April 10, 2011
This is our Chipmunk.
He lives in the screened-in porch on the ground floor of our house. He gets in and out through a tear in the screen. Cute, isn’t he?
I haven’t named him. Do you have any ideas?
Posted by: Seymour Simon
April 5, 2011
This insect-eating lizard is a Mwanza Flat-headed Rock Agama (Agama mwanzae), a common species found in Southern Africa. They live inside the thatch of huts and other small spaces, coming out during the day to soak up the sun on warm rocks and to eat. If they are caught out in the open, agamas stand up on their hind legs and run quickly to a safe place.
Some people look at the male’s strong colors - head, neck and shoulders are bright red or violet, and the body dark blue - and say it should be called the "Spiderman Lizard." What do you think?
Photo: Christian Mehlführer
Posted by: Seymour Simon
April 2, 2011
As our regular readers know, there is a new SCIENCE JOKE or RIDDLE every Friday on the homepage of SeymourSimon.com. This week’s joke: Did you hear about the dog that could do multiplication? Click here to see the rest of the joke.
And since it’s New Joke Friday, we thought we’d let you in on some exciting news. Seymour Simon and his very funny illustration partner, Dennis Kendrick, are almost finished with a new eBook! Readers who are fans of the SILLY DINOSAUR RIDDLES book will want to be on the lookout for this one. It is more of your favorite animals jokes and riddles, this time about animals that you might find in a zoo.
You will be able to buy this exciting new book, and lots of other exclusive Seymour Simon eBooks when you download Seymour Simon’s free mobile app for your iPhone, iPod Touch or Android device. And, there will be a new, enhanced version just for the iPad in the coming weeks.
SILLY ZOO ANIMAL JOKES AND RIDDLES should be available in early May.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
April 1, 2011
The news this week has been full of stories about the young Egyptian cobra who escaped from her cage in New York’s Bronx Zoo. She even had her own Twitter feed with over 200,000 followers. I must say, that’s a bit annoying - how do I get that many Twitter followers?
The missing cobra was found yesterday, safely curled up in a corner of the Reptile House. How did I become the first person to interview the country’s most famous reptile?
I didn’t.
APRIL FOOL! 
Posted by: Seymour Simon
March 30, 2011
Did you ever have a hermit crab as a pet? Lots of kids do. Part of the responsibility of owning a hermit crab is making sure it has a larger shell available when it outgrows the one it came in.
What you’ve probably never seen is what happens in the wild. Researchers in Belize discovered that when one crab finds a suitable empty shell, it waits until a crowd of other crabs join it. Then they climb, piggyback-style, onto each others’ shells, in a line from largest to the smallest. Once the first crab squeezes into the free shell, then the whole line follows, right down the row.
Photograph of Hermit Crab swapping shells © www.osfimages.com
Posted by: Seymour Simon
March 29, 2011
A 12-year-old sixth grader named Meeps, from Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, sent me this original poem after I Skyped with a class there. Hasn’t Meeps done a good job of capturing the feelings of numbness and loss that we have seen in the faces of people in photographs of the recent earthquakes in Japan and Christchurch, New Zealand? This is a very good piece of writing.
Photograph: Aftermath of 1989 earthquake in Loma Prieta, California courtesy of U.S. Geological Service/C.E. Meyer
Posted by: Seymour Simon
March 29, 2011
Did you ever have an itch in the middle of your back that you just couldn’t wait to scratch? If no one was around to help, maybe you even backed up against a doorframe, or against a piece of furniture, and scratched your back against that.
This black bear solved the problem by backing up and scratching his back against a tree! It looks like it feels good, doesn’t it?
Wildlife photographer James A. Galleto won an award for this photograph, which he captured with some smart planning. "This black bear repeatedly scent-marked this particular tree," said Galleto, "so I positioned myself nearby and waited." Sure enough, he got this wonderful shot of a bear in need of a back scratcher.
This is our Cool Photo of the Week, and you can count on a new "cool photo" every Tuesday here on SeymourSimon.com.
Photograph: Nature’s Best Photography / James A. Galletto
Posted by: Liz Nealon
March 28, 2011
This week I received letters from Chonlatorn S. and Alejandro D., both students at Rue Elementary School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. They had just read my book, ANIMALS NOBODY LOVES, and they were writing to defend the octopus, coyote, and other animals they think should not be in this book because they are not dangerous to humans. Chanlatorn wrote: "When skunks are in danger they will spray on you. They don’t bite you." I agree with both of these readers that no one needs to be afraid of these animals. In fact, that is one of the reasons I wrote the book!
Let me tell you about two Texas students I met last month who really go to extraordinary lengths to teach other students about "animals that nobody loves." Courtney (14) and Erik (12) are homeschooled, and I met them when they came to one of my presentations at a local school. This sister and brother work with an entomologist (pronounced en-toh-MAH-loh-gist, a scientist who specializes in the study of insects) and have started their own business, called NOT SO CREEPY CRITTERS.
Courtney and Erik, pictured above, told me that this all started because they wanted to help other kids get over feelings of arachnophobia (ah-RACK-no-FO-bia, meaning "fear of spiders"). Spiders do much more good than harm, eating insects that damage crops and other plants. And as Courtney and Erik have learned, some of them even make interesting pets!
This brother and sister team do presentations in classrooms and at kid events, and they introduce their audience to a wide variety of "not so creepy creatures." Their traveling menagerie of live creatures includes 4 colorful tarantulas, 2 different scorpion species, Bearded Dragon, centipede, a snake, Leopard Gecko, Blue-Tongued Skink, Peppered Roaches and Madagascar Hissing Roaches! Last summer they wrote a book, and they are working hard to continue growing their business. They tell me that fainting goats and chickens are next on their list!
Courtney and Eric are well-mannered, dedicated defenders of creepy critters, and they have also built a very informative and interesting website. Check out the section called Arachnids for lots of fascinating spider photographs, and Critter Facts, where you are challenged to decide whether a statement is a fact, or simply an opinion.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
March 25, 2011
I very much enjoyed my Skype session this morning with some of the students at Cavallini Middle School in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. They have been studying non-fiction writing, and 20 students were well-prepared with good questions. Nice job, and a great way to start my day!
I thought I’d share one of the answers with you. A student asked me: if I had not become a writer, what would I have done?
Thinking back to my studies, I always loved science. I fell in love with space first, and then animals. In college, I studied Behavioral Psychology, which is really the study of animal behaviors. If I had it to do all over again, I think I would have become a marine biologist. This is probably why I have written so many books about whales, sharks, dolphins, and even keeping saltwater aquariums!
I like doing Skype sessions because they allow me to connect with more students. I get many more requests for school visits than I can accept, as I need to spend at least some time at my desk, researching and writing books! If you are interested in booking me for a Skype session with your school, click on this link on my website to put in your request.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
March 24, 2011
Students in the Corpus Christi School system got a preview of Seymour Simon’s next book, BUTTERFLIES, when he visited their schools earlier this month.
Here is one of the fascinating facts Seymour shared about butterflies. Monarch butterflies start life as a beautiful, multicolored caterpillar (which is actually the insect’s larva). At least, it looks beautiful to us. To birds and other predators, the colors of this caterpillar say "Danger! Poison! Stay away!" The reason the larva is poison is that the monarch lays its eggs on the poisonous leaves of the milkweed plant. As the caterpillar eats the leaves, it is able to store the poison in its own body, therefore becoming poisonous to other creatures. Pretty good predator avoidance strategy, right?
Butterflies and moths exhibit some of the most interest camouflage coloring and behaviors in nature. Click here to read one of Seymour’s recent posts is about the Dead-Leaf butterfly, which uses another form of camouflage, called "mimicry."
In this photo from a story in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Seymour holds up a copy of the book, which will be published later this summer. You will be able to read more about this in BUTTERFLIES. The book is full of beautiful photographs and fascinating information about butterflies and moths. It will be in bookstores on August 23, 2011 (available for pre-order now on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble).
Caterpillar Photo:Mon@rch’s Nature Blog
Posted by: Liz Nealon
