Thursday, June 19, 2008

Bronx Zoo Field Study

Here is the assignment for those of us going to the Bronx Zoo.

Have fun!
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We have been studying ecology, which teaches us about how living things are related to their environment. The way the living things are put together – their structure, functions, and behavior – are all adaptations to the habitats in which they live.

On the trip to the Bronx Zoo, you will see many, many different organisms. For at least 5, make careful observations about the places they live in the zoo. How do these match or differ from their natural habitats. If they differ, why do you think they were designed this way? With what other animals does your animal live? Why are they together?

You will write a brief reflection sharing what you have learned about these organisms and their habitats in the zoo.

For extra credit, interview a zoo employee about what he or she does and why they decided to work at the zoo. You can add what you learned to your reflection.

This assignment is due Monday, June 23rd. Please turn it in to your homeroom teacher at the beginning of the day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tiger- In the Bronx zoo the tigers all had a large piece of territory all to themselves. This would match in their actual environment since they tigers are a type of animal that have a lot of space to themselves. But in the wild the tiger hunted for itself and in the Bronx zoo the tiger was fed.

Seal- I think that the sea lions habitat was different from its actual habitat since it didn’t really have much space. In their actual habitat they lived in a large sea or ocean. I’d say that the sea lions should have gotten some more water.

Lemur- I didn’t think that the lemur space in the Bronx zoo was the same as it was in their natural habitat. The lemurs didn’t have that much space and their natural habitats are large forests. Also I didn’t think that lemurs are ok with sharing territory with other lemurs since a saw a lot of lemurs start attacking each other and trying to push other lemurs off of tree branches.

Crocodile- The crocodile’s space in the Bronx zoo was very small. Crocodiles are used to long rivers and some lakes but the space that they had was just a pond. Also, I think that the crocodiles didn’t at all that they were squeezed together in a small little piece of water since nether of them did anything about it.

Polar Bear- The polar bear place in the Bronx zoo was probably nothing like it is in its natural habitat. The polar bear only had a little small piece of water that it couldn’t even be able to swim in and it lived on this huge piece of rock. In the polar bears natural habitat, it lives on large glaciers and has plenty of water to swim in. The only piece of ice that the polar bear had in its space at the Bronx zoo was a fake piece of ice that it wrapped its arms around the whole time.

Anonymous said...

Bronx Zoo

Today we went to the zoo and saw a couple of animals. The first thing our group did was go on the insects marry go around. Then after we went up the skyfari after we finished we went to the dark room where there was a lot of dark animals like bats. One of my obervasations was that the bats were live in a darkness and some of them usally sleep when its dark. They sometimes just flap their wings. I couldnt get more obersations casue it was really dark in the room. Other animal we saw was the grizzly bears but i learned that they live in the same environment like us and need alot of space to move around. They also sleep alot in dark caves or outside in the shade. We also saw some flamingos, one of the obersations i made was that flamingos dont need that much as to live becasue when i saw them they were in a group all together. They also love to swim and catch fish. We also saw some gorillas and monkeys. When i saw the gorillas they are mostly like humans, they eat and sleep and walk. They play around with their friends like we do with our friends. Gorillas mostly eat leaves from trees. They need a lot of space too. The monkeys also eat leaves and love to play around each other. I think they need more space becasue i dont think they belong in cages and have a lot more room like the gorillas.