Animal Behavior and Adaptation

NC Standard:  1.05

Activity:  Rock 'a bye Baby, Bear

Question: Do all mammals grow at the same rate and have the same needs?

Vocabulary: Similarities, Survival Needs, Omnivore, Differences

Materials: Graph paper, drawing paper, assorted markers

Background: Prior to this activity ask your students to do a little research on a apecies they know a lot about...themselves! Ask them to have their parent(s) help them record their birth weight, weight at 4 months, 1 year and 4 years. For those students who may have difficulty completing this assignment, ask a local pediatrician or your school nurse for a developmental chart which would include average weights for these ages.

Procedure: Begin this activity by asking students to imagine a black bear and estimate and record how much a baby black bear would weigh at birth? At 1 year? How many siblings? How long do they live? Before beginning the actual graphing activity begin a discussion using information on North Carolina Black Bears with your students. There are several good websites which can be used by both you and your students as a culmination of this activity.
Black Bear Facts
Black bears are basically shy and reclusive animals that thrived throughout the state of North Carolina in pre-colonial times. Like the mountain lion and wolf, black bears were hunted by early settlers and native populations for food and clothing. Due to unrestricted hunting, clearing of lands and habitat destruction these animals suffered huge population loss. By the early 1900's small black bear populations could only be found in remote areas of the mountains and in the coastal swamplands. Wolf and mountain lion populations never overcame the detrimental effect of the settlers in North Carolina. In the past 30 years due to changing attituded towards the black bear and enforced stronger laws to protect them, populations have increased in North Carolina from approximately 4,000 bears located on 2.5 million acres in 1971 to approximately 11,000 bears on 10 million acres in 2004.
The female bear (sow) usually becomes pregnant between May and August and carries the baby (cub) approximately 7 months giving birth during the dormant or hibernation season. The cub weighs about 1/2 pound to 1 pound at birth. The mother and cubs, 1 or 2 stay together through the next winter and the cubs go their own way the following spring. The male bear (boar) rarely will stay aroundwhile there are babies and often will hurt or kill cubs. The sow will stay with the cubs in a sheltering den with her young until they are able to move around actively, usually in late April or early May.
When the cubs leave the den they must still depend on their mothers for milk. Black bears are omnivores and when old enough the cubs will learn to eat various berries, fruits, nuts, acorns and insects to build up their layers of fat for the winter. By the end of the 1st fall the cubs may weigh as much as 165 pounds or as little as 15 , depending on the available food supply. At one year in age female cubs weigh about 60 - 75 pounds and the males weigh 100 - 120 pounds. When mature a female can weigh over 225 pounds and a male more than 400. The largest recorded black bear was in Craven County, North Carolina weighing 880 pounds!
Most wild black bears live approximately 21 - 33 years and rarely die of "natural causes" outside of State or National Parks. Almost all die from human causes, hunting or being hit by a vehicle. Some young bears die or starvation, predation or falls from trees. Very few blck bears die from illness.
Prepare a chart, transparency or hand out of the following data related to black bears.

Black Bear
Birth - 8 ounces
4 months - 10 pounds
1 year - female - 60 - 75 pounds
male - 100 - 120 pounds
4 years - female - 150 pounds average
male - 275 pounds average
20 years - female - 225 + pounds
male - 400 + pounds

Have the students take their recorded information and graph both sets of data for comparison, with weight being shown on the "Y" axis and age being shown on the "X" axis. If working in collaborative teams, have each member record their information in a different color on the graph.
Have the students calculate how much weight the black bear gained at each interval and record.
Have the students calculate how much weight they gained at each interval and record.
Have the students draw a picture to illustrate the bear and themselves at each interval and add to the graph.
Have the students discuss basic survival needs for babies and bear cubs and record.

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Line of Learning:  This line is drawn to provide students with a space to share their experimental learning in words or pictures.
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