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This lesson is reprinted with permission from the Habitat Ecology Learning Program, a multi-disciplinary life science program for grades 4-6 developed by the Wildlife Conservation Society with major support from the National Science Foundation. For more information about this curriculum and professional development opportunities call the Bronx Zoo at 1-800-937-5131 or check our website at www.wcs.org/education.

Lesson Introduction

Every year, thousands of plants and wildlife appear on the state Endangered Species List as either endangered (being exposing to harm) or threatened (being exposed to danger). The federal Endangered Species List is smaller, but the protection is greater for those on that list. Once a species is added to this list, they and their habitat (place where a plant or animal lives) must be closely watched. Conservation Scientists work very hard to try to improve the standing of the species on that list. In order to help these species, these scientists must work through various barriers including money, law, and relocation.

Illinois State Goal	Standard	Learning Benchmarks
17	B	2b. Explain how physical and living components interact in a variety of ecosystems including desert, prairie, flood plain, forest, tundra.
17	C	2c. Explain how human activity affects the environment.

Lesson Objectives

• demonstrate a food chain relating to the prairie.
• devise a rescue strategy appropriate for an endangered species.
• compare your rescue strategy to that of a conservation professional.
• identify facts relevant to the conservation of an animal species.

Time Allotment

45-60 minute class period

Materials (Outdoor Variation)

• "Check the Facts" activity sheet (1 per student)
• "To the Rescue" activity sheet (1 per student)

PROCEDURE

Tap Prior Knowledge

1. Ask students if they can know the difference between endangered and threatened species. Help them to define these terms. Ask them to define the term habitat. Can students think of events that might occur within a habitat that might cause an animal to become endangered or threatened? The rainforest trees are cut down to make way for grazing cattle. Hundreds of different plant and animal species may be dependant on just one tree for food and shelter. Wetlands in the United States are often filled in to make way for housing and malls. Many birds use these wetlands to rest during migration, where will they go when the wetlands are filled in?

Share with Neighbor

2. Have the students work in pairs to come up with possible rescue projects that could help restore or protect endangered species habitats. Using the examples the class give, ask thought-provoking questions to encourage the class to come up with reasons why some of these ideas may work or the possible difficulties they may encounter. Write their ideas on the board to use for the Interactive activity. Create a chart on the chalkboard.

Examples:

Rescue Project	Difficulties	Cost
Rules and Regulation (Pass laws, penalize offenders, assess fines)	May be hard to pass rules. May be hard to enforce rules.	$200,000
Pollution Control (identify sources, design and install control devices)	May be hard to enforce. May be difficult to detect pollution.	$2,500,000
Move Animals (move animals to a safer area, return zoo animals to wild)	Some animals may die in transport. Animals may not survive in new location.	$300,000
Protect habitat (buy land, designate reserves, build fences)	People may already live in the area. May be difficult to enforce.	$200,000
Education or public relation campaigns (TV, radio and Internet ads)	May not reach the right people. May be ignored.	$200,000
Scientific research (field surveys, behavioral studies)	May take a long time to see results.	$400,000
Hire law enforcement agents (offer training, buy vehicles and radios)	Enforcement agents might be corrupt. Enforcement agents cannot be everywhere at once.	$350,000
Adjust the habitat in some way (replant or restore habitat, introduce species)	May upset the natural balance. May not work as planned.	$300,000
Bring animals to zoos for breeding.	Some animals might die in transport. Animals might not breed.	$500,000

Hands-on Activity

3. Explain to the students that they are going to devise a rescue plan to save two animals that live on the prairie, Attwater's Prairie Chicken and the Northern Harrier. Split the class into two sections assigning each group one animal to work on. Pass out the Check the Fact information sheet to each group. Divide the two sections into smaller cooperative groups of four.

4. Review the worksheet with the class and ask the following questions: What does the prairie chicken eat? Where does it live? Ask the same questions for the Northern Heron. Why do the students think the Northern Harrier is endangered? Can they guess what might be the biggest threats to their survival?

5. Explain to the 2 groups that they are a position of power and influence (for example they could be a mayor or governor) and they have been awarded a grant to help in their conservation effort. Resources are limited. Each group only has $1,000,000; they must decide how the money can be best spent to save their species. (Depending on the math skills of your students, you may want to scale back the cost amount for each project. For example, you might reduce a million dollar project to $1,000. If you choose this method, inform the class that the "costs" on the chart are scaled down. In the real world these projects would cost a great deal more.)

6. Have the groups start to think what their best strategy might be. Remind the students to refer to their Check the Facts activity sheet to be sure their ideas make sense for their animal. The best strategy for one species may be useless for another.

7. Have each group elect a Recorder (to write down all the group's decisions). The Coach will report how well the group used cooperative skills including, working together, active listening, and ensure that there is respectfulness towards all group members. The Time Keeper is the person who will keep the group on time, and the Accountant will keep track of how the group is spending their money.

Remind the class that there are no right or wrong answers to this activity; the purpose is for each group to come up with their own idea for the best strategy. 8. After the groups have decided which approaches they will select, they should brainstorm about the specifics for the plans. For example: What kind of laws will they try to pass? How will they ensure that these laws will be enforceable and respected by the public? How many animals will they move, and from which location to which location? How will they adjust to the new habitat? The answers to these questions should be written down by the RECORDER.

Relate Activity and Concept

Check the Facts

Attwater's Prairie Chicken

Latin name: Tymphanuchus cupido

Status: Endangered

Description: This bird is in the grouse family and is about the size of a chicken. Their brown and white feathers help prairie chickens blend in with the habitat. Males have an orange comb over their eyes and orange patches on the sides of their necks. Prairie chickens can't fly; they wander across open grasslands. Attawater's prairie is a special type of prairie chicken, there are other prairie chickens found in other areas.

Range and Habitat: The prairie chicken lives in coastal prairie habitat. Attwater's prairie chicken once ranged along the coast from southern Texas to Louisiana. Today, the prairie chicken is only found in a few sites along the Texas coast.

Diet: Attwater's prairie chicken mainly eats plants, including grains, seeds, nuts, and leaves. The bird also eats insects, such as grasshoppers. Young prairie chickens eat mostly insects.

Why is the Prairie Chicken Endangered? In the 1800s, there were million of Attwater's prairie chickens. But since then much of their habitat has been turned into crop fields, rangelands, and rice paddies. Now the prairie chicken has less habitat for feeding and nesting. Because the prairie chicken cannot fly, they are easily poisoned by pesticide sprayed onto crops. The bird has been widely hunted. In 1903, Texas tried to show the decline of the prairie chicken by cutting back on the number that could be hunted. In 1940, only 8,700 could be found and by 1994 only 65 prairie chickens were left in the wild.

Northern Harrier

Latin name: Circus cyaneus

Status: Endangered

Description: Northern harriers are the principal hunters of the prairie. They seek their prey, rodents, small birds, herps and insects by flying low over the ground and pouncing on anything that shows itself. The harrier favors wetter prairies and often hunt over places that we would consider wetlands. The former name for the harrier was "marsh hawk." There are probably fewer than 50 breeding pairs of northern harriers in the state each year. The U.S. Wildlife Services has listed the northern harrier as a nongame migratory bird of management and concern (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services). The northern harrier is an area sensitive grassland bird that needs large grasslands for nesting and foraging. Habitat loss may be the most important factor causing the decline of northern harrier populations. The JAAP/JTA provides nesting foraging and wintering habitat for the northern harriers.

copyright Grasslands, Wildlife Conservation Society Habitat Ecology Learning Program, 1995

To the Rescue

ATTWATER'S PRAIRIE CHICKEN AND NORTHERN HARRIERS

CONSERVATION EFFORTS

Several groups of people have joined together to try to save these two birds. The World Wildlife U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service created a refuge in 1972 to save the habitats of these two endangered birds. The Arkansas National Wildlife Refuge donated part of its land to help save the birds while Mobile's Corporation recently gave 2,400 acres to the Nature Conservancy to create another prairie preserve near Galveston Baying Texas. But the prairie chicken population along with the northern harriers are still declining. Large numbers are disappearing because humans continue to take over and disrupt their habitat. The future survival of the Attwater's Prairie Chicken and the Northern Harrier depends on saving large areas of natural prairie. A close relative of the Attwater's prairie chicken, the heath hen, has already become extinct.