Questions from Mandel JCC Preschool, Beachwood Ohio

If you have time could you answer some of our questions? We appreciate your efforts ahead of time.

Cameron asked is it hard for the animals to stay warm.
Ethan asked how do the animals find their way home.
Owen wanted to know if you saw any Eskimos.
Liam asked how do the penguins walk up hill without slipping.
John asked how do penguins get born?
Cyrus wanted to know how easy is it to find penguins, polar bears and other animals in the region.
Irene wanted to know how the animals find their food because of all the snow.
Keenan wanted to know how do the animals climb
Ethan wanted know how the whales stay under water so long.
Max wanted to know how the penguins swim.
Jake wanted to know how does the Arctic fox stay white.
Derek wanted to know how the animals eat.

Please stay warm and safe and thank you so much if you have the time. We appreciate whatever info you send us and any thing you found out on your excursion.

Gayleen Kaplan & Frannie Morris, Pre K Class, Room 1

Mandel JCC Preschool

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Dear Kids at JCC,

Thanks for writing us. We're getting off the ship today by helicopter - we parked in the ice, we can't get to our pier because the ice is too thick. I'll answer some of your questions!

Cameron asked is it hard for the animals to stay warm.

Dear Cameron,
The animals have special fur and lots of blubber to keep themselves warm. They also do things to try to keep warm. For example, the penguins jump out of the water to sit on the ice to warm up, since the water is at the temperature of freezing and the water draws the heat away from their bodies.

Ethan asked how do the animals find their way home.

Dear Ethan,
The animals do not have homes like we do. The pengiuns roam freely on the ice and in the water around the ice. The algae live in the water and are at the mercy of the currents.

Owen wanted to know if you saw any Eskimos.

Dear Owen,
You'll be amazed to hear that no one lives in Antarctica, except the scientists. Antarctica has no native peoples like all the other continents do on Earth. There is an agreement between countries of the world that Antarctica be used for studying nature and be preserved.

Liam asked how do the penguins walk up hill without slipping.

Dear Liam,
We've seen a lot of penguins, but not many hills. The penguins live in the water and around the ice sheets. Because the ice is frozen from the ocean, it is pretty flat. I have seen the penguins jump between ice sheets, which is pretty cute. They also lie on the stomachs when they move on the ice to glide along pretty fast.

John asked how do penguins get born.

Dear John,
Pengiuns are born from eggs which their parents incubate very well in the cold Antarctica climate. The movie March of the Pengiuns has lot of great details about this, it's a great movie.

Cyrus wanted to know how easy is it to find penguins, polar bears and other animals in the region.

Dear Cyrus,
During the time we've been at sea we've seen hundreds, if not thousands of penguins. These have almost all been Adelie pengiuns, although we've seen a few emperior pengiuns (the kind in the movie March of the Pengiuns). It is estimated that there are a few hundred million Adelie pengiuns in Antarctica - that is about the same scale as the number of people in the United States! So you can imagine that we see a lot of them here in their home. However, there are almost no people down here at all. The penguins are very curious about us, (we must look very unusual to them!) and come right up to us.

Irene wanted to know how the animals find their food because of all the snow.

Dear Irene,

Good question. A lot of the food down here in the Antarctic is in the ocean! The ocean is full of life down here with lots and lots of small plants called "algae". These then get eaten by very small animals called grazers. Then there are bigger grazers like krill (like a shrimp) that eat the smaller ones, then fish and whales eat the krill, and the pengiuns then eat the fish. This is called the food chain. So the snow doesn't get in the way of finding the food because so much of it is in the water below the ice.

Keenan wanted to know how do the animals climb

Hi Keenan,

There's not much to climb down here - there aren't any trees, just lots of ice shelves and ice sheets as far as we can see. The ice is pretty amazing though, its so thick that we can stand on it. And we have a special ship designed to break through it. Although sometimes its too thick to break through, like right now, when we can't get to the pier.

Ethan wanted know how the whales stay under water so long.

Hi Ethan,

Whales have blow holes on the top of their bodies that they breathe through. They come up to breathe and then can stay down under water for long periods (hours) collecting food.

Max wanted to know how the penguins swim.

Hi Max,

The pengiuns are really impressive swimmers, they are really fast and sleek underwater. They use both their flippers and feet to propel themselves. They can also "porpoise" out of the water like dolphins do as they swim along. We've seen them do that a lot here.

Jake wanted to know how does the Arctic fox stay white.

Hi Jake,

There aren't any foxes down here in the Antarctic, just like there aren't any polar bears. I imagine the Arctic fox has a gene or set of genes (small regions of its DNA code found in all life on Earth) that code for white fur.

Derek wanted to know how the animals eat.

Dear Derek,

The animals eat through their mouths and some filter the algae and krill. For example, some whales have filters called baleen, which is made of the same protein found in our hair, and they have large pieces of baleen in their mouths that they use to catch all the small krill to eat.

Thanks for all your questions!
Mak