Animal Behavior and Adaptation

NC Standard:  1.02, 1.03

Activity:  What bear goes where?

Question: How do bears adapt to their habitat?

Vocabulary: Habitat, Adaptation

Materials: Large sheet of paper, information sheet, crayons, pencils, construction paper, scissors

Background: Polar bears have long necks, slender heads and white fur. They live along the Arctic coasts, mostly on the polar ice. They feed on fish and seals. Their thisck fur is designed to keep them warm, and the webbing between their toes makes them good swimmers.
Grizzly bers dig up most of their food, so they have long claws. They eat roots, tuber, gophers, marmots and smaller rodents as well as carrion. Once in a while they kill a larger animal for food. They live on the edge of forests amd feed mostly in mountain meadows. They have wide heads and flat faces.
Black bears are quiet, shy animals that live in a variety of habitats from forest to brush. They eat berries, nuts, fruit, rodents, insects, and sometimes kill larger animals for food. The black bear may be black, auburn or cinnamon. Black bears are smaller than grizzlies or polar bears and have pointed heads.
Students should recognize that animals are adapted to live in different environments.

Procedures: 

• 1. Show the students pictures or read stories of the three different kinds (species) of bears. Ask them to talk about the things that are alike and different about the bears.

• 2. Ask the students to imagine the place where each bear lives. What is alike and what is different about where the bears live? Think about what each bear looks like and does that help the bear to live where it lives. Talk about adaptation and how animals adapt to survive.

• 3. Divide the class into three groups. Give each group a large sheet of paper, information about a bear species, construction paper, crayons, scissors and pencils.

• 4. Each group must draw and cut out elements of the habitat of their bear (trees, grassy meadows, blocks of ice, snow, fish, forest trees, bushes, nuts, berries, etc.). Make sure all major habitat needs are included: food, water, shelter, and space in which to live.

• 5. On the large sheet of paper draw your bear in the center. Then, glue all the elements that bear needs to survive around him.

Evaluation: If someone took polar bears to Yellowstone Park in Wyoming and grizzly or black bears to the Arctic coast, do you think the bears would be able to live in their new homes if someone left them alone? Why?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

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