Hi there! Let me tell you about something really cool. Meet Mr. Tortoise, my family’s pet tortoise. Like many tortoises and turtles, Mr. Tortoise sometimes sheds little bits of skin as he grows. But today, we’re going to talk about another animal that sheds its skin: snakes!
Have you ever seen a snake shed its skin? It’s pretty amazing! There’s a snake named Candy Cane, and he’s a type of snake called a Milk snake. When snakes shed their skin, it starts at their head and can take a long time, even hours or days, to finish. People who have pet snakes often get to see this happen and even help their snakes out.
Did you know that snakes aren’t the only ones who shed their skin? Insects like dragonflies and cicadas do it too. You might find their old skins on tall grass. Even spiders, like tarantulas, and ocean creatures like crabs shed their skins. Crabs have a hard shell, and they slowly back out of it to grow bigger.
So, why do these animals shed their skin? One reason is that it helps them grow. When animals are young, they shed their skin a lot because they’re growing fast. For example, baby snakes might shed their skin every two weeks! As they get older, they shed less often.
But wait, we grow too, and we don’t shed our skin like a snake or a crab. Instead, we shed tiny bits of skin all the time, but they’re so small we usually don’t notice them. Sometimes, if you wear dark clothes, you might see little flakes of skin.
Some scientists think that animals like insects and crabs have tough skin called an exoskeleton. It’s like a shield, and shedding helps them grow because their skin isn’t as stretchy as ours. Another reason could be to get rid of tiny pests like ticks and fleas. When snakes shed their skin, they leave these pests behind.
Animals that don’t shed their entire skin have other ways to deal with pests. For example, giraffes have birds that help pick off pests, and snow monkeys in Japan groom each other to stay clean.
In summary, many animals shed their skin to help them grow. Some do it all at once, while others shed little by little. It’s a fascinating process that helps them stay healthy and pest-free. Isn’t nature amazing?
Thanks for learning with me today! Stay curious and keep exploring the wonders of the animal world. See you next time!
Observe and Draw: Find a quiet spot in your garden or a nearby park and look for signs of animals that shed their skin. You might find a cicada shell on a tree or a snake skin in the grass. Draw what you see and write a few sentences about it. How do you think the animal feels after shedding its skin? Share your drawing and thoughts with your class.
Shedding Simulation: Use a pair of old socks to simulate how a snake sheds its skin. Put the socks on your hands and slowly pull them off, turning them inside out as you go. Imagine you are a snake shedding its skin. How does it feel to leave the old “skin” behind? Discuss with a friend why shedding is important for snakes and other animals.
Growth Chart: Create a growth chart for an imaginary animal that sheds its skin. Decide how often your animal sheds and how much it grows each time. Draw a picture of your animal at different stages of growth. How does shedding help your animal grow bigger and stay healthy? Present your growth chart to the class and explain your animal’s shedding process.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. This is my family’s pet tortoise, Mr. Tortoise. I know, not the most creative name in the world. Like other tortoises and turtles, as Mr. Tortoise grows, he sometimes sheds little bits of skin, even layers of these little plates on his back. Someone named Molly has a question about another kind of reptile that does this. Let’s give Molly a call now. (phone ringing) – Hi, Doug. – Hi, Molly. – I have a question for you: why do snakes shed their skin? – Ooh, that’s a great question. Walking around in a forest, you might even find something like this, an entire skin left behind by a snake after it shed. It’s not common to see a wild snake in the act of shedding its skin, but people who have pet snakes have filmed lots of videos of this. Like, check this out. This is a type of snake called a Milk snake. This one is named Candy Cane, and Candy Cane here is in the process of shedding his skin with a little help from his caretaker. Shedding starts at the snake’s head and can take hours or days for the snake’s old skin to be fully left behind. And it’s not just snakes that do this. Insects do too, like dragonflies, for example. You can sometimes find the shed skins left behind by them, sitting on the tops of tall grass, or in many parts of North America, you can find the shed skin left behind by a cicada. Wow, look at that. Spiders do this too, like this tarantula. Even some ocean creatures do this. Crustaceans like this crab slowly back out of their old shell, shedding and leaving it behind. Whoa, look at that. Why do all of these animals do this? Well, one clue is how often they do it. All of these animals shed their skin a lot more when they’re young, when they’re growing. Some baby snakes will shed their skin every two weeks. Gradually, as they get bigger, they do it less often. Instead of every two weeks, it becomes more like two to four times per year. So shedding their skin seems to have something to do with how they grow, but wait a second, because we grow too and we don’t shed our skins like a snake or an insect. Can you imagine? Would our parents save it and show our friends? Aww, come look at the skin you shed when you were a little baby. Aww, it’s so cute. Oh, that would be so weird. And it’s not just us either; lots of other animals don’t seem to shed their skin as they grow, like dogs, cats, and hamsters. Why do animals like snakes and insects shed their skin, but other living things don’t? What ideas do you have? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss. Okay, you ready? Well, actually it turns out we do shed our skin, not our entire skin all at one time, the way a snake or an insect or a crab does, but as our bodies grow, we do grow new skin and shed little bits of old skin as we’re growing. Usually, these little bits of skin we shed are so small we don’t tend to notice them, but sometimes, like if you wear dark clothing, you actually can notice little flecks of it here and there. It’s no big deal; we all do this, and when you think about the fact that it means your body’s growing, it’s actually kind of interesting. So then, why do these other animals shed their entire skin all at once? That’s something that’s hard to know for sure, but it’s probably something that’s helpful to them. I asked this question to some scientists who study these animals. Some of them think that one possibility is that their skin is less flexible than ours. Animals like insects, spiders, and crabs have a tough outer layer of skin that acts like a shield. We call it an exoskeleton. With such tough, rigid skin, it might be that being able to shed the entire skin every few months is what allows these animals to grow. There could be another reason too. A lot of animals often have tiny creatures living on them, tiny things like ticks, fleas, and lice; sometimes these little animals even carry diseases. Scientists have pointed out that when snakes shed their skin, it leaves lots of these little pests behind. Shedding their skin gets rid of these pests. So maybe shedding their entire skin all at once is a special feature that some animals have to get rid of pests. Now, that said, animals that don’t shed their entire skin can still get ticks and lice on them, so they have to rely on other ways to get rid of these. Like these giraffes who rely on birds to help pick them clean of any little pests, or these snow monkeys in Japan, they’re carefully grooming each other to remove any tiny pests that might be hanging out in their fur. So in summary, lots of animals shed their skin to make room as they grow. Some of them do it all at once, some not. Shedding their skin all at once has an interesting plus: you don’t have to take a shower. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Molly, for asking it. Now for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and picked out three questions sent in to me that I’m thinking about answering next. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: why do we have leap years? Who invented the piano? Or how do traffic lights work? So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see you next week.
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