The shed skin can be seen on the right in the picture - notice how much larger the cockroach is than its shed skin.
We managed to get this amazing photo recently when we found this hissing coackroach in its tank having just shed its exoskeleton. The invertebrate, as can be seen, is white when it first emerges from its tough outer covering. It takes about an hour for the the exoskeleton to harden and become dark. The eyes can just be seen beginning this darkening process.
The shed skin can be seen on the right in the picture - notice how much larger the cockroach is than its shed skin.
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Owl pellets were dissected, owl masks made and the chickens fed on Tuesday as families came to Suntrap to enjoy an afternoon of bird based activities.
As the pellets were gently teased apart they slowly revealed that the owls had been eating voles, shrews and even insects. Ben Scarborough and Ben Brockway enjoyed using microscopes to help to identify the skulls of the small mammals left undigested in the pellets. Meanwhile Beth Scarborough made herself a lovely owl mast to take home. Emma Rathbone, Suntrap tutor introduced families to our hand reared hens. Holly is tame enough to be picked up to take corn seed from your hand. Hi, I'm Lisa and I did my work experience at Suntrap, I came for two weeks. I've learned new skills and recapped on subjects I've learned before. I have met very nice people, helped with the Suntrap animals and helped the students with their work. I've been working really hard with helping the staff to prepare for lessons and helped during the lessons as well. I really enjoyed being out in the forest and holding the animals I was comfortable with. I was asked to paint some of the animals, here is Sally, one of the Salamaders. Overall I've enjoyed the whole experience, and I will miss it. The forest is looking amazing at the moment, especially on these bright November days when the autumn sunshine highlights the copper of the beech leaves. Half an hour spent in the magnificent autumn sunshine is enough to recharge the batteries ready for a new week. Three different groups of children from Chingford Hall enjoyed their visit today, including a group of under twos with their mums. They put on their wellies and waterproof all-in-one suits and squelched through the mud, cruched through the leaves and splashed through the stream. Some of the mums hadn't taken their children out into the forest before, but after seeing how much fun was to be had climbing over the logs and enjoying the open space said they would be taking their children out again. My name is Morgan Christie I'm here at Suntrap for work experience. I have really enjoyed it. I do all different sorts of jobs that are hardworking, fun and independent. I find it really great working with children and animals. I am also learning more information about the animal habitats and learning how to work well with others, such as my work colleagues, A-level Students and young children from infant schools. My favourite activity was when we showed the young children from Chapel End Infant School the animals such as snakes, fire salamanders, giant African land snails, stick insects and hissing cockroaches. We gave them lots of information about each animal’s habitat. After that we took the children out to Epping Forest to catch different types of invertebrates and store them in pots. They then had to see which of them had found the highest number of legs, by counting how many each animal had. Thanks must go to the Epping Forest Conservation Volunteers for their hard work recently helping to look after our ponds. With chest waders on they got into the water and with much heaving and muscle power managed to clear much of the vegetation which was beginning to choke the water, and all with a smile on their faces. This squirrel was seen yesterday, hanging two feet off the ground, completely motionless from the end of a branch of holly. It remained completely frozen while the photograph was taken. Its limbs were clamped tightly to the twig, nothing moved or twitched, even the tail remained at the angle as seen in the photograph. The only give away that it was alive was the fact it could be seen breathing and it was seen to blink, just once in the two or three minutes it was observed and photographed. It stayed in this position as the photographer walked away. It is hoped that it has since felt it was safe enough to stop playing dead and climb back up into the canopy. Autumn is well underway with acorns and conkers falling from the trees, hornbeam leaves starting to change into their yellow autumnal best and the first fly agaric spotted this week. Get out into the forest to spot and photograph the amazing fungi that is growing now.
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SuntrapRaising Achievement Outdoors Archives
December 2017
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