Wednesday, May 20, 2009

male or female

For beach day at the boys' preschool, we had a beach naturalist in attendance, who helped hunt out little creatures, and spent time teaching the kids different things about each one. When we came across some little crabs, she showed them the difference between a male crab and a female crab.

male: (the marking on the male looks like a lighthouse)
misc

female:
misc

I never really knew how to tell the difference myself and the kids were really getting into finding crabs and figuring out if they were male or female. We discovered that there were A LOT more males on the beach that day (either that, or the females were better at hiding?). We even saw a few females filled with eggs, which was pretty interesting!

7 comments:

Kaci said...

Learn something new every day! :) XOXO

Auntie said...

That is interesting. I grew up
on no bank water front and I never knew the difference!

Cindy Lou Who said...

Wow - Now I know how they figure them out on discovery channel! LOL

Betsy Hart said...

YAY Leah, thanks for teaching me my new fact for today!! :) Quite interesting actually.

Unknown said...

ha...thats cool...neat pics too

Crystal said...

Great to know! We go down to the beach and pick up the crabs alot, I never knew you could tell the difference. I'm excited to go find a crab and see :o)

Kristina said...

That's one thing I miss about the West side of the state: beaches. I have a picture of me in preschool on a field trip to a beach just like that, holding a geoduck in my outstretched palms. Memories.

The wildlife here in Kennewick at the "beaches" on the river? Geese. Deer. Rattlesnakes.

Most years the snakes aren't a problem, but last year there were so many they posted warning signs all over the Richland parks. Eww.

I'll take a geoduck over a rattlesnake any day.