VALENTINES FOR THE ANIMALS!!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE!

Today we are sharing some love- the love of animals with you! Have a great day!

 

Make Your Own Ellie & Edmond Valentines!

MAKE YOUR OWN ELLIE AND EDMOND ORIGINAL VALENTINES!

Valentine’s Day is soon approaching and Ellie has been hard at work making some great Valentines that you can print, color and share with your friends and family!

All you have to do is click on the link and print them out! There’s a frog, an owl and a moose! Glue them to a blank card or construction paper, color them and add your own pizazz! (Edmond loves to add glitter to his handmade cards!)  As always please share your artwork with us! We love to see your creativity!

Ellie & Edmond Valentines!

VALENTINE’S THURSDAY

VALENTINE’S THURSDAY!

We’ve only got two days of our Valentine’s theme week left and today we have a beautiful bird! You might not have to travel far to see these guys, as they live on every continent except Antarctica! Who is ready to meet these lovelies? We are!

MEET THE MUTE SWAN!

    Range/Habitat: Every continent except Antarctica/ lakes-ponds

    Diet: Omnivore: plants, insects

    Length/Weight: up to 5ft/ 20-25 lbs

    Conservation Status: Common

 

 

 

Fun Facts:

• Mute Swans are one of the heaviest flying birds on earth and the 2^nd largest member of the waterfowl family.
• Mute swans have pure white feathers.
• They have webbed feet that help them swim.
• Their long necks help them reach to deep depths to get food that ducks and other birds cannot reach.
• Mute swans mate for life.
• Their chicks are called cygnets and both male and female mute swans take care of the cygnets.
• Mute swans have up to 25,000 feathers!

 

You may recognize the Mute Swan from the story of “The Ugly Duckling”. These beautiful birds are so fun to watch.  Did you know that they are the National Bird of Denmark? Pretty cool!

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day to our fans & readers! Thanks for being so awesome!

VALENTINE’S TUESDAY!

VALENTINE’S TUESDAY!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! We searched high and low for a reptile that mates for life. Man, who knew this would be so hard! But we did find one- sort of J! We’re heading to the land down under, so pack your bags! Let’s go to the outback!

MEET THE SHINGLEBACK SKINK!

   Range/Habitat: Australia/ desert- scrub

   Diet: Omnivore: insects, snails, fruits

   Length: 12-14”

   Conservation Status: Common

 

 

 

Fun Facts:

• Shingleback Skinks are also called the Stumptailed Skink.
• Shingelback skinks have short stumpy tails.
• Their tails store fat.
• Shingleback skinks are covered in heavy scales that are like armor.
• They “smell” with their tongue, just like snakes do!
• Shingleback skinks are slow moving.
• Mating pairs of shingleback skinks spend 8 weeks together to breed. Then come back together the next year to breed again. Even though they do not spend all year together, they do keep the same mate year after year.

 

Shingleback skinks are really cool looking. We think their fat tails kind of look like their heads J! We couldn’t find out how the two find each other every year, but it sure is cool that they do! Ah, lizard love!

 

 

 

 

VALENTINE’S MONDAY

VALENTINE’S MONDAY

It’s February theme week and we’re celebrating Valentine’s! We’ll be featuring animals who mate for life all week! So get ready to show some love for some fabulous pairs of animals! We have a lovely primate for Valentine’s Mammal Monday! These apes live in the rainforest of Asia and are known for their songs! Everyone look up, they’re swinging in the trees!

MEET THE WHITE HANDED GIBBON!

    Range/Habitat: Southeast Asia/ mountains-forests-rainforest

    Diet: Omnivore: fruit, leaves, insects

    Length/Weight: 16-23”/ 10-17 lbs

    Conservation Status: Endangered

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Facts:

• White Handed Gibbons are apes. They do not have tails!
• White handed gibbons are arboreal (live in trees).
• They truly swing through the trees. This is called brachiation.
• White handed gibbons have opposable thumbs and toes to help them grip vines and branches!
• They often pair/mate for life.
• Each pair of white handed gibbons has an individual song/call that they use to locate each other in the rainforests.
• White handed gibbons coloration varies from black to brown to tan.
• White handed gibbons life span is 25-30 years.

 

White handed gibbons are fabulous! We love their songs and the way they swing through the trees! Wouldn’t it be fun to swing like that? If you were a gibbon what would be the song you shared with your sweetie? We’re still deciding!

Check out this video of a gibbon calling and swinging through his enclosure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzgr2KBaEgY

Make Your Own Ellie and Edmond Valentine Cards

We love Valentine’s Day, so we’ve made some great animal valentine cards for you to color and share with your sweetie, mom, dad, brother, sister, cat or dog!

February 2012 Craft:  Valentine Cards

Materials:

• Our Valentine Printables
• Card Stock or thick paper
• Printer
• Scissors
• Crayons, Markers or Colored Pencils
• Optional: construction paper, glitter, glue or stickers

Directions:

          Print and color the Valentine Cards. You can print a bunch of one pattern or all of them! If you don’t have time to color- go ahead and print your very own Ellie and Edmond Valentine picture, cut it out and attach it to construction paper!

This craft is for you to make as fancy as you want! Attach the pictures to construction paper after you color them, put glitter on them or attach a piece of candy to them with tape!

We would love to see your final creations! Post them here or on our Facebook page! Woohoo!