October is national Marine Month. This month is dedicated to celebrating our marine life. Did you know that our oceans produce more oxygen than the Amazon rainforest? They control our climate and give us food. Discover how we can protect our marine ecosystems for the health of the planet – and ourselves.

Learn about the marine laws that govern and protect our marine environments

The world is made up of a variety of plants and animals, and we call the variety of life on Earth biodiversity. These make up the web of life, where each living thing depends on the other for survival.

South African turtles, terrapins and tortoises. South Africa has five of the seven kinds of sea turtles occurring in its coastal and off-shore waters.

How much do we know about Earthworms? Worms are invertebrates meaning they do not have a backbone, instead, they wiggle, crawl and slide. Earthworms have no eyes or ears and breathe through their skin.

Hartmann’s zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) and plains zebra (Equus quagga burchelli) were introduced into the Western Cape. Some of these animals escaped from their points of introduction and now roam freely across the landscape.

Dudley, N. (and 46 other authors, incl. Hayward, N.A.) 2018.

Biological Conservation 233:61-72. K.A. Tolley, J. Weeber, B. Maritz, L. Verburgt, M.F. Bates, W. Conradie, M.D. Hofmeyr, A.A. Turner, J.M. da Silva and G.J. Alexander. 2019.

NeoBiota 32: 89-105. Jacobs, L.E.O., Richardson, D.M., Lepschi, B.J. and Wilson, J.R.U. 2017.

Ecology and Evolution, 7: 320–330. Van Wyk, A.M., Dalton, D.L., Hoban, S., Bruford, M.W., Russo, I-R.M., Birss, C., Grobler, P., van Vuuren, B.J. and Kotzé, A. 2017.

Do you know why the Western Cape's biodiversity is so special? Can you name the four kingdoms living things can be divided up into? Take our parent and teacher quiz today to see how much you know about this fascinating kingdom.