The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers Flashcards
She couldn’t believe her eyes.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
This was like finding a fairy at the edge of your backyard, only better.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
She leaned her bike gently against a beech tree.
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As she walked across the woodland clearing, she kept her gaze fixed on the tiny plant she’d spotted.
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The closer she got, the more excited she became.
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She was looking at a ghost orchid.
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And she’d definitely never thought she would see one growing so close to her home in Oxfordshire, in the south of England.
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Ghost orchids were incredibly rare and endangered.
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In fact, they were so hard to find in her country that people had thought they were extinct.
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She would have to keep the plant’s location a secret, so it didn’t get dug up and stolen.
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After all, she already had another big secret, which none of her friends or family even suspected…
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She knelt down next to the ghost orchid.
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It was white and delicate.
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No wonder it’s called a ghost orchid, she thought.
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Unlike so many other plants, it had no green in it.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
Green plants contained chlorophyll, the substance that turned sunlight into the energy they needed to grow.
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But the little ghost orchid got its energy in quite a different way.
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It sucked up nutrition from the rotting vegetation beneath it, and from the fungi growing on the beech tree roots.
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That was why ghost orchids always grew in shady places.
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This was the luckiest find of her life.
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Ghost orchids weren’t just rare - they spent most of their lives underground.
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Some of them only sent up a flower every ten years!
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But it was time to check on her own plants.
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She cycled home as fast as she could, still feeling excited about finding the ghost orchid.
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She skidded to a halt outside the greenhouse.
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As she reached for the door, she stopped in her tracks.
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Glowing on the glass was a compass symbol.
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Instead of the familiar greenhouse with its rows of exotic plants, she entered a strange tunnel of blinding white light.
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She passed by the huge map of the world on the floor, on which dots would light up to show them where their missions were.
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Above the map, an image of the Milky Way glittered on the domed ceiling.
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“Been up in the attic looking through old books,” he explained as he brushed them off.
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Just then, a light appeared on the map on the floor.
Secret explorer
A shaft of light projected up from the dot, with a screen at the top.
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The screen showed a small green plant growing from the forest floor.
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It had petals with spikes at the edges, like teeth inside a set of jaws.
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“A Venus flytrap! The mission must be something to do with them.”
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She crossed her fingers on both hands for luck, and wished super-hard that she would be chosen.
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Ping! Her compass badge lit up.
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She gave him a thumb-up and they grinned at one another.
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She walked over to a control console.
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“You two ready? Let’s get you on your way!”
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She pulled a lever and a platform rose up from the floor.
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In the middle was a vehicle named the Beagle, after Charles Darwin’s ship
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They strapped themselves in.
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A large red button on the dashboard read “START”.
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Once that button was pressed, there was no going back.
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They shot forward, much faster than should have been possible.
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Blazing, brilliant light shoes all around them.
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As they zoomed faster and faster through the light, the Beagle changed its form.
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Tall trees rose up around them.
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A clean, salty smell was in her nostrils.
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They must be close to the ocean.
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“I guess we made it to North Carolina,” he said with a grin.
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“Just when I thought this mission couldn’t get any cooler!”
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“So what do you think our mission is?”
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Let’s check out our equipment, that might give us an idea.
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She brought the Beagle to a stop.
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The Beagle made a helpful BEEP, and an arrow lit up on the dashboard, pointing backward.
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We’ve got water bottles, food, sunscreen, a first-aid kit, and insect repellent.
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Look at all the apps on this!
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HD camera, GPS, and communications so we can stay in touch with the others.
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A tent and some sleeping bags.
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How can we help the Venus flytraps by going camping?
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We shouldn’t leave the Beagle sitting out here for anyone to find.
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But how are we meant to hide it?
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In World War II, they hid tanks in foliage so they wouldn’t be spotted.
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They parked the Beagle deep inside and moved the branches around to hide it.
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Taking only the tablet and the first-aid supplies with them for now, they set off.
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High above them, white birds with long yellowish beaks were passing by.
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That means the ocean must be close, so we’re in a coastal forest.
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There should be lots of amazing wildlife to spot.
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Sure enough, a little gray shape soon went sailing past overhead, gliding from one tree to another with its arms and legs spread out.
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It had flaps of skin between its limbs that looked like wings.
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A flying squirrel, they don’t actually fly, though.
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They glide, using their skin flaps like parachutes.
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They crossed a weathered old bridge over a river.
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A catfish briefly swam up from the depths.
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Plants that looked as if they had tiny fanged mouths…
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He kneeled down to pier at the hinged, open leaves with their long toothlike spines.
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I thought they’d be bigger.
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They aren’t man-eating monster plants from outer space!
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They’re less than three inches tall.
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But they are carnivorous.
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That means they eat meat.
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But they don’t look like they need our help.
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What, watch this! It’s dinnertime!
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An ant had just crawled inside one of the open leafy heads.
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The ant moved ever so slightly…and the trap snapped shut.
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The spines meshed together like long fingers, closing the ant inside.
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How did it know the ant was there?
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“See those tiny hairs on the inside? They’re trigger hairs,” she explained.
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Touch one, and the trap gets ready to close.
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But unless one of the hairs is touched in the next twenty seconds, the trap will stay open.
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You’re saying these little plants can count?
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The trigger hairs have to work like that, or else the trap would close every time something landed on it - even if it’s just a raindrop or a leaf.
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This way, the plant can be sure that it’s trapping an insect, because only an inset would move around and touch hairs like that.
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It means the plant doesn’t waste energy trapping things it can’t eat.
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What happens to the ant now?
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It gets digested, there are juices in there, a bit like the inside of a stomach.
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You know…I’ve seen creatures eat plants lots of times.
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But I’ve never seen a plant eat a creature!
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They started walking on through the forest.
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Flytraps evolved that way, they kind of had to, really.
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They couldn’t get enough nutrients from the soil here, so they had to start eating insects.
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She thought of the ghost orchid back home, having to feed on fungi and rotting vegetation.
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Ahead stood a building made of wood with lots of big glass windows.
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A sign read: “North Carolina Conservation Group and Seed Bank.”
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It’s a conservation center, so they’ll want to help the plants!
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The inside was like a laboratory, with workbenches and trays of soil filled with seedlings.
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Groups of people were tending to the plants, spraying them with water and carefully repotting them.
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They steal the flytraps from the wild and sell them, It’s a terrible problem.
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One of the only places in the world where Venus flytraps grow in the wild is here in North Carolina.
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These plants are having a hard enough time as it is, since their habitat is being destroyed by people cutting down the trees.
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Give the inside of the plant’s heads a little poke, to test its reaction.
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They each touched their rods to the trigger hairs inside the flower head.
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But this flytrap didn’t snap shut like the one they’d seen in the forest.
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It closed slowly, as if it was worn out.
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We’ll nurse it back to health.
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Then we’ll replant it in the wild.
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This one was lucky - there are plenty more we can’t get to in time.
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Now it was the very darkest hour of the night, just before the dawn.
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The Beagle’s cool box had supplied sandwiches and drinks, and they’d munched them outside the tent.
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Now there was nothing to do but sit, and watch, and wait…
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The forest after dark was full of strange noises as the nocturnal animals went about their lives.
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He froze as something swooped past - a quick blur of shadow even darker than the surrounding forest.
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It’s just a bat, It’s out hunting.
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From somewhere close by came a deep croaking noice, and then another.
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Don’t worry, they’re just frogs.
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They’re croaking at each other to say, ‘this is my territory, stay away!’
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I guess the night’s less scary when you know about biology.
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Later on, he even grinned when he hear a distant hooting.
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They sat for a moment and listened to the hoarse, throaty yowls the bobcats made.
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They both fell silent instantly.
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That was no animal, that was a human being!
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Her arms broke out in goosebumps.
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The cough came again.
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We should take something to record them with, just in case.
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Branches dangled in their path, and they had to duck and dodge around them.
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Thick mud squelched underfoot.
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The pair of them hunkered down and crept slowly forward, until they reached the edge of a clearing.
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A man and a woman were crouched down.
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The man held the flashlight, shining it so the woman could see what she was doing.
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She tipped it into the box and went back for another.
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“Keep that light steady!” the woman hissed angrily.
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“I nearly cut through a plant, you idiot.”
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These things are worth money!
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We’ve got to stop them.
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Can you video them, and catch them in the act?
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There wasn’t much light, but it should be enough.
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The woman grunted as she worked the shovel.
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Earth rattled as plant after plant fell into the box.
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And then the darkness seemed to come alive.
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With a grunt, something gigantic rose up to her left, and shook the undergrowth.
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And it was so close she could hear it breathing!
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“Someone’s here!” the woman said.
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Every twist and turn brought them new danger, as roots threatened to trip them and thorns ripped at their clothes.
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She saw nothing but swaying branches and the darkness of the forest.
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He pulled her around, back to where the flashlight was now glimmering.
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They must be trying to outfox us!
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But without warning, the light vanished again.
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Something was blotting it out.
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A large, dark shape loomed up in front of them.
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A snuffling, grunting sound reached her ears.
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It was the animal they’d disturbed earlier!
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It’s a black bear!
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The moon came out from behind a cloud and she saw the bear clearly for the first time.
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It was standing upright, at least six feet tall.
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Its hulking body was covered all over with jet-black fur.
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They had almost run right into it.
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To her relief, the bear wasn’t attacking.
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It dropped down on to all fours and grubbed about in the undergrowth, making huffing noises.
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Is it going to eat us?
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If it was a grizzly bear, we’d be in big trouble.
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Black bears aren’t as aggressive.
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We’re in the bear’s territory, and we weren’t invited.
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No wonder it’s in a bad mood.
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They edged through the forest, giving the bear a very wide berth.
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I don’t know how we’re going to get them back now, she said sadly.
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He pointed to where the eastern sky was changing from black to blue-gray.
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Look the sun’s coming up.
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An army marches on its stomach, after all.
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Let’s examine the footage.
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Instead of the crystal-clear evidence she had expected, there was nothing but blurry trees.
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So much for my photography skills!
Well, he said, we historians gather evidence and use it to build up a picture of what happened in the past.
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Either I’m going crazy, or those rocks just moved!
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The rocks were definitely moving.
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Then, under the edges of the rocks, she saw eyes, little snouts, and clawed toes.
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The upper parts were banded, armored shells.
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Suddenly, she understood what she was looking at.
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They’re four baby armadillos!
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They were adorable, but she knew they ought to be left alone.
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Their mother would take care of them properly.
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Wait a minute - where was their mother?
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She looked around, parting the nearby undergrowth as she searched for a bigger armadillo.
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But no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find the mother.
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There weren’t even any tracks.
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But these babies have lost their mother, and we need to find her first.
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They searched through the undergrowth for the mother armadillo, peering under clumps of ferns and around bushes.
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I wonder how the babies lost their mother.
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Maybe something scared them and they ran away.
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Do you think the mother armadillo can tell her babies apart?
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They all look exactly the same to me!
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Actually, they are exactly the same. Right down to their genes.
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Armadillos almost always have four identical babies.
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They’re the only mammal that does.
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That’s got to be the armadillo burrow.
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Hopefully, the mother is still inside!
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We need to figure out a way to lead her to the babies.
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Maybe we could make a trail of fruit?
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Great idea, except armadillos are mostly insectivores.
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That means they eat insects - just like Venus flytraps!
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Those were much more likely to have insects and grubs living inside them.
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She held out her own hands and he tipped some of the creepy-crawlies into them.
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Soon they made a bug trail between the baby armadillos and the burrow.
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They hid behind some bushes to watch and wait, keeping very still and making as little noise as possible.
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He pointed at a patch of crushed vegetation.
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Could it be an armadillo trail?
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Maybe we’ve got it wrong, and the mother went off in that direction.
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A fully grown armadillo was nosing her way out of the burrow.
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But would she notice the bug trail?
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The mother armadillo sniffed all around her - and gobbled up one of the bugs.
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We’ve got a trail of our own to follow!
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When she got close to where her babies were huddled, they scurried to meet her, squeaking excitedly.
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They bent over the squashed leaves and studied them carefully.
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The grass is flattened in this direction, see?
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Let’s follow the trail!
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They mush have helped themselves to some more flytraps on the way!
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I guess they felt safe enough to steal more, once they’d shaken us off last night.
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If they hadn’t been so greedy and dug up more plants, we wouldn’t know for sure it was them who made this trail, would we?
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Now we know for certain that they were here, so we can try to find where they went!
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They headed farther along the path, following the crushed grass toward a little stream.
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He pointed out some thin branches on the other side of the water.
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Now put the scene together in your mind.
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It was dark, so they wouldn’t have been able to see any stepping stones…so they would have had to take a blind leap…so they probably didn’t see those branches at all!
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They just crashed through them and kept going.
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Isn’t that a footprint?
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It looks a little weird, like it’s only the front half of the foot.
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It is, because when you run, you don’t bring your foot down flat, do you?
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Only the front part comes into contact with the ground.
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Well, it’s a good job you spotted this print, because it means they suddenly swerved off this way, through these bushes.
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I guess the black bear from last night has a mate.
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You’d make a brilliant historian!
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There was a lot more leaf cover overhead, which meant a lot less sunlight reaching the forest floor, which meant less bracken and more patches of bare earth.
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They found the footprint trail with ease.
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A chocolate wrapper, he said. If they had time for a snack, then they weren’t in a hurry anymore.
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If the trail’s gone cold, then we’re out of luck…
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I’ve got a hunch that it might have fallen out of something…or been thrown out.
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They ate the chocolate bar in their vehicle and threw the wrapper out the window.
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It was a long drive, but eventually the tire marks ended at the edge of the forest, right by a road.
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Soon they could see into the warehouse parking lots.
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The flytraps have to be inside one of these warehouses.
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We just need to find out which of those vehicles belongs to them!
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Can you run this through the computers and see what they come up with?
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They’re special tires with extra deep tread.
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Only two sorts of vehicle use them.
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An ATV called a Ranger 268, or a truck called a Viper Strike.
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They drove it as close to the warehouses as they dared and then headed off-road to park.
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Staying close together, ducking behind the vehicles so they wouldn’t be seen, they moved down the rows of parked cars and trucks.
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They checked each one in turn as they went, looking for a maker’s insignia or a logo.
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The tires had fresh mud on them.
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The truck had a greenish, rearing snake spray-painted on one of the sides.
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The warehouse had double doors standing wide open.
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There were no windows on the ground floor, but there were some little ones high up on the wall.
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Luckily, there was a sturdy-looking tree growing close by.
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They quickly climbed up among its feathery leaves.
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The ground seemed a long way below them.
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The other two - the man and woman she’d seen the night before- were wheeling the crates out on a trolley and loading them into the cars and trucks.
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She made up her mind and edged farther along the branch.
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These all need to be boxed up tonight!
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Do you want to be the one who has to tell my buyer that half their plants are missing?
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They’re planning to sell the plants tonight!
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Maybe they needed to set a trap of their own!
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Can you notify the rangers and get here as quickly as you can?
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They could drive off at any moment, and they’re not going to sit and wait for us to arrive!
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Time to spring the trap.
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She held it up to the window and pressed “PLAY”.
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Extraordinary sounds began to blast out of the tablet and echo around the roof.
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Snorting, growling, snuffling sounds - the sounds of a bear trampling through the undergrowth and hunting for food.
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They stopped working and looked at one another with fearful faces.
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What in the heck is that? said one of them.
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Just then, the tablet played a long rattling growl.
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One of the hinges looked like it was going to give way.
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Part of the door frame fell off and landed with a rattling clang on the ground.
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But now it looked like her plan to save the Venus flytraps was about to go horribly wrong…
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The warehouse doors buckled outward as yet another blow landed.
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You’re in big trouble, kids! the woman yelled from inside.
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The ropes strained against the door handles.
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She held her breath as she saw dent after dent appear on the doors.
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They weren’t built to withstand this much force, and they were old and battered.
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One of the door hinges flew off.
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The next blow would definitely smash them open.
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A blare of happy beeps rang out.
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She ran toward the approaching vehicle, just as the warehouse doors crashed to the ground.
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Then three police cars came screeching into the parking lot with their blue lights flashing.
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How could you let these two kids trick you?
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
That’s enough out of you, said a police officer. You’re under arrest!
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
There must be thousands of plants here.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
My team and I will take care of the plants at the conservation center.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
Then we’ll return them to the wild when they’re strong enough to survive.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
Not long after that, the two of them were kneeling on the soft forest ground, digging a series of holes with little trowels.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
She lowered it into the hole and gently slid the soil back in over the roots.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
Good luck, she whispered to it.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
Mission accomplished, she said with a happy sigh.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
The button that had read “START” now read “HOME”.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
The huge chunky wheels shrank down into little wobbly ones.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
The big frame dwindled to a little metal frame held together with duct tape and string.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
In moments it was nothing but a worn-out old go-kart again.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
It almost looks like a tiny tyrannosaur mouth!
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
For a few exciting seconds, bright light blazed and a strong wind roared around her.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
Then as if she had never left, she found herself standing back home outside her greenhouse.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
Her plants were all thriving.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
It made her proud to see them so healthy and well taken care of.
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
They look a little strange, and they’ve got quite an unusual diet…
The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers
