Nature Activity
Poison Dart Frogs
What kind of vehicle does your family own? An SUV? A truck? A van? Maybe a sports car? Different cars accelerate at different rates. Imagine a race between a van and a sports car. Which one would win? Well, the sports car of course! That’s because sports cars have very strong engines that help them speed up in just a few seconds. In fact, one of the fastest sports cars in the world is called the Enzo Ferrari, and it can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) in just 3.1 seconds!
Now let’s put that Ferrari in the same kind of race . . . with a cheetah! Which one do you think can speed up faster? Yes! The cheetah! Faster by 0.1 seconds, that speedy cat would win the race!
The cheetah is the fastest land animal in the entire world and can run at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour (112 kilometers per hour). It’s almost impossible for anything to escape from a cheetah, and that’s really bad news for any animal that’s being pursued by this hungry cat. But there’s hope, because cheetahs have very small hearts and can only run fast for about 60 seconds before they start to get tired. The best chance a gazelle or a young wildebeest has is to run around in circles or zigzags, because the cheetah can only run fast if it’s running in a straight line, and running in circles slows them down! Cheetahs are smart, though. They know that if they can get close enough, they can stick out their front paw and trip their prey, making them fall down.
A cheetah’s long claws dig into the ground while they’re running, giving them great traction—just like the cleats on a baseball or soccer player’s shoes! And even though they are excellent hunters, cheetahs are only successful in catching their prey 50 percent of the time. That’s because their small heart can’t provide enough energy to their body, and they tire out quickly.
Download the activity sheet. Move very carefully through this group of poison dart frogs to get to the finish. You may move up, down, left, or right (but not diagonally) to the next frog, but only if it is the same color or the same shape as the one you are on. Start at the red frog in the top left corner. From there, move through the maze, following the rules, until you end up at the yellow frog on the bottom row.
The poison dart frog is a lesson to all those who judge others according to their size. What these frogs lack in length, they definitely make up for in defensive ability. In fact, they are some of the most feared creatures in nature. Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t judge us according to our size and appearance? Think about David. He was considered a small boy, but he defeated a great big giant with just one stone! Don’t let anyone tell you that you are too small or too weak to make a difference! God doesn’t care about your size or your appearance. No matter who you are, He can use you to do great and mighty things for Him!
“But God chose the foolish things of theworld to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”