The Lizard and the Ants
Our little garden always has little visitors. Some are bugs, ants, caterpillars, bees, and yes, even lizards. The @divinekids love watching them, observing their behaviors, and they even make some stories featuring these little beasts.
Among these little creatures, they have a special fixation on ants. The kids also love watching Ants Canada youtube channel - he breeds different ant species, makes terrariums, and then shares his observations via his channel. Well, my kids have not gone to that level, but sometimes I still don't get their fascination. For me, ants are small insects that bite me. But for them it is different. They purposely "bait" them with bread crumbs or any other food check how long the ants would take to find it and consume it. They draw lines around them to see if it is true that ants do not really cross black lines (hmm, yes, they do! lol).
Anyhow, one morning, my Little Man found that the ants have caught a lizard. Apparently, the lizard was still alive at that time and was desperately fighting for dear life. Little Man said that it was "still wiggling" when he found the poor fellow.
He checked again the following morning and boy, oh boy! This is what's left of it!
The ants had totally ripped it off of its flesh in just a matter of 24 hours!
Biology Time!
The homeschoolers in us did not let the opportunity pass without observing the skeletal remains of the little reptile.
We collected the bones - they were tiny and fragile.
Here's what we got. The head, jaw, limbs, spine, and some small bones of the tail.
Here's another one with toothpicks next to them for size reference.
Observing the Skeleton of the Lizard
Little Miss decided to get the magnifying glass to be able to observe the bones more closely. What can you see?
Later on, we took out our digital microscope to be able to get a better view of the remains!
"Is that blood?!", Little Miss asked.
"Nope, I think that's the bone marrow," I said.
You can click on the photos below for a closer look, if you dare. 😄
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The Fallen Predator
From what we've seen from the lizard, we learned that nature has its own cycle. When it was alive, the lizard was the bigger animal that preyed on smaller insects for sustenance. Then it got weaker and now it's the smaller insects' turn to dominate. The ants are decomposers that amazingly brought down the lizard in a very short period of time!
How strong could their mandibles be?
Where did they bring the lizard flesh?
On to more beautiful things...
After spending a few more minutes observing the skeleton, we proceeded to walk around the house to find more things to observe under our mini microscope.
We observed leaves, rocks, wood, among others. Finally, we picked these beautiful wild flowers and decided to check them out.
Can you see these cotton-y stuff? Yup, they are the stalks of the flower.
"Oh, I really want to touch that cotton!" Little Miss exclaimed.
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We explored a bit more. Until...
"Wait, are those ants?"
"Look, Mommy! Ants!"
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And we just stayed there looking at the ants for a few more minutes...
Nope, no sniffing flowers! We don't want little creepies inside our nostrils!
This is embarrassing but, I think this is the first time that I've seen the skeletal remains of a lizard. Maybe I've seen these in high school, but I don't remember now. It's interesting that your immediate response is to use this as a teachable moment. The homeschoolers in you indeed!! Thank you for the high quality photos too! I learned a lot reading your post and looking at your photos! Well, I was...stunned at first. Haha! And THEN I learned!
Haha! Oh the things we do to learn. 😜 We're like that most of the time. The things that some are likely to ignore, we explore.
eeeewww! was both mine and Gabbie's reaction when we saw the bones under the microscope. It was okay in actual size but the magnified thing was something else.
You thought me a couple of things too hehe
Though I squirmed a little when I saw the pic of the destroyed skeleton
Little Man is quite a champ keeping watch and learning with Mama ;D
I learn a lot from these kiddos. I'm loving the experience. Hehe
Sorry! 😬 For some reason I didn't feel squirmish while we were collecting the bones, but the magnified view is something else. 😅
Don't be sorry - I didn't really squirm squirm but maybe if I had to do what you did... yeahhhhh
My son got bit three separate times and was therefore afraid of ants. I thankfully found ants Canada and have been watching him since then. I look forward to Saturdays and hope he soon shows the status of the new ant property.
#greatread
My kids literally panic at the sight of ants inside our house but at the same time, they love getting to know these insects. The irony is killing me. hehe.
Great job to both of you in your Biology study. Have a nice weekend ahead.
Thank you!
Enjoy your weekend as well. :D
You're welcome (^_^)
Thanks so much, wonderful experience, so much to learn, thanks for sharing
You're welcome! Thanks for reading.
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ants are so nice to observe
I even had an idea to buy an ant farm:>
nature is our everything
better than any teachers and texbooks, you had great time, perfect unschooling:>