+ All Categories
Home > Documents > Butterflies make better canaries activities docx

Butterflies make better canaries activities docx

Date post: 31-Jul-2015
Category:
Upload: schoolofhope
View: 35 times
Download: 1 times
Share this document with a friend
Popular Tags:
6
Beluga Whales flies Make Better Canaries Brooklyn N March 16, 2015 This power point explains the life, habitat, and endangerment of beluga whales in Canada.
Transcript
Page 1: Butterflies make better canaries activities docx

Beluga Whales

Butterflies Make Better Canaries

Brooklyn N

March 16, 2015

This power point explains the life, habitat, and endangerment of beluga

whales in Canada.

Page 2: Butterflies make better canaries activities docx

Description of Beluga Whales

In Russian beluga means “the white one,” which in this case explains its pure white skin, and prominent and bulging forehead, the beluga whale is extremely easy to spot. However, only adult belugas are white; calves are born brown or dark grey and gradually pale to become totally white between six and eight years of age. Beluga whales have stout bodies, well-defined necks and a disproportionately small head. They have thick skins, short but broad paddle-shaped flippers, and sharp teeth. The beluga doesn’t have a dorsal fin, unlike other whales. The average beluga whale is 3 to 5 metres in length, and weight between 500 and 1,500 kilograms. Unlike female whales, the male has a marked upward curve at the top of their flippers.

Page 3: Butterflies make better canaries activities docx

Habitat of Beluga Whales

The need for ice-free water and sufficient quantities of food to eat, the beluga whale lives in cold arctic waters, traveling from habitat to habitat. In winter, the whale is found in areas of open water; in summer its found in shallow bays and estuaries. Calm, shallow waters along reef edges is where female belugas with young prefer. These waters have warm surface temperatures and sand, gravel or mud floors that support molluscs, and bottom fish eaten by belugas. Areas where the water depth varies and where surface temperatures are cold, are where adults and weaned young belugas favour.

Page 4: Butterflies make better canaries activities docx

Causes of Endangerment

The main cause of the dramatic declines in beluga populations is hunting. However, other factors could include alterations to habitats – such as damming of rivers – and possibly noise pollution caused by ships and pleasure craft. The boast could very possibly interfere with the belugas’ echo-location method of hunting. Dredging, shipping, industrial activity and environmental pollution are possible reasons why the quality of water the beluga lives in has been affected and degraded. These reasons could also lead to the decline in food supply.

Page 5: Butterflies make better canaries activities docx

Solutions

You could very easily send a message to government leaders, expressing your concerns and possible actions to be taken for the protecting of beluga whales. Shipping company's could alter their routes to protect the habitat of the beluga whales. Humans can very easily cut down on environmental pollution that they cause my littering. Recycle and reuse items that you can in order to reduce the size of our landfills. Hazardous materials found in the trash sites can leach into the soil and groundwater and contaminate the rivers, streams and oceans. Fines and punishments can be given to the hunters of beluga’s, and laws could be created to make the hunting of them illegal.

Page 6: Butterflies make better canaries activities docx

The future for Beluga Whales

Based on aerial surveys in June, 2006, the agency estimated that only about 302 belugas remained in the upper Inlet last year. The results suggest the population has slipped 5.6 percent per year since 1994 and a 4.1 percent per year since hunting became regulated in 1999. As a result, the whales face a 26 percent chance of becoming extinct within 100 years, according to a status review released last winter. But with the help from scientists and researchers who are tracking the beluga whales, they are helping with the protection and recovering of beluga whales.


Recommended