Skunks

A Skunk

The skunk perhaps attracts more interest than any other animal. The first thing that most people think when they hear ‘Skunk,’ is ‘Eew,’ and ‘Gross!’ But if you look closer into the life of a skunk, you will realize they are not as dangerous as they are said to be. What makes the skunk so very special?

Just about every animal possesses scent glands. They use them to mark their territory. For example, when a cat rubs it’s neck up against you, it is rubbing it’s scent glands off on you, marking you as it’s territory. Some animals, like otters, use their scent glands to condition and waterproof their fur. Other animals, like skunks, use their scent glands in a completely different way: their ultimate defense mechanism. Even though skunks get terrible reputation from humans who have had a bad encounter with them, skunk usually only spray as a last resort. After all, it’s spray is limited, and the skunk needs to save it for emergencies. It’s first line of defense is to walk away.

Most experienced predators will leave the skunk alone, remembering their first fight with one. If an animal or foolish human insists on taking a closer look, the skunks second line of defense is twisting it’s body, puffs up its tail to make itself look bigger, and stamps it’s front paws. If this attempt to scare away it’s stalker does not succeed, it will point it’s rear end at the threat and hold it’s tail high. Most times this will do the trick. But one particular species, the diminutive spotted skunk, goes one step further. To make itself look larger and more intimidating, it will do a hand-stand on it’s front paws, tail in the air, and hind legs spread apart. Even though this position is moore likely to make us laugh than to scare us, animals and humans alike would do well to heed the warning. Because the next step is to spray.

Skunks are very much aware of their power and even have to ability to control their weapon with great accuracy. They aim for the eyes of their target if they can see them, and spray. If they can not see their pursuer, they spray in a vapor, leaving a disgusting cloud for the predator to walk through. Skunks are cute, playful, and powerful. Skunks are totally amazing!

Sea Otters

A Sea Otter

Sea otters serve as guards to the vast undersea forests of kelp ‘trees’. Sea otters make their homes around kelp forests, which grow in clear waters near the shore. Over 300 different kinds of animals live in the kelp, and many of them feed on it. Prickly sea urchins can destroy seaweed forests in a matter of months, so the otter keeps the forest intact by eating the urchins. Otters also eat crabs, abalones, and purple sea urchins, squid, clams, and other small marine animals.

Sea otter fur is one of the densest and thickest of all the furs in the animal kingdom. They do not have any blubber or fat to keep them warm. The hairs of their fur have grooves
that actually interlock. It creates an airtight compartment which not only provides insulation, but traps air to increase buoyancy.

Sea otters are amazing! They are caretakers of God’s underwater kelp forest.
Fun Facts About Sea Otters

Sea otters hold hands while they sleep so that they do not drift away from one another.

When sea otters are pups they have a very high squeal which can be heard from miles around in case they get lost.

A sea otters coat has pockets, flaps of skin under their front paws, which are used to hold the otters captured food until it returns to the surface.

Weighing as much as 99 lbs, the sea otter is the heaviest member in the weasel family.

Sea otters can dive as deep as 330 feet when foraging for their food.

Sea otter paws have retractable claws, just like a cat’s paw.

Gold

A Gold Nugget

Gold has fascinated people since it was first found. It has been valued because of it’s beauty, durability, and ease of shaping. It has been acquired and treasured, traded and been fought over. Due to it’s rarity, gold has been a preferred way to store wealth.

Gold has many qualities that make it so valuable. It does not rust or tarnish and fire does not destroy gold, but only makes it purer. It can be alloyed to other metals, like copper, to add strength without losing it’s elegance, and it is very easy to shape. Under the right conditions, one ounce of gold can be hammered into a sheet 100 feet by 100 feet, or stretched into a wire 60 miles long. Another wonderful quality of gold it that it essentially lasts forever. The total amount has not changed; it has just been used for jewelry, tooth fillings, computer components, and lots more.

Gold has been mentioned over 450 times in the bible, more than any other metal. It often symbolizes God’s own preciousness, immorality, holiness, and glory. God created just enough gold to meet our needs.
Fun Facts About Gold

One cubic foot of gold weighs half a ton.

The largest gold nugget ever found was about 25 inches long and 10 inches wide and weighed approximately 160 pounds. In modern U.S. money, it would be worth well over 3.5 million dollars.

The estimated total amount of gold ever mined is about 180,779 tons.

Blue Whales

A Blue Whale

The blue whale is a magnificent and mysterious animal. Scientists are still trying to understand how such a massive air-breathing mammal is so well designed for life in the deep.

Weighing as much as thirty full-grown elephants, with a mouth big enough to swallow a bus, the blue whale is the largest creature that has ever lived on land or in the sea. He devours about 4 tons of krill each day. But unless you’re shrimp sized, you aren’t on the menu, because this species has no teeth.

A big body needs a big mouth to feed it. When a blue whale opens his mouth to take a gulp of krill and ocean water, a thick accordion-like flap of skin expands underneath the whale’s chin like a huge ballon that is big enough to carry 15,000 gallons. But the he doesn’t swallow the water. He immediately closes it’s jaw and squirts the water out through the plates around its mouth. Tons of shrimp-like animals called krill get stuck in the plates, then the whale swallows them.

Blue whales belong to a family of whales called baleen whales. They have plastic-like plates called baleen that are stacked very close together in their mouths to that water can be squeezed between them. The baleen is made from keratin protein, making it both strong and flexible so that the whale can easily close it’s mouth.

Blue whales do not migrate in groups like other whales. They travel separately in many different directions from each other. They can communicate with one another over hundreds of miles by creating a special sound, called infrasound, too low for humans to hear. Blue whales are always talking to each other!

Blue whales are really cool. They eat four tons of krill in every day, they have baleen plates instead of teeth, and they can make a special sound!
Did You Know?
Fun Facts About Blue Whales

• Baby blue whales are the larges babies on earth. They can reach up to 25 feet at birth and gain 200 pounds each day.

The blue whale’s heart is the size of a Mini Cooper car.

The stomach of a blue whale can hold one ton (3.6 metric tons) of krill, and they can eat over 4 tons each day.

• You hair and fingernails are made of the same material as the blue whale’s baleen!

• Blue whales can grow as much as 110 feet long and 150 tons!

Enzymes

Enzymes are molecules that help your body digest the food that you eat.  When you chew, your body produces enzymes.  When you chew gum, you’re sending a fake message to your body to create enzymes when you don’t actually need them.

Cooking food removes all of the natural enzymes and nutrition.  Eating cooked food, or enzyme-dead food places a burden on your pancreas and other organs.  Raw food is much more easily digested that it passes through the digestive tract in half to a third of the time that it takes for cooked food.  Cooking food destroys 100% of the natural enzymes.

Try to avoid eating processed foods, such as frozen dinners, ice cream, food items from a can, and more, because it it unnaturally grown and made.  Enzymes and nutrition are removed, and that’s really not good.  It forces your organs to work harder than normal.

Eating healthy foods and drinking enough water will help with sleeping, energy, and mood.