Hey guys! I'm Jessi, we're back at Animal Wonders, and today I wanted to talk to you
about, like, coverings of the body.
Our first model is Lokita the Chinese water dragon, and she is going to share that she
is covered in scales.
She's a reptile, and when she sheds, she sheds in pieces. So she gets like a big chunk that
comes off of her head, chunks that come off of her leg, her tail is shed like, she actually--
I don't know if you can see this line, but she shed her tail from here to right there,
and then the rest of this tail has not shed off yet, so it's a little bit yellower, I
guess? Um, but I do have her back skin that came off -- oh, I turned it around, it goes
like this actually -- and that just recently came off, and it's really awesome because
it has these spikes still intact in there. So lizards, like Lokita, shed in pieces - they
shed their scale in pieces.
So here's another reptile, also covered in scales; this is a rubber boa, her name is
Serpentina - Tina for short - and this is her shed. She does not shed off in chunks
or pieces like a lizard would. Snakes tend to shed in one whole piece. They have to have
the correct humidity to do that, as well, so if you have a snake or you've seen a snake
that's shedding in pieces, you know that their humidity is not quite right and they need
some more water in there, or other things to help them shed out. It's kinda like taking
a sock off, it turns inside out. It's pretty cool.
And then there's other kinds of animals that are not covered in scales, they're covered
in feathers. So this is Ginger the green cheek conure. They also are going to get rid of
their body coverings. That's her tail feather: they molt these out (shed/molt) these out
to get new ones so that they can fly better, and keep warm and keep the rain water out
of them. So, these guys do it one at a time. When it comes back it's in a case, a casing,
that they have to groom off, and then it becomes a beautiful feather, just like this!
And then we have animals like invertebrates that have an exoskeleton. This is Fluffy,
the Chilean rose haired tarantula, and this is her body covering, this is her exoskeleton,
this is what she molted out. It looks like another tarantula, but it's actually just
a smaller body casing than what she needed to grow into, so she flipped on her back,
pulled herself out this crazy thing, and had a brand new one underneath, just slightly
bigger.
And then there's animals that are covered in fur, like Chilli Pepper, the Patagonian
cavy or mara. He is covered in this crazy covering of just fur and it actually comes
out supper easy, and that's a nice defense if a predator tries to grab him, it might
just slip off. Keeps him warm, and also keeps him cool, and it keeps him dry as well. It's
just another, really cool, animal body covering.
So, body coverings can come in all different shapes and sizes and colors and textures,
but each one of them is a special adaptation to help that animal survive in their specific
environment.
Animals are pretty amazing and so is nature! If you guys love nature and animals and want
to learn more about it, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel Animal Wonders Montana.
Go on an adventure with us every week!
If you have questions or comments, wanna learn something new, or just wanna say hi, you can
find me on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. Thanks guys, have a good week.
[Inset:] Hey guys, I'm so excited to be doing this episode, this is gonna be all about how
Animal Wonders got started. I love what I do, and talking about it makes me feel all
kinds of happy!
[Jessi whistling the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It"]