Monday, December 1, 2008

Why Frogs are Endangered
Frogs are a rapidly declining species. There are many reasons why frogs numbers are waning everywhere. Frogs are a crucial part of the eco-system. They eat vermin such as cockroaches, mosquitoes, rats, flies, and arachnids. They are also a good source for many other animals. If a frog is in poor health it is usually caused by pollution in its’ habitat. This warns scientists about the degree of pollution. The many reasons frogs are endangered include pollution, rainforest decline, the introduction of feral animals into their environment, and the human consumption of frogs legs.
Pollution affects all frogs, stopping frogs from breeding, causing birth defects (missing eyes and limbs and more). Environmental contamination takes a heavy toll on all frogs. Pollutants kill frogs, when frogs die it alters the food chain, this means other animals face death as well. Frogs are a great food source for a variety of creatures.
Four out of five of the world’s population of frogs are found in rainforests all around the world. Frogs thrive in rainforests. Rainforests are the fastest disappearing natural habitat where frogs are found. In The Amazon Rainforest big companies like McDonalds clear over two football fields of forest each day, for grazing cattle. Rainforests are cut for farming, and industrial reasons, this is devastating frog numbers. Because of habitat loss many frogs take refuge in residential areas and find homes in garden ponds. However there are many dangers for frogs in populated places, like cats, dogs, roads, and pollution.
Introducing foreign animals such as the cane toad and gambusia, feral dogs, and cats, has brought disaster to many frogs. Cane toads were brought into Australia from South America to eat the sugar cane beetles and silver back beetles that were eating farming crops. After they had wiped out the cane beetles and silver backs, they turned on the native animals and started killing wildlife such as frogs. Gambusia are a foreign species of fish that only eat tadpoles and some small fish. The Golden Bell Frog is a great example of the effect of the Gambusia fish, one of the main reason Golden Bell Frogs are critically endangered is because gambusia eat their tadpoles. Feral cats and dogs, as well as domesticated ones, like to catch frogs and torture them. Cats eat frogs, but dogs very rarely eat them.
Another threat to these particular amphibian creatures is human hunting. Frogs legs are considered a delicacy in France, Korea and Vietnam, in parts of China, the Mid West and Southern parts of the United States, Portugal, North West Greece, and the Caribbean. Kerala is a city in Korea where frog legs are commonly found in liquor shops. They are usually fried. This dish is actually banned so it is only available illegally, but it is still threatening frogs. People hunt frogs by canoeing out onto a river, pond, or lake, shining a torch along the shore to try and catch sight of the light reflecting in the eyes of frogs. Once they have spotted the frog they will paddle closer and spear the frog in its’ back. This is otherwise known as “gigging”. Then they put the frogs in a basket to drain the water and blood away. Frog legs are sold fresh or preserved in air tight packages.
These are just a few of the major problems facing frog species today. Whilst public awareness of these problems is growing, and some people are actively working to save frogs and their environment from extinction, not enough is being done. Many people aren’t aware of the crucial part that frogs play in the eco-system. If frogs become entirely extinct it could ruin the entire food chain, creating a massive natural disaster. It is vital that all countries work together to save frogs and their natural habitats so that we can continue to study them, and enjoy them.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

frog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HI !

I'm so exited! I'm going to get a frog licence! If I finish this weeks homeschool list, be polite, help around the house and work up $60 for the licence. I was planning on getting a Green and Golden Bell frog, Person's tree frog' a Red eyed tree frog, striped marsh frog, Green tree frog and mayby a thew more!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Dads week with me

Every holiday I go to my dads house in the southern highlands. This week dad got me a 9 carrot gold ring butterfly shape. We went to the pool on Monday. I did some laps with dad ( I'm not very good at swimming but I love doing it!) Then the Water got to cold so I got out and got changed into my normal clothes. After that I saw two Eastern water skinks mating they ran of after. Then Dad and I caught 4 other water skinks we kept two and I studied them.

Friday, October 3, 2008

MY NEW BOOK

Today my mum my brother and I went to Paramata to spend my K-mart voucher that Granmur got me for my birthday. Mum gave me $20 to spend traded for the card. There was nothing I wanted until we got to k-mart and I looked at the kids books. I found a book called "ICE FIRE". Mum bought it for me instead of me getting it with my money. It's really good so far i've read 57 pages in one day! When we got home, after a while I looked at the back of the book out of curiosity it said" to be continued..." ALONG BOOK! Then I found out it was the 2nd book in the serious!I recommend this book for children aged 8-13 who love dragons and thick frilling books. It's a shame I didn't get the hard cover.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Entomolagist:

When I am older and ready for universaty i'm going to study being an entomolagist. It looks like great fun! Seeming I also love writting mayby i'll write about animals and be like David Attenborugh!!!!Thats my dream to travel round the world studying and doing shows on animals! I wanted to get a Green tree frog, but now I want a golden bell frog. I found some golden bell frog eggs in my pond and can't wait for them to be frogs! It will take a year so i'll be waiting a while!
My Granmur

Photobucket

This is a picture of me, my rabbit, my granumur and my brother at the hospital where my granmur died from 16 different types of cancer.We were out the front of the hospital for Mothers day having a picnic. Before she died we would visit her as often as we could.My granmur died exactly a week after my birthday when I turned 10.I loved my granmur so much I cry every night when look at the photo of us together and light the lavender candl I gave her for Mothers day.

Monday, September 15, 2008

stick insects

These are my stick insects . Spiny, Opal and Titan. Spiny and Opal are Spiny leaf insects and Titan is a Titan stick insect. I got them 8 months ago. Opal { the little green one } was just a tiny egg and Spiny and Titan were at their 1st or 2nd shed.

bugs and silliness
Me dressing up as Professer Snoggle Snoggle

Professor Snorgel-Snorgel
I made chocolate strawberries, they were fun to make and very yummy too!

unlearnt dessert!
A Witches Week





On the first day of the week a witch must wake up very early. Because she must make horrible potions for all the little girls and boys in the world. She goes to a special library only for witches and their pets. At the library there are books that eat children and have horrible potions to turn children into little stink bugs and mice. All the witches plot evil plans and put all their thoughts into one big witches hat and jumble them together. Then they put their wands on the borrowing table so they can’t do a spell and pick what ghastly plot they’re given. They line up and each pluck out a plot and look for books about the plot. When they find some gruesome books about their scheme they hop on their broom sticks and all fly home.One of the witches is Cabbagegoil the meanest witch of them all! The leader of the witches actually. She has a big cat who’s name is Spider because she can change into a big black hairy spider. Cabbagegoil had plucked out a plot saying “ Do LOTS of pranks on little kids in this area. She had found a old book with dust on it at the back of the library called “ 200 gruesome pranks to play on little puny kids of any age up to 10”.What you are about to read is a true and horrible excerpt from Cabbagegoils’diary from the year 1972





Monday Morning :In the morning I was woken up from my neighbours rooster so I got up and turned him into a mouse and her cat started chasing it. I chose three dastardly pranks from “ 200 gruesome pranks to play on little puny kids of any age up to 10”.






Itchy powder
2 llamas toenails,
300 powdered nits,
250 ground up fleas,
2ml of pure organic mosquito blood
And 3 emu feathers





Horrible taste paste
50 chili flakes
20 pepper corns
3ml fire belly toad saliva
2 sun dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon wasabi





Bear Bond Love Drink
3 pots raw honey
2 bag termite aroma
Tenderized salmon fillets
5 polar bear hairs
And half a turkey egg





Tuesday : So I must make a trip to Hairy Harry’s potion supplier today





SHOPPING LIST
1. POWDERED NITS
2. EMU FEATHERS
3. WASABI
4. POLAR BEAR HAIR
5. TURKEY EGGS
6. LAMBS BRAIN BISCUITS FOR SPIDER





Wednesday : The day for potions to RiseTaken from “ 200 gruesome pranks to play on little puny kids of any age up to 10”.





The purpose of Itchy Powder is to make children unbearably itchy:
Add to cauldron : llama toenails, powdered nits, ground up fleas and heat over a new fire. Use scissors to cut up the emu feathers into chunks. Stir into mixture. Then after half an hour use a dropper to add the mosquito blood. WARNING : stand well back from cauldron, mosquito blood acts like acid in the potion! Boil until a skin forms on top, then freeze it. Use a mortar and pestle to smash it up into little bits, let it dry in the sun. Gather up the powder and store it in a jar with a thin cloth.Open the window of the child and sprinkle it under the doona. After the child gets into bed it will take 10 minutes and 36 seconds to start itching.





Horrible Taste Paste :The purpose of the Horrible Taste Paste is to make everything children eat taste revolting!Add the chili flakes and peppercorns to a mortar and pestle and grind them up but not to finely. Slice the dried tomatoes into little segments and put them in the cauldron with 1 litre of boiling water and some oil. Wait til it’s sizzling then add wasabi and stir with a wooden spoon. Then add the ground up mixture of chili and peppercorns and very slowly add the toad saliva. The saliva will cause it to set and give it a taste like toothpaste.Add the paste to tubes of children’s toothpaste.






Bear bond Love Drink :The purpose of this drink is to make children smell delicious to bears.Mix the polar bear hair and turkey egg together (including the shell). Cover the salmon with the honey and dice it up into tenths. Stir it all well in the cauldron for two hours, then add the termite aroma VERY FAST, stir again, then add 1 litre of water.Pour 5mls into of the drink into children’s drink bottles.





Thursday : Woke up at 1am, grabbed Spider and the potions and set off to the village with the evil potions. First I went into the home of some very skinny sisters, two annoying brothers, and one tall boy with red hair, and replaced their toothpaste with Horrible Taste Paste.Friday : Woke up at 2am and grabbed Spider and three bottles of Bear Bond Love Drink. Then headed off on my broomstick to the west part of the village where there is a big forest full of big grizzlies. There are 4 houses around the forest. I opened the window in the kitchens and poured 5mls of the drink into the children’s drink bottles.For the rest of the day I made a potion to turn frogs into 2 pairs of binoculars for Spider and I to watch the kids get eaten by the bears when they went out to collect berries for dinner.






Friday evening :Just before the kids bed time I set off on my broomstick for the last time this week. I have the itchy powder under my hat. I stop right near a big tree in someone’s garden. Spider jumps onto the tree with the itchy powder in her hand, she climbs down the tree and on to the kids window seals. With my wand I open the windows so Spider can climb in. Spider jumps in each bed room lifts the blankets up and sprinkles itchy powder on all the kids beds. Then she jumps out of the last window and I hover down pick her up and go home.





Saturday: I go to the library with the big dusty book, put it on the borrowing table and sit at the enormous round table with the other witches and talk about what the week was like and how satisfying it was.





P.S. now you have read this story you will probably know why witches don’t have husbands!

Monday, September 8, 2008

I just left school!

Last Wednesday I left school! School has always been nasty in atleast some kind of way. I always use to get bullied and shouted at by my teacher. There were always some things that I enjoyed about school but to many unpleasant things.
When I left school I wasn't shouted at or bullied. I can now learn about what I want when I want to! Radical unschooling is based on natural learning, learning about what I want when I want happily. I don't have maths on Monday morning or learn a language I'm not interesting in.curriculum based home schooling is school at home you have to do maths on Monday and sit somewhere for six hours( 30 hours) a week! Where as radical unschooling is not about sitting and learning about things your not interested in for six hours. I can have school for two hours if I want! I was always homeschooled without realising it! My Dad takes me for for bush walks and I learn about things in an adventurous way. And that's just how I want to learn!