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Mini-lessons

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These seals are so big and round! Why is that? Do you have any ideas about how being big and round could help an animal?
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These seals live in very cold places—and they swim in freezing cold water. To stay warm, they have a thick layer of fat called blubber. Their blubber acts like a blanket that keeps them warm.
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This seal pup doesn’t have any blubber yet. Its fur keeps it warm while it drinks its mother’s milk and grows fat. The white fur helps it blend in with the snow! It will turn gray when it grows up.
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Sea lions and seals look the same to most people. But to a biologist, they are as different as dogs and cats! What differences can you see between this seal and this sea lion?
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The sea lion’s front flippers are longer than the seal’s. Watch both animals move on land. The sea lion uses its flippers like legs! The seal wiggles like a caterpillar. It’s easy to see the difference now!
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Sea cows swim in the ocean like sea lions. Sea lions have sharp teeth to help them catch fish. The sea cow’s teeth aren’t sharp at all! What do you think the sea cow eats? Any ideas?
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This sea cow is having lunch. It’s not eating sand! It’s slurping up seagrass, stirring up sand in the process. The yellow fish follows it, ready to snap up any small animals unearthed by the sea cow.
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Watch these two young elephant seals. What do you think they are doing?
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Those young seals were play-fighting. When they grow up, they battle other elephant seals to claim an area of the beach as their own!
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This young elephant seal claimed a small town as his own—and practiced his fighting skills on cars and trucks! The cars never fought back so the seal was always the winner!
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I bet you can guess why these seals are called elephant seals. Adults have noses that kind of look like an elephant’s trunk!
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Illustration of a glass jar with a 'questionmark' label

  • Could dinosaurs live on Earth today?

    -Malloi, 2nd Grade

  • How can you tell how old an animal is?

    -Gabe, 3rd Grade

  • What is the most endangered species?

    -Shelby, 4th Grade

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