Category Environment

What is the difference between a stag and a deer?

It is easy to distinguish between the large fallow deer, the red deer, and the small deer. The male red deer has royal antlers with several ends, while a roebuck (male roe deer) has only one small horn. The small deer, red deer, and fallow deer belong to the biological family of the stag, which also includes the moose and the reindeers. The small deer, weighing about 15 kg, are the most frequently seen today. They live in the area between forest and arable land. The female doe can give birth to two to three fawns, which bear three long series of white spots on the back. Red deer weigh up to 150 kg and prefer to live in forest clearings. The hinds (female red deer) can give birth to a maximum of one calf in a year. 

What does a forester do?

A forester takes care of the forest and ensures that it remains healthy. He plants new trees and removes the sick ones and the ones that are growing too close to each other. He maintains the forest paths, sets up benches for the wanderers, and decides which trees have to be cut for their wood and which for the paper industry. Forest management objectives include direct extraction of raw material, outdoor recreation, conservation, hunting, and aesthetics. Emerging management practices include managing forestlands for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and air quality.

Who lives in the forest?

A forest is a large area of land covered with trees. Forests can be classified into many types, some of which are the mixed temperate forests with both coniferous and deciduous trees, the temperate forests, the subtropical forests, the tropical forests, and the equatorial rainforests. The trees that make up the forest create a special environment which, in turn, affects the kinds of animals and plants that can exist in the forest. Large and small animals such as the stags, deer, wild boars, foxes, badgers, marten, and squirrels live in the forests. 

Who lives in the soil?

Along with rabbits, moles or mice that make their homes in the soil, numerous small animals like earthworms, pill bugs, snails, spiders, insect larvae, and the tiniest living organisms like springtails or mites also live in the soil. We can see all these creatures under a magnifying lens. These organisms eat the remains of plants and animals, which decompose in their intestines. When they excrete their waste matter, the nutrients are transferred back to the soil and can be used by plants and animals. This is how new soil is created by these organisms. Soil inhabitants also make the soil loose and porous. 

 

What is inside the oak apples?

Although an oak apple looks like a fruit, it is actually a deformed leaf hanging by its stem or petiole on the underside of oak leaves. Gall wasps form oak apples. In summer, the female wasp injects its eggs into the leaves of oak trees. The larvae that hatch inside the leaf are small and round. As they grow, they cause a chemical reaction that forms a gall around the larvae. These larvae eat and grow within the gall before emerging as adult wasps. 

Why do birds migrate to the south in autumn?

Many birds such as starlings, cranes, and swallows migrate to the south in autumn because they do not find enough food in winter. It is not good to feed the birds because it may disturb their regular habits of finding food for themselves. Their destination and the migratory path is the same every year. For years, scientists puzzled over the birds’ ability to take exactly the same path every year but now it is assumed that birds possess a ‘magnetic sense of direction’ and orient themselves to the magnetic field of the Earth, using the position of the sun during the day, and the stars at night.