Who Am I?

When?Before the expedition

Discipline:Biology

Description

Each student researches an animal that inhabits Yellowstone National Park and prepares an Animal Profile Card with ten facts about each animal. Students share Profile Cards and attempt to identify the unidentified animals.

Learner Outcomes

The student will:

  • Research a Yellowstone animal and describe its characteristics.
  • Identify a variety of animals by their characteristics.

Background

The diversity of animals within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is tremendous. When students visit the park, they will see wildlife diversity at its best. The extent of wildlife diversity is due in part to the different habitats found in the region, ranging from high alpine areas to sagebrush country and including hydrothermal areas, forests, meadows, and other habitat types. All of these habitats are connected in various ways, including linkages provided by streams and rivers that course through the changing elevations of Yellowstone.

Materials

Internet/library reference materials, examples of animal profiles, blank 5” X 8” cards

Suggested Procedure

The teacher will:

  1. Discuss Yellowstone’s wildlife with students.This discussion should include the relationships of climate, topography, and vegetation to the diversity of wildlife.
  2. Have each student select one Yellowstone animal species and tell them to keep the species a secret from their classmates.
  3. Have each student prepare an Animal Profile Card. To assist students, share specific examples of animal profiles. Instruct students to offer characteristics of the species from the animal’s perspective—in first person. Students design their Animal Profile Cards so the most general information about the animal is listed first and leads to specific characteristics listed at the end.
  4. Ask students to draw the profile of the animal on the back of the card or write the name.
  5. Collect all the Animal Profile Cards and read them aloud to the class. Have students guess the animal described. Show the profile.How many students identified the animal? Discuss the animal, its behavior, physical characteristics, habitat, and history in the park. Do the students have anything to add? Will the students have an opportunity to see this animal during the expedition?
  6. Inform students that they will learn more about Yellowstone’s wildlife during their upcoming expedition. Collect the Animal Profile Cards prepared by the students and bring them with you to Yellowstone for use during your expedition.

Student Handout

Examples of Animal Profile Cards

  1. I used to live all over the western United States, especially in California and the Great Plains.
  2. Ninety percent of what I eat is plant material.
  3. I not only graze, I also dig for my food.
  4. I do not live in herds; I am a loner.
  5. Often my young hang around me, as their mother, for about two winters.
  6. I eat lots of dead meat in the spring. I also like to order fish from the menu.
  7. I am an official threatened species.
  8. I build a den for myself and go inside to hibernate for the winter.
  9. I am often identified by my 4-inch long claws and massive shoulder muscle.
  10. People want to see me when they visit Yellowstone, but the feeling isn’t mutual.
I am a grizzly bear.
  1. I like dry, warm country in the summer.
  2. I have 32 teeth.
  3. I don’t live in forests.
  4. I have a white rump patch.
  5. I weigh about130 pounds.
  6. I eat grasses and sagebrush.
  7. My young are called kids.
  8. I have horns—it makes no difference whether I’m male or female.
  9. I can run over 49 miles per hour for long distances; I’m the fastest mammal in North America.
  10. I am misnamed for long-horned grazing animals of Africa and Asia.
I am a pronghorn.
  1. I have killed and hurt people in Yellowstone Nation Park when they came too close.
  2. I can live up to 15 years in the wild.
  3. In the winter, I often walk on the snow-packed roads to move from place to place.
  4. It is not uncommon for my young to die before age 3, especially when winters are harsh.
  5. I spend most of my time eating plants.
  6. I carry my young nine months before their birth.
  7. If the year 1500, you might have found me between what is now New York and Georgia, west to Oregon, south to Mexico, and north through Canada into Alaska.
  8. My young have red hair. Sometimes park visitors ask about the “red dogs.”
  9. Park rangers in YellowstoneNational Park saved me from extinction by raising me like cattle at a ranch in LamarValley from 1902 to 1930.
  10. Some people are concerned that I carry brucellosis.
I am a bison.