Oh, Squeaks, it's so good to see you.
I missed you so much.
How was your vacation?
Oh, and of course, tiny Jessie's vacation too.
I'm so glad that we could pretend that I was traveling with you.
And now I can't wait to hear all about all the places that you visited.
Let's look at all the photos that you took.
Where should we start?
Oh, wow, Squeaks, what an amazing picture.
Hey, I think I recognize this place.
Was your first stop Yellowstone National Park?
That's amazing.
I've been there before and it's so beautiful.
All of those mountains and hot springs.
But did you know humans have been enjoying those mountains and hot springs for over 11,000 years?
It's true!
The land that we now call Yellowstone National Park was home to, or at least regularly visited by, a lot of different Native American communities, including the Mountain, Shoshone Crow Blackfeet, Bannock and Nez Perce nations.
But in 1872, the United States government decided to take that land and create a very large park.
That's not that long ago compared to how long Native Americans had been living in the area, but it was so long ago that Yellowstone became the world's very first national park.
Basically, it was meant to be a place where people could visit to enjoy the wonders of nature.
No one could sell the land or try to build a bunch of houses for people to move there.
But people did still move to the area around Yellowstone.
And that led to a lot of changes.
What kind of changes?
For one thing, there were changes for the animals around Yellowstone.
Human settlers.
The people that moved there turned forests and prairies into farms and ranches, destroying those animals' homes.
And they also brought in new animals, like cattle.
The people and cattle pushed out a lot of native animals, but some, like wolves, tried to stay by eating the cattle.
Yeah, wolves are pretty famous in Yellowstone.
Gray wolves are predators, animals that eat other animals.
And they used to live across much of North America.
Settlers didn't like wolves eating their cattle.
And they were worried that the wolves might hurt humans, too.
So they killed any wolves that they could.
Because Yellowstone was a national park, people weren't supposed to kill animals that lived there.
But the government made an exception for killing wolves.
So by the 1940s, there were very few wolves left in Yellowstone.
And that led to even more changes.
Well, once the wolves were gone, people started to notice other changes in the ecosystem.
That's the word scientists use for all of the living and non-living things that rely on each other in a specific place.
And without the wolves there were fewer predators in Yellowstone to eat the elk that lived there too.
So the elk population, or the group living in one place, got much bigger.
And all those elk ate more of Yellowstone's Stone's plants.
Soon.
There weren't enough plants in Yellowstone for rabbits to hide in, or trees for birds to nest in, or flowers for insects.
Eventually, there were so few plants that even the elk began to starve.
Yeah, it was a big problem.
The wolves had been not just a predator, but an apex predator.
That's an animal that eats prey animals and isn't eaten by any other animals.
And by removing the apex predator, humans had made Yellowstone's ecosystem unbalanced.
Killing all of the wolves ended up hurting the other animals, the plants and even the water and soil on the mountains.
Yes, things are better in Yellowstone now.
What do you think happened, Squeaks?
Yes, you're right!
People helped!
Lots of people worked together to help fix the ecosystem.
People saw how killing all of the wolves hurt Yellowstone's ecosystem and began to speak up.
Hunters told stories of the changes they had seen, and writers shared those stories all over.
Scientists studied the area's different ecosystems, and tribal nations that lived there shared knowledge about what can help wolves.
Some are still doing that even today.
And over time many people began to change their minds about wolves and decided to try to bring the apex predator back to the park.
Well, people couldn't just send invitations to the wolves.
In 1987 people created a reintroduction plan to bring grey wolves from another area to live in Yellowstone National Park.
Almost ten years later, 31 wolves were finally brought in from Canada.
The wolves hunted the elk and the other animals, and they eventually had babies who grew up to hunt there too.
Yes, there are still wolves living in Yellowstone.
There's usually around 100 of them in the park and around 500 living in the areas outside of the park.
And those wolves have helped rebalance the ecosystem.
The elk population is smaller now, but the elk are healthier.
And there are more plants for them and other animals to eat.
Now thousands and thousands of people from all over the world come to Yellowstone National Park for the chance to see gray wolves in the wild.
Yes, like you, Squeaks!
I bet you saw lots of plants and animals doing well in the park.
Thanks to the wolves and everyone who worked really hard to help them.
Oh, you wanna show me the rest of the pictures you took at Yellowstone?
All right, let's do it.
Whoa, slow down, Squeaks.
Let's take some time to enjoy all of the beautiful photos you took and all of the amazing animals and plant life that you captured.
Hi there!
Squeaks and I are looking at photos from his recent trip around the world with his family and tiny Jesse.
Wow!
It's so beautiful!
Look at those massive cliffs!
This place looks kind of familiar.
Can you give me a hint about where this place is, Squeaks?
You're excited to be there because you love movies?
Wait, did you visit New Zealand?
I know lots of movies were filmed there.
That's amazing.
That's why it looks so familiar, too.
I probably saw this place in a movie.
New Zealand has lots of amazing and unique places with very different habitats and landscapes.
Where in New Zealand were you, Squeaks?
Wow, Te Rua o Te Moko?
Te Rua o Te Moko is a huge natural area in the southern part of New Zealand.
You'll also hear it go by the name Fjordland National Park.
Yeah, it's a lot like the national parks we have in the United States.
But Terua o Te Moko is extra special because it's also part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
That means that the United Nations, a group made of countries from all over the world, have recognized not just how beautiful it is, but how important it is to the people who have been visiting and living there for a long time.
And as a World Heritage Site, people have to try extra hard to protect it.
I think I see why this place is considered so unique.
Why?
Well, take a look at the shape of the water here in the picture.
The water comes up in long, narrow sections in between big, tall walls of rock on either side.
Bodies of water like this are called fjords.
That's why Te Rua o Te Moko is also called the Fjordlands.
There are all of these fjords along the coast.
That's the part of the land that's right up against the water.
In this case, that water is the Tasman Sea.
Good question, Squeaks!
He wants to know how the fjords got there.
It's a pretty interesting story.
A long time ago, this land was covered by glaciers.
Glaciers are massive pieces of ice on top of the land and they can shift and move very, very slowly.
And when the glaciers move, they dig into the earth and rock below them.
So over an incredibly long time, the glaciers in New Zealand dug long, deep grooves in the ground.
When the glaciers melted away, ocean water began to fill the grooves left behind.
This created long, deep areas filled with seawater, surrounded by tall mountains.
And there you go!
Fjords!
Check out how many fjords you can see on this map!
Oh yeah, they do kind of look like fingers of water reaching in from the ocean.
Fjords are really rare.
There are only a few places on Earth where you can find them.
Norway, Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Chile, and New Zealand.
It's no wonder people want to protect this place.
It is pretty special.
Let's look at another photo, Squeaks.
Ooh, this one is from Patia, also called Doubtful Sound in English.
Patia is the deepest fjord in New Zealand's fjordlands.
In some places, you'd have to swim down through 421 meters of water just to touch the seafloor.
That's so much water, you could stack about 35 school buses the long way, and they'd all be wet.
Ooh, did you see any interesting wildlife at Pattaya?
Awesome!
Let's take a look.
Ooh, dolphins!
So cool!
There are a lot of ocean creatures that live in the calm, protected waters of Pattaya, including dolphins.
Anything else special?
Wow, a penguin!
This must be a tawaki, also called a fjordland's crested penguin.
This species of penguin lives in forests and sea caves near the fjords and swims in the fjords to find food.
It's so cool that you got to see one!
Tawaki are endemic to New Zealand.
That means they don't live anywhere else in the entire world.
But the number of tawaki in the wild has been going down over the years and they need help from humans to protect them and the places that they live.
The Tawakee rely on the safe, clean waters of the fjords, and so do lots of other endemic animals in the fjordlands.
But when people pollute the water near the fjords or introduce new predator species like dogs, all of the animals are in danger.
It is a little sad Squeaks, but there are a lot of people trying to help keep the fjords clean and protect the birds and other special animals at Te Rua o Te Moko.
For example, the Tawaki Project is all about protecting penguins in New Zealand.
With everyone working together, whether it's big groups like the United Nations, small groups like the Tawaki Project or individual people who live near the Te Rua o Te Moko area, there's hope for protecting this beautiful space.
Oh, you have one last photo from your visit to New Zealand?
Can I see it?
It looks like you had so much fun with Tiny Jessie.
The world is full of amazing places.
Hi, everyone.
Squeaks was just about to show me his photos from the last place he visited on his globetrotting vacation.
Oh, I have to guess where it is?
Well, can you at least give me a hint?
You saw a lot of glaciers?
Well, we talked about those last time, but I'm pretty sure you didn't stay in New Zealand.
What else did you see?
Volcanoes?
In the same place?
Well, there's only a few places in the world where you can find something as fiery as a volcano, near something as freezing as a glacier.
Hmm.
Squeeze, would you say your last stop was an ice place to visit?
Did you go to Iceland?
That's amazing!
I've always wanted to go to Iceland!
Here, show me on this map where you went.
Whoa!
Vatnajökull National Park!
I've heard of that place.
Look at how much of Iceland it covers!
But it's not just a national park.
It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
That means Vatnajökull National Park is so important, people from around the world work together to protect it.
Vatnajökull has freezing cold glaciers with fiery volcanoes right underneath them.
That makes me curious.
I'd like to look at another map and see what's going on with the Earth underneath the park.
Ooh, good question, Squigs.
Those squiggly shapes drawn all over the globe show the outline of the Earth's tectonic plates.
Tectonic plates are the huge slabs of rock that cover the entire Earth and they're all floating on top of a layer of super hot liquid rock.
They really do look kind of like giant rocky puzzle pieces.
But since they're floating puzzle pieces, that means over time, tectonic plates move very slowly.
And when the edges of two plates touch, they can react in a couple of ways.
Like, they might press against one another so hard that both edges lift up.
Or instead, one of the plates will slide on top of the other.
Do you notice something special when we look at the map of tectonic plates near Iceland?
Yeah, Iceland is cut in two.
Half on one tectonic plate, half on another.
That gives Iceland some really special features, like places where hot liquid rock can escape up to the Earth's surface as lava.
Yes, volcanoes!
A lot of volcanoes can be found near the edges of tectonic plates.
There are ten volcanoes in Vatnajökull National Park, and eight of them are underneath glaciers.
That's a good question, Squeaks!
If lava is so hot, how can an icy glacier sit on top of a volcano?
Well, it turns out Iceland's volcanoes actually helped to make the glacier in the first place.
Yeah!
First, you have to make a volcano.
Volcanoes form as lava gets pushed to the Earth's surface.
The lava then cools down and hardens into solid rock.
So as more and more lava flows up and out of the openings in that new rock, you slowly form a sort of dome or cone shape, depending on how gooey the lava is.
Sometimes that cone grows so big and so tall.
The top of it touches really cold parts of the Earth's air.
If there's enough water in the air, it might even snow up there.
And sometimes all that snow and water can collect on top of the volcano and turn into a giant block of ice.
Yes, a glacier!
As a glacier grows, some of the ice might spread down the volcano's sides and reach places where it's too hot to stay frozen.
So as the glacier gets bigger at the top, it can also be melting on the bottom.
Yeah, volcanoes can both make glaciers and melt them.
Volcanoes and glaciers can have a really interesting relationship.
No, this doesn't happen near every volcano.
Iceland is a perfect place for glaciers to form because it's at a high latitude.
That means that it's a lot closer to one of Earth's poles.
The closer you are to the North or South Pole, the colder it gets.
And if it's colder, your volcano doesn't have to reach as high up into the air to get a glacier growing on top of it.
But Iceland isn't just great at growing volcanoes and glaciers.
It's also great at growing the animals and plants that can live in these environments.
Ooh, yes!
Let's take a look at some of your photos!
Ooh, moss!
Iceland is home to several special kinds of moss that live on cooled lava rocks and prefer lots of water, like you find near the bottom of a melting glacier.
And look at that harbor seal!
You can find these adorable guys on some of Iceland's beaches, where water from melting glaciers meets the salty Atlantic Ocean.
It's true.
The volcanoes and glaciers also make Vatnajökull National Park an incredible place to visit.
Fiery, hot and icy, cold and rocky and full of life.
It's a land of amazing opposites connecting with each other.
Kind of like us.
I'm so glad you shared all of these amazing memories with me, Squeaks.
Even if Tiny Jessie had to do all of the traveling with you.
Aww, I'm glad you're home too, buddy!
What amazing places do you want to visit?
Would you prefer to explore a volcano, a glacier, or both?
To keep discovering more about our incredible world.
Be sure to subscribe, and we'll see you next time here at the Fort.
