Tracks:

              Know 15 animal tracks. Do they intersect, tell a story? We'll be heading outside after a fresh snow and see whose been there. Here are some hints in identifying and memorizing tracks.

• Note the number of toes- raccoon have five while cats and dogs have four.
• Are claws present? How would you describe the general shape of the print?
• Study the stride of the prints.
  • Aboral animals (like squirrels) have parallel prints while ground dwelling creatures' prints (like rabbits) are askew.
  • The difference between coyote prints and dog prints are that coyotes walk straight and they direct register at a trot- their front paws land directly on the same place as the back prints did.

Prints to know:

Coyote, Dog, Black Bear, Gray Squirrel, Cottontail Rabbit, White Tailed Deer, Bobcat, Northern Racoon, Opossum, Bullfrog, Canada Goose, Barn Owl, Great Blue Heron, Striped Skunk and Eastern Chipmunk

Plant and Animal Interrelationships:

            Predation, Competitive interactions. Intraspecific and interspecific. Competitive exclusion- species who utilize the same resources cannot coexist indefinitely- every animal has its own niche. Resource partitioning- resources are divided, permitting species with similar requirements to use the same resources in different areas, ways and/or times.
~Activity: Quick, Frozen Critters

~Predator Tricks
            Assassin Bug
            Ambush Bug
~Evasive prey tricks
                        Camouflage- Spittlebugs, Leaf Mantis Butterfly
                        Nasty odor- Stink Bugs
                        Poisons in body tissue- Monarch Butterfly
                        Harmless mimic of Monarch (Batesian Mimicry)- Viceroy Butterfly

                        Different species resembling each other and BOTH having poisons (Muellerian Mimicry)- Poison Dart Frogs
                        Spines- Caterpillar
                        Eyespots on wings (Self-mimicry)- Butterflies

Types of Symbiosis:

               Commensalism
                          Rhinosaurus and cattle egrets
                          Shark and remora
                          Oak trees and Spanish moss
                Mutualism
                          Lichen
                          Clown fish and anemones
                          Acacia trees and Ants                        
                Parasitism
                          Tropical Round worms and Ms. Law
                 Neutralism
                           Bison and Sunday School Teachers

Activity: Good Buddies

Reproduction

Vocabulary

somatic cell
sex cell
gamete
gonads, male and female
zygote
egg cell
sperm cell
fertilization, internal and external