Hamster Lifestyle
Anela M., Grade 6
Hamsters have an easy lifestyle. They sleep almost 50% percent of the time. Hamsters like to groom frequently by licking themselves all over their bodies, which helps spread important oils and prevent dry, flaky skin.
The rest of the time they spend eating and hiding the leftovers. These small rodents are nocturnal, so if you watch a hamster at night you might find it scurrying back and forth, hiding food. Hamsters also have large cheek pouches to carry all that food.
When you clean the cage, you may find pockets of food scattered around in different places. This habit is called “hoarding.” The word, hamster, actually means “to hoard” in German.
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Tardigrades
Sofia Jordan, Pacific Coast Charter School
Did you know there is a creature that can be dried for a hundred years and be rehydrated? This creature is called a tardigrade. They are also called moss piglets or water bears. They can withstand temperature ranges from −200° C to about 150° C and pressures about six times greater than those found in the deepest ocean trenches. These eight legged creatures can be found in freshwater and sea water and moss worldwide. They can stand radiation at doses one thousand times higher than the lethal dose for a human, and can withstand the vacuum of outer space.
They have been around longer then practically every living organism but were not discovered until the late 1700’s because they are so small (0.05-1.2 mm or 0.002-0.047”). They can even stand living without food for up to ten years, can dry themselves so that they are 3% or less water and rehydrate.
What amazing little creatures!