I-Search+by+Leah

**Global Warming in the Arctic's Affect on the Animals** by Leah //The animals who live the arctic are highly affected by Global Warming. They are loosing their environment and their home because of humans neglecting to take care of the planet that all life lives on. The animals have no say in what goes on and what the humans decide to do with the Earth. The glaciers in the Arctic are melting. This causes the water levels to rise so there is little ice to walk on, never mind live on! Animals like polar bears can't swim for long periods of time so they will go extinct if the glaciers melt. The animals in the Arctic are very much affected by Global Warming. //
 * Part I--What I already know about my topic **

 //I would like to find out: // ** //I have picked my topic for my iSearch. I am going to research on the animals in the arctic. I am planning to pick about three animals and have many facts about them. In the arctic, life could be tough for the animals. For example, the animals that I will be using for the game would be the Arctic Hare, the Arctic Fox and the Polar bear. They all have adapted to live in the arctic but life is tough for them. They all relate to each other in the food chain. I went on diigo and got some information on my topic and some reliable sites. i have yet to find a book on the animals and the articles, but i am going to get them.
 * Part II--What I Want to Find Out
 * //How does Global Warming affect the animals living in the Arctic? //
 * //What are the animals living in the Arctic? //
 * //What types of Global Warming are there? //
 * //How fast is Global Warming affecting the landscape? //
 * //What are the diets of the animals that live in the arctic? //
 * //What is the weather like in the arctic? //
 * //What types of storms occur in the arctic? //
 * //Would the animals adapt to the change in environment or go extinct? //
 * //Do people live in the Arctic? //
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part III--The Search **

I have found books related to my topic! I actually have gotten 3. the first one is called "The Frozen Tundra: A Web of Life" by Philip Johansson. The second book is called "Discovering the Arctic Tundra" by Janey Levy. The third one is called "Tundra" by Donna Walsh Shepherd. I have yet to really read the books but i have skimmed them and they have stuff related to the animals in the arctic. There were a list of them in one of the books that will help me out a lot.

I have read the books and found out ton's of wonderful facts on the animals that I am going to use for my board game modification on the game <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sorry! //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. I didn't find anything interesting or related to the animals of the arctic in the books "Tundra" by Donna Walsh Shepherd and "Discovering the Arctic Tundra" by Janey Levy. //The four animals that I am going to look up facts about are going to be: Polar bears, arctic foxes, Arctic hares and the lemming. The book that i picked ("The Frozen Tundra: A Web of Life" by Philip Johansson) is fun and interesting and I enjoyed it! I found an interesting article that I cited in the first works cited. It was really cool and had tons of facts. I also was looking around on diigo.com again and I have found some amazing sites that had tons of information and facts that I could use for my game. I am not sure if I should pick the Lemming yet because that species seems a little boring to me. The arctic fox eats lemmings so maybe I should keep it so it will make my game interesting. i have to think about that!

I have decided to keep the Lemming on my game board along with the other animals. I have a really good idea for my game and I can't wait to actually get a chance to build it! I am going to use a bunch of supplies that I have and make my board very interesting and use my creativity! //

//Arctic har//e: //In the winter Arctic hares are white with black eartips. The main food for the Arctic hare is woody plants. It will eat mosses, lichens, buds, berries, leaves, seaweed, bark, willow twigs and roots, and even the meat from hunters' traps. Often trappers will find hares caught in traps. The main food in the winter is the willow. They can smell the willows under the snow and start to dig. If the snow is too crusty they first thump on it with their powerful feet. They chew at the icy with their teeth.The young are born in late May, June, or July, depending on where they live. The farther north they are, the later the babies are born. Females may produce a second litter in one season. Average litter size is five babies.Arctic hare are food for Snowy Owls, other birds of prey, wolves, foxes, weasels and polar bears. So it must always be alert and ready to hop away if it senses an enemy. Sometimes it runs away on all fours or hops on its hind legs like a kangaroo.Young hares quickly learn to sit perfectly still and become almost invisible to their enemies. The Arctic hare moves so quickly that wolves and foxes have a hard time keeping up with it. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hares may fight. They box, scratch and snap at one another but they do not bite.
 * Part IV--What I Learned**

Arctic Fox: // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal;">THE ARCTIC FOX is hard to see in the snow.It has a thick white coat of fur for the winter. In the summer the coat is brownish-grey. The Arctic fox eats a lot of lemmings. They also eat hares, birds' eggs and the chicks. If there is a lot of food, the female has eleven or more pups, but if there is not much food she may have only five or six pups. The average litter is 11 pups or "whelps". <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The babies are born in a den or burrow in late spring. A baby fox is the size of a kitten. Both parents take care of the blind pups.At two weeks they open their eyes. At three weeks they go outside and begin to explore. To feed a litter of ten the parents must kill about thirty lemmings a day. They prey on voles, lemmings, hares, ground squirrels, birds and birds' eggs. When meat is unavailable the Arctic fox eats fruit and berries. The Arctic fox will even kill baby seals if the fox can find the seal's den in the snow. The Arctic fox walks along the top of the snow and listens for small animals running under the snow. When they hear something, they jump up and down to break through the snow with their front paws. Once they break through,they can grab their pray. Polar bears kill Arctic foxes. Trappers want them for their beautiful fur coats. The Arctic fox can run quickly and is well camouflaged in the winter and in the summer. It does not hibernate during the winter. Those living in the coldest Arctic areas follow polar bears and feed on the left-overs. Some Arctic foxes have a steel blue winter coat.

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Polar Bear: In the summer polar bears eats plants and berries. They also eat fish, lemmings, arctic foxes, birds and bird eggs. In late summer and early autumm the bears go along the coastline looking for dead whales and dead walruses. Polar bears are able to swim in the icy Arctic Ocean without freezing. Polar bears are good swimmers. They have large front paws with partially webbed toes. They paddle with their front legs and use their hind legs as rudders. The polar bear has a very good sense of smell and can sniff dead animals from far away and can find seals in dens beneath the snow. Their claws help them to catch seals. The polar bear's huge teeth are for tearing the prey apart. The polar bear is so strong it can kill an animal with one blow to the head. The female ususally has two cubs. Sometimes she may have three. When the cubs are born they are very tiny. They weigh less than less than a kilogram (less than two pounds). The cubs have very fine fuzz and are blind and deaf. In November or December the cubs are born in dens in the snow. They stay in the den for about three months. The cubs are safe and protected from the cold and the wind. The mother feeds them milk but she has nothing to eat. The mother and her cubs leave the den in March or April. The cubs stay with their mother for about two years. In one year the cubs are as big as a person. A female polar bear gives birth every third year. // Sometimes polar bears go into towns and villages. They can break into buildings to find food. Most northern countries have laws to protect the polar bear. Hunters are still able to kill a few each year. Polar bears are born on land but spend most of their time on pack ice and are very good swimmers. Much of their food is from the sea. So polar bears are considered to be marine mammals. They do not stay in one place. Males are larger than females. Polar bears spend most of their time on the pack ice or in the water Seals are their favorite food, especially the ringed seal. The polar bear tries to fatten up before the sea ice melts. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> //Lemmings://

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Lemmings look like fat furry hamsters. The brown lemming and the collared lemming live in the Arctic. The brown lemming prefers wetter areas, while the collared lemming is usually seen in rocky places. The collared lemming turns white in winter.In the winter lemmings stay warm in tunnels under the snow. When summmer comes the lemmings leave their dens to feed on new leaves, grasses, roots and berries. If there is plenty of food a female lemming has as many as six sets of babies. Many arctic animals eat lemmings. Collared lemmings' coats turn from brown to white for the winter. Lemmings eat plants, roots, berries and lichens. They gather seeds to eat in the wintertime. Lemmings are eaten by many animals. The ermine (weasel), Arctic fox, Snowy Owl, wolf and wolverine are just some of their enemies. Arctic foxes can sniff out lemmings in their burrows under the snow. Ermine (weasels) can fit down the lemmings' burrows. They chase the lemmings into their burrows and kill them by biting their necks. Lemmings run quickly and hide in their tunnels under the snow or underground.<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">When there are fewer lemmings, there are fewer predators (animals that hunt lemmings for food). Females give birth to up to eight babies every five weeks. The high number of lemmings helps to provide food for many animals. When there are too many lemmings in one area and not enough to eat, they migrate to find food. Many drown by running into the rivers and lakes. Every three or four years the number of lemmings decreases. If there are too many lemmings there would not be enough food for all of them. Then many lemmings would starve. The predators would also starve. ====== WORKS CITED: **
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: normal;"> Warns Of Rising Sea Levels." <span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: normal;">//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Washington Post Staff Writer // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: normal;"> (2006): ======