[Goto]

Zoo's question.

[Zoo]

What's the difference between an herbivore and a vegetarian?

[Rylkan]

My first guess without being scientific is the way the body processes food. A vegetarian can diegest meat, yet by conscious choice will not partake in it, whereas an herbivore cannot process meat, as well as other things like a different structure in the teeth, etc.

[Zoo]

You had to get it >_<.

Yeah, I was looking for that magic word: choice. It irritates me when I explain an animal is an herbivore, that it eats only plants (my exact words, usually), and someone says "oh, a vegetarian." No. Herbivores eat plants because their bodies only need plants, and they instinctively eat plants.


(Note to those who would like to argue , I'm neither saying or not saying that it is not a valid choice, simply that these two things are not one and the same.)

[Ratty]

Bah! A question that I actually could have gotten!

Evil.

<_<

*shakes fist at rylkan*

No eeeevil ones =P

[Rylkan]

Fine, why is a reflection Nebula blue?

[Goto]

Hmmm... Because blue light will scatter more than other wavelengths?

[Rylkan]

Yep. The clouds dust is of a size that is on the same scale as blue light, so it gets reflected back, whereas the red light passes through.

Your turn.

[Rylkan]

:: pokes Goto repeatedly::

[Rylkan]

Next one to reply gets to go, since Goto seems to be AWOL.

[Zoo]

*sneaks in*

Why do sloths grow algae in their fur?

[Zziggywolf5]

To eat?

[Zoo]

That's more intelligent than the answer I usually get (and have heard from fellow zoo educators O_o >_<), but no

[Goto]

Sloths live in trees, right? Is the algae some sort of camouflage?

[Zoo]

Indeed. They have a special groove along each hair to let the algae settle more comfortably. They get a place to live, the sloth gets camo.

The answer I was expecting (and didn't get, yay!) was they move so slow it allows the algae (more usually the word "mold" is used, obviously completely different) to grow. They're actually not as slow as people make them out to be, when they get going. Though getting them going is another thing entirely.