LEONORA CURTIN WETLAND PRESERVE
Pinon Elementary Grade 3
Who lives in a Rotten Log Hotel? More than sixty years ago the Hotel was a tall beautiful cottonwood tree. Birds and animals lived in it. It gave shade to animals. Then about 20 years ago a fire burned down many trees in this area. The cottonwood was cut down. This tree is very slowly decomposing. Eventually it will become part of the soil and other plants will grow in that soil. We may not see many animals during the daytime but there are seeds that have been cracked open and eaten. We can observe where beetles have lived in bark and find the skeleton of a rodent. Counting the tree's growth rings will give a good idea of the tree's age before the fire. Of course we'll find some roly-polies. These creatures go by many different names - pill bugs, potato bugs, wood lice. They curl into tight balls whenever they sense danger and look like tiny armadillos. But when you pick up a roly-poly, what you're holding isn't a bug at all, nor is it an insect. Roly-polies have seven pairs of legs, 14 in all, and two sets of antenna to help them navigate. What do roly-polies eat? Look under a piece of rotting wood or rock and you'll usually find them. That's where they go for their favorite food, things that are decaying. They recycle by helping with the decaying process. |
Roly-polies are known as isopods or crustacens, a member of the same animal family as the lobster. Roly-polies breathe the same way a fish does, through a set of gills.