Fascinating Nature
Guardians of Nature
Some of nature's best helpers are small, quiet or not very pretty. Meet a few animals that clean up, plant trees and keep the Earth healthy!
Did you know?
Dung beetles roll animal dung into balls and bury it. This feeds the soil. Some even find their way using the Milky Way!
Many fruit bats eat fruit at night and drop the seeds far away. New trees can grow from those seeds!
Squirrels bury nuts to eat later, but they forget some. The forgotten nuts can sprout into new trees!
Try this: Sock Seed Walk
Do this with an adult
With an adult, pull an old pair of socks over your shoes. Walk slowly through a patch of long grass. Now look at your socks. Can you see seeds stuck to them? Seeds hitch rides on animal fur like this too! Put one sock in a tray of soil. Water it and keep it in a sunny place. What grows?
Go further: Vultures, Nature's Clean-up Crew
Vultures eat dead animals. This stops germs and bad smells from spreading. Not long ago, India's vultures almost disappeared. A medicine given to cattle made vultures very ill when they ate dead cattle. In 2006, India banned this medicine for animals. Now a centre in Pinjore, Haryana, raises young vultures. Since 2016, it has been setting some free in the wild.