Soil animals are very rarely found in most zoos. When was the last time you visited the zoo and fed the earthworms or watched the slaters pace back and forwards in their cage?
The Soils Zoo is a virtual zoo, which shows some of the different types of animals and organisms that live in soil. Some of these you could find yourself if you looked carefully into your garden or compost heap. Some of them are so small, they can only be seen using the most powerful microscopes.
Predators
BEWARE when you enter this part of the Zoo. Don’t put your hands in ANY of the cages! What you are about to see are some of the most ferocious, blood thirsty creatures on earth. These are the predators of the soil. They are the lions of tigers of this dark world, capturing and killing their prey with ruthless efficiency.
Pseudoscorpions – Have a look at this beast. It looks like its from a Sci-Fi thriller, not your backyard. But these are quite common in litter and mulch. They feed on other animals, which they catch with their gruesome looking claws.
Nematodes – They make up a quarter of all species of animals found in soils. This species feeds on bacteria. The dark materials in its gut are bacteria cells which it is feeding on. The picture below shows a picture of the cells in the guts of a nematode. You can see the microvilli of the intestine and some of the broken bacteria cells.
Protozoa – There are three types of protozoa – Amoebae, ciliates and flagellates. These animals are made up of only one cell. They cruise through the thin film of water that surrounds soil particles looking for other small organisms such as bacteria (a wide range of simple, single-celled microorganisms) and fungi to devour. Ciliates use the hairs (cilia) near their mouth to create currents which sweep tiny microorganisms into their mouth.
You can see the cilia at either end of the ciliate in this picture (right).
Flagellates swim around with their long tail (flagella) looking for bacteria to munch on.