Neighborhood Animal Flight Distance Activity

Overview

This activity compares flight distances of wild animals living in students neighborhoods.

Objectives
Upon completion of this activity, students will be able to:
◊ Describe wild animal flight distance.
◊ Collect and describe data .
◊ Produce a graph.
Important Words
◊ Flight distance
◊ Tame
◊ Domesticated
◊ Feral
◊ Wild

Materials
Tape measure, clip boards, data sheet:

Background Information

The terms wild , tame, feral and domesticated can be confusing. You'll find some explanation here: Tame, Wild ?

Activity:

Begin by finding out what the students already know about the terms wild, tame and the other terms listed under "important words". Ask if any of them have ever experienced seeing a bird, small mammal in their yard. Other guiding questions might be: Was it wild? How did they know? Did any of them attempt to get closer to an animal they saw in their yard. Ask them, "What happened?

Most likely they all have had an experience where they attempted to get closer and were able to do so but for some reason the animal ran or flew away when they reached a certain distance between them and the wild animal. Explain that this distance was the animals flight zone or flight distance. Yet another way of saying flight zone is "personal space". Remind them that we all have a "personal space" in which we do not allow strangers. Ask the students why we have a personal space. You might ask, "Who do we allow into our personal space". "Why?"

When the students are comfortable with the concept it is time to explain how to collect data for this activity. Ask the students to look for wild animals such as rabbits, squirrels or song birds "NOTHING DANGEROUS!" in their yard or nearby park. Note where the wild animal is by looking for references in the nearby ground. If need be do a quick sketch of where that animal is. The student should slowly walk towards the animal until it runs or flies away. The student should stop immediately when this happens and measure the distance between themselves and where the animal was. This is the animal's flight distance.

From this point there are many possibilities. One could be that all students collect data on the same species of wild animal. Another is to collect data on many different species. The students can hypothesize why the wild animals flight distance is different. Maybe someone is feeding the animals? Maybe someone considers the wild animals as pests and attempt to scare them off? How would this effect the flight distance? Using a city map, have the students locate where they collected their data. What areas have the largest flight distance? The shortest? Why?

Remember that the data sheets will have to contain pertinent information which will include the species of wild animal, flight distance, location of the observation and perhaps include time of day, month and student name. Have the students compile a simple bar graph that could be based on species and flight distance. The possibilities are numerous and hopefully this activity will bring up more questions from the students.

Have fun!