over them. They were only about 2 inches long and had a lifespan of an estimated 12 years. Scientists weren’t able to study this toad much before it became extinct but they were able to use it to draw attention to conservation of amphibians.
For wild Suzhou I'm palm tree and thank you for listening.

Hello, this is Wild Suzhou.
Today, we will talk about woodpeckers, and why they like to peck wood.
In case you didn’t know, a woodpecker is part of a family of birds, and they are known for pecking wood. There is a lot of variety among species, meaning different kinds of woodpeckers can look very different from each other. They can be large, or small, brightly colored or rather dull. They live in most parts of the world, except for Oceania, Madagascar, and the North and South poles.
Now, why do woodpeckers peck holes in wood? There are three reasons for doing this.
First, woodpeckers peck at trees because that’s how they get their food. By pecking at trees, it’s almost like a drill making holes in the wood, and woodpeckers can then pick out insects, insect eggs, and larvae that they find under the bark. Some similar species, like the sapsucker, will drill into trees so they can drink the sap.
Second, woodpeckers will drill into dead or dying trees and make holes that they can lay eggs in and take care of baby woodpeckers. This is also important for other animals, since when a woodpecker is done using a nest, another animal can now make a home in the hole.
Finally, woodpeckers will peck at wood because of the sound it makes. It’s loud, and it lets other animals know that there is a woodpecker nearby. This helps a woodpecker to establish a territory, or area that it owns and uses, and it can also tell other woodpeckers that they are ready to mate. This behavior is called “drumming”. Woodpeckers are not the only birds who do this, many birds will drum on other objects to alert others that they are there.
I hope you have learned a few new things about the woodpecker that are surprising or interesting to you. For Wild Suzhou, I’m Ciana, thanks for listening and see you next time.

Also known as the granulated sea star. the chorister is a starfish species found in coral reefs in warm water all around the world. It’s most commonly found in the Great Barrier reef off the coast of northern australia, fiji, the red sea, and indo-west pacific waters. These starfish are extremely important to the environment because they help clean and eat decomposing animals. Their diet is simply carrion, which is decomposing meat. 

 The choriaster starfish doesn’t have to worry much about predators, in most regions it doesn’t have any but sometimes Sea Snails will include these starfish in their diet. Choriaster star fish aren’t deadly nor can they harm humans. They are easily distinguishable due to their round, and bubbly shape. They’re pale pink and brown, orange, or red bumps on their back, differing for each one. 

It has a nickname that is the doughboy sea star because it looks like bread dough. Like other star fish it has the ability to regenerate limbs that have been cut off. Their mouths are on their underside and when they eat, their digestive organs can actually come out of their stomach to get the food. They are about 25 centimeter long and have a lifespan of 35 years. 

for wild suzhou i’m palm tree and thank you for listening.

Hello, this is Wild Suzhou.
Today, we will talk about Voeltzkow’s Chameleon, which was thought to have been extinct since the last time it had been spotted was in the 1900’s, but it was recently rediscovered. 
This rare species of chameleon was rediscovered during a two-week expedition to the northern tip of Madagascar. The chameleon had last been seen in 1913, over a century ago, and was only first described by biologists in 1893. The rediscovery of Voeltzkow’s Chameleon means that scientists will now be able to learn more about the species.
One member of the expedition, Frank Glaw, said that “I thought we might have a good chance of rediscovering Voeltzkow’s Chameleon, but I was surprised that it took so long and that it was so difficult.” This is because during most of the expedition, the team was unable to find any of the chameleons, but during the last few days of their trip, they were able to find 3 males and 15 females.
The male Voeltzkow’s Chameleon’s coloration looks fairly normal for a chameleon, being a slightly muddy green color with some brighter green stripes going down their sides. There is also a white streak that runs on either side of their body. When they feel angry or stressed, the bright green stripes turn dark. Females, however, are much more distinct when they are stressed. They become black, with several dotted stripes in different shades of blue going from up to down on their sides. There is also a line of large red dots that goes across their body. Their throats are also bright red or orange.
For Wild Suzhou, I’m Ciana, thanks for listening and see you next time.