Selma is also a sedate seahorse. So she doesn’t do anything in a hurry. She swims very slowly. And mostly, she just hangs around in the sea. Selma has lots of friends. She sees them every day. They hang out among the seagrass and coral together.

One day, Selma is with her friends comparing how supple their teeny tiny tails are. They twist them into some incredible shapes! Selma is showing her friends how she can use her tail as a scarf when she spots something out of the corner of her eye. She thinks she can see something hiding in the seagrass. Selma quickly unwinds her tail from her neck.

She pokes her little head through the long, wavy tendrils of grass. She was right. There’s a fish in there!

The fish is much bigger than Selma, and it has lots of stripes all over its body. It also has lots of spiky spines. It’s beautiful to look at, but also a bit scary. Selma moves her snout a bit closer to the fish’s face. It isn’t moving much. Then she notices little droplets in the corner of its eyes. They’re salty tears. The fish is crying.

“Hey, are you OK?” Selma asks. “Did something happen? Are you here alone?”

“Hi,” replies the fish. “Yes, I’m o-o-on my o-o-own. I’m really lo-o-onely,” he stutters, between sobs. “The other fish don’t want to be friends with me.”

“Come on out, don’t hide away,” Selma encourages the fish, ”What’s your name?”

“I’m Lenny,” the fish answers, cautiously.

“What kind of fish are you?” Selma enquires. “I’ve not seen one like you before.”

“I’m a lionfish,” says Lenny, his tears stopping. “My family and I are pretty new around here.”

“Why do you think the other fish don’t want to be friends with you?” Selma enquires. “Are you sure it’s not just your imagination?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve heard them say that they’re scared of lionfish because of overpopulation. They’re worried there are too many of us coming in to this area and our numbers keep growing. They say we we’re taking things over and ruining their home.”

“That doesn’t sound good at all. Are there a lot of you?” asks Selma.

“Yes, quite a few, come to think of it. The other fish say we eat too much as well, so there’s not enough food left for them.”

Selma doesn’t like seeing Lenny so upset and wants to help. She wraps her tail around a piece of seagrass so the current doesn’t carry her away. Then she floats up, down, forwards and backwards, whilst she has a think. As she bobs around in the water, an idea bobs right into her head!

“Lenny, where are your mum and dad? I think I can help but we’ll need their assistance.”

Lenny looks hopeful. “They’re back at home.”

“Then let’s go and find them,” says Selma. “It might take us some time.” And with that, they swim off slowly, as seahorses and lionfish do. After a little while, they locate Lenny’s parents. Selma explains the situation.

“Oh Lenny!” exclaims Lenny’s mum. “We don’t want you to be without friends. What can we do to help?”

Lenny looks at Selma and she reaches her tail up to scratch her head with it.

“Well, there are a couple of things,” Selma replies. “Do you think you could get all the lionfish to stop eating so much?” she asks.

Lenny’s dad looks down at his rather round stomach.

“We have got big appetites. I don’t think cutting down would do us any harm,” he says. “I’ll tell them straight away.”

“And could you maybe stop reproducing so much?” Selma enquires, quietly.

“You mean have fewer babies?” Lenny’s dad asks.

“Yes,” Selma blushes.

“I think you might need to talk to Lenny’s mum about that one,” Lenny’s dad laughs.

Lenny’s mum looks thoughtful, “Spawning two million eggs a year is rather a lot. The other lionfish mums and I could try to spawn less often, or produce fewer eggs.”

“Brilliant!” says Selma, smiling at Lenny. Lenny grins back. “Let’s go and tell the other fish!”

Selma and Lenny head back to where the fish are playing. Selma explains what the lionfish are going to do to overcome the effects of overpopulation. They all smile and look really relieved. A few of them swim tentatively up to Lenny.

“Sorry about before,” they say. “We were a bit scared of you. But only a really good friend would go to all this trouble to help. How about you join us for a game of fish chase?”

Lenny’s face lights up. In his excitement, he charges straight into the middle of the group of fish. They all immediately scatter around him, looking terrified.

“Hey, slowly does it!” chuckles Selma. “You’d best watch those spines Lenny! Especially if you ever want more lionfish to come along and play!”

Lenny smiles, and looks a bit embarrassed. “Sorry everyone, I forgot! I’ll be more careful in future,” he reassures them all. He doesn’t want to risk losing the friends he’s only just made!

Questions for discussion

Does overpopulation mean there are too many or too few of a particular species?

What problems can overpopulation of a certain species cause?

What things can be done to help stop a species from  overpopulation?

The post Selma Helps Overcome Overpopulation appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

Zara lives with her family and lots of other zebra families. Together they make up a herd. They live on the wild plains in Africa. Zara is a very playful zebra and she loves playing games. Her favourite game is hide and seek, which she plays with her friends in the grasslands that they pass through. Zara knows just how to hide so she can’t be spotted. It takes the other zebras a long time to find her!

Zara’s herd moves around a lot to find food and water. When they are on the move, they meet a lot of other animals, like gazelles and wildebeests.

One very hot day, the herd is resting by a watering hole. There are some rhinoceroses bathing beside them in the muddy water. As one of the rhinoceroses pokes its head up through the surface of the water, Zara recognises her. It’s Ria, a friend she’s met before when the herd is on its travels.

“Hey Ria!” Zara shouts over. “Long time, no see!”

Ria looks back over her shoulder. “Hi Zara!” she replies, as she stands up, splashing mud everywhere. Some even lands on Zara’s back. She laughs with a neigh and shakes it off.

“Are you here for long?” asks Zara.

“No,” says Ria, looking around her cautiously. She slowly sloshes through the water towards the bank where Zara is sitting.

When she is close enough, she leans towards Zara’s ear and whispers. “We’re just passing through. We have to keep moving as they say there are poachers in this area.”

“What are poachers?” whispers Zara. She’s not quite sure why they are whispering, but she likes learning about new things.

“They’re humans who try to chase us because they want to steal our horns,” says Ria.

“But your horns are yours,” says Zara. “Why do they want them?”

“Because they can make things from them. So we have to make sure they can’t catch us to get them.”

“Oh no!” says Zara. She doesn’t want anyone to catch her friend and steal her horn. “We can’t let that happen.”

“Have you tried some of the things we zebras do so we don’t get caught?” Zara asks Ria, sounding hopeful.

“What sort of things do you mean?” responds Ria.

“Well, we zebras have stripes to help protect us. They do a pretty good job of giving us camouflage. That means that they make it hard to see us, especially when we’re in clumps of grasses on the plains.”

“Wow,” says Ria, “that sounds cool!”

“And when we’re together in herds,” Zara continues, “our stripes makes it harder for any animals that want to catch us. They just see a big, moving mass of stripes. It’s much more difficult for them to single one of us out to chase.”

Ria lowers her head to the ground, looking sad. “But rhinos don’t have stripes,” she says. Zara realises she is right.

“Then maybe we can try something else,” she suggests.

Zara, who is very playful, thinks about playing and hide and seek, which she loves because sometimes she can hide right in front of another zebra. They don’t know she is there because she just doesn’t look like a zebra. This gives her an idea.

“Ria, have you thought of pretending to be something else whenever the poachers are near?”

“Something other than a rhino, you mean?” asks Ria.

“Yes,” replies Zara, a grin spreading across her face. “And I think I know just what that could be. Ria, can you kneel down and put your head on the ground?”

“OK,” Ria agrees, slowly lowering her hefty body down to the ground, one leg at a time. “Like this?” she asks.

“Yes!” says Zara. “Ria, you look just like a big stone boulder. No-one would ever know you are an animal.”

“Really?” says Ria, surprised. “That means we can hide from the poachers…”

“…in plain sight!” finishes Zara.

“I have to tell the rest of my friends and family,” says Ria, excitedly. She starts to wobble as she tries to get back up, so Zara helps support her.

Ria ambles over to the watering hole and in no time, she has collected the other rhinoceroses together around her. She explains Zara’s idea to them. They all nod their heavy heads containing their big white horns up and down, to show they want to try her idea out.

“Let’s practise?” suggests Ria.

And with that, all of the rhinoceroses slowly drop down, one leg at a time, to kneel on the ground. THUD-THUD-THUD!

“Yes!” Zara neighs, looking at them and shaking her mane triumphantly. “You all look just like a big group of boulders. The poachers will never know it’s you!” Zara is so glad that she can help Ria and her friends hide so cleverly.

“We’re so grateful,” says Ria.

“No problem at all. What are friends for?” Zara smiles.

“How about we play some other game before we all have to move on again?”

“Great idea!” says Ria. “Now you’ve helped us all to be so good at standing still like rocks, we could play…statues?”

Zara laughs. “That sounds just perfect!”

Questions for discussion

Can you think of something about yourself that is unique, like Zara’s stripes?

Do you know of any other animals that human poachers try to catch?

Why is it important that we stop poachers?

The post Zara Helps Put an End to Poaching appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.