Chapter 5: Brant Ecology
This chapter will help students focus on birds, by specifically studying the adaptations of the brant. The relationship of brant to their ecosystem, and some of the struggles they may face in their lifetime will be explored.
Adaptations
Note: designed for younger students; see older student extension at end of activity
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Subject:
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Objectives:
1. Students will be introduced to
adaptation as a means of survival for all animals.
2. Students will learn how geese are adapted to
survive in their environment.
3. Students will begin to understand why animals
have adaptations.
Method:
Students will use pictures to understand the
adaptations of wildlife and waterfowl.
Background:
Every organism on earth has, over time,
developed certain characteristics to allow it to better
survive in a particular environment. These special
characteristics, or adaptations, allow species to
out-compete other species for survival needs. Birds, and
in particular the brant geese, offer us wonderful
examples of these special features.
Materials:
- Chalkboard
- About 8 - 10 old nature magazines
- Goose Adaptation Sheets
- Goose Diagram
Procedure:
1. Introduce on the chalkboard the word
adaptation and its meaning. Below, write the five reasons
why animals need adaptations: (1) to get food and water
(elephant trunk, bird beak), (2) to reproduce
successfully (coloration or display), (3) to protect
themselves (claws, camouflage), (4) to maintain their
body temperature (warm: fur, cold: scales), and (5) for
movement (wings, fins, long legs). Have the students
brainstorm examples of each of these as you write them on
the board
2. Divide the students into groups of three. Pass out the nature magazines. Give the students five minutes to find as many different kinds of adaptations of animals as they can. They must be ready to present one of them to the class by using pantomime and to say which of the five reasons their adaptation is most closely related to.
3. Pass out the goose adaptation cards, one to each group of students. Have the students figure out the special adaptation that the goose has from that particular picture. Once again, have the students present that to the class.
4. Discuss the adaptations of the geese specifically:
- Bills that are sturdy and serrated for tearing and cutting clumps of grass.
- Feathers that trap air to keep heat in.
- Oil on the feathers to keep them waterproof.
- Flight feathers to give maximum lift for the least amount of weight.
- Hollow bones for light weight in flying.
- Flying in V's and honking to keep together, but not bumping into each other, even in fog.
- Fast growing goslings who grow big enough to fly south in the fall.
- Camouflage coloring of young to hide from predators.
- Air sacs in their bodies to help them float (they pump air out when they dive).
- Webbed feet for swimming (open to push, closed to glide).
Extensions:
1. See "Adaptation Artistry" from Project
WILD for ideas on creating a special animal for a
specific niche. These may be realistic or imaginary
creatures made from paper mache, clay, or just simply a
drawing.
2. Have a discussion on human adaptations. How are we adapted to do each of the above five things?
3. For older students, discuss the meaning of adaptation and then hold a class "fish bowl" session. Have a group of 5-6 students come to the front of the room and sit in a circle of chairs. Give them a topic to discuss concerning the survival of different animals in a particular habitat. Let them discuss for 4-5 minutes while taking a few questions from the students "outside of the fishbowl". A new group then comes up and is given a new topic. See if the discussion can lead into talk about survival, conservation, hunting, endangered species by adding in controversial topics. Have the final group discuss the adaptations of the brant.
Much of this activity was adapted from the Teach About Geese curriculum, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska.
Brant Inter-relationships
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Subject:
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Objectives:
1. Students will be introduced to the
inter-relationships among elements in a Brant food web,
including humans.
2. Students will begin to understand the interdependence of humans upon each other to solve the problem of declining Brant populations.
Method:
Students take roles as elements of a Brant ecosystem
and state their connection with other elements as they
form a ‘web of life’ with yarn.
Background:
Interdependence describes the way a person, place or
thing depends upon (or needs) any other person, place or
thing. Producers (plants) make food and oxygen. Other
living things depend upon producers for food, either
directly or indirectly. This concept is often described
as a food chain in which a predator eats prey which eats
producers. However, most living things eat a variety of
things, not just one thing. For example, a goose diet may
include grasses, berries, insects or snails. One animal
may eat the same food as another, for instance, both
foxes and gulls feed on the eggs of the Brant. Thus, food
chains become inter-connected and are more accurately
represented as a food web.
The image of a web of inter-relatedness may also be applied to human interactions. In a school, the principal depends on the teachers to do a good job, the teachers need students to teach, everyone needs the cook for lunch and the janitor to clean up. The groups and individuals responsible for reversing the downward trend of the goose populations on the Pacific flyway are similarly intertwined. Each individual or group is somehow linked and dependent upon one another for a workable solution.
Materials:
Masking Tape, marker, large ball of yarn or string,
and the following list:
- Brant
- Canadian Developer
- Sunlight
- Ocean
- Fox
- Gull
- Boater in San Quintin, Mexico
- Eelgrass
- Water
- Hunter in Oregon
- Fish and Wildlife Biologist
- Wetland Community
- Hunter in Alaska
Procedure:
1. Begin with a short discussion on the food web of
the Brant (see background): Brant eat eelgrass, fox and
gulls eat the eggs and prey on the young Brant, they all
live in a of wetland community.
2. You may want to divide your class into two groups, as there are only fourteen items on the list. Give each student a piece of masking tape with one of the words written on it. Have them attach the tape to the front of their shirt and sit in a circle.
3. Hand one student the ball of yarn. The student will hold on to the end of the yarn, then throw the ball of yarn to someone else in the circle that they depend on, are related to, or that depends upon them. The student catching the ball then holds onto the yarn and throws the ball of yarn to someone else that is inter-dependent. Before throwing the ball of yarn, the student should state the relationship. Students may receive the ball of yarn more than once, depending upon the inter-relationships other students see.
4. When everyone is connected by the yarn, ask: What does the yarn look like? (a spider web). If I tug in the yarn, who can feel it? Is anyone not connected to the rest of the group? What does this tell us about geese? (Geese are dependent upon other things to live.) How do humans fit into this web?
5. Make sure that all students have gotten the ball of yarn at least once. Also, be sure that students are seeing as many connections as possible with each thing. (Examples: Water and Hunter - if there was a lack of water in the wetland because of development, then there would be less geese there for the hunter and tighter restrictions on hunting OR sunlight and fox - eelgrass depends on sunlight for growth, Brant feed on eelgrass, and fox preys on the eggs of Brant.
Evaluation:
1. Ask students to state at least one
interrelationship each food web element has with another
element from the list.
2. Ask students to state at least one manner in which each person can work together with another person described on the cards to ensure Brant for the future. Send some of these recommendation to the list serve.
(Adapted from: Teach About Geese, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska.)
Oh, Brant!
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Subject:
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Objectives:
1. Students will learn to identify and describe
food, water, and cover as three of the essential
components of habitat.
2. Students will be able to describe the importance of good habitat for animals.
3. Students will be able to define "limiting factors" and give examples.
4. Students will recognize that some fluctuations in wildlife populations are natural as ecological systems undergo a constant change.
5. Students will demonstrate that humans can affect wildlife population dynamics with management.
Method:
Students become Brant Geese, "components of
habitat" and "hunters" in a physically
active game.
Background:
A variety of factors limit the ability of wildlife
to successfully reproduce and to maintain their
populations over time. Disease, predator/prey
relationships, varying impacts of weather conditions from
season to season (e.g. early freezing, heavy snows,
flooding, drought), accidents, environmental pollution,
and habitat destruction and degradation are among these
factors.
Limiting factors are a natural part of a healthy ecosystem. When one or more limiting factors gets out of balance, the result could be threatening, endangering, or could eliminate a whole species of animals.
The most fundamental of life’s necessities for any animal are food, water, cover, and space in suitable arrangement. Without these essential components, animals cannot survive. The major purpose of this activity is for students to understand the importance of good habitat as well as factors that affect wildlife populations in constantly changing ecosystems. Students should be able to apply these principals to the Brant of the Pacific Coast Flyway.
Materials:
Indoor or outdoor area, (large
enough for students to run, e.g. playing field or gym),
chalkboard, flip chart or dry erase board, writing
materials.
Procedure:
1. Begin by telling students that they are about to
participate in an activity that emphasizes the most
essential things that animals need in order to survive.
Review the essential components of habitat with the
students: food, water, cover, and space in a suitable
arrangement (have students define boundaries, how far
apart lines are etc...). This activity emphasizes three
of those habitat components (food, water, and cover) but
the students should not forget how important it is for
animals to have sufficient space in which to live, and
that all the components have to be in a suitable
arrangement or the animals will die.
2. Ask your students to count off in four’s. Have all the one’s go to one area; all two’s, three’s, and four’s go together to another area. Mark two parallel lines on the ground or floor ten to twenty yards apart or closer, if less space is available. Have the one’s line up behind one line’; the rest of the students line up behind the other line.
3. The one's become "geese". All geese need good habitat in order to survive. Ask the students what the essential components of habitat are again: food, water, cover, and space in a suitable arrangement. For this activity, assume that the geese have enough space in which to live and that emphasizing food, water, and cover are needed in order to survive. When a goose is looking for food, it should clamp its hands over its stomach. When it is looking for water, it pots its hands over its mouth. When it is looking for cover, it holds its hands over its head. A goose can choose to look for any one of its needs during each round or segment of the activity; the goose cannot, however, change what it is looking for (when it sees what is available) during that round. It can change again what it is looking for in the next round, if it survives.
4. The two's, three's, and four's are food, water, and cover components of habitat. Each student gets to choose at the beginning of each round which component he or she will be during that round. The students depict which components they are in the same way the geese show what they are looking for; that is, hands on stomach for food, etc. go over the three hand signs with all the students.
5. The game starts with all players lined up on their respective lines (geese on one side and habitat components on the other side) and with their backs to the students at the other line.
6. The facilitator or teacher begins the first round by asking all the students to make their signs, each goose deciding what it is looking for and each habitat component deciding what it is. Give the students a few moments to get their hands in place - over stomachs, mouths, or over their heads. As you look at the two lines of students, you will normally see a lot of variety, with some students water, some food, some cover. As the game proceeds, sometimes the students confer with each other and all make the same sign. That's okay, although don't encourage it. For example, all the students in habitat might decide to be cover. That could represent a drought year with no available food or water.
7. When you can see that the students are ready, count: "one, two, three." At the count of three each goose and each habitat component turns to face the opposite group, continuing to hold their signs clearly.
8. When the geese see the habitat component they need, they should run (or walk if in a small area) to it. Each goose must hold the sign of what it is looking for until getting to the habitat component person with the same sign. Each goose that reaches its necessary habitat component takes the "food," "water," or "cover"" back to the goose side of the line. This represents that the goose successfully reproduced as a result. Any goose that fails to find its food, water or cover dies, and moves to the habitat side to become part of the habitat. That is, in the next round, the goose that died is a habitat component and so is available as food, water or cover to the geese who are still alive. Note: when more than one goose reaches a habitat component, the student who gets there first survives. Habitat components stay in place on their line until a goose needs them. If no goose needs a particular habitat component, the habitat person just stays where it is in the habitat. The habitat person can, however, change which component it is from round to round.
9. You as a facilitator or teacher may keep track of how many geese there are at the beginning of the game, and record the number of geese at the end of each round or ask a student to do this. Continue the game for approximately 15 rounds. Keep the pace brisk, and the students will thoroughly enjoy it.
10. At the end of the 15 rounds, gather the students together to discuss the activity. Encourage them to talk about what they experienced and saw. For example, they witnessed a small gaggle of geese (seven students in a class size of 28) begin by finding more than enough of its habitat needs. The population of geese expanded over two to three rounds of the game, until the habitat was depleted and there was not sufficient food, water, and cover for all the members of the flock. At that point, geese starved or died of thirst or lack of cover, and they returned as part of the habitat. Such things happen in nature also.
11. Using a flip chart pad or an available chalkboard, post the data recorded during the game. The number of geese at the beginning of the game, and at the end of each round represent the number of geese in a series of years. That is , the beginning of the game is year one; each round is an additional year. Geese can be posted by five's for convenience. For example:
The students will see this visual reminder of what they experienced during the game. The goose population fluctuated over a period of years. This is a natural process, as long as the factors which limit the population do not become excessive, to the point where the animals cannot successfully reproduce. The wildlife populations will tend to peak, crash, and rebuild, peak, crash, and rebuild, as long as there is good habitat and sufficient numbers of animals to successfully reproduce.
12. In discussion, ask the students to summarize some of the things they have learned from this activity. What do animals need to survive? What are some of the "limiting factors" that affect their survival? Are wildlife populations static, or do they tend to fluctuate, as part of an overall "balance of nature?" Is nature ever really in "balance," or are ecological systems involved in a process of constant change?
13. Now, start the activity again. This time, give half of the habitat people 'hunter' cards to put in their pockets. These people still make their sign as a part of the habitat. This time, when a goose tags them, they show their 'hunter' card. This means the goose was shot by a hunter and dies. The goose becomes part of the habitat. Collect the hunting cards to hand out the next round. Keep giving hunter cards to half of the habitat people until there are no geese left.
14. This time do the activity using cards to represent other limiting factors, for example: predator, weather, pollution, or development.
15. Talk about what it would mean if there were no geese left. Can we get more geese once the last one is gone? Sometimes, if a population of animals has been depleted in one area, animals from another area can be reintroduced into the depleted area. For instance, hunting areas near villages in Alaskan Deltas are easily accessible. Those areas were hunted first, and tend to be the areas that have no geese nesting in them now. But, it is a fact that hunting has always been a part of the lives of many people’s heritage, and that must be respected. So, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may try to increase the numbers of geese in the depleted areas by reintroducing young geese. When the geese learn to fly, they 'imprint' or remember' that area and will return to nest there the following fall. For this plan to work, the cooperation of villagers by not hunting the geese until their populations are well established is important. This is also why wild birds are sometimes kept in captivity. Then, if the natural populations are low, the captive birds can be reintroduced into an area to give populations a chance to build up again. Of course, if there are no geese left at all, they cannot be reintroduced.
- Ask the students to try to choose how many hunters they think they can have to keep the goose population healthy. Start the game with one goose then see what is necessary to keep at least two geese in the population. Talk about how people can control the numbers of geese they shoot when populations are low, then increase the numbers when the population is large enough to withstand more hunting.
- Is it worth not hunting geese for a few years so that there will still be geese to hunt later?
- What will happen to the geese if we keep hunting them this year and next year? (You will need the Goose Population Chart, showing the declining geese, to figure out these questions.)
- If the goose population kept declining at the same rate, what year would they become extinct?
- How old will you be in that year?
- Do you think that you would like to have geese in your area when you reach that age?
- What can you do to make sure there are still geese here?
Evaluation:
1. Name three essential components of habitat.
(food, water, cover)
2. Define "limiting factors, " and give three examples. (factors that limit the ability of wildlife to successfully reproduce and to maintain their populations over time)
Adapted from: Project WILD, Western Regional Environmental Education Council, and from the "Teach About Geese" curriculum, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, AK.