Yikes!

Normally animals don't creep me out . . .. but these do. These are camel spiders, and they live in the desert in Iraq. Just their bodies alone are about six inches long - not including their legs. They can move up to 10 miles an hour. They hate the sun, and always try to stay in the shade. If there is no shade they will follow people through the desert trying to stay in the person's shadow. So sometimes soldiers were being chased by these things. The spiders can jump pretty far, and if you run away from them and move their shade, they will keep following you. If you fall and trip they will run as fast as they can to burrow under your body for shade.

They are also cannibals - look in the picture - the bottom one is eating the top one.

We heard that some of these things actually live in North America - but only in Mexico . . . . oh yeah, and that one I put under Uncle Scott's bed.

Sweet dreams Uncle Cares-a-lot!

love, Punk

P.S. Hey Uncle Brian I know your deepest fear, so you better be nice - or you'll end up like Uncle Scott. Here is a link to show the damage camel spiders can do . . . . spiderbite
Mwaaa ha ha ha ha . . . .

about me

My name is Punk and I am 8 years old. You probably know that I really like animals -that's why I made this blog. But here are some other things about me:
• I just really think it's fun to protect and help wildlife. My favorite animals are - the african elephants, giant squids, jellyfish, dinosaurs (even though they're extinct), scarlet macaws and dolphins. Those are just SOME of my favorites.
•I really like to read - especially about animals. But I also like Harry Potter and Calvin and Hobbes. Right now I'm reading a book called "Ribsy" by Beverly Cleary -and it's really good.
• I have two pet dogs. One is named Riley - she's a German Shepherd. She's a lot more white than most German Shepherds. She has pointy ears and a blackish nose. She also has a little shade of gray on her back, and brown eyes. She is very nice. I already told you about my other dog Ozzy. They are both good dogs, but Ozzy is more wild.
• My favorite movies are: The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast,the Black Cauldron, Night at the Museum, Lion King, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Whispers and all of the Harry Potter movies.
•I dressed up like Dumbledore for a Harry Potter party, and I won a prize. Here is a picture of me:

extinction

Wouldn't it be cool if dinosaurs were around? Sure its ok if a couple elephants die now, but........soon when you're an old grandparent you will be telling you're chilldren how there WAS a such thing as a elaphants. TAKE CARE OF EARTH
where wolud we be without it?

our explore

Today my sister and I went to pick up polution - we picked it up because there was sooooo much of it by this one pond - it was so beautiful and soooo sad. The people that lived in the houses by this pond are so rich they could probably even pay people to pick up their garbage, but they didn't. All around the pond there was foam, plastic, juice pouches and milk bottles, We found a dead snake, and we are almost positive that it did not die from natural causes. It lookes like it ate something and had something stuck in it's stomach -plus we found it in a place where there was lots of pollution. It was sad. My mom found it, but I was the only one brave enough to pick it up.But we brought home two, tiny souvenirs - two tiny red beetles. They are so neat - they look like the bugs in cartoons, kind of like two,tiny sheild bugs. I put them in Trever's house, since we had to let Trever go. (But I took out the water and put in sand, rocks and leaves). They are climbing on the ceiling of their new house. We think they eat milkweed because that is the only plant we found them on. We also have some monarch caterpillars in a jar.

cryptozoology

Cryptozoology means studying creatures that MIGHT exist. Like there COULD have been a fire-breathing pterodactyl - nobody knows for sure. Scientists didn't know for sure that there was such a thing as a giant squid until they found one. And here's something I bet you didn't know - there is such a thing as an OCTOSQUID - click here to see that I'm telling the truth.
octosquid
It looks so cool, and if I were you, I'd go check it out. And who knows maybe there COULD be a lochness monster (if it's not a snorkeling elephant, or a lost plesiosaur, it's probably a brand new type of creature that scientists haven't found yet).

LOOK OUT!

Even though these creatures look fierce they don't hurt you if you don't bother them. So remember not to get too close, but still help save them and preserve their wildlife.

so long trever!

On July 8 we let Trever the toad go. I really miss him. I hope I can find him some day when he is older.

my pets

My mom helped me put these pictures of two of my pets here. I took the picture of my dog Ozzy.
Mom took the picture of Trevor in my hand.

my new pet

My sister caught a little toad in Miss Liz's pool. My mom said we could keep it, so we bought a little terrarium for him to live in. His name is Trevor, even though we don't know if he is a boy, and we are pretty sure he is an American Toad.

how to help

My friend Treats asked me how we could help elephants from right here in the USA. So here are my ideas:

Do not buy ivory. There is a South American nut that can be carved that looks and feels exactly like ivory – I saw some on my vacation this summer, it's really neat.

You could adopt an elephant at the World Wildlife Fund. My godmother adopted one for me. Here is a link: world wildlife fund

You could have a garage sale and give the money to Wildlife Warriors.

Mostly I think you should talk to people and just make them love animals. Instead of going after poachers and animal killers, you can just help turn more people into elephant lovers, because people usually don’t hurt things they love. (Elephants are really kind and gentle even though they are big. When people lay down on the ground in front of an elephant, the elephant tries not to step on the person.)

You can also help other animals too. You can help build things for the wildcat sanctuary – there are instructions on the website: wildcat sanctuary You can even make a hammock for the tigers. They also have a wish list of stuff that the sanctuary needs.

Those are my ideas to help.

CHECK THIS OUT!

Look at how happy theses elephants are in their herd. But there used to be thousands more. They're all so cool - look at them. Most of them will be gone by the time I'm old enough to drive. So we have to save them NOW!

what does endangered mean?

Endangered means that a animal has a 20 % chance of becomeing extinct in 20 years. Critically endangered means that the poor animal has a 50 % chance of becoming extinct in the next TEN years! This means we need to help these animals right away!