Don’t Eat that Cucumber

Don’t Eat that Cucumber

Who’s excited to meet today’s echinoderm? It’s a pretty crazy looking one! Let’s meet the sea cucumber!

SEA CUCUMBER FUN FACTS:

• Sea cucumbers have tentacles around their mouths. They use those to grab small waste materials or tiny animals in the oceans.
•  Sea cucumbers can discharge a sticky substance to ward off predators. They can also expel their internal organs to deter a predator. Don’t worry They regenerate those.
• They have no faces or eyes.
• Sea cucumbers take in water through their bum to extract oxygen using respiratory trees.
• They also poop calcium carbonate, a building material for coral.
• These not too exciting animals are important for breaking down too much organic material in the ocean floor. They are often called nature’s vacuum cleaners.

While they don’t look like much and really they aren’t much more that a tubular eating & pooping machine, they are one of the oceans’ under appreciated animals.