Reflection On Arctarctic Presentation

I thought that Mr.Watt's presentation was absolutely fantastic, and just the fact that he had actually been in Antarctica amazed me. He knew all about the different species, the different lifestyles of animals and even how and when different animals ate. I reacted upon that the pictures in the power point were ones that he actually had taken himself, with his own experiences and points of view. This means that the arctic really is beautiful and that it's not just the modified pictures online that show it is. I found the story about the woman Mr.Watts knew who died being in a fight with a leopard seal quite scary. It shows that you really have to be careful and that you have to know your stuff to be there, and that its no joke. Also, having the story told by someone who actually knew the woman made it seem even more realistic. I also found the picture of the penguins walking onto the shore from the water really fascinating, there must have been thousands of penguins!

Here are some animals that I learned about in Mr.Watts presentation:
Krill:

• Krill are the largest species in the world weight-wise
  
• They eat more than 1/4 of their body weight a day
• Live up to 10 years
• Can swim extremely fast
• only produce eggs in spring/summer when there is an abundance of food
• Eat Algae! Eating Machines!
• Ultimate victims...!

Whales:

• Migrate to shores of Brazil, Equador and Northern Chile
• Come to antarctic only on feeding seasons April-May and eat krill
• KRILL! FOOD! EAT! KRILL! FOOD! EAT!
• too busy during food season eating to breed
• biggest animals
• Orca/killer whale- top food chain (no polar bears in antarctic!)

Penguins:

• most abundant birds
• some types of penguins:
• -Gentoo Penguin
• -Macaroni Penguin
• -Adelie Penguin
  
• -Chinstrap Penguin
• All penguins hatch in the winter and arrive in the arctic in the spring.
  

Seals:

• There are four main types of seals:
• - Elephant seals, eat squid and fish
  
• - Crabeater seals, eat krill
  
• -Leopard seals, eat whatever they feel like including krill, penguins and other leopard seals
  
• -
• female leopard seals are very dangerous and might cause death
• male leopard seals sing to attract females

Polar bears:

• very powerful
• live only in arctic, not in antarctic
• not good sprinters
• when they hunt they swim near to a prey by the water and jump on top of it
• they don't eat the meat of their preys but mostly the fat

Something that I also found interesting about Mr.Watts presentation was the whale poop story. One summer the number of whales decreased vastly because of whale hunting. Scientists predicted that this would make the krill and seal population higher. However, while the seal population increased by small amounts the krill population decreased. After further research we found out that the whales poop they sent out into the ocean makes algae richer and more full of nutrients. This algae later goes into the krill digestive system. This means that with no whales, no poop, no fertile algae, no krill. This shows that whales and krill help each other survive even though they are enemies from birth.