Facts on Mammals
By C. Abigail
The largest deer in the world is 7ft tall!
Sea Otters where almost extinct, because they where being hunted in the 1700's and 1800's.
A rabbit isn't a rodent.
Guinea pigs are native to South America.
All rodents have teeth that never stop growing.
About 40% of mammals are rodents.
The house mouse and brown mouse can be found in Antarctica!
The West African royal antelope is the size of a brown hare!
No two cape hunting dogs have the same markings.
Porcupines gnaw on bones to sharpen their teeth!
Mole rats can live for several years.
Some water buffalos use swamp mud to protect their skin from insects and heat.
Guinea pigs are tailess fluffy creatures.
A girl house mouse can have 14 litters a year!
The mouse deer has a chance of being related to pigs and camels.
Submitted by C. Abigail
Saving Earth
By Tess
Based on the article by Richard Brooks “Thinking globally, acting locally”, Bluffton Today, September 21st, 2008
Every single year, hundreds of volunteers, gather together in the end of September, to help clean up the Beaufort County’s beaches. This year was no different than last.
Groups of volunteers covered the coastline from Harbor Island to Sea Pines. There were a lot of people working on the shore of the May River in Bluffton.
All together they collected about 45 bags of garbage and large pieces of wood and metal.
I picked up this article because clean environment and recycling is very important in my family. Littering is awful. There are so many people that do not care and drop the trash wherever they want. Look at the left turn from Route 278 to our school. There are hundreds of cigarettes butts all around it. It is not only disgusting but also harmful for the dirt. The nicotine from those butts poisons the soil, and consequently the plants growing on it.
We see trash all over. Do you know that some animals can eat it and die? The plastic bags floating in water can be mistaken by jelly fish and eaten by turtles causing their death.
It is very important to learn about polluting the environment and recycling. My family is big on recycling. We have big trash cans outside for paper like carton boxes, plastic (bottles, containers), cans, glass bottles, newspapers, and magazines. We also recycle used batteries.
Recycling and not polluting our environment is very important now and for the future. We do not want to end up with a planet so polluted that we can not live on it anymore like in the Pixar’s movie “Wall-E“.
We can do something about it right now. According to Susan Ferris Hill, coastal coordinator for the SC Sea Grant Consortium, in South Carolina last year, more than 6,000 Beach/River Sweep volunteers collected 57 tons of trash from 1,345 miles of coastline.
We can not change all the people but we can help with keeping the Earth clean.
We missed this event this September, but we are going to do it next year, all 5 of us, I, my two sisters, and my parents. That is a promise.
