Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021, issue 83, Reptiles Rock! i Eco Kids Planet Magazine

Tortoises, lizards, snakes and crocodiles are all very different, so what makes a reptile a reptile? Reptiles all have backbones and lungs, and they all breathe air. Their skin is made of scales, bony plates or a mixture of the two. Does ‘cold-blooded’ mean they shiver all the time? No, they don’t have ice in their veins! It means they can’t control their body heat, which changes with the air temperature. So, if reptiles get too hot, they must find somewhere colder to cool down. If they’re too cold, they bask in the sun to soak up heat. So, do they feel warm or cold? Not like we do, but the temperature does affect them. Imagine if you got much slower every time it got colder. Walking to school on…

RHONA REPORTS! N0. 22 And don’t forget about me – Rusty! JUDE WALKER WALKS! Eleven-year-old Eco Kid Jude Walker is walking 200 miles to raise awareness of climate change! He really got into walking during lockdown. His Yorkshire hometown, Hebden Bridge, is surrounded by some of the UK’s most stunning countryside. It’s so great for walks that Jude even wore out his walking shoes! When he had the idea to hoof it to London, he practised with a 10-mile trek every day. He hopes to highlight an online carbon tax petition he wants people to sign. It calls for the government to introduce a charge on carbon emissions, which cause air pollution. That should encourage industries and organisations to cut down the carbon they emit. Jude hopes it’ll make them…

A lizard with two heads? Spiky, colour-changing thorny devils have a fake head on their neck. It’s really just a lump. When threatened, this Australian lizard takes a bow, dipping its real head between its front legs. That moves the soft false head to where its real one usually is. It’s to fool – or maybe warn off – predators. Between those spikes, a network of tiny grooves covers the skin. The small lizard uses these to suck water from anywhere on its body into its mouth. So, if they brush against dew-covered grass or get rained on, they get to drink with their skin! True or False? Legend says that milk snakes suck milk from sleeping cows’ udders. True or completely and udder-ly false? Answer below! Shrinking sea lizards!…

Congratulations to our five winners! Meet young naturalist and artist, Benjamin Fallow! Benji is seven years old, and passionate about protecting nature. His favourite things are nature and drawing. He collects nature treasures and has taught his mum, dad, family and friends so much more about nature than they ever knew before! During lockdown 2020, Benji won a national nature writing competition for his age group, Nature on your Doorstep with Lucy McRobert, and was featured on Chris Packham’s Self Isolating Bird Club. If he’s not drawing, Benji’s usually outdoors covered in mud 😀. Thank you so much for sharing your amazing work with us, Benji! To see more competition entries from our readers, go to: https://www.ecokidsplanet.co.uk/mud-faces…

The first-ever reptiles we know about were small lizard-like ones that lived in forests over 300 million years ago. But much bigger reptiles came later… Here’s one! Big, bony-armoured reptiles called Pareiasaurs roamed our planet over 251 million years ago. These peaceful plant-eaters were probably slow and clumsy but wandered widely to find fresh leaves to eat. But the best reptiles of all were yet to come. Yes, the greatest creatures of all time (except for our cat Luke Skywhisker)… DINOSAURS! Their name comes from Greek words meaning ‘terrible reptile’. I know what you’re thinking: “They weren’t terrible, they were brilliant!” But the word ‘terrible’ was just to describe their extreme size. Mind you, some dinosaurs were rabbit-sized, and some of the largest were peaceful, plant-munching vegans. It’s the smaller,…

They may not be able to breathe fire, but Komodo dragons are still a force to be reckoned with. Matt Cook, Lower Vertebrates & Invertebrates Lead Keeper at Chester Zoo, tells us all about our planet’s largest lizard. Noah: How big are Komodo dragons? Komodo dragons can grow to nearly three metres long and weigh up to 120kg. Their weight can vary dramatically because they can eat up to 80% of their body weight in one sitting. In the wild, Komodo dragons can – and sometimes must – go for long periods with no food at all, so they become very skinny, then they eat as much as they can every four to six weeks. Jack: How fast can they run? Can they use their tail as a whip? They…

Some reptiles have a third eye that works like a calendar, others have a special device for ‘seeing’ at night. Chameleons can famously change colour – but do certain snakes have this ability, too? Most lizards can regrow their tails, some can also walk up walls, upside down and even on water – who knew? Even being cold-blooded is an energy-saving superpower. Welcome to the world of shapeshifters, size-tricksters, heat-seekers and skin-shedders! Might some reptiles even be the closest thing we have to DRAGONS? Let’s investigate the SUPERS of the REPTILE WORLD! Super-sight and light There are many types of light. And many different ways of ‘seeing’. Humans only feel infrared light as heat – but some snakes can see it… • A thermal ‘eye’ Vipers, pythons and boas have…

REP-TASTIC CROSSWORD ACROSS: 3. A group of lizards 6. In which country can you find Komodo dragons in the wild? 8. Which islands are home to the marine iguana? 10. This snake spreads the skin of its neck into a hood to scare off predators DOWN: 1. Draco volans’s special skill 2. One of the reasons a chameleon might change its colour 4. Which body part can lizards drop off when threatened? 5. Home to about half of the world’s 200 species of chameleons 7. Aka Jesus lizard 9. A very large snake that can swallow a deer OLYMPIC GAMES: TEAM REPTILE With the Tokyo Olympic Games dominating the news this summer, we’ve had sport on our minds. If we were to host the Reptile Olympic Games, which animal would…

FIVE lucky readers will win Dino Dump, a super-fun game from our friends over at Big Potato Games. 5 TO WIN! Dino Dump is a bit like Uno. You have power cards and can play card combos to get rid of cards quickly and sabotage others. Use cards to throw meteorites, hide under leaves and scoop up poo to get the upper hand on your opponents. To win, you must lose all your Dino Cards as quickly as possible. The last player with cards ends up in the poo! A great card game for children aged 6+. RRP £10 Available at: https://bigpotato.co.uk/products/dino-dump How to submit your entries: Send your creation by email to win@ecokidsplanet.co.uk or mail it to Eco Kids Planet, 41 Claremont Road, Barnet, EN4 0HR. The closing date…