Imagine exploring the wonders of creation while growing in faith. Inside the Nat Theo Club, families discover God's creation through kid-friendly science, devotional content, nature journaling, hands-on activities, bonus videos, and more. All rooted in biblical truth. With flexible options for ages 4 to 14, your children can explore birds, insects, reptiles, plants, and other wonders of God's creation at their own pace, with new content added every week. Celebrate each discovery with certificates of completion in our brand new Bible and Nature Unit Studies. The Nat Theo Club is a meaningful, wonder-filled way to help your family reconnect the dots between creation and creator. Visit natheo.com slash club to learn more. Hello world, wake me up too. Another good good morning time to go. Are you ready to explore God's wild and wonderful world? Welcome to the Nat Theo podcast. I'm your host, Erin Linham. I'm a certified master naturalist, Bible teacher, and author. And I am so excited to dive into God's written word, the Bible, and His created world with you. Hey listeners, today we are answering some super fun nature questions that you kids are asking. Have you ever wondered how turtles breathe underwater, or how a snail pokes its eyes in and out on tall stocks, or what the largest bird in the world is? These are just a few of the nature questions that have come up in my own home recently. We can have many questions about nature, because God tucked countless details and treasures to find in His created world. You kids have been sending in so many questions that I have never even thought of to ask. And today we are going to dive into some of them. Before we get to today's questions, let's thank our sponsor who made this special episode possible, Apologia Curriculum. My kids and I find answers to many of our nature questions in Apologia's science courses. What I love most is that Apologia doesn't just give us the facts, they also point everything in creation. From the tiniest cells in a human body, to the massive Milky Way, back to our Creator God. Apologia's award-winning curriculum and courses teach from a biblical worldview, nurturing faith and wonder, and giving students evidence for what they believe. With excellent courses for preschool through high school, you can start in any grade and discover new wonders every year. Our family has loved exploring marine biology, human anatomy, general science, and earth science with Apologia. Journey through creation at Apologia.com or at the link in our show notes. Alright, let's answer some curious questions from you kids. Here's our first question. Hi, my name is Elijah. I'm five years old. I'm in Oregon. And my question is, why does Cheetahs run so fast? Thanks for your great question, Elijah. Why do Cheetahs run so fast? Cheetahs use their speed to chase down their prey so that they can get the food that they need to eat. Some of the animals that they hunt include gazelles and impolas, and these animals also run very fast. A cheetah must be able to move very quickly to catch them. And God sure did design cheetahs for speed. Running full out, a cheetah can reach speeds of over 60 miles per hour or about 97 kilometers per hour. They cannot run this fast for very long at all. They are sprinters rather than marathon runners. But to run this fast, cheetahs must use some specialized designs. God designed cheetahs with a long tail that they use kind of like a boat rudder, helping them turn quickly as they run. Cheetahs also have extra large lungs, allowing them to breathe rapidly to take in enough oxygen as they sprint. Their claws partially stick out even as they run, so they act kind of like cleats or running spikes to give them traction. Cheetahs also have a very flexible spine or backbone that allows them to take 20 to 25 foot strides. Cheetahs are an amazing display of God's genius engineering and design in his creatures. He provided them with just the right features to race across the savannah in pursuit of prey. Thank you for your great question. Here's our next one. Hi, my name is Joshua. I live in Uganda and I meet yours like, I want to know how do fish get into your lakes or land of locked lakes? What a good question, Joshua. Can you think of any event in history where the whole earth was covered with water? The flood where Noah and his family sailed on the ark. The whole earth was covered at this time with water and there were probably all kinds of sea creatures swimming all over the earth. When the water began to drain from the earth, everything looked very differently than it had looked before the flood. There were new mountains and valleys where the water had collected, forming lakes far away from the ocean. As the flood waters drained into these new lakes, some marine creatures probably ended up in those lakes also. So there are some fish that are probably in lakes because their ancestors were there after the flood. But today, new fish can also be introduced to landlocked lakes in a couple of different ways. First, humans might add fish to lakes. By stocking a lake with new fish, those fish lay eggs which hatch and produce new fish. And sometimes water birds like ducks or geese might accidentally get sticky fish eggs stuck to their feathers or feet. Then, when they fly to a new lake or pond, the eggs fall off and eventually baby fish will be hatched into a new, watery home. Another way that fish might have gotten into a landlocked lake is if a river flooded and temporarily connected to a lake, acting like a water highway for fish to swim to a new place. So don't be concerned if you ever see a fish swimming in a lake that is far from the ocean. It is not a fish out of water. Instead, God designed different fish to be able to survive in all different watery environments. Thanks for your great question, Joshua. Here's our next one. Hi, my name is Hannah. I live in Michigan and I'm 10 years old. My question is, why do cats sleep almost all day? Well, this is definitely fun to think about, Hannah. My cat, whose name is Fisher, certainly loves to sleep, especially in the warm sunshine. Cats need a lot of sleep because hunting takes a lot of energy. Resting for many hours of the day helps them to recharge so that they are ready to catch their next meal. Now, you might be thinking, my pet cat eats food from a cat dish. And that's a good point. Though your pet cat probably doesn't need to hunt for its food, wild felines or wild cats are skilled hunters and cats rest after eating to digest food. Wild cats can sleep for 18 to 20 hours a day. They sleep almost the entire day. And because all cats descended from the first ones that God made, your cat has some of those same instincts and designs that God created cats with. So God designed cats to rest up so that they can be ready for their next hunt. Whether that's a wild cat catching prey or your pet cat chasing yarn or a laser pointer. Thanks for your great question, Hannah. Stay curious about God's wild and wonderful world. Here is our next question. Hello, my name is Ezra and I'm six years old. I want to know how do bugs survive in the winter if they freeze or not? Good question, Ezra. We don't see many insects in the winter. So where do they go and what do they do? God designed insects with a few different strategies to survive the frigid winter months. Some insects travel south to get away from the cold. Monarch butterflies are an example of a migrating insect. When the temperatures start to warm up in the spring, they migrate back up north. Other insects that don't migrate might hide out to beat the winter chill. They can burrow under dead leaves or dig out a cozy place underground or even crawl into a house or a shed to survive the freeze. Another amazing way that God made some insects to survive winter is through something called diapause. Diapause is when an insect's metabolism slows way down and its development gets put on pause. Diapause happens in stink bugs, some butterflies, and silkworms. Even during the coldest months of the year, God's brilliant designs are on display and the creatures that he has made, including insects. And we can see how he carefully takes care of his creatures. To learn more about insects during the winter, listen to lesson 16 titled, Ladybugs use antifreeze? Three curious ways insects survive the cold. You can find that at the link in our show notes. Thanks, Ezra. Stay curious about God's amazing insects. Here's our next question. Hi, my name is Liam. I am seven years old. I live in Grand Island, New York, and my question is, how fast does water travel? Oh, this is a good question. Water is so fun to watch. But how fast does it travel? The speed that water travels depends on where the water is. For example, water that rushes over a waterfall or down a roaring river travels much faster than in a still lake or a mostly calm pond. Let's look at some different water speeds. Niagara Falls is the widest waterfall in North America. And every second, 3,160 tons of water flow over Niagara Falls. That is hard to even imagine. That much water has to travel very fast. And it does. The fastest recorded speed that water has rushed over the falls is 68 miles per hour, or about 109 kilometers per hour. If you remember a few moments ago when we were talking about the cheetah, this means that water going over Niagara Falls has gone faster than a cheetah can run. That is some fast water. What about in the ocean? There are many different currents that move the water in our oceans. The Gulf Stream is the fastest ocean current, and it travels at speeds of up to two meters, or around 6.5 feet per second. And what about the water that falls from the sky? How fast do raindrops travel? Well, wind and speed direction and the size of the raindrop impact how quickly rain falls. If there was no wind and the air was completely still, a large raindrop might reach speeds of around 10 meters, or around 33 feet per second. God created water as a necessary part of life. Sometimes that water moves quickly, and sometimes it moves very slowly. But no matter the speed, we can appreciate God's very good design in every source of water. Thanks for your great question, Liam. Keep learning more about God's wild and wonderful world, including water. And if you want to learn more about underground water, listen to Lesson 110. How does God water the plants and animals at the link in our show notes? Here's our next question. Hi, my name is Harper. I am seven years old, and I live in Virginia, and I want to know why do owls spit up their food? Owls are so interesting, aren't they, Harper? And they have this strange habit of spitting up their food. If you notice fuzzy oval shaped clumps on the ground while you're walking through the woods, you might have found owl pellets. Owl pellets are the undigested parts of an owl's meal that they regurgitate or spit up after eating. An owl pellet might be made up of feathers or fur or even pieces of bones. But why do owls cough up owl pellets? Owls eat things like small birds, mice, and other rodents. When they catch their prey, they usually swallow it whole. That is quite a mouthful. But God designed an owl's digestive system with a special gizzard that helps sort out the parts that might harm them. In the gizzard, softer materials pass through to the stomach to be digested. But things like bones, fur, and feathers and other potentially harmful things get clumped into a pellet and regurgitated later. Though God's original design for owls did not include them eating other creatures, he gave owls the features they need to eat their fill without harming their stomach. Be sure to listen to Lesson 25, Are Owls Wise, at the link in our show notes to discover God's designs in owls. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoy hearing your questions and they often lead me to ask new questions. And that's the beautiful thing about curiosity. God made us curious so that we will keep following a fun trail of clues as we discover his beauty, wonder, and wisdom in nature. As Psalm 104 verse 24 says, Thank you, Elijah, Joshua, Hannah, Ezra, Liam, and Harper for your wonderful nature questions. Listeners, stay curious about God's wild and wonderful world and keep asking your wonderful nature questions. Learn more about the wonders of what he has made. Why not scroll down to the show notes and click on an episode to learn more about one of the topics that we mentioned today. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this special listener question episode, please take a moment to send it to a friend and subscribe, rate, and review Nattheo wherever you listen. Until next time, keep exploring God's wild and wonderful world. We are all looking for adventure.
