Prairie Predator and Prey

adapted from The Wildlife Conservation Society's Predator and Prey Live! activity from its Habitat Ecology Learning Program

Lesson Introduction

All living organisms need to survive. Some organisms make their own food, but many animals must get their food from other sources. Herbivores, animals that eat plants and carnivores or meat eaters are introduced in this lesson. Animals who eat other animals are considered predators and those who are eaten are the prey. Hunting styles vary widely, alligators pull their victims under water and drown them before using their sharp teeth to eat their prey. Pythons and boa constrictors suffocate their prey. Rattlesnakes bite their prey, injecting toxic poisons. They then let their prey escape and later go to find their prey after the poison has killed the nervous system of the unfortunate animal. Prey have a variety of ways of protecting themselves. Rabbits, deer, and pronghorns run quickly away from their predator. Mice can camouflage among dry leaves and dirt, and turtles duck into their shells to hide from a fox's sharp canine teeth.

Illinois State Goal	Standard	Learning Benchmarks
12	B	2a. Describe relationships among various organisms in their environments.
12	B	2b. Identify physical features of plants and animals that help them live in different environments.

Lesson Objectives

The students will:

• identify predator prey relationships in a prairie setting
• discover what a field biologist's job entails
• identify strategies and adaptations specific to predator and prey animals

Advance Preparation

Time Allotment

45-50 minute session

Materials

• Reference materials that depict predator/prey information such as encyclopedias, guide books
• The Visual Dictionary of Animals published by Dorling Kindersley, 1991
• The National Geographic Book of Mammals 1891

PROCEDURE

Tap Prior Knowledge

1. Ask students to list animals that live, or have lived, on the prairie. Write their answers on the board. Some possible answers may be: ferrets, prairie dogs, coyotes, eagles, jackrabbits, gophers, hog nosed snakes, mice, bison, honeybees, spiders, finch.

Share with Neighbor

2. Have students copy the class generated list in the middle of a sheet of paper. Can they guess what each animal eats? Have them work with their neighbor to come up with food for each of the animals and list their food on the left side of the page next to the name of the first animal. When they are finished ask them to make a list to the right side of the paper indicating what, if any, animal would eat the animal listed in the center.

For example:

eagle

snake

mouse

Hands-on Activity

3. Break the class up into groups of four. Tell the class that in their groups they will be writing and performing talk-show style interviews. The goal of the interview is to inform the viewing audience about the lives of the two animals- and what it is like to study them. Each interview should be about five minutes in length.

4. One student will be the interviewer, one will be a prairie ecologist (a scientist who studies prairie ecosystems and interrelationships), one will be the prey and one will be the predator. Using the resource materials the group must work together to come up with two questions each that the interviewer should ask to their character. The interviewer can decide what order that s/he would like to ask the questions.

5. Have the students write out their questions and answers in a script format. Remind them that they can be as creative as they want, but their answers must be scientifically correct. Have them come up with questions that interest them about their animals and/or what the habitat conditions are like. Here are some sample questions taken from The Wildlife Conservation Society's Ecology Learning Program.

To the predator: What adaptations do you have for catching and eating your prey? How many different kinds of animals do you eat?
To the prey: How many different kinds of predators do you need to worry about? What adaptations do you have for escaping?
To the scientist: What was it like to live in the prairie? Were there seasons? What kind of clothing did you need? How did you go about studying these animals? What type of equipment did you use? What was the most difficult part of your study?

Introduce Scientific Principle/Environmental Issue

6. Field ecologists have spent years monitoring predator prey relationships within specific ecosystems. Without their work, we would not have such a wide body of knowledge of how animals survive in relation to their habitat. From these scientist's work we know that predator and prey adapt, or change, in order to stay alive. All animals must eat for survival, but try not to become food themselves. Some predators reside at the top of the food chain, lions, eagles and large herbivores like elephants seldom become prey unless human poachers choose to kill them. Animals are often uniquely suited to survive in the area in which they live. Prairie birds make nest and gather seed from the abundant tall grass, deer rest and hide within the tall forbs as well. The wide expanse of prairie makes for an open target for eagles looking for rabbits or snakes.

Relate Activity and Concept

7. When the groups are done with their scripts have each group perform their show in front of a "live studio audience". You may wish to invite parents or other classrooms to see your talk show. Invite the audience to ask questions of the 'guests' as well.