Download Smith, Peter - Green Mountain College

COURSE SYLLABUS
ELA 1112: WILDLIFE ECOLOGY
FAll 2008
Instructor:
Dr. Peter B. Smith
Office Hours: By Appointment
e-mail: [email protected] OR [email protected]
Phone: (home) (802) 259-2322
Class Time and Location: Tuesday and Friday: 11am-12:15pm Ackley 106
Field Trip: One evening, field trip to a bat cave. Tentatively either Wednesday Sept 17 or Oct 1.
Course Requirements
Books; Required:
Bolen, Eric G. and William L. Robinson. 2003. Wildlife Ecology
and Management. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-066250-X
Maehr, D. S. , R. F. Noss, J. L. Larkin, ed. 2001. Large Mammal
Restoration. Island Press, ISBN 1-55963-817-6
Various other selected reading as assigned.
Major Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the origin of concerns about wildlife. Evaluate past and present wildlife population
success stories and failures and apply the scientific information learned to today’s rare and
endangered wildlife species such as the wolf, lynx, marten, and New England cottontail.
2. Identify how various biological relationships among wild animals affect population size and
habitats.
3. Develop knowledge of the life histories of common fauna as well as ability to identify common
Vermont mammals.
4. Identify the causes and effects of competition, predation, and disease. Examples include
discussion of cyclical species, reintroduction of the wolf to the Greater Yellowstone region, chronic
wasting disease and the impact of prior wolf extermination.
5. Discuss and understand present controversial wildlife proposals. Examples include:
reintroduction of the wolf into the northern Rockies and the northeastern United States.
6. Develop an understanding of wildlife behavior particularly as it relates to people.
7. Explain how changes in the environment brought on by such things as urbanization, acid rain,
mercury pollution, and global warming affect the fauna of Vermont and the world.
Interesting Web Sites
1.
www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamgrizzlies/ This site has one or
more cameras set up to photograph grizzly bears feeding on one or more rivers in Alaska.
2.
www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/ This site has one or more
cameras set up at a watering hole in Botswana, Africa.
Attendance: Required.
Please Note
If you have a specific learning, physical, or psychiatric disability and require
accommodations, please let me know early in the semester so that your learning needs may be
appropriately met. You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Calhoun
Learning Center. The Calhoun Learning Center is the office responsible for coordinating
accommodations for students with disabilities. The Calhoun Learning Center is located on the 3rd
floor of Griswold Library. If you have questions, please contact Joey Blane, Learning Specialist, at
x8234.
Grades:
Percent
Quizzes: Covers material from previous quiz Sept 12, 30 Oct31, Nov14 Dec 2, 12......30
(Lowest quiz grade is dropped)
Class Exam: Friday Oct 10. Cumulative from September 2......................................20
Term paper. Due November 21..................................................................................15
Final Exam: Wednesday December 17, 8:00AM Ackley 106, Cumulative from
September 2................................................................................25
Participation/Attendance............................................................................................10
COURSE SCHEDULE, ASSIGNMENTS
Date
Chapters/Pages
Topic
September 2
2, 3
Introduction, History
Leopold: Thinking Like a Mountain
September 5
LMR Ch 10 & Case 3
Grouse Hunting,, Britain
Introduction and History
September 9
4
Mercury Rising
Biomes, Ecosystems & Natural
Communities
September 12 Quiz
4
Ecosystems & Natural Communities,
September 16
-Global Climate Change &
Wildlife in N. America
(Library Reserve)
- On Thin Ice
Ecosystems & Natural Communities
Global Warming
September 19
5
Bobcat population exercise
Population Ecology
September 23
September 26
September 30 Quiz
October
3
October
7
6
Lab Ex. Skull Structure
-Forget Jaws, now its Brains Animal Behavior
-A Rare Predator Bounces Back
7
Food and Cover
8
Wildlife Diseases
LMR Ch 7 & Case 2
-Tracking Deer Diseases
-Rabid Bat
-Deadly Disease is Suspected in...
-Bats Perish and No One Knows Why
-Bats Take it on the Nose
9
Predator-Prey Relations
October
10
October 14
Mid-Term Exam
Fall Break- No Class
October 17
16
Lab Ex. Ungulate survival & the skull
October 21
16
Lab Ex. Predator senses and the skull.
October 24
YNP pp 153-160
October 28
17
October 31 Quiz
Wildlife in Parks and Refuges
Urban Wildlife
-Southern Ca. See...
Urban Wildlife
-For Environmental Balance...
-City Slicker
-Death by Alligator
November 4 SciAmer. The Wonderful Net
Physiology, cold
November 7 SciAmer: Adaptations to Cold
Physiology, heat,
November 11
18
Lab. Ex. Teeth
November 14 Quiz
18
Lab. Ex. Teeth
November 18
-A Weed, a Fly and...
Exotic Wildlife
-Butterfly Kiss-Off
-Gone for Decades, Jaguar...
-Exotic Fish Caught in Lake Hortonia
November 21
Term Paper Due
19
Non-game and Endangered Species
November 25
LMR Ch 8
Non-game and Endangered Species
November 28
Thanksgiving- No Class
December 2 Quiz LMR Introduction
LMR Ch 2
Vermont Mammal Identification, study skins
December 5
LMR Ch 5 & 6
Vermont Mammal Identification, study skins
December 9
YNP pp174-176
LMR Ch 13 & 15
Restorations, YNP, and NE Wolf, Conflicts
December 12 Quiz
21
Biodiversity
-Cancer on a Whole Species
-Productivity Gains
(Subject to Modification)
LMR = Large Mammal Restoration
YNP= Yellowstone National Park publication material