Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2025, issue 124 i Eco Kids Planet Magazine

I’m Willa the Wolverine, coming to you from the freezing, snow-covered forests of northern Finland. It’s cold out here, but I’ve got a warm friendship to keep me going – Raven, my best buddy! Sometimes I travel more than 25km in one night looking for food. We wolverines have a bad reputation for being ferocious predators… Just look at my large paws armed with sharp, curved claws! I can take on prey as big as moose and even fight against wolves for a carcass. Fier-r-r-r-ce! But to tell you the truth, my aggressive shrieks and hisses are often just a bluff – after all, I’m only the size of a medium dog. Raven and I help each other survive. She’s got sharp eyes and can spot food from the air,…

ANIMAL ALLIES CROSSWORD Across: 4. A small gift often offered by a gentoo penguin to its partner 5. Small mammals that ‘sing’ ultrasonic love songs 7. A bird that cleans ticks off large mammals 10. Another name for clownfish 12. A wolverine’s bird-friend Down: 1. A relationship between two different species where both benefit 2. A fish that attaches to sharks and rays 3. A bird known for its elaborate dance moves to attract a mate 6. The world’s largest rodent, known for its friendly and social nature 8. Creator of intricate sand patterns to impress a mate 9. Flightless nocturnal parrot from New Zealand 11. Warthhog’s unlikely friend True or False Quiz 1. The oxpecker bird sometimes drinks blood from the animals it cleans. 2. To impress their partner,…

Download the template for this papercraft from www.ecokidspanet.co.uk/papercraft-swans and follow these step-by-step instructions to create your paper swan pair. 1. Cut out the templates for the larger swan. Colour the swan and its wings in a dark grey shade on both sides of the templates. 2. Colour the eye area of the swan in black; be sure not to colour in the dots for its eyes (these are to remain white). Colour the beak detail in orange. 3. Apply glue to the swan’s head to join both sides of the head together. 4. Fold the wings and ruffle the feathers to make the wings look 3D. Add glue to the glue spots. Attach these to the swan’s body as numbered. 5. Colour the base in blue on both sides of…

Some animals get surprisingly creative to attract a mate. Mystery circles Divers in Japan first spotted beautiful circular patterns carefully carved into the sandy seabed in 1995. They had no idea who – or what – the great underwater artist was. Surprise! It turned out to be white-spotted pufferfish. The tiny male fish sinks his body into the seabed’s sand and uses one flapping fin to sculpt his undersea art. Creating that patterned circle takes 24 hours a day of non-stop fin-spinning for a week! If he takes more than a moment’s rest, the sea current may wash his masterpiece away. He even breaks and carefully places shells he finds into the pattern! It’s all to attract a passing female pufferfish. It’s not that females are big fans of art…

Hello, Amy here! This issue of Eco Kids Planet is all about animal friendships. I discovered that some of them are extraordinary! Who would imagine a mongoose and a warthog would be best pals? These relationships work because of something called SYMBIOSIS. “What’s that?” you’re probably wondering. Symbiosis is when creatures from two different species depend on each other for survival. And NATURE is full of it! If the relationship benefits BOTH species, it’s called MUTUALISM (mutually beneficial, see?). I’ve explored my favourite examples of MUTUALISM here. (Although one friendship does get a little close for comfort, as you’ll see when you read number three… Ouch!) 1. Warthogs and banded mongooses – a playful and adaptive kind of mutualism! It is extremely unusual for onespecies of mammal to groom another,…

It’s me, Charlie, the Eco Kid who can chat with animals. This time, I’m meeting the world’s largest rodent! Charlie: I’m in Brazil, shortly after dawn, hoping to interview a capybara. They may be not just the largest, but the friendliest rodents, too. I’ve seen pictures of them in captivity mixing with monkeys, rabbits, turtles, cats and other creatures. They might also be the loudest! I can hear lots of them grunting, whistling, chirping and squeaking in the river ahead. Ah, one’s coming out of the water. I’ll see if they’re as friendly in the wild. Mr Capybara, can you chat? Capybara: My first visitor and I’ve only just finished breakfast. I’m too popular for my own good! Charlie: Did you have a nice brekkie? Capybara: Yes, it was an…

RHONA REPORTS! NO. 61 And don’t forget about me – Rusty! Lots of news about nice people helping out animals this time – and plenty of rewilding items! REWILDING BOOST… FOR KIDS! Will we lose interest in nature over the next few years, Eco Kids? No way – we’ll turn into Eco Teens, that’s all! Yet rewilding charity Rewilding Britain says there’s often a sudden lack of connection with nature when the teen years come. So, it’s awarding up to £15,000 each to 11 projects through its new Rewilding Innovation Fund. This twice-yearly cash boost supports new, inventive and creative rewilding projects to put young people at the forefront of rewilding – and keep us there! Rewilding means restoring nature until it can take care of itself – and us…