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The Bolivian Squirrel Monkey !!! (Saimiri Boliviensis)By: OliviaGrade 6Fessenden School

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By Cole M. & Elizabeth I.

Young gorilla rides on it's mother's back.

Gorilla packs can stretch from 5 to 15 gorillas! These packs are lead through out their territory by a 6 foot tall Silverback gorilla. Eight months after mating (and finding the female) the female gorilla will have a new born, little gorilla only about 4 pounds. Usually only 1 gorilla is born at a time but rarely twin gorillas are born. The mother will have a baby every 3 ½ to 11 ½ years.

After the baby is born mom will cradle the baby (just like humans) to keep them safe and warm. Baby gorillas ride on their mom's back until they start walking at 5 to 6 months. The baby will stay with the mother until 2 years old.

At the age of 18 months, gorilla children walk beside their mom for short distances. And at 8 to 11 years the gorilla is an official adult and sooner or later the female will leave the family pack to avoid inbreeding.

Some interesting facts are that the gorilla is also called an anthropoid. Another one is that in zoos a gorilla's life span is up to 54 years, but in the wild gorillas only live up to 34 years.

A lone gorilla travels around forming his own pack.

Gorillas, Monkey and Ape by Ian Redmond

National Zoo FONZ website

AWF website

Family and Life Cycle

By Alex Wang and Ariana Warden

A gorrilla is going through the different stages of life from a newborn to mating.

Did you know gorillas are distant relatives of yours?

Female gorillas have a baby every 4 years.Female gorillas can have babies when they are 10 years old. Usually males mate with females when they are around 7 to 8 years old.

Female gorillas usually have one baby and rarely twins. The gestation period for a gorilla lasts from 8 to 9 months.

When a baby gorilla is born it weighs from 4 to 6 pounds.

Baby gorillas ride on their mother's back when their mother is walking around.Baby gorillas stop drinking their mother's milk at 2 years of age. A gorilla stays with it mother for 2 years. When a gorilla reaches adulthood between 11 to 12 years, it goes off on its own to get into or start a new troop.

Gorillas travel in troops consisting of 1 or 2 families. There are usually 10 to 30 members in a troop. Each troop is lead by 1 male leader known as a silverback. Silverback's get their name from the greyish silver hairs on their back. The silverback also is the strongest and gets exclusive mating rights to the females.

A male silverback gorilla leads his pack or troop because he is very strong and wise.

Above: A baby gorila sleeping on it's mother's back. Baby gorillas rely on their mothers for food,shelter and protection.

in gg

AWF Website

WWF website

Face to Face with GORILLAS by Michael "Nick" Nichols

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By Cole M. & Elizabeth I. Young gorilla rides on it's mother's back. Gorilla packs can stretch from 5 to 15 gorillas! These packs are lead through out their territory by a 6 foot tall Silverback gorilla. Eight months after mating (and finding the female) the female gorilla will have a new born, little gorilla only about 4 pounds.

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Life Cycles

What Are Life Cycles?

The life-cycle of an animal, includes all of the stages from the end of the last generation to the beginning of the next. Life-cycles vary in time depending on the species of animal, and can be as short as just a few weeks for insects, to up to 200 years for sea urchins. Despite the time differences, all animal cycles begin with the growth and development process, which is then followed by reproduction. The reproduction stage in the cycle of life marks the end of the cycle and many animals often die after they have reproduced just once.

Starting Life

Most animal species begin life as a single egg cell that is then fertilised by a sperm cell. The growth process varies in speed depending on the species as some animals are born in less than a week of conception, where others can be born nearly two years afterwards. Animals are born in different ways depending on the group as mammals give birth to live young, where birds, fish and reptiles lay eggs which their young hatch out of. In some egg-laying animals such as sharks, the eggs are laid and incubated inside the body of the mother shark, who therefore gives birth to live young.

Living Life

Depending on the animal species, some animals live very solitary lives and only meet up with other animals from the same species to mate, where other animal species such as termites and monkeys are very sociable animals and spend their lives in a group. Animals spend their lives hunting for food and water, staying safe and looking for a mate to reproduce with.

Animal Sexes

All animals that need another animal to reproduce are split into males and females, both of which have very different reproductive organs that need to be combined in order for those animals to produce offspring. A small number of animals are asexual meaning that they have both male and female reproductive organs and are therefore able to self-fertilise. Slugs, snails and barnacles are all asexual animals.

Mating and Courtship

Before an animal can reproduce it must first find a partner. Animals attract their mates by courting them, a process which varies dramatically between different species. Some species of male bird have brightly coloured feathers and do elaborate dances in order to try and get the female to notice them. Other animals, such as certain birds and fish, are known to almost dance together, often copying one another. The male animals of many species often have features to attract females such as long noses or large manes. Courtship leads to mating between animals in order to reproduce, and these relationships can last for life or just momentarily.

Reproduction

The ability to reproduce is the most fundamental part of life for any living species as it allows that species to multiply and evolve. Reproduction in animals either occurs asexually (just one animal that has both male and female reproductive organs and can therefore self-fertilise), or using sexual reproduction which involves both the male and female from that species. Female animals produce egg cells, which need to meet a male sperm cell in order for them to start developing into a new animal. Depending on where fertilisation occurred (either internally or externally), the young will either be looked after by both parents (such as birds) or just by the mother in mammals.

Fertilisation

Fertilisation is the beginning of new life and occurs when the female egg cell meets the male's sperm. Some animal species are fertilised outside of the body of the female, and some animal species are fertilised inside the body of the female. External fertilisation occurs most commonly in the water as the cells are able to float through the water and become fertilised in the process. External fertilisation does not occur so commonly on land as it is too dry, so it is more effective for land animals to fertilise their eggs when they are still inside the body of the female.

Life Spans

Generally, the amount of time an animal will live for is greatly dependent on the size of it's body. Blood temperature also plays an enormous part in an animal's life-span as the slowly moving, cold-blooded animals such as reptiles tend to live longer than the more frantic warm-blooded animals such as birds. Animals that are successful and therefore healthy, also live for longer than those animals which are weak and vulnerable in their environment.

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The life-cycle of an animal, includes all of the stages from the end of the last generation to the beginning of the next. Life-cycles vary in time depending on the species of animal, and can be as short as just a few weeks for insects, to up to 200 years for...

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Dogs go through four stages of the life cycle: puppy, adolescent, adult and senior. Like humans and other mammals, individual dogs move through the stages of the life cycle at different rates. The rate of aging depends on factors such as genetics, nutrition and the quality of care your dog receives.

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Iguanas are lizards that live in tropical climates. They have become popular pets, which has led to their capture in the wild to be sold for profit. Iguanas are cold-blooded creatures that eat mostly plants, leaves and fruit, but will occasionally eat eggs and insects. They can grow to be up to 6 feet long and have tails that can detach from their body when pulled without causing any harm.

Eggs

Once a female iguana has mated with a male, she will begin digging a burrow in the ground so she can build her nest. She will lay her eggs approximately 45 days after mating. Although she will lay between 40 and 50 eggs, only a fraction of those will survive. Once the eggs are laid, she will desert the nest, leaving the eggs to develop on their own.

Incubation

The hatchlings will begin developing inside of the eggs immediately after the eggs are deposited into the nest. The eggs will enter into an incubation period for eight to 10 weeks before the hatchlings will emerge.

Hatchlings

After the incubation period is over, the hatchlings will begin to emerge from their eggs. The hatching process does not occur all at once and can take anywhere from one week to 10 days. The hatchling will scratch the egg and create a crack or two in the shell. The hatchling will then go into a resting phase. A day or two later, more cracks will develop, followed by another resting phase. The hatchling's head will emerge, and another resting phase will follow. These phases will continue until the hatchling emerges completely from the egg.

Babies

After the hatchling emerges, it will still have the yolk sac attached to the body. This yolk sac was the lifeline that provided the nutrient to keep the hatchling alive during the incubation process. Once out of the egg, the sac will remain on the hatchling for two to three days, continuing to provide nutrients. When the sac falls off, the Iguana is now a baby and will need to begin consuming food to stay alive. It will take two years for the baby to reach adulthood.

Adults

An iguana enters adulthood at around 1.5 to 2 years on average. A male iguana will be ready to mate at this time. Female iguanas may take an additional year or two to be ready to breed, as they may require more time to build up their calcium reserves. The female may, however, begin to produce eggs sooner, even if they are not yet fertilized. Iguanas can live to be 30 years old.

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The Life Cycles of Iguanas | Cuteness.com

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Iguanas are lizards that live in tropical climates. They have become popular pets, which has led to their capture in the wild to be sold for profit. Iguanas are cold-blooded creatures that eat mostly plants, leaves and fruit, but will occasionally eat eggs and insects.

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Photographer filmed bees as they grew in a hive in Berkeley, California

He condensed 21 days into a 60 second video to highlight disease danger

Varroa destructa parasites suck bees larvae's blood and destroy hives

Research is ongoing to breed bees that are resistant to the mites, while retaining useful traits such as gentleness and honey productivity

They may look like transparent creatures from another world, but young bees, recorded for a new short film, have been shown are battling alien invaders of their own.

Video footage inside a hive reveals bee larvae turning into pupae while blood-sucking parasitic mites run over them. The parasites are the largest threat to bee populations, which are desperately needed to pollinate crops.

Photographer Anand Varma raised bees in his garden in Berkeley, California, to capture the first 21 days of their lives and highlight the mite problem.

For the project, commissioned by National Geographic, he used specialised equipment to film the bees inside their hive to produce a high-speed video documenting their growth.

In a Ted talk, he explained that bees pollinate one third of food crops but have been 'having a hard time' because of pesticides, diseases and habitat loss.

'But single biggest threat is a parasite from Asia - varroa destructa,' he said.

BEES MAY BE HAPPIER IN CITIES

The pinhead-sized mite crawls onto young bees and sucks their blood.

The mites eventually destroy whole hives because they make the bees more vulnerable to stress and disease.

Bees are at their most sensitive when developing in root cells, Mr Varma explained.

His 60-second video shows bee eggs hatching into larvae, which are wriggling and transparent.

'Newly hatched larva swim around their cells feeding on white goo that nurse bees secrete for them,' he said.

'Then their heads and legs slowly differentiate as they transform into pupae.'

At this point in the video it's possible to see mites running over the pupae in their cells.

It also shows in astonishing detail how tissue in the body reorganises and pigment slow develops in the creature's eyes.

'The last process is their skin shrivels up and they sprout hair,' Mr Varma said.

In order to stop mites getting the run of hives, beekeepers typically treat their wooden huts with chemicals, which is bad news in the long run.

Scientists are trying to come up with alternative treatments at the US Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Maryland.

They discovered that some bees are naturally more prone to mites than others and have successfully bred a line of mite-resistant mites, by artificially inseminating a queen bee.

However, they noticed that while the genetically engineered bees were less likely to fall prey to the parasite, they also lost helpful traits such as gentleness and the ability to store honey.

Experts are now working with beekeepers, including the largest beekeeping operation in the world, to integrate their GM bees so they can one day select bees that are resistant to mites and the most useful to humans.

HONEY BEE SHORTAGE COULD LEAD TO CROP FAILURE AND COST THE UK ECONOMY £1.8BN, CLAIM SCIENTISTS

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Watch the incredible first 21 days of a honeybee's life in 60 seconds

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Photographer filmed bees as they grew in a hive in Berkeley, California He condensed 21 days into a 60 second video to highlight disease danger Varroa destructa parasites suck bees larvae's blood and destroy hives Research is ongoing to breed bees that are resistant to the mites, while retaining useful traits such as gentleness and honey productivity They may look like transparent creatures from another world, but young bees, recorded for a new short film, have been shown are battling alien invaders of their own.

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What are the names of each of the stages of your creature's life cycle?

What happens at each stage?

How long does each stage last?

Create a glossary of any special vocabulary.

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I would like you to research your animal and create a display like this one showing the different stages of your life cycle

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I would like you to research your animal and create a display like this one showing the different stages of your life cycle

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A poster illustrates the lifecycle of an emperor penguin.

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Time lapse of the life cycle of a butterfly.

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Time lapse of the life cycle of a butterfly.

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Time-lapse close up of Monarch caterpillar pupating and later the butterfly braking out of its chrysalis. Notice how the wings expand as the belly fluids are pumped into them. Save a Monarch, grow a Milkweed!

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find out about the development of different farm animals (click where it says attachment!)