Author: Lisa Mungovan

Scientists studying the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, discovered something unexpected. They found mysterious trails, left by sea sponges. Sponges are living creatures, but they’re not known for their mobility. The tracks were made of small fragments from the sponges, called spicules. They could be a food source for other sponges. It’s a mystery!

Many people who get infected with COVID-19, lose their sense of smell. It can take months to recover, but smell training can help speed it up. Smell training is sniffing different strong odors, like coffee, lemon, rose, or eucalyptus, and focusing on memories while you smell them. I wonder if sniffing dirty socks works.

Once upon a time, there were hundreds of thousands of whales in the ocean. People started hunting them, and the oceans got more polluted, causing them to become endangered. How will the story end? You can decide, for Tell A Story Day. Since it’s also Marine Mammal Rescue Day, I hope it’s a happy ending!

Today is World Tapir Day. Tapirs are animals that look kind of like a pig, with a short trunk like an elephant. There are 4 different types, living in South and Central America, and in Southeast Asia. Tapirs are herbivores, and use their prehensile snouts to pick leaves and berries. That’s a talented nose!

Dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot. That’s the code for SOS, the international signal for help. It’s Morse Code Day. Morse code assigned a pattern of short and long taps to each letter, to communicate by telegraph before telephones were invented. Use it to send messages by flashlight, or tapping on your desk.

When you lose your sunglasses while skydiving, you’re not likely to ever get them back. That’s why Tuba Turkseve was so surprised, while she was paragliding over the sea in Turkey. Her sunglasses fell of during an acrobatic spin, but landed back in her lap 10 seconds later. What a lucky catch!

The Bristol Zoo in England, has a tiny new resident. It’s a baby Malayan mouse deer, and it’s only as tall as a pencil! This is the first fawn, for parents Brienne and Jorah. Mouse deer usually live in the forests of Southeast Asia, eating flowers and vegetables. Brienne’s baby likes sweet potatoes.

The world’s oldest known wild bird, is a Laysan albatross named Wisdom. She lives in an albatross colony, in a wildlife refuge on Midway Atoll, with her mate Akeakamai. Wisdom is at least 70 years old, and just hatched an egg. Biologists estimate that she’s hatched over 30 eggs in her lifetime, and flown over 3,000,000 miles.

Today, April 26th, is Alien Day. In the 1979 movie, Alien, LV-426 was the moon where xenomorphs were discovered. The movies are pretty scary, but the toys are cool! Less scary, is Hug An Australian Day! Australia is full of animals that look huggable, like koalas, kangaroos, quokkas and quolls, but virtual hugs are safest.

Today is Richter Scale Day. The Richter Scale measures the magnitude of earthquakes on Earth, and marsquakes on Mars. The greatest magnitude ever recorded was the Great Chilean Earthquake, which measured 9.5. It’s also Pretzel Day. Do you prefer big soft pretzels, or tiny hard pretzels? Roll out some dough, and twist your own!