Yesterday we video conferenced with the Texas Wildlife Association to learn about creepy, crawly critters. We learned about rats, tarantulas, and snakes.
Rats
1. We learned they are actually cute but in pictures they look scary. (Erica)
2. Different animals have whiskers. (Maricela) Rats use their whiskers to feel things and whiskers help them see. (Ryan)
3. They have a weird jaw that goes together and their teeth scratch together which helps them eat. (Connor)
4. Rats are small. They eat grass, crickets, and berries. (Josiah, Connor)
Tarantulas 1. We learned that tarantulas can grow back their legs if they come off.
2. Tarantulas can also throw their hairs at other predators which makes them itchy. (Josiah, Cohen)
3. They don’t see very well. They use their feelers (we don’t remember the science name) to help them see and sense things. They eat bugs. (Josiah)
4. Their skeleton is on the outside of their body. It’s called an exoskeleton. (Ryan, Connor)
5. Tarantulas have over 500 babies in their egg sacks.
6. There is a wasp that kills and eats tarantulas.
Snakes
1. We learned that snakes are cold-blooded. (Erica, Ginger)
2. They eat animals that are smaller than them. We also learned that the King Snake eats other snakes. (Josiah, Cohen)
3. Snakes eat mice that are frozen – we saw this in Mrs. Lasenby’s class.
4. Snakes don’t have legs. They move by sliding, slithering, crawling, and wiggling. (Ginger, Logan, Ryan)
We still have lots of questions about creepy, crawly critters. We hope someone from the Texas Wildlife Association visits our blog to help us learn more! 🙂
These are our questions:
1. Are snakes nocturnal? (Erica)
2. Do tarantulas eat snakes? (Josiah)
3. Do other snakes eat different snakes? (Brody)
4. How many snakes and tarantulas are there in the whole world? (Ginger)
5. How many different types of mice are in the world? (Maricela)
6. How many different types of snakes are in the world? (Connor)
7. How many mice are there in the world? (Brian)
Thank you Texas Wildflife Association. We loved learning about these cool critters!
Leigh Cassell Consulting 
Hello students!
This is Elanor from the Texas Wildlife Association to answer your great questions.
1. Are snakes nocturnal? (Erica)
This depends on the species, and their habitat. Snakes are active at different times of the day depending on the temperature, the presence of prey and other factors. However, they do have special adaptations that allow them to hunt at night time. They can smell predators or prey in their environment using their forked tongue, and they can sense animals nearby by the vibrations they make when they move along the ground.
2. Do tarantulas eat snakes? (Josiah)
Tarantulas primarily eat insects, but some larger species of tarantula could eat a snake if it encounters one, although it is uncommon.
3. Do other snakes eat different snakes? (Brody)
Yes, Kingsnakes, like the Grey-banded Kingsnake from the program will eat, or consume other snakes. Some species like the Desert Kingsnake are resistant to rattlesnake venom and will eat young Diamondback Rattlesnakes. King Cobras will also consume other snakes.
4. How many snakes and tarantulas are there in the whole world? (Ginger)
There are a LOT! I don’t have an exact answer to this question, because it would be really tricky for scientists to figure out how many individual snakes and tarantulas there are in the world. There are close to 3,000 species or different types of snake in the world and over 900 different species or types of tarantula.
5. How many different types of mice are in the world? (Maricela)
This is tricky to answer, because some species of mice and rats are grouped together. There are 30 species or types of “true mice” in the genus Mus, and over 50 in the genus Peromyscus.
6. How many different types of snakes are in the world? (Connor)
There are close to 3,000 species of types or snakes in the world.
7. How many mice are there in the world? (Brian)
This is a tricky question to answer because scientists do not have a reliable way to count rodent populations worldwide. There are probably more than one billion mice in the world today.
I am so excited that you learned so much during our program. Hopefully we will see you for more programs this year!
LikeLike
Hi Elanor,
We really liked how you answered our questions. We hope that we will see you again this year at a video conference.
Thanks for writing on our blog!
Mrs. Cassell, Ms. King and the Busy Bees
LikeLike