In an effort to make sponges more interesting for my students (a challenge for sure!), I came across this fine song by Jake Shields. Enjoy!
Zoology
Science Song: A Musical Memorial for Lonesome George
I was showing a video about the Galápagos Islands to my Zoology class yesterday, and during a segment on the giant tortoises a student asked me the name of the tortoise that died that was the last of his species on one of the islands. I hadn’t heard about this particular tortoise, so I did some research online and found the story of Lonesome George.
George was a male tortoise on Pinta Island in the Galápagos, and the vegetation on the island had essentially been wiped out by invasive goats (brought in by humans). The destruction led to a crash in the tortoise population, and eventually George was the last tortoise of his species left. George was relocated to another island Galápagos, and efforts were made to find him a mate to try and continue his line. Sadly, efforts to produce offspring with tortoises from other islands proved unsuccessful, and George passed away in 2012. His species is now considered to be extinct.
I found the memorial song below on YouTube. It’s a sad song, and one of my students claimed that she was on the verge of tears after watching it. That being said, sometimes a visceral reaction like this can create a lasting memory of the effects that humans can have on populations of living organisms on this planet. It’s definitely worth watching.
How does a cheetah run so fast?
One of the joys of teaching a zoology class is that there are so many amazing stories to tell about how different animals are uniquely adapted to their lifestyle/environment. One such story is about why the cheetah so fast. Their springy, springy spine, and leg muscles dominated by fast twitch fibers (among other things) allow them to max speeds of around 70 mph as they chase their prey. Cheetah’s are marvelously adapted for speed, and the videos below do a great job demonstrating this.
The first video, from National Geographic, explains in more detail how cheetahs were built to sprint.
The second video provides some of the raw footage taken of the cheetah running in slow motion – truly amazing!