The Week Junior UK – 03 August 2019

Chimpsenjoyfilmnights

Goodweek /Badweek

Piglet

squid

The River Cam

Sections of theRiver Camaround

Cambridgehavejustone thir doft he

water expected at this time of year,

affecting all those who use the river.

Alack ofrainfall has been blamed,

and in order to help the Camreco ver

farmers upstreamhave been asked

to limit thewater they use.

Scottishinsectlife

A23-year-old has found hundreds

of unexpected species at RSPB

Scotland’sLoch Lomond nature

reserve. In less than three months,

Sam Buckton discovered 315

previously unrecorded animals and

plants, including onewasp never

previously spotted in Scotland.

Do youlove animals? ZSLLondonZoo’s JuniorZooAcademy isagreat waytolearn

about creatures from alloverthe world. Find out moreatzsl.org/experiences

Howlong is the average

giraffe neck?

Giraffes arethe tallest living land

mammals–anadult’sneck is, on

average, almost two metres long.

This allows them to stretch high

into the trees toeatleaves and

twigs no other animalscanreach.

Males swing their necksaround

in fightscalled necking, where

they try to knock their rivals to the

ground and impress females.

GOOD

●LIFESPAN IN THE WILD:Unknown.

●HABITAT:Usually found deeper than 450 metres

beneath the surfaceofalmost all oceans.

●DIET:Unknown, although it probablyeats tiny fish and

other marine animals.

●FUN FACT:Piglet squidcanfill themselves up withwater

until they’rethe sizeofanavocado.

H

g

AS

KA

Z

O

OK

EEP

E

R

Thisadorablesee-throughdeep-watersquidwas

spottedbyscientistsonboardtheunderwatervehicle

NautilusduringanexpeditionfundedbytheOcean

ExplorationTrust.Itgetsitsnamefromitshabitof

fillingupwithwater,whichmakesitlooklikeith as

atiny,pig-likesnout.

Gemma Metcalf

Deputyteam leader of Hoof

Stock, ZSLLondon Zoo

Animals and the environment

3August 2019•The Week Junior 11

MA
TA
RNEY/CORNWALL WILDLIFE TRUST

·SAM BUCK

TON·G

ETTY IMAGES ·

ALAMY

·NAT

URE PICTURE LIBRAR

Y·R

EX SHUTTERSTOCK

·COV

ER IMAGES

Animal

week

BAD

ofthe

A

new study shows that apes, just like

humans, enjoywatching films together.

Scientists from DukeUniversity in the US

looked at how chimpanzeesreacted after

being shownafilm, and found that

they spent moretime

together afterwards. The

results suggest apes get

asimilar positive

feeling to the one we

get whenwatching a

TV programme or film

together.“We thought

that this kind of

connecting through shared

experienceswasuniquely human,”researcher

Wouter Wolf toldTheGuardiannewspaper.

Chimps atareserve in Uganda weregiven

fruit drinkstoe ncourage them to stay in the

same place, while eye-tracking technology

made surethey wereactuallywatching the

screen.To keep their attention,researchers

choseafilm they knewwasahit with other

apes –aminute-long clip ofayoung

playing.

Oncethe clipwas

over,the drinkswere

taken away and the

researcherswatched

what happened next. If

oth chimps had been

hing the same thing –

and had noticed that the other one

wasalso watching it–they weremorelikely

to huddle together and groomeach other.

Wolf says it shows that apes, likehumans, find

someexperiences“richer”when they are

shared with others.

chimp

bo

watch

and had noti

SCREEN

PALS

Thestudy

found that

chimps and their smaller

bonobo

cousins

seemto

enjoyw

atching films

with humans,

too.

Chimps have

complexsocial lives.