Gibson’s World

Hermit crabs are really interesting animals. They take empty shells from sea snails and live in them for a little while. They have to change shells sometimes, though. If a hermit crab has a shell too small, it won’t grow as fast and it’s more likely to be eaten.

Hermit crabs live all over the world and there are more than 500 different species of them. Most of them live in the water but there are at least 15 different terrestrial species. Even though a hermit crab is called a hermit CRAB, hermit crabs aren’t closely related to true crabs.

Some big hermit crabs can grow to be as big as a coconut and might have a sea anemone on its shell. The hermit crab and the anemone both get a good deal, though. The sea anemone gets the hermit crab’s left-over food and a ride, and the sea anemone scares away all the fish that might want to eat the hermit crab.

A hermit crab reproduces by laying eggs. Once the eggs hatch and the baby hermit crabs come out, they all run to the shore hoping to find an empty snail shell that fits them. To survive, they feed on algae and debris. Some hermit crabs can live up to 30 years (I hope my hermit crab Cow lives that long)!

While we were in Phuket, I found two hermit crabs on the beach. I named one Cow and the other Purple. Cow was cool because his shell was black and white, so he looked like a small cow. I really liked playing with them and hope to see more hermit crabs in Africa, South America, and Antarctica :-).

Fun Facts:

1. Hermit Crabs live in colonies of more than 100 hermit crabs. They don’t do as well by themselves.

2. Hermit crabs are called hermit crabs because they are like a hermit living alone in a cave even though they live in colonies.

A skink is a really cool type of lizard. Skinks are the most diverse and successful group of lizards and are found worldwide. One reason why they are doing so well is because of their good sense of smell, sight, and hearing. Like other lizards, skinks can also lose their tail, but some can only lose their tail once. Even though skinks are doing so well, there are still some species of skinks that are endangered. The Blue Mountain Skinks, White’s Skinks, and Broadhead Skinks are some examples of skinks that are either endangered or threatened.

One reason why I think skinks are such cool reptiles is because they look different from almost all other reptiles. Skinks usually have short legs or none at all and their whole body is covered with smooth, shiny, overlapping scales. These scales are striped in bright reds, oranges, blues, yellows, blacks, and browns so they blend in almost perfectly in a garden. Pacific Skinks are the best skinks at camouflaging. These skinks can change colors, like chameleons, in a matter of seconds. This is probably why there are so many skinks in and around gardens. If you happen to have a skink in yours, don’t try to kill it because when skinks are in a garden, it usually means that your garden is healthy. Skinks are also really nutritious and help gardens a lot. They help almost as much as fertilizer!

If you asked some skinks what their favorite food was, most of them would probably say insects. Some might say spiders, earthworms, isopods (a type of crustacean), or lizards, though. Every once in a while, a big skink might eat a small rodent, but since the average skink is rarely longer than 200 mm, they can’t eat anything too big. The longest recorded skink was huge (350 mm long!).

So far on our trip, we have seen a Rainbow Skink, a Many-lined Sun Skink, and a Speckled Forest Skink, but I hope to see more of these amazing reptiles. So, next time you see a skink, instead of ignoring it, remember how important and helpful they are to people!

Fun Facts:

1. There aren’t any venomous skinks, but there are two types of venomous lizards (the Gila Monster and the Mexican Bearded Dragon). They both live in the southwestern part of the United States and northern Mexico.

2. Some people own skinks, iguanas, bearded dragons, leopard geckos, or even monitor lizards as pets!

3. Skinks have eyelids that blink, but other lizards don’t even have eyelids.

4. Many lizards can change color according to where they are like the chameleon.

5. The Collared Lizard is the fastest type of lizard recorded.

Bananas are really interesting plants. They are also one of my favorite fruits and are rich in Vitamin A, B6, C, and potassium.

Bananas are grown in 132 out of 192 countries and the world produced 72.5 million metric tons of bananas just in 2005! The top producer in 2005 was India which produced 16.8 million metric tons of bananas. Second was Brazil with only 6.7 million metric tons. Next were China, Ecuador, Philippines, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Thailand, Columbia, and Burundi.

One tree of bananas usually weighs from thirty to fifty kg’s and there can be from 60-400 bananas on a tree. Bananas are non-seasonal so the banana tree can produce bananas all year round. Not all bananas are green or yellow. Some can be red or purple!

Banana plants are usually from 2-8 meters long and their leaves can be up to 3.5 meters long. Since the leaves are so big, people sometimes use them to serve food on. Some people take dried bananas and grind them into banana powder. They can also be used for banana ketchup, banana pudding, banana splits, banana sauce, or even banana rum!

Bananas are one of my favorite foods and these were some facts about them.

Snakes are really interesting reptiles because all snakes can swim even though they are thought of as land reptiles. Snakes are also carnivores and don’t chew their food. Because of that, they can die from trying to eat something to big. Did you know that some anacondas and pythons can go for up to a year without eating after they’ve had only one big meal?!

You also probably didn’t know that snakes evolved from a type of lizard and that most pythons and boa constrictors have super short, stubby hind legs that act kind of like suction cups.

When a snake swims, it moves its tail side to side but they can only move forwards. Only sea snakes can move backwards. Snakes swim using surface tension. We did an experiment and found out that a metal needle can also float because of surface tension.

Lots of people have been bitten and/or killed by snakes in certain countries. Of the 22,000 Americans bitten by venomous snakes every year, less than 20 die but in Africa, 1,000,000 people get bitten a year and 20,000 people die. In Asia, 4,000,000 people get bitten by snakes and 100,000 people get killed by them a year.

Snakes are one of my favorite an animals and these were just a few facts about them. The only thing I don’t like them is they’re hard to find and that they bite. I have only seen the black tiger snake and the common tree snake, but I hope to see more in Asia, Africa and South America.

Fun Fact: When snakes are charmed in India, they don’t move because of the music. Snakes can’t hear. They move from the charmer moving the flute or their feet. Snake charming is banned in most places in India.