Download TEACHER`S GUIDE - African Lion Safari

TEACHER’S GUIDE
A) General Information
i. Objectives
African Lion Safari wishes to maximize the educational potential of our animals so that all children can learn
lasting and valuable facts about them; helping them to develop an understanding of how animals are an integral
part of our world.
Our Educational Kit is designed to adhere to the current Kindergarten to Grade 5 Science and Technology
curriculum goals outlined by the Ontario Ministry of Education. As noted in the Ontario curriculum the
primary goal of science is to understand the natural and human designed worlds. The three primary goals of the
Ontario Science and Technology curriculum that our Educational Kit meets are:
Understanding Life Systems: Needs and Characteristics of Living Things
Understanding Life Systems: Growth and Changes in Animals
Understanding Life Systems: Habitats and Communities
ii. Terms and Definitions
Endangered:
The species faces immediate extinction.
Threatened:
The species is likely to become endangered if the factors affecting its vulnerability are not
reversed.
Rare:
The species exists in low numbers throughout its wild range.
Consumers:
Consumers cannot make their own food from the sun. They must eat other things to get
energy. They come in three different varieties:
Herbivores: animals that eat only plants
Carnivores: animals that eat only animals
Omnivores: animals that eat plants and animals
Decomposers:
Decomposers are insects, fungi and micro-organisms that eat dead material. They return the
nutrients to the soil for plants to use again.
Producers:
A producer is something that can make its own food. Animals are unable to do this. Since
producers can make food from the sun, they are usually the beginning of a food chain.
Ecosystem:
An ecosystem consists of four parts. It begins with the sun at the top which provides energy
to our green plants. Green plants such as grass use the sun to produce sugar and protein in
order to grow. The ecosystem consists of producers and consumers. Plants are producers in
the ecosystem chain. Animals that are consumers are next in the ecosystem. Some of these
animals are known as herbivores, which eat only plants. Carnivores are the animals that get
their energy from eating other animals. The next category is omnivores, which are the
people and animals, that eat plants and animals. The end of the ecosystem consists of
another group of life which is the decomposers. Decomposers such as bacteria and fungi eat
dead plants.
Biome:
Biome is a term that refers to a large area that has a particular climate,
vegetation and animal life. There are 7 major biomes in the world.
Temperate: - broad leafed deciduous trees, shrubs as undergrowth, lichens and mosses.
Grassland: - many species of grasses, some bushes and occasional trees.
Desert: - some cacti, flowers, thorny bushes and shrubs
Coniferous Forest: - coniferous trees, black spruce and fir.
Tundra: - lichens and mosses with grassland and small shrubs.
Savannah: - grasses with some scattered deciduous trees.
Tropical Rain Forest: - many trees and plants, as well as vines.
Two Main Groups of Animal
Most of the world’s large and familiar animals belong to a group of animals called vertebrates. All vertebrate
animals possess an internal skeleton made of bones and in particular, have a backbone or spine made up of a
series of bones called vertebrae. Vertebrates make up less than 3% of the world’s animals.
Most animals are invertebrates. They do not have a bony skeleton inside their bodies. Some animals such as
insects, spiders or crabs have a hard outer shell (exoskeleton) which provides support and protection for the soft
body inside.
Five Vertebrate Classes
Vertebrates are grouped into 5 classes based on features of their body structure, mode of reproduction and
internal physiology. Students should be able to sort vertebrates into the 5 classes based on easily observable
features like skin covering, type of limb and habitat.
Fish: - live in water, breathe with gills, have skin covered with scales, have fins, lay soft eggs and are cold
blooded.
Amphibians: - the young live in water, adults live on land, the young breathe with gills, adults breathe with
lungs, have moist scale-less skin, have 4 legs, lay soft eggs and are cold blooded.
Reptiles: - mainly live on land, breathe with lungs, have scaly skin, have 4 limbs or no limbs (snakes), lay
eggs with leathery shells and are cold blooded.
Mammals: - mainly live on land, breathe with lungs, have fur or hair covering their body, most have 4 legs
(or 2 legs and 2 arms), give birth to live young, feed their young on milk produced by mammary glands and
are warm blooded.
Birds: - live on land, breathe with lungs, have feathers covering their body, have 2 legs and 2 wings, most
can fly, lay eggs with hard shells and are warm blooded.
Warm blooded Cold blooded
The terms warm blooded and cold blooded refer to the ways animals maintain their internal body temperature.
Cold blooded or exothermic animals cannot regulate their body temperature directly, it is determined by the
temperature of their surroundings. Warm blooded or endothermic animals are able to generate their own heat
and can maintain a constant internal temperature.
iii. What is being done to help endangered species?
Many international and national organizations attempt to protect endangered mammals and birds but the issues
are complex and it is often difficult to achieve global strategies. Concerned people do this by creating laws,
implementing standards and creating awareness of the plights of these species. Zoological and Wildlife parks
throughout the world work together to implement the International Species Survival Plan to assist in saving
many endangered species from extinction by participating in the following activities: exchanging specimens
with each other for propagation, identifying various bloodlines and selectively breeding specimens to encourage
genetic diversity, collecting specimens from the wild and placing them in breeding projects located either at
their natural terrain or in other specialized facilities, training and educating local people about the value of
protecting their indigenous wildlife and in the keeping of specimens, collecting and sharing research data about
wild and captive specimens to better understand their natural needs. Human population has exploded, more
than doubling since the early 1950’s and humans occupy such vast territories that they are increasingly colliding
with the territories occupied by generations of wild animals. Planned management designed to protect animals
from becoming endangered and disappearing from the wild forever has become a necessity.
iv. What is African Lion Safari doing?
Often the most successful attempts at assisting in the survival of endangered species are achieved at the grass
roots level with a few concerned individuals working on an ongoing basis with local people. While African
Lion Safari has been actively propagating various species for over 40 years we recognize more than ever the
need to share our knowledge with young people in order to nurture an appreciation for animals as part of their
global outlook. We employ numerous high school, university and college students whom we train in the
specialized skills of caring for various animal species, mostly ‟exotics”, and some of them continue in careers
related to animals. African Lion Safari houses more than 1,000 animals and birds representing over 100
species. Within this collection many of the mammals you will see during your visit are endangered, threatened
or rare. The park has successfully bred over 20 species that are endangered and more than 30 species that are
listed as threatened.
African Lion Safari participates in the International Species Survival Plan for the Asian elephant, White
rhinoceros and Cinereous vulture. Thirteen Asian elephants have been born at African Lion Safari since 1991.
The park maintains the most successful breeding programme in North America for Asian elephants. The first
artificially inseminated elephant in Canada was born at African Lion Safari on November 2, 2009. African
Lion Safari has had over 35 cheetah born at the park since May 2001. During the summer of 1998 we
successfully moved four juvenile white rhinoceros from South Africa to African Lion Safari with the plan of
breeding them at our facility. Many rare breeds of eagles, hawks and owls have also been bred successfully at
African Lion Safari and conditioned by our staff so that they have excellent chances of survival when
introduced into the wild. Most recently, African Lion Safari’s Endangered Barn Owl Programme successfully
hatched thirteen Barn Owls that were released into the wild in Illinois. These owls were equipped with satellite
transmitters for tracking.
African Lion Safari is proud to be an accredited institution of Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums
(CAZA) since 1988. The park is a founding member of International Association of Avian Trainers and
Educators (IAATE) and International Elephant Foundation (IEF). African Lion Safari is a member of World
Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). We work closely within these organizations to ensure that every
effort is made to assist in increasing the numbers of these endangered species. African Lion Safari has been
awarded a variety of conservation awards by these organizations over the past 40 years.
v. Endangered Animal Profiles
Many of the animals and birds that your students will see during their outing to African Lion Safari are
considered endangered, threatened or rare species. We have chosen five endangered species for your students
to focus on during their visit.
We have provided a profile of each of these species. The information provided will assist you in teaching the
students about their habitat/location, unique characteristics, what they eat, how much they weigh, and some
reasons for their endangered status. Also provided is a poster with four of the five endangered species
highlighted for use in the classroom. This visual aid is designed to assist the students in identifying them once
at African Lion Safari. The Military Macaw that is on the poster is very similar in appearance and colouring to
the endangered Buffon’s Macaw.