Today is Mother’s Day in the US and is a chance to honor and give thanks to mothers, both human and those of the animal variety!

In nature, mothers come in all shapes and sizes and are equipped with a wide range of different parenting styles.  We’ve selected a handful of moms with unique and fascinating methods for raising their babies from keeping little ones close for years to kicking them right out of the nest before they can even fly!

How many aunts do you have?

Furry and ginormous, American bison mothers live with their young in hierarchical herds led by one dominant female. Within three hours of being born, the newborn calves are able to run about but are guarded closely by many of the herds’ mothers who will charge any intruders. Talk about safety in numbers!

Ever wish your mom would let you have your own place?

Our fine, feather mom, the long-eared owl, takes on the more ‘distant’ parenting approach. In a behavior known as ‘branching’, chicks leave the nest before they are able to fly and reside in surrounding vegetation, roosting separately, and thereby potentially reducing predation. While the young are capable of flight at around 35 days, both parents continue to provide food for several weeks after fledging.

Did your mom ever carry you and eight of your brothers and sisters in her mouth?

The scaly and not-so-cuddly American alligator mother is a more involved mom. From the time that she builds the nest for her 25 to 60 eggs to the moment they hatch, she remains quite close for the 65 day incubation period guarding against any potential predators. An efficient mom, she can carry eight to ten hatchlings at a time in her mouth!

Think you live in tight corners with your mother, brothers or sisters?

The fuzzy but protective American black bear mom keeps her cubs close, real close. Mom and cubs snuggle up for months during winter hibernation and, since cubs aren’t weaned until they are six to eight months old, the family tends to spend a second winter hibernation in close quarters.

Could you imagine having your babies but then leaving them immediately?

The hawksbill turtle mother, after laying up to 140 eggs in a single nest, leaves her young behind to hatch and fend for themselves for the rest of their lives. If the hatchlings survive the mad dash to the sea just after hatching, they spend their first few years in the open ocean before returning to more sheltered coastal waters.

Haven’t gotten your fill of moms and babies on ARKive yet? Check out this search for ‘mothers’ to see animal moms from around the world on ARKive!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Ari Pineda, Program Assistant, Wildscreen USA

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Tree lovers unite – it’s Arbor Day! Did you know Arbor Day is over 135 years old? Its roots go way back to the Nebraska Territory of the USA in the late 1850s, but it wasn’t celebrated nationwide in the States until 1882.  A popular holiday advocating for the planting of trees, the first Arbor Day celebration was rumored to have planted over one million trees!

To celebrate, we’ve gathered some of our favorite images in the ARKive collection of tree species from both the US and around the world to show just how extraordinary trees can be. Are any of these your favorite?

Tree on fire

This lovely bean tree gets its name from its vibrant red and yellow flowers that bloom in the spring and summer. If you catch the flame tree at dusk, you may be able to see its fragile leaves folding into its branches. Originally found in Madagascar, the flame tree has adapted to grow in other parts of the world.

Big-trunked timber

Can you guess how this African tree got its name? In addition to its unique shape, the bottle tree’s sap is considered highly toxic. Add this to its thorn-covered branches, one would argue that the bottle tree was definitely built for survival!

Thorns and haws

Like the bottle tree, hawthorns have thorns that create a protective barrier against animals. Though its bark is dark grey and brown, this tree blossoms white flowers and produces red berries called ‘haws’. A common tree in Britain, the Hawthorns’ flowers bloom in May, marking the sweet transition from spring into summer.

Nuts for trees

While Arbor Day is a joyful celebration of trees and nature, it also looks at the issue of conservation. The Brazil-nut trees in this photo were left standing amid deforestation, a widespread threat that has left this species Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. This tree is an incredibly versatile and important plant found in South America, particularly the Amazon. Interested in learning more? Take a look at our reforestation topic page inspired by our recently-released, free online game, Team WILD!

Mythical topiary

A great provider of shade due to its dense foliage, the dragon’s blood tree is well known for its peculiar umbrella shape. As for its namesake, the dragon’s blood tree is prized for its dark red-colored resin that has been used since ancient times in art and medicine. A member of the evergreen tree family, this species keeps its leaves all year long. 

Large and looming

The giant sequoia is awe-inspiring because of its massive volume and distinctive reddish brown coloring. Its enormous trunk measures up to 11 meters in diameter!  They may not be the tallest trees in the world, but the giant sequoia is certainly the largest. This woodland conifer is found in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California and one of the best places to visit these trees is at Yosemite National Park. Since this week is also National Park Week, now would be the perfect time for a road trip to see sequoias!

There are so many more amazing trees to explore on ARKive so why not have a search around the site today! Or, if you’re looking for a fun, educational experience to celebrate the holiday, why not give our free Plants lesson a go.

Andrea Small, Intern, Wildscreen USA

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We’ve had a fantastic week of guest bloggers on ARKive from day care educators to stay-at-home moms who have highlighted the different ways they have used ARKive in support of this year’s Environmental Education Week theme of ‘Taking Technology Outdoors’. Our final guest blog has been written by Perky, an elementary school principal in northern Idaho who used tablet PC’s to engage her students with the local natural world this month … once it was warm enough to venture outside!

iPads, ARKive and Food Chain Learning All Outside Under the Sun

What fun we have with ARKive at our small rural school in northern Idaho! Who could imagine students who live only 60 miles from Canada would be able to create and learn about vital food chains in countries such as Africa, Costa Rica, or Asia? Well, the kids found it easy because of the fantastic work the ARKive people have produced. During our winters of mountains of snow, our students initially learned how to use the resources of ARKive by developing a food web of their choice using the app called StoryBuddy; we worked inside for this project.  Each student partnership made a small electronic book complete with facts and photos of animals involved in a food chain. The results were professional and the kids adored the project because of how easy it was to get the information and pictures they needed.

Perky’s students have a blast exploring ARKive outside using tablet PC’s

Now that the sun is shining and the grass is slowly turning green, we were invited to use some of the resources on ARKive again involving the use of a camera. Believe it or not, my small school of 166 students received 90 + iPads from an anonymous donor last fall! So, we now have easily accessible cameras. I chose the Temperate Rainforest Lesson to get them outside. We started by eating our lunch while digging a little deeper into the website. The students were amazed at all the other resources we found to use. While snacking on potato chips, we went through the PowerPoint. The discussion was lively and informative as we went through the slides.

One of Perky’s students completing a worksheet activity from the Temperate Rainforests of the Pacific Northwest ARKive lesson

Once we finished them, we were off and excited to head outside. Armed with the provided worksheets on clipboards and their iPads, the kids dove right into the work. Their first mission was to record all the living and nonliving components along one stretch of our fence. Luckily, in fourth grade they learned the necessary characteristics for something to be considered alive. As they worked along, they started snapping pictures of these components. These will be used to create a food chain of their choosing for organisms in our area which just happen to be very similar to the organisms living in a temperate rainforest: bears, moose, deer, coyotes, elk.

Perky’s students learned about species that live in the Pacific Northwest USA such as brown bears.

Tomorrow, we will use the Doceri app, their photos and ARKive’s resources to build their food chains. Thank you, ARKive. The kids literally loved it.

Perky, Elementary School Principal, Idaho, USA

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Next on our fantastic list of guest bloggers for our celebration of Environmental Education Week on ARKive is Laura from Pennsylvania who, in the spirit of the ‘Taking Technology Outdoors’ theme, spent an afternoon with her son Mason exploring nature just outside their home using ARKive. Keep reading to see how they encountered nature both prehistoric and modern on their adventure!

Prehistory meets the present in one afternoon spent outdoors with ARKive

When I found out about the ‘Taking Technology Outdoors’ EE Week theme and ARKive partnership, I immediately wanted to participate. Not only with my sons ‘Generation Z’ status in mind but moreso because I wanted to prove to myself that technology and nature can mix and that we do not have to become transformed by the ways of technology, forgetting about the world that exists around us. Instead, we can combine the two, each leading their own vital role.

My son Mason is a very energetic and enthusiastic 5 year old. However, we are reaching the point in his life where he is becoming more aware of technology and electronics and less interested in appreciating nature and the environment. When I grew up, my days were spent in the woods, climbing rocks and catching salamanders. Coming home filthy was our trophy for a successful day outdoors. A lot has changed since then.

As we headed outside, the first thing we noticed was a stray cat. I pulled up ARKive on my phone and clicked the Top 50 Mammals link. We flipped through the pictures and came across the caracal. Mason immediately commented on the similarities of size and color regarding this cat and the caracal.

Mason recognized similar features between a local stray kitty and a caracal.

We then went to a local park and searched the historic (and safe!) Pennsylvania coals mine lands hoping to find a fossil. To our disbelief, we were successful! This time, I pulled up the Top 50 Plants and Algae link from ARKive and we looked at the various different pictures. Mason decided that the plant resembling our fossil the most was Picramnia bullata. It was so neat to think that we had the tools to help us research what we found right there with us while we were in the outdoors. As we flipped through Mason also pointed out that the tall grass around us resembled the picture of animated oat as well.

Mason found a fossil while exploring outdoors with ARKive.

Using the Top 50 Plants & Algae list on ARKive, Mason and his mom decided it looked most like Picramnia.

We love using ARKive for the lessons, activities and free games on the website. Had I not visited the ARKive website and learned about the partnership with EE Week, I would not have thought about doing this with my son and we would not have shared such an interesting and educational experience. Not only were we able to enjoy the beauty of nature but we were able to immediately locate information on our phone via ARKive to back up what we found and get more information on it. This was a very valuable day for both my son and I as I learned new things as well. It is true that you’re never too old to learn something new. I could not think of a better way to learn than to experience that moment with my child, at the same time.

Laura, Nature-Exploring Mother of One

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Today’s Environmental Education Week guest blogger is Nikki, a Day Care Educator who is always on the look-out for incorporating real science into her daily curriculum. When one of her student’s parents brought a little caterpillar to school one day, Nikki saw the opportunity to teach her students science, both indoors and out, with the help of technology and ARKive. Keep reading for the trials and tribulations of ‘Fuzzy’ the caterpillar.

Using ARKive indoors and out to connect local species with related species around the world

The last week in February, Michael’s mom found a caterpillar near the fireplace at home. She brought it into school and I thought this would be the perfect science project for 2 1/2 and 3 year olds. We put ‘Fuzzy’ into a soda bottle and poked holes in the top. We also added a few leaves in case he got hungry. Within 3 days, ‘Fuzzy’ went into a cocoon. We checked on him daily and after about 3 weeks we thought ‘Fuzzy’ went over the ‘Rainbow Bridge’.

It was a Tuesday morning, the end of March, and I noticed a leg beginning to come through the cocoon.  Within moments, I grabbed the seven children in my class at the time, and we watched as ‘Fuzzy’ emerged into the Get Set classroom. Another little boy, Anthony, and his mom walked in minutes before. We all watched in amazement. I immediately freaked out, wondering what was in the jar.  It didn’t have wings and resembled a bee. Lucy was just dropped off by her dad who is an entomologist at Penn State University.  I ran down the hall to question him about the creature in my jar. He told me it was an Isabella tiger moth. He said within about 10 minutes the blood flow would hit his wings and they would expand. I raced back to my classroom and we watched at ‘Fuzzy’ became like “the beautiful butterfly, just like in The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” My co-teacher, Anthony’s mom, seven children, and myself, watched this phenomenon.  We helped him out of the jar and onto the wall on our playground.  The children watched in awe as we took pictures and bid farewell to our friend.

Well, my conscience got the best of me. It was hovering around 20 degrees and I feared ‘Fuzzy’ would freeze to death. My director found a butterfly tent and we transported our furry friend back inside.  I spent a good part of that day researching Isabella tiger moths and their relatives. Looking on ARKive, I learned there are a handful of moths related to ‘Fuzzy’ from the stripy Jersey tiger moth to the European cinnabar moth. I could easily envision an activity with the younger kids asking them to point out which parts of ‘Fuzzy’ were the same or different to his cousins on ARKive.

Then, the kids looked at pictures with me on my iPad of Isabella tiger moths and asked very mindful questions about how to take care of ‘Fuzzy’. We learned that he had only a few days to find a mate. He also may or may not eat. If he did eat, he’d like the nectar of a flower.Well, it’s March, so we crushed up a sugar cube, mixed it with water, and sprayed it onto artificial flowers that were placed in his tent. Everyday, we took pictures of him and would talk to him about what we were learning in school.  He learned about traveling to space which included watching space shuttle launches and landings. He also learned about Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. Last Thursday, ‘Fuzzy’ peacefully drifted off. The children wondered where he would go now. We put him in a tissue and buried him in the ground so the worms would have some food too.  I explained the circle of life and told the kids, the next big worm we found, was probably ‘Fuzzy’. The kids are looking forward to the next big rain storm so the worms will come out and we can find ‘Fuzzy’.

In all of my years teaching, this was probably one of the coolest experiences with kids. We were able to watch every single aspect in the life cycle of at caterpillar and used ARKive to learn about species related to the one in our own classroom. Sure, we’ve read stories, but nothing will compare to the look on their faces, when witnessing the real thing. I’m looking forward to seeing what else we can find in our ‘backyard’.

Nikki, Day Care School Educator and Lover of Caterpillars

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