Perth Hills Morning Dig for Invertebrates by Woo Shiann and Xavier

This morning, we went to Perth Hills Centre. We started off by going up the hill in our groups of 4 and found a great spot to dig for some invertebrates like centipedes, millipedes, ants and spiders. We were given a bag filled with a few magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the animals that we found, a list to tick off the animals that we found, a few Petri dishes, a hula hoop and a tube to keep the animals that we found to ensure that they did not crawl away.

Our group found about five animals altogether. An earthworm, a centipede, a millipede, a spider and an ant. We also learnt that most of the invertebrates have exoskeletons as they do not have back bones. These invertebrates were mostly found under the rock at the leaf litter community. They are important in a food chain as they were food for the predators such as birds. Earthworms help to loosen and enrich the soil. They also help to pollinate the flowering plants.  

After that, as we had some extra time left, we took a walk along the trail. We learnt about many different plants and trees and what their purposes were before we finally went for lunch.