Question 1.

Describe what you see in the movie.

We see several animals (squirrel, deer, frog, and rabbit) living in their natural habitat and then seeking shelter in a storm.

Question 2.

Identify each animal in the movie. Where does each animal find shelter?

• Squirrel — in trees in the forest
  
• Deer — under trees or shrubs
  
• Frog — in a pond
  
• Rabbit — in a burrow in the ground

Question 3.

What is a habitat? What is the habitat of each animal in the movie?

A habitat is a place where an animal or a plant naturally lives or grows and where it meets its needs for survival and reproduction. We can think of the Earth as our overall habitat, the home for all living things, including people. However, we also see that the Earth includes many different kinds of environments—or ecosystems—including forests, wetlands, deserts, oceans, hills, and mountains. Within each ecosystem are many, many specific habitats. A habitat can be as large as acres of forest, where a mountain lion hunts for food. A habitat can be as small as a flowerbed, where a butterfly is busy gathering nectar.

The frog’s habitat is a pond, which could be in a woodland. The rabbit’s habitat is a grassy area in which it can burrow; this may be in the hills or fields, or even in suburban areas. Deer thrive best in areas with young forests and brush. Both rabbits and deer often inhabit “edge” ecosystems with woodlands on one side and more open areas such as grasslands on the other. Squirrels find their habitat wherever there are trees, ranging from dense forest areas to urban parks or yards.

For more in-depth information, read or share the handout “California Ecosystems and Habitats” with your students.

Question 4.

What other animals might share the habitat of each creature in the movie?

A great range of animals share each habitat shown in the movie. Some of the animals also living in the pond could be salamanders, water striders and other insects, beavers, ducks and other water birds, small fish, and small aquatic snakes. Along with the squirrel in the surrounding woods live many different birds such as woodpeckers and owls. Snakes, lizards, chipmunks, and sometimes, large mammals such as bears and mountain lions also inhabit the woods. Animals in the grassy areas or grasslands could include gophers, ground squirrels, worms, coyotes, lizards, and hawks. Edge habitat could also include raccoons and possums.

Question 5.

Do you think some of the animals in the movie share habitats? Which animals? Which kinds of habitats?

The deer, squirrel, and rabbit share habitats—woodlands and grassy areas that border on each other as edge habitats. The movie opens with the squirrel in a tree and the deer nearby in a more grassy area. It closes with the rabbit burrowing near some bushes as the storm approaches and the deer seeking shelter under bushes and trees close by.

Question 6.

What is your habitat? Which animals, other than pets, might share your habitat?

Your students might respond that their own house, their school, their playground, and the places they frequently visit with their family are their habitat. Discuss the idea that a town or city is a type of habitat, just as much as the more rural habitats shown in the movie. Common urban-dwelling or suburb-dwelling animals are birds such as pigeons and sparrows as well as many different kinds of insects, spiders, mice, rats, and squirrels. Help your students understand that these animals are not nuisances to people but creatures attempting to meet their own needs. Animals such as raccoons, deer, and possums have migrated into cities as their natural habitats have been destroyed.

Question 7.

What does an animal need from its environment to be healthy? Are these things what you also need to be healthy?

A habitat for a land animal must include food suitable for the animal, clean water and air, and shelter. The habitat must also have the right conditions, such as nesting spots or dens, for the animal to reproduce and raise its young. Ask students to think about how the needs of an animal that lives in the water might be different from the needs of animals living on land. Even though your students’ own needs might appear to be very different from those of wild animals, explore the ways in which all creatures’ needs are similar.

Question 8.

What factors (changes or events) can affect the environment or habitat of an animal?

Factors that can affect habitats include:

• Natural events, such as storms or fire
• Incursion (or invasion) of human activity: houses, roads, shopping malls, golf courses, recreational activities
  
• Incursion (or invasion) of non-native species introduced by humans

Explain the difference between native species—those that naturally live in a habitat—and non-native species—species that have been introduced into a habitat, that are not naturally found there.

Question 9.

What happens to wild animals when their habitat is disrupted? What would happen if people entered the scene in the movie and built shopping malls, houses, and roads? What would happen if they introduced species of plants and animals from a different habitat, that is, if they introduced non-native species?

Most animals are adapted to very specific habitats, so if the habitat changes, the animal might no longer be able to survive there. If the pond is drained, the frog will have no place to live, find food, and breed. If the land is cleared, the rabbit will no longer have a burrow, and rabbits and deer won’t be able to find grass to eat. The deer may begin to graze in suburban gardens. If the trees are cut down or uprooted and removed, the squirrel will not have places to sleep or nest. If the air and water are polluted, animals, like people, can get sick. Cars might kill them if they venture onto a road. If animals and plants—non-native species—are introduced from different habitats, the non-natives could overrun the area, driving out the natives who live in a very precise balance with each other. The selection “Threats to Habitats” describes the dangers that animals could face.

Download and distribute the selection “Threats to Habitats” or read it aloud with your students.

Question 10.

If a new road is built leading to an area where there is no human habitation, what do you think the results will be for the surrounding wild areas?

Roads will spur on the construction of houses, shopping centers, more roads, vehicle traffic, and other kinds of buildings. These additions could destroy the specific local habitat or aid in the introduction of non-native species.

Question 11.

Is it necessary for you to have the same needs met so that you can be healthy and happy? Describe what keeps you healthy and what makes you happy. What do you do to you keep yourself healthy?

An ecosystem is an interacting system of all the living and nonliving components in a particular area. Some of California’s main ecosystems are:

• Woodlands/forests: Woodland is land that is covered with trees and/or shrubs. A forest is a particularly dense growth of trees, plants, and underbrush covering a large area.
  
• Hills: There are two main types of ecosystems on California’s hills: annual grasslands and chaparral (perennial low shrubs).
  
• Wetlands: Wetlands are intermediate between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; they are covered with water at least part of each year.
  
• Oceans: Ocean ecosystems include the shoreline and the water closest to shore and can also extend many miles out to sea.
  
• Deserts: Deserts are ecosystems characterized by very low and unpredictable rainfall. They can be either hot or cold.

For more detailed information, download the reading “California Ecosystems and Habitats.”Read parts of the selection aloud with your students or ask them to read the information on their own.

Question 12.

Ecology describes how earth’s life forms are linked in a kind of web of life. How does each animal in the movie contribute to the web of life in its ecosystem? How do animals and plants generally contribute to the biosphere (all the ecosystems on Earth)?

Animals use the plants or other animals for food. Plants use the carbon dioxide that animals breathe out in order to grow, and animal waste products as fertilizer. In turn, plants give off oxygen, which is necessary for animals to breathe in. Many plants need animals, or insects, to pollinate them or carry their seeds. More generally, a diversity of plant and animal life helps create a stable, resilient ecosystem and, ultimately, the biosphere.

Have your students consult “Facts about Animals” to learn about each animal’s habitat and needs and then discuss how that animal contributes to the ecosystem.

Question 13.

What is the importance of a healthy ecosystem?

Ecology is the study of ecosystems and their features and interactions among ecosystems. The healthy interaction of all the forms of life in an ecosystem is often called the web of life. The health of an ecosystem is important to everything in it because every part of the ecosystem is dependent on every other part, directly or indirectly. If one part of the web of life is damaged, everything else will eventually be affected to some degree. For example, if the water is polluted, the plants might not grow, the animals that eat the plants won’t have food, and then the animals that eat the plant-eating animals won’t have food. Plant-eating animals, or herbivores, keep the plants from taking over, and predators, or animals who hunt and kill other animals for food, keep the plant-eaters from multiplying to the point where there is not enough food for all of them. Scavengers such as vultures and insects, and even the fungi that decompose waste organic matter, are critical in keeping waste from accumulating to dangerous levels.

Working together, the parts of an ecosystem keep life in balance. And every ecosystem on Earth is ultimately related to all the others, so healthy ecosystems are necessary for life on Earth—the biosphere—to continue. If the balance is seriously disrupted, plants and animals might no longer be able to live in their ecosystems and might become endangered or even extinct, never again to live on Earth.

Question 14.

What is the food chain? Where are we, as humans, on the food chain and where are the animals shown in this lesson? Which animals do you think are predators? Are we predators?

The food chain, also called the food network or the tropic network, is a system of checks and balances that describes the feeding patterns in an ecosystem. At the top, or beginning, of the food chain is the sun, which makes plants grow. Next on the chain are the plants. Plants are producers, living things that obtain their nutrition from nonliving matter, such as soil and minerals. Next on the food chain are the consumers. These are living beings that feed on the producers—they include humans and animals. Animals who eat only plant life are called herbivores, and animals that eat other animals are called carnivores. Animals who eat both plants and animals are called omnivores. Humans—unless they are vegetarians—are classified as omnivores. The carnivores are higher on the food chain than the herbivores because they consume the herbivores for food. At the bottom, or end, of the food chain are the decomposers. These are living organisms such as fungi and bacteria that feed off dead plants and animals and reduce their remains to minerals and gases to return to the soil. And then the cycle starts all over again!

Some of the wild animals we are familiar with or who come to our backyards are predatory animals, or predators, who eat smaller animals and insects. The smaller animals and insects they eat are their prey. Predators help control the population of rodents, and insects. Birds of prey (such as hawks and owls) eat smaller animals that they hunt (such as mice, squirrels, and smaller birds). Birds, for example, consume thousands of insects each year. Think of how many bugs there would be if there were no birds! If there were no wolves or cougars, there would be too many deer. Predators make sure that there are not too many animals crowded in a habitat so that there is sufficient food for everyone.

We humans have the responsibility not to abuse our power. We need to respect animals and their habitats, and if we raise farm animals, we must be compassionate and responsible toward them.

Download and distribute the diagram “The Food Chain” to discuss its components with your students.

Following the discussion of the food chain, have your students use the worksheet “Plants and Animals on the Food Chain” to classify and describe animals they are familiar with.

Question 15.

How can an ecosystem be important for people? How can people be valuable parts of an ecosystem?

People are as dependent on the ecosystems in which they live as are any other species: ecosystems provide our food, our water, our shelter, much of our energy, and the materials from which we make our clothing and build our buildings. Something that has long been known to the Native Americans but has only recently become general knowledge is the importance of many plants, and even some animals, as medicines. For example, the rosy periwinkle, a flower that is native only on the island of Madagascar, has been found to be a powerful anti-cancer drug. But, aside from their practical use, ecosystems also give us pleasure for their beauty and opportunities for recreation and allow us to feel our kinship with all of nature.

People can be valuable parts of an ecosystem by treating all parts of it with respect—for example, not destroying ecosystems needlessly, damaging them with pollutants, or overusing them for our own purposes. Human disturbance is the greatest cause of extinctions today.

Question 16.

What is the importance of wild animals and wild places? Why is it important to keep animals wild?

Wild places, and the living things in them, are natural parts of the biosphere. Wild animals belong in their natural habitat because it is the environment in which they thrive best and because they keep the habitat and larger ecosystem in balance. Wild places and animals also provide an opportunity for people to appreciate a beauty that is different from what we can create. Ask your students to imagine what their world would look like if all the wild places and creatures were gone. Then ask them how they would feel about it.

Question 17.

What is the importance of the great variety of animals and plants on Earth?

The great variety of living things that inhabit the Earth is known as Earth’s biodiversity. Biodiversity is important for all the reasons explained in Questions 11, 12, and 13 above—this is why we must care about the extinction of any species. Additionally, beyond its practical importance, Earth’s biodiversity is inherently important—all the myriad life forms on Earth are wondrous just for themselves. As the prize-winning biologist E.O. Wilson has written, “The loss of millions of plants and animals decreases the world’s biological diversity. . . [and] as diversity declines, we not only lose the beautiful colors, songs, tastes, scents and textures of the plants and animals around us, we also reduce the collective ability for life on Earth to adapt to changing conditions. . . [And] we diminish ourselves and the relations with which we share this planet.” (Edward O. Wilson, “Threats to Biodiversity,” Scientific American 261, No. 3 (September 1989: 108–116).

Ask your students if they know of any animals that have gone extinct. They will mention dinosaurs; saber-tooth cats and mammoths are some other extinct early animals your students may have heard of. They will probably be surprised to learn that it is not just exotic animals from long ago that have been lost. In 1914, the passenger pigeon, which had numbered in the millions in North America in the 17th century, went extinct as a result of overhunting. Extinction is still happening; many living creatures and plants are endangered today. Ask students to talk about why it matters that some animals are gone from the earth forever. What can people do to help prevent animals and plants from going extinct? If students have trouble thinking of things, remind them of what they have learned in this lesson about habitat destruction and people’s role in ecosystems.

Note: This is a good juncture in which to ask your students to use the “Endangered Animal Report” worksheet to learn and report about an animal species in possible danger of extinction. The worksheet is also available as part of Activity 9.