In the ARKive office we love a good celebration, and what better reason is there to celebrate than our 9th birthday? The 20th May 2012 will mark 9 years since the launch of ARKive, during which time the website has grown to include over 14,500 species profiles! To mark the occasion, we have taken a look through the vault to find some real party animals to help get the fun and games started…

Clowning around

All good parties need some entertainment, and when a birthday comes around it is time to bring out the clowns! While it may be lacking in huge feet (or any feet for that matter) and a big red nose, we think that the colourful common clownfish would be a welcome guest at any gathering.

A good sing-song

When the cake arrives, it is pretty much mandatory to belt out happy birthday as loud as you can. While the animal kingdom has a variety of talented vocalists, we have decided that this western meadowlark could probably out-sing most of the ARKive staff!

Make a wish

It is traditional to make a wish as you blow out the candles on your cake, and while there might not be any real candles in the ARKive collection, we think the firefly squid is just as pretty! Perhaps you could try wishing on a squid instead?

Party games

If you are as competitive as most of the ARKive team, you probably love a good party game, and one of our favourites has got to be musical statues. Mind you, I think the male sharp-tailed grouse could give us a run for our money with its stop-start display, check out this video!

You’re invited too!

Of course, you can’t have a party without your friends, so we want to invite all of our fans and followers to get involved in our birthday celebrations.

*Like* ARKive on Facebook to help us unwrap our 9th birthday presents and Pass the Parcel to your friends! Keep an eye out for some cryptic clues and see if you can guess which animals have been wrapped up!

Plus, as it’s our 9th birthday, on Twitter we’ll be sharing cool facts about the 9th species added to ARKive each year, starting from the launch of ARKive back in 2003! Once each fact gets 9 retweets, we’ll reveal the 9th species added on our next birthday, along with another fun fact to retweet.

The 9th species ever added to ARKive was the giant panda. Here’s the first fact to retweet:

Known for feeding on bamboo, did you know that the giant panda is technically a carnivore & occasionally eats meat too? #HBARKive

Why not send us a birthday message too? Post why you *like* ARKive on our Facebook wall. Our favourite 9 reasons for *liking* ARKive will appear in a 9th Birthday blog on Sunday 20th May. Plus you’ll win a special birthday party hat Twibbon so that you can celebrate on your Facebook and Twitter profiles too.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr  and Google Plus to check out wild number 9 facts – make sure you get involved!

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ARKive’s Creative Climate Change Challenge was launched during Climate Week back in March. We asked you to get creative and through an exciting and engaging way, raise awareness about a species affected by climate change.

The creativity was outstanding – we received everything from papier mache penguins to clownfish cookies. The ARKive judges were taken on an emotional roller coaster – from the tear jerking tale of the table mountain ghost frog to the awe-inspiring sounds of a karaoke koala!

The judges were looking for entries which evoked an emotional response that would inspire people to do something to help combat climate change. The results are in and there were 3 entries that, in the judges’ minds, stood out above the rest. So, drum roll please……..

Winner of the 16-18 category

I bet your drum roll’s not as good as the drumming skills of these very worthy winners - the Antsiranana Boy Scouts group! The scouts wrote and performed a song about climate change and its effects on the hawksbill turtle, which nests on the beaches of Northern Madagascar where the boys live. The scouts conduct all their awareness raising activities in collaboration with Community Centred Conservation (C3).

The Antsiranana Boy Scouts say, “We will be performing this song in local rural communities, but hope that people all over the world will watch online and learn more about the effects of climate change on the fano hara (hawksbill turtle in Malagasy) and what can be done to help.”

Winner of the 12-15 category

The polar bear is the star of the show in this poetic piece of song-writing by 14 year–old Emmy, from the US. Download the polar bear song.

Winner of the under 11 category

And finally, the prize for the under 11 category goes to Marcus and Kalina from the the UK. Top marks for entertainment. Flying fish anyone?

Marcus and Kalina’s teacher, Tasha Waldman, believes that educating children about climate change helps to raise awareness of our planet, giving understanding and hope to future generations. Marcus comments “Global warming is important because it is changing our planet and we need to help animals who can’t change with it“. Kalina agrees saying, “Lots of animals are dying and it’s our fault. It’s not just minor, it’s a MAJOR problem“. Wise words from some of our youngest contestants.

Get involved

Why not share one of the Creative Climate Change Challenge winning entries, helping our worthy winners to get their voice and message about climate change heard around the globe.

You can also let us know what you’re doing to help combat climate change by entering your comments below or joining in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

Congratulations to all our winners and a big thank you to all who took part in ARKive’s Creative Climate Change Challenge.

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This week in the United States it’s time to celebrate all things green and leafy with it being both National Park Week and Arbor Day this coming Friday. With entrance fees to national parks across the country being waived, what better opportunity is there to go on an adventure and discover some of the country’s most spectacular wildlife.

Whether it’s hiking, swimming or kayaking that floats your boat, there is something for everyone, and we thought we would highlight a few of our favorite national parks to inspire you to get outside and experience nature.

Glacier Bay National Park

If you want to see glaciers crashing into the sea, orcas hunting their prey or brown bears effortlessly grabbing salmon from a rushing stream, head to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, where the majestic wilderness will keep your jaw dropped for hours on end. At this time of year you may also be lucky enough to see humpback whales breaching.

Grand Canyon National Park

Perhaps the desert is calling you, in which case Grand Canyon National Park would be a good call. It is no wonder why nearly 5 million people visit each year, with spectacular vistas of the mile deep, 277 mile long canyon. This terrain is home to the prickly pear cactus, puma and even the Critically Endangered California condor.

Voyageurs National Park

For those of you who aren’t afraid of a few mosquitoes and like to paddle a canoe, head north to Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota. This land of over 10,000 lakes is home to a variety of species such as bald eagles, moose, grey wolves, and American black bears.

Everglades National Park

If you live closer to the tropical lowlands, check out Everglades National Park in Florida. This significant wetland has been designated a World Heritage Site and provides habitat for many Vulnerable species, including the American crocodile.

Shenandoah National Park

Finally, let’s look east to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. This eastern mountain range offers plenty of hiking trails, excellent stargazing and of course a plethora of wildlife to view. You might be lucky enough to see the eastern redbud a brilliantly colored tree that flowers this time of year.

Get outside and get involved!

Both National Park Week and Arbor Day are great ways to celebrate nature, enjoy wildlife, and they are entirely free to take part in! Have you been to any of these parks or captured photographs of these or other species? If so, why not share them on the ARKive Facebook page or Twitter feed!

In honor of Arbor Day on April 27th, you could even get your hands dirty and plant a native tree species in your own community. Find out how you can get involved by visiting the Arbor Day Foundation website.

Maggie Graham, Program Assistant, Wildscreen USA

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It’s all go here at ARKive Education recently. What with the preparations for National Science and Engineering week and our trip to the Big Bang, as well as becoming accredited to the CREST Star Investigators scheme, 2012 has been a great year so far.

Our resources are as popular as ever, with downloads on the up – we are thrilled to think how many students the ARKive content and conservation message is reaching! As well as making all our education resources free to download direct from our education section of our website, we also list them on a variety of external platforms, including the TES (Times Educational Supplement) website here in the UK.

What does the TES website offer?

TES Resources provides a platform for teachers, publishers and a variety of organisations to share free learning materials including lesson plans, activities, videos, teaching ideas and worksheets. There are currently over 1.9 million members on TES from 196 countries, who have contributed over 300,000 teaching resources.

TES allows teachers to search their enormous database for resources to suite a particular age group, or to cover a specific topic. All the resources are linked to the curriculum and we hope it allows ARKive Education to reach a whole new pool of teachers, and judging by our download stats it seems to be working!

We were therefore particularly pleased to be approached by TES about becoming an official content partner.

“The TES Resource team are always looking for content partners with amazing resources that are freely available, to help grow the number of high-quality resources on TES which inspire teachers, save them time, and help to raise standards in teaching.

“ARKive’s wildlife video clips and fun materials make a great addition to the offering of biology resources available on the site. The resource ‘Marvellous Mini-Beasts – Design a Species’ – which teaches students about how different invertebrate species have adapted to survive in particular habitats – has been particularly popular.”

Charlie Patterson, TES Resources Partnership Co-ordinator

Find out more

For anyone interested in finding out more about ARKive Education you can visit our education section, send us an email education@wildscreen.org.uk, or come along to the TES Resources North conference taking place later this week at Manchester Central (stand C42) where we will be exhibiting from the 20^th - 21^st April.

Find out more about becoming a Content Partner on TES.

Laura Sutherland, ARKive Education Officer

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A dozen free range ‘eggs’ have been laid around the ARKive website for you to dig up using your eggspert knowledge!

It’s easy to play along:

• Unscramble the first cryptic clue to lead you to the correct page on ARKive
• Find the egg and break it open to eggspose the next clue
• Crack all of the clues until you reveal. . .
• The final Golden Egg
• Collect a special twibbon to show your friends what an egghead you are!

If you only make it half-a-dozen-way through and need to take a break, you can save the latest webpage in your ‘favourites’ and continue the egg hunt later.

Here’s your first clue:

“Watch this eggstreme angler video! Is this bird of prey the ultimate fisher?”

Do you eggcept the challenge, or will you chicken out?! If you’re finding it extraordinarily challenging, you can ‘like’ us on Facebook to get some eggclusive eggstra clues!

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

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