Indians call the bamboo ‘green gold’ because it is of such great importance. The bamboo is called the poor man’s timber’ because it is cheap and available in plenty. Bamboos are lightweight, being hollow, ramrod-straight, strong and long-lasting. Whole houses are built in the tropics with bamboo. City dwellers are familiar with the bamboo scaffolding…
Did you know? Thrushes take hundreds of power naps a day, a few seconds at a time, in mid-flight. Otters fall asleep floating on their backs, sometimes holding paws with their friends so they don’t drift apart. Giraffes snooze only 20 minutes a day, often curled up with their heads on their own rumps. Brown…
Grasshoppers can jump up to 1 metre in distance. If humans could jump the way grasshoppers do, relative to size, then we would be able to easily leap the length of a football field!
Why are those slender, long-necked, spindly-legged birds called flamingos such a lovely shade of pink? It is believed that microscopic algae called spirulina that form the major part of the bird’s diet, gives flamingos their characteristic color. Called beta-carotene, the substance is also found in shrimps and other water creatures that the flamingos eat. If…
Yes. The soil is indeed important for growing plants as it provides support, water, and nutrients. But if these needs can be satisfied by other means, then soil can be done away with. Some plants can grow in plain water in a vase. Their roots are able to extract oxygen dissolved in the water, while…
White stork The young ones of the white stork are known to switch homes. Before becoming fully mature, the nestlings abandon their own nest and enter another brood with younger and fewer chicks to maximise their chances of getting more food.
Mushrooms are actually a variety of fleshy, umbrella-shaped fungi (singular:fungus). They are very strange organisms because they have no stems, leaves or roots. They feed on tissues of other plants or animals, living or dead. They look like plants at first sight, but their cell walls are made not of cellulose but chitin, the…
The red-billed quelea destroy crops worth over $22million every year! The quelea belongs to the weaverbird family and is found throughout Africa’s dry regions, south of Sahara Desert. It is sparrow-sized with a strong red beak. It is the most abundant bird species. The quelea weaves a spherical nest from strips of grass, with an…
Q . Do you know which is the longest mountain range in the world? The Andes is the longest mountain range in the world. The Andes stretch 7000km along the western coast of South America. They extend across seven countries- Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Peru, Equador and Venezuela. The Andes gets its name from the…
