Animal Life in a Pond

BASICS

The animal life in the pond may vary from time to time, it will also vary from pond to pond. But there are a few things about the animals in those ponds that will never change. These are the basics to survival. The man needs, food, water, and shelter; the pond animals are very similar in their needs. This section will emphasize the array of ways that aquatic pond animals breathe, swim, and survive.

Breathing; in this category it would be within reason to say that fish are the masters of the concept. The fish takes oxygen rich water in through its mouth and forces it though his gills. As it is going past the gills, the blood vessels that are close to the surface of the gills collect the oxygen from the water, and supply the blood stream. Once this water has been used, it forced into the surrounding water where it will be oxygenated once again. Providing oxygen was not all that the water was good for, it took with it carbon dioxide from the fish’s body. This entire process is completed in a surprisingly short time, making it a very effective form of breathing.

Many animals that live in the water for their entire life and others that will go from the water to the land as they grow older will still breathe air even though they are in the water. One of the ways that frogs and turtles will get around the lack of air is by the special design of their noses. They have raised nostrils that allow them to breathe while staying under water to avoid detection by predators. Another way pond animals breathe in the water is with special “tubes” that go up to the surface of the water for them to breathe through. Some animals that have this ability are the rat-tailed maggots that have a three inch tube to breathe through,...

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...wn for living in Alaska and Canada, but it also lives in the Rocky Mountains, in the north western section if the United States. In the old world the moose is more commonly referred to as an Elk. The Elk can also be found in parts of Norway and Sweden. The elk is a well-known animal in Russia, Mongolia, and Manchuria in Northern China.

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Hammer, O. (2008, January ). Oz Water Gardens. (O. Group, Editor) Retrieved 2014, from http://www.ozwatergardens.com.au/pond-health

K. H. Weiser and Dr. P. V. Loiselle. Your Garden Pond. U.S.A.: Tetra Sales U.S.A., 1992 Print. (n.d.).

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Thompson, G. J. (n.d.). Thompson, Gerald, Jennifer Coldrey, and George Bernard. The Pond. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1984. Print.