The 5th topic on the Our World, Our Numbers project
is all about animals.
We enjoyed learning about Canadian animals from
Mrs Watson's K/1/2/3 class
and about kelp forests from Mrs Yollis' class.
We've put up a post about two of our iconic
New Zealand animals.
The kiwi is a bird native to New Zealand. It is a flightless, nocturnal bird.
What does nocturnal mean?
- Attribution: dancedancewerefallingapart
One of the nicknames for people from New Zealand is ‘kiwi’!
Five species of kiwi are found in New Zealand, but all are endangered due to predators such as ferrets, rats and cats and dogs.This is because kiwis live on the forest floor.
Did you know that kiwis can not fly?
You might like to read this legend
We have some number facts about the kiwi:
In the wild kiwis can live for up to 20 years.
The kiwi egg is the biggest of any bird in proportion to the female’s body.
The average weight of an ostrich egg is 2% of the female’s body weight whereas the average weight of a kiwi egg is 20% of the female’s body weight.
The kiwi has a long beak and amazingly the nostrils are at the very tip! That’s a very useful adaptation as the kiwi probes in the forest floor for grubs, insects, earthworms and other food.
The kiwi’s beak is about 1/3 the length of its body.
If the bird’s body was 36 cm long how long would the beak be?
The kiwi weighs about 3kg.
How many pounds would that be?
The kiwi is about 45cm tall.
How many inches would that be?
The average body temperature of a kiwi bird is 38˚C.
What is the body temperature of a human?
Another special animal native to New Zealand is the tuatara.
The tuatara is an ancient type of reptile.
- Photo credit: ajft / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
Read the links about tuatuaras here and here then head over to Our World, Our Numbers and leave us a comment with a number fact that you found out about tuataras!
This is cool!
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