GRADE LEVEL: 9-12

TIME ALLOTMENT: Two or three 45-minute class periods

OVERVIEW: Using segments from the PBS program NATURE: “Moment of Impact, Part 2: Jungle,” students will learn about skills and features that help species survive in the jungle. In the Introductory Activity, students will play a game where they are challenged to match species to adaptations which help them survive in the jungle. Students will create a definition for “adaptation” and revise the definition throughout the lesson, based on new information that they learn. In the Learning Activities, students will learn about the panther chameleon and the adaptations that help it survive. In an optional extension activity, students will examine the lyrics to “Karma Chameleon,” using their new knowledge of chameleons and will create a poem or song lyrics about chameleons. Students will also learn about the different layers of the jungle and the species that inhabit them, as well as how species get their prey and defend themselves from predators. In the Culminating Activity, students will create models illustrating the adaptations/skills different species use to survive.

SUBJECT MATTER: Science

Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
o Provide a definition for an “adaptation” and describe different adaptations that help species capture prey and protect themselves from predators.
o Describe a panther chameleon and list at least 3 adaptations that help it survive in the jungle.
o Discuss the different layers of the jungle, species that reside in each and adaptations that help them survive.
o Create a diagram and/or 3D model to explain an adaptation that helps a species survive.
o Describe one jungle species in detail and explain the features/ skills that help it survive.

STANDARDS
National Science Education Standards

Grades 9-12:
Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:
• The Interdependence of Organisms
o Organisms both cooperate and compete in ecosystems. The interrelationships and interdependencies of these organisms may generate ecosystems that are stable for hundreds or thousands of years.
• The Behavior Of Organisms
o Multicellular animals have nervous systems that generate behavior. Nervous systems are formed from specialized cells that conduct signals rapidly through the long cell extensions that make up nerves. The nerve cells communicate with each other by secreting specific excitatory and inhibitory molecules. In sense organs, specialized cells detect light, sound, and specific chemicals and enable animals to monitor what is going on in the world around them.
o Organisms have behavioral responses to internal changes and to external stimuli. Responses to external stimuli can result from interactions with the organism’s own species and others, as well as environmental changes; these responses either can be innate or learned. The broad patterns of behavior exhibited by animals have evolved to ensure reproductive success. Animals often live in unpredictable environments, and so their behavior must be flexible enough to deal with uncertainty and change. Plants also respond to stimuli.
o Like other aspects of an organism’s biology, behaviors have evolved through natural selection. Behaviors often have an adaptive logic when viewed in terms of evolutionary principles.
o Behavioral biology has implications for humans, as it provides links to psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

MEDIA COMPONENTS
NATURE: “Moment of Impact, Part 2: Jungle,” selected segments
Note: Clip 1 is used in Learning Activity 1. The other clips can be used by students, as they create their culminating projects.

Clip 1: “Panther Chameleon”
An overview of what skills/features help the colorful panther chameleon survive in the jungle.

Clip 2: “Amazonian Boa”
An overview of the features that help the Amazonian boa capture prey and survive the jungle.

Clip 3: “Antsy on the Forest Floor”
A close look at the leafcutter and carnivorous trap-jaw ants.

Clip 4: “Bats”
A close look at bats and how they use sound to locate prey.

Clip 5: “Cuban Crocodile”
A look at the bioengineering of the Cuban crocodile and how it navigates in water and on land.

Clip 6: “The Lizard and the Butterfly”
A close look at a basilisk lizard’s surprise attack on an unsuspecting blue morpho butterfly.

Clip 7: “Monkey Business”
An overview of the spider monkey and how it moves through the jungle.

Clip 8: “Osprey”
A brief look at the osprey and how its body design is well-suited for spotting and capturing fish.

Clip 9: “Paradise Tree Snake”
A look at how the paradise tree snake escapes danger by “snaking” through the air.

Clip 10: “Red Eyed Tree Frog”
A look at how the paradise tree snake escapes danger by “snaking” through the air.

Clip 11: “Tiger”
A look at what makes the tiger a successful hunter.

Access the streaming and downloadable video segments for this lesson at the Video Segments Page.

Websites:
o Supporting Resources for the Lesson
The following sites are resources which can be helpful for students to use when conducting research during the following portions of the lesson:
Introductory Activity
• The BBC Virtual Jungle website
This website features a variety of information about the structure of the jungle and the plants and animals living there.
• Rainforest Alliance
This website contains a variety of information about rainforests, including a section about rainforest species (http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/resources.cfm?id=species_profiles) which could be helpful to students in this lesson.
Note: Both of these websites can also be used by students as resources throughout the lesson.

Learning Activity 2:
• Jungle Journey
In this section of the Nature website, students can explore the different layers of the jungle and the wildlife that inhabits each.

• The Layers of the Rainforest

This page contains info about the 4 rainforest layers, which can be used in Learning Activity #2. (This page is within the rainforest section of the California Institute of Technology’s Space Radiation Lab website)

• Mongabay.com
This website features a variety of information about wild lands and wildlife, including information about rainforests: http://rainforests.mongabay.com.

The following sections can be used to help students explore the layers of the rainforest in Learning Activity 2:
o The Canopy
o The Forest Floor

Optional Extension Activity:
• Karma Chameleon Lyrics
These lyrics to Boy George’s “Karma Chameleon” can be used in the optional activity.

Culminating Activity:
• Additional Resources Page
This page on the Nature website includes links to resources about blue morpho butterflies, tigers, trap-jaw ants, spider monkeys, snakes, Cuban crocodiles, tigers and other species, which could be used by students in the culminating activity.
• Animals of the Rainforest
This page provides details about different rainforest species including the blue morpho butterfly and spider monkey. (This page is within the rainforest section of the California Institue of Technology’s Space Radiation Lab website: http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/serve_home.html)
• Rainforest Connection
This Montclair State University website includes information about various species of mammals that live in the rainforest, including bats and spider monkeys, which students can use in the culminating activity. To directly access this information, students can go to the mammal index.

o Optional related website:
• Jungle Survival Game
This Discovery Channel Game challenges visitors to make decisions to help them survive in the jungle.

MATERIALS
For the class:
o Computers with internet access.
o Computer, projection screen and speakers (for class viewing of online/downloaded “Panther Chameleon” video segment).
o 1 copy of the “Adaptations Game” answer key.” (download here)

For each group of 5-10 students:
o 1 copy of the “Adaptations Game” (download here).

PREP FOR TEACHERS
Prior to teaching this lesson, you will need to:

Preview all of the video segments and websites used in the lesson.

Download the video clips used in the lesson to your classroom computer(s) or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s Internet connection.
Bookmark any websites that you plan to use in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. Using a social bookmarking tool such as del.icio.us or diigo (or an online bookmarking utility such as portaportal) will allow you to organize all the links in a central location.
Print out one copy of the “Adaptations Game” for each group of 5-10 students.

Print out one copy of the “Adaptations Game Answer Key.”

In the “Adaptations Game,” cut out each species card along the dotted lines and paper clip each set of 10 species cards to the corresponding box in the adaptations sheet.

Next: Proceed to Lesson Activities

Excerpts from the NATURE episode, “Moment of Impact: Part 2, Jungle”
Panther Chameleon
An overview of what skills/features help the colorful panther chameleon survive in the jungle.
(View full post to see video)
Amazonian Boa
An overview of the features that help the Amazonian boa capture prey and survive in the jungle.
(View full post to see video)
Antsy on the Forest Floor
A close look at the leafcutter and carnivorous trap-jaw ants.
(View full post to see video)
Bats
A close look at bats and how they use sound to locate prey.
(View full post to see video)
Cuban Crocodile
A look at the bioengineering of the Cuban crocodile and how it navigates in water and on land.
(View full post to see video)
The Lizard and the Butterfly
A close look at a basilisk lizard’s surprise attack on an unsuspecting blue morpho butterfly.
(View full post to see video)
Monkey Business
An overview of the spider monkey and how it moves through the jungle.
(View full post to see video)
Osprey
A brief look at the osprey and how its body design is well-suited for spotting and capturing fish.
(View full post to see video)
Paradise Tree Snake
A look at how the paradise tree snake escapes danger by “snaking” through the air.
(View full post to see video)
Red-eyed Tree Frog
A look at how the red-eyed tree frog changes its appearance to avoid danger.
(View full post to see video)
Tiger
A look at what makes the tiger a successful hunter.
(View full post to see video)

Downloadable QuickTime versions of the video segments:
(Note: To download a video, right click on the video title and click “Save Link As…’ or “Save Target As…”. On a Mac, press the CTRL key and simultaneously click the mouse, then save the link.)

Video Clips
1. Panther Chameleon
An overview of what skills/features help the colorful panther chameleon survive in the jungle.

2. Amazonian Boa
An overview of the features that help the Amazonian boa capture prey and survive in the jungle.

3. Antsy on the Forest Floor
A close look at the leafcutter and carnivorous trap-jaw ants.

4. Bats
A close look at bats and how they use sound to locate prey.

5. Cuban Crocodile
A look at the bioengineering of the Cuban crocodile and how it navigates in water and on land.

6. The Lizard and the Butterfly
A close look at a basilisk lizard’s surprise attack on an unsuspecting blue morpho butterfly.

7. Monkey Business
An overview of the spider monkey and how it moves through the jungle.

8. Osprey
A brief look at the osprey and how its body design is well-suited for spotting and capturing fish.

9. Paradise Tree Snake
A look at how the paradise tree snake escapes danger by “snaking” through the air.

10. Red-eyed Tree Frog
A look at how the red-eyed tree frog changes its appearance to avoid danger.

11. Tiger
A look at what makes the tiger a successful hunter.

2. Explain that today you are going to explore species living in the jungle and the adaptations and skills that help them survive. Ask students to brainstorm what they think an “adaptation” is. Write down all answers. (Possible points to raise during the discussion: An adaptation is a physical feature, behavior or skill, developed over the course of many generations, which helps a species survive. Adaptation also refers to the evolutionary process by which a species becomes better suited to its habitat.)

3. Ask students to list some animal adaptations. Write down their responses. (Answers might include camouflage, long necks to grab food in high places, etc.)

4. Let students know they will be playing a game where they will learn about various adaptations that help species survive in the jungle. Divide the class into groups of 5-10 students each. Give each group an “Adaptations Game.” (download here)

5. Challenge each group to match each species to an adaptation that helps it survive. Encourage students to use print and/or online resources to help them complete this task.
Note: Some of the featured adaptations are used by more than one of the species listed on the “Species Cards” and some of the species have more than one of the adaptations listed on the “Adaptations Sheet.” For this activity, challenge students to place only one species on each adaptation.

6. Once each group has successfully matched a species to an adaptation, encourage students to work alone or in pairs to gather information about each adaptation and how it helps the species survive. Each student or pair of students should select one adaptation to research. Encourage students to use a variety of print and/or online sources, including the BBC’s Virtual Jungle website . Give students about 15 minutes to conduct their research.

7. After the groups have collected their information, ask them to share their findings with the rest of the class. Lead a discussion about the adaptations featured in the game. Refer to the “Adaptations Game Answer Key,” as needed. During the discussion, talk about how each adaptation helps the species survive in the jungle. Refer to the table below for possible items to include in the discussion.

8. Review your description and examples of an “adaptation” that the class brainstormed earlier. Work with the class to revise the description. Encourage students to add more details to the definition of the adaptation. (For example: An adaptation is a physical feature or a skill, developed over the course of many generations which helps a species to find, capture and kill prey and to defend itself.)

9. Add additional examples of adaptations to the list, based on information gathered in the first activity. Create a three-column list, like the one shown below, to record student responses. (Leave room in the chart for students to add more information later in the lesson.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1
1. Summarize that there are a variety of adaptations that help species defend themselves and find food in the jungle. FRAME clip #1, “Panther Chameleon,” by explaining that students will now learn more about a species called the panther chameleon and the adaptations that help it survive in the jungle.

2. Ask students to share information they know about chameleons. Write down the students’ responses. (Possible answers might include that they change color.) If students mention chameleons change color, ask them to brainstorm why they think this happens.

3. Explain that you are now going to show a video segment from the PBS program NATURE: “Moment of Impact, Part 2: Jungle.” Provide a FOCUS for the clip, asking students to list 3 different skills that help the panther chameleon survive and describe how each skill helps them in the jungle.

4. PLAY Video Segment #1, “Panther Chameleon.” After playing the clip, FOLLOW UP by asking students to list some adaptations (including special skills and physical features) the panther chameleon uses to survive and describe how each of those adaptations helps it. Access the video segments for this lesson at the Video Segments Page.
The discussion can include the following:
o How and why its color changes.
• How its color changes: The color change takes place below transparent outer skin. Chromatophores (stretchable pigment cells) are ringed with muscle fibers. When the fibers contract, they pull on the chromatophores, quickly spreading their color. The upper layer handles red and yellow tints. Another layer of cells below reflects blue light.
• Why its color changes: Panther chameleons don’t change color to camouflage their presence from surroundings. They change color to communicate. Coloring reflects their mood when sparring with other males or when attracting attention of females.

o Special skills/ features:
• Tongue: When extended, the panther chameleon’s tongue is longer than its body. The tongue enables the chameleon to quickly catch a prey. The sticky tip grabs the prey and its skin flaps keep it in place.
• Eyes: Each eye can rotate and focus separately. With a pinhole in the center, each eye has a full 360 degree view.
• Hunting Strategy: The chameleon edges toward the prey, but doesn’t chase it.

Optional Extension Activity
1. Share “Karma Chameleon” lyrics with students and play the song for the class to hear.

2. Ask students to reflect upon and discuss the lyrics in relation to what they know about chameleons. Ask students to look at the bolded words and phrases below. Ask students to conduct additional research about chameleons to see how accurately the bolded words and phrases (such as “cling” or “come and go”) describe chameleons:

When we cling our love is strong
When you go you’re gone forever
You string along, you string along

Karma karma karma karma, karma chameleon
You come and go, you come and go
Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dream
Red gold and green, red gold and green
Every day is like survival
You’re my lover, not my rival
Every day is like survival
You’re my lover, not my rival

3. Challenge students to write their own poem or song lyrics to the tune of “Karma Chameleon,” another existing song or an original composition, with words that accurately describe the panther chameleon’s adaptations. Here are two sample verses (to the tune of the last two “Karma Chameleon” verses listed above):
Panther, panther, panther, panther, panther chameleon
You move so slow, you move so slow
Your eyes keep movin’ & turnin’ around and around
You’re on the hunt, but don’t make a sound

Your hue is ever changing
Where you are we do not know
Your hue is ever changing
Where you are we do not know

4. After students have written their poems/verses, ask them to present and discuss them with the group.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2
1. Divide students into four groups. Assign each group to one of the four layers of the jungle:
1) forest floor, 2) understory, 3) canopy and 4) emergent layer.

2. Give each group 15-20 minutes to research their assigned section of the jungle. Specifically, ask students to find out the following:
o Names of species living in the layer.
o Adaptations that help the species protect themselves and find food.
Encourage students to use online and print resources to gather the information. Here are some websites that could be helpful:
• The PBS Jungle Journey website
• The BBC Virtual Jungle website
• Mongabay.com’s rainforest information: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/:
•The Canopy
•The Forest Floor
• Layers of a Rainforest

3. Ask each group to present information about the layer it studied, the species that inhabit it and the adaptations that help them survive.

4. Lead a discussion with the group about the challenges of living in each of the layers of the jungle. Here are some possible items to include in the discussion:

5. Review the class’ 3-column chart of adaptations and add additional adaptations to the list.

CULMINATING ACTIVITY
1. Explain to students that, working in pairs or small groups, they will select a species that lives in the jungle, find out information about that species and create a 3-dimensional model or computer-animated model to illustrate how it seeks prey and/or defends itself in the jungle.

2. Ask students to review a few of the “Moment of Impact, Part 2: Jungle” video segments listed for this lesson in order to select the species they would like to research. (Access the video segments for this lesson at the Video Segments Page.) Ask each group to select one of the following species:
o Amazonian boa
o basilisk lizard
o bat
o Cuban crocodile
o leafcutter ant
o blue morpho butterfly
o osprey
o panther chameleon
o paradise tree snake
o red-eyed tree frog
o spider monkey
o tiger
o trap-jaw ant

3. Once students have selected their species, ask them to watch the corresponding segment again and record information about the highlighted adaptations. Encourage students to conduct additional research to find out more about their species.

4. Ask students to pick one or more adaptations to highlight in their project and to brainstorm the best ways to illustrate how that adaptation works. For example, if they have selected the panther chameleon, they could create a 3-d model of a panther chameleon that includes a “tongue” that extends to a length larger than the chameleon’s body, a body that changes color and/or eyes that each rotate 360 degrees.

5. The completed project could include a diagram, 3-d model and/or computer-generated animation and must include the following:
o Information about adaptations/features that help the species get food and/or defend itself against predators.
o A diagram, 3-d model or computer-generated video, created by the students, which demonstrates one or more skills/adaptations that help the species to survive. Here are some examples of adaptations that can be highlighted for each species:

6. Ask each group to present its work to the class and to lead a discussion about what it discovered about the species and its adaptations during the process.

7. Lead a discussion with the class, encouraging students to share facts they learned about the jungle, its species and their adaptations. Review the class’ definition of an “adaptation” and revise, as needed. Ask students to look at the class’ 3-column chart of adaptations and add new information learned during the lesson.

Overview

Rainforests are among the most challenging places for scientists to explore. Nevertheless, in search of answers, some intrepid scientists and researchers venture into the jungle with the latest technological devices.

Grade level: Grades 5 – 8

Subject areas: Science, Science and Technology

Learning objectives:
Students will be able to do the following:

• Observe unusual plant and animal species that exist in the world’s rainforests.
• Discuss how biologists use infrared cameras and other technology to explore jungles.

Program Highlights

• Creating 3-D maps of the rainforests of Borneo involves a combination of daring athleticism and computer expertise. Biologist Roman Dial often works 150 feet above the ground for days at a time, using lasers to measure and map the forest. His maps show how the jungle’s complex ecosystems work.
• Tigers were once plentiful throughout Sumatra. Today, only about 500 survive in the wild. Naturalist Jeremy Holden and cameraman Gavin Thurston attempt to be the first to catch one of these elusive animals on video, setting up motion-sensitive cameras that activate when an animal passes in front of an infrared beam.
• In 1862, Charles Darwin studied a bizarre orchid found on Madagascar. Darwin predicted that its survival probably depended on a gigantic moth with a 12-inch tongue. In this program, biologist Phil DeVries uses an infrared camera to finally catch this strange insect in action.

Before Viewing the Program

Ask students to describe what a jungle is. Explain that jungles are also known as rainforests. Using a physical map of the world that identifies forests in green, ask students if they can find where the world’s jungles are located. Mention that there are many jungles around the world, and they all tend to have similar climates. Show five different photographs of animals found in the Amazon rainforest. (You can find these in library books or Web sites, such as: www.junglephotos.com). Ask students to discuss what kind of climate these creatures would need to survive. To help orient them for the first segment of the program, have students find the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Encourage students to pay special attention to the different technologies that help the scientists do research in the rainforest.

Discussion Questions

• Why do you think there is so much variety of life in the world’s rainforests?
• Infrared cameras use an unseen portion of the spectrum and often show differences in temperature. What are some advantages of using an infrared camera to explore a jungle?
• What are the benefits of using a laser measurement device to map a rainforest?
• Imagine that you wanted to create a 3-D map of a square mile of forest. What challenges do you think you’d face?
• If you could tag along with one of the naturalist/explorers in this program, whom would you select, and why?

Follow Up

• Use a laser pointer to highlight images in the video or related illustrations you have posted on your bulletin board. Please remind students that lasers can be dangerous if they are pointed at people’s eyes!
• Liquid crystal technology, like an infrared camera, shows different temperatures as different colors. Use a liquid crystal thermometer to map the temperature of different areas on your skin. Which is warmer, your hands or your face?
• Use the Internet to research laser measurement, infrared cameras, infrared remote control devices, remote tracking devices, or other technologies mentioned in the program.

Fun Fact

The territory of a single Sumatran tiger is about half the size of New York City.

LIFE SCIENCE: Content Standard C – Populations and ecosystems, Diversity and adaptations of organisms; SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Content Standard E – Understanding about science and technology; HISTORY/NATURE OF SCIENCE: Content Standard G – Science as a human endeavor. For more information on the Web, go to http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/6d.html.

The following National Council of Teachers of English standards apply when using these materials: Standard 8: Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. For more information on the Web, go to http://www.ncte.org/about/over/standards/110846.htm

PART I: NEW FRONTIERS | PART II: MONSTERS OF THE FOREST | PART III: THE BEAST WITHIN

We all have a picture in our mind’s eye of what Earth’s great jungles look like. But you’ve never seen tropical forests like this before. In “Deep Jungle: New Frontiers,” see the jungle through the eyes of scientists who are using a new generation of high-tech tools to reveal long-hidden secrets.

Travel to Sumatra where researchers Gavin Thurston and Jeremy Holden try to capture on film — for the first time ever — the rare Sumatran tiger in the wild. As the explorers scramble along twisting paths struggling to follow the big cat’s trail, the question becomes: Who is stalking whom?

Explore Central America with bird expert Kimberly Bostwick, who seeks to understand how frenetic manakin birds produce their amazing sounds. Can a special video camera capture movements too fast for the eye to see?

Investigate Madagascar, where, 150 years ago, Charles Darwin predicted the evolution of an unusual moth with a 12-inch-long tongue. In DEEP JUNGLE, researchers stay up all night with a special night vision camera, looking for proof that he was right.

Take a trip to Borneo, where forest scientist Roman Dial proves that you can see the forest for the trees — but only if you climb up 200-foot-tall trees, armed with a special laser measuring stick that helps create a three-dimensional map of the forest.

Finally, journey to the Congo, where elephant researcher Steve Blake tracks forest elephants by satellite. First, Blake must manage to tag an elephant without getting killed.

After this visual voyage, your image of the jungle will be forever changed

Online content for “Deep Jungle” was originally posted in 2005.

How jungle structure leads to the rise of specific species.

Ever wonder how jungle creatures get around in the dense forests they call home? NATURE’s Deep Jungle: New Frontiers shows how researchers are developing tricks for seeing through the seeming chaos of a tropical forest.

Using everything from mountain-climbing ropes to propel themselves high into the leafy canopy to laser yardsticks that help them create three-dimensional computer models of the forest, these scientific explorers are able to reveal the hidden structure of tropical woodlands. They can then go on to explore how the structure influences the evolution and behavior of the creatures that live there.

In part, these scientists are following in the footsteps of two researchers, says Roman Dial, a forest researcher from Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage who is featured in NATURE’s Deep Jungle. He explains that 20 years ago, ecologists Lois Emmons and Alwin Gentry noticed something interesting about the tree-dwelling animals living in tropical forests. In 1983, they published a paper noting the fact that South America’s tropical forests are home to many animals that hang from tree branches by their tails, like opossums, but almost none that jump and glide from tree to tree, such as flying squirrels. In contrast, the tropical forests of Asia have almost no hanging animals but are home to “tons of gliders — gliding mammals, reptiles, even gliding frogs” that have special feet built for flying, says Dial. “Gliders are everywhere.”

What accounts for the difference? Emmons and Gentry figured it had something to do with the structure of the two kinds of tropical forests. South America’s forests, they suggested, tend to be relatively dense and low, making it easy for animals to swing or walk from tree to tree. In Asia, however, the trees appear to have larger spaces between them, and some tend to be very high — 200 feet tall or more — making them nearly two times taller than those typically found in South America. This creates a kind of two-story forest, with a taller canopy towering over a lower one. In such an environment, being able to glide from layer to layer could be a huge advantage, allowing an animal to soar quickly from tree to tree in search of food or in flight from an attacker.

Over the last decade, Dial became one of the scientists trying to collect evidence for what he calls “the open space hypothesis.” It wasn’t easy. For one thing, there was no easy way to map out all the trees in a forest — marking, measuring, and mapping on foot was a backbreaking, time-consuming effort. For another, to do the job right required getting into the tops of the trees, to see the forest the way the animals do. That’s dangerous, to say the least.

New tools, however, have helped Dial and other scientists conquer some of those problems. In DEEP JUNGLE, viewers can watch Dial climb tall trees in Borneo with the help of special equipment, using his laser yardstick to measure the distance between one tree and the next. By combining many such measurements, researchers can create sophisticated three-dimensional models of the forest. The models seem to confirm the open space hypothesis.

So if you live in an Asian forest, “it makes sense to glide,” Dial says. “Gliders save a lot of energy and the farther they can glide, the more energy they can save.” As Deep Jungle shows, some of these gliders are truly amazing creatures — including lizards that soar hundreds of feet from trunk to trunk and snakes that free fall from branch to branch. Dial says these animals are spectacular examples of how earth’s jungles have prompted the evolution of remarkable physical changes.

The jungles of central Africa are home to the forest elephant. Unlike their better-known cousins, the African elephants of the open savannahs, forest elephants are adapted to living in dense woodlands. They have straight tusks, for instance, since curved ones might get caught in vines and brush. And they tend to be smaller and stockier than savannah elephants.

Forest elephants are also less understood by scientists. In part, that’s because tracking these animals across hundreds of miles of forest is difficult. To get around that problem, researchers have begun fitting the elephants with electronic tags that send signals to an orbiting satellite. Researchers can now track these animals for a year or more as they move around the forest.

Still, it is risky work — sedating and putting a tag on a full-grown elephant can be dangerous. In NATURE’s Deep Jungle, for instance, viewers watch as a team led by Stephen Blake of the Wildlife Conservation Society tries to tag an elephant in Gabon. NATURE recently spoke with Blake about his work.

How did you get involved in tagging forest elephants?

Stephen Blake: I really came in through the back door. I had no idea when I was younger I’d end up doing something like this. After college, I ended up working in a zoo, and became a zookeeper working with gorillas. The zoo set up a gorilla nursery in Congo as part of a conservation program … and I went there, and ended up going back to school and doing a Ph.D. on forest elephants, trying to figure out where they were and where they like to go. We didn’t have the first clue back then about how far they were capable of ranging.

What do we know now?

Well, putting these tags on has allowed us to follow individuals like never before. We’ve found that they have a home range that might be up to 2,000 square kilometers [1,243 square miles] — that’s almost as big as the range of a savannah elephant. Sometimes they’ll stay put, however. We’ve got one now that appears to have found a patch of vegetation, and the old boy hasn’t moved for a few months. He likes it there.

How many elephants have you tagged, and how long do the tags last?

All in all, we have tagged about 36 elephants, about half male and half female. About 20 of those tags are still working. And right now, we’ve got no plans to tag more. The tags used to last about 12 to 18 months, but the newer ones last up to four years. They naturally fall off the animal after five or six years … they just get frayed and torn up.

How is forest elephant conservation going?

Unfortunately, forest elephants are getting hammered. The population appears to be shrinking, except in a few small areas. The last reliable survey in the late 1980s showed about 170,000 animals. There are probably less than 100,000 today.

What’s happening to them?

Unregulated poaching is the biggest problem. The motivation is mostly to get the ivory [tusks], but there is some hunting for meat and skin too. Conservation has been made more difficult because of the political instability in central Africa. But there are some signs of optimism in some places.

What’s next for you?

I’m about to move with my family back to Gabon. We’re starting some interesting projects aimed at being able to predict where the elephants will be, based on vegetation types and fruit production. That will help us identify key conservation areas and, we hope, help reintroduce elephants into some of their former range.

Good luck!

Thanks.

To track the elephants on the Web, visit: http://maps.geog.umd.edu/carpemapper/forestelephants.asp.

Kim Bostwick loves slow-motion instant replay. Not because she’s a huge sports fan, but because special high-speed video cameras have allowed her to solve a long-standing mystery: how unusual jungle-dwelling birds called manakins use their feathers to produce remarkable rhythmic buzzes and hums.

“Manakins have weird, pretty extreme behavior,” says Bostwick, an evolutionary ornithologist who makes a memorable appearance in the first episode of NATURE’s Deep Jungle. “They are very, very interesting birds.”

Bostwick became interested in animal behavior as a child. “I was a horse lover, then an animal lover,” she recalls. In high school, a gifted biology teacher nurtured that interest, which Bostwick carried to Cornell University (where she now works). There, she discovered bird watching — and got the itch to travel to the tropics, home of some of the globe’s most interesting bird species. In 1997, she entered graduate school, pursuing a doctorate on how an animal’s behavior affects the evolution of the shape of its body.

Her subject: manakins, small, sparrow-sized birds that abound in many tropical forests in South and Central America. There are about 40 kinds, about half of which use their wings and bodies to make a dizzying array of buzzes, snaps, and hums. It is almost always the males that make the noises during elaborate courtship displays designed to entice a female or defend territory.

Kim Bostwick: “Right there we just heard a male doing a little bit of a courtship display.”

The first problem Bostwick faced was figuring out exactly how the manakins she was studying were making the noises. “Everybody had a guess as to how they made sound,” she says, “but nobody had nailed it down.”

To find out, Bostwick spent years dissecting the wings of manakins in museum collections and traveling to the forest to watch and film them in the wild. The results, however, were disappointing. At the time, video cameras captured just 30 frames of action a second — far too slow to see the rapid, almost crazed movements of a male manakin.

Then, along came a much faster camera. It could capture a few seconds of action at up to 1,000 frames per second. Still, there was uncertainty. “My first question was whether I could get this thing to work in the jungle,” says Bostwick. “Could I get close enough to the birds? Would there be enough light? And even if the conditions were perfect, what would I see?”

Once she mastered the camera, what Bostwick saw — and what viewers of NATURE’s DEEP JUNGLE see — is remarkable. In super-slow motion, the male manakins lift their oddly shaped wings over their back and literally snap them together, or perform looping dives and flips in order to produce sounds and get in position to mate with a female. “Now, we really know what is going on,” Bostwick says.

Since then, Bostwick has captured a number of memorable scenes. In one, she filmed three male red-capped manakins trying to impress a female. “The air was literally popping; it sounded like static electricity,” she says. Using the camera, she ultimately discovered that the red-capped males used three different kinds of noise-making motions, depending on the courtship display. “It’s behavior that is completely hidden to the eye. … We never would have known without that camera,” she says.

The images are also helping sort out the manakin’s evolutionary history. While many birds have evolved wings that enable them to fly long distances or dodge predators, Bostwick says male manakins have evolved “really weird wings” that serve another purpose: “They want to blow a female’s mind. That’s the most important thing.”

Stephen Blake

Stephen Blake A self-proclaimed “working-class lad” from Dartford, England, Blake studied zoology at the University of London and earned his Ph.D. studying the migratory patterns of Nouabale-Ndoki forest elephants at the University of Edinburgh. He is known as an audacious biologist who thinks nothing of crossing wild forests clad only in sandals and a pair of shorts. Richard Ruggiero, who runs the elephant fund for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and worked with Blake, compares him to nineteenth-century explorers: “He’s someone who could walk across Africa, turn around, and then be ready to go back again.” As part of his research, Blake has taken a series of what he calls “long walks” — foot surveys that start in Makao and follow a web of elephant trails up the Motaba and Mokala rivers to the Nouabale-Ndoki park’s northern border. These “walks” cross the park from north to south, then emerge from the headwater swamps of the Likouala aux Herbes River below the park’s southern border. Each trek covers about 150 miles and takes about a month.

The Forest Elephant GPS Telemetry Program was initiated in 1998 in response to the near complete lack of information on the home range requirements, ranging patterns, and seasonal movements of forest elephants in central African forests. Savannah elephants use thousands of square kilometers when their ranging is unrestricted, and if forest elephants have similarly large area requirements, range management and national park design must be developed on an adequate scale. Operational in three nations, six national parks, and across a wide variety of habitats, this study provides critical information to land-use planners, park managers, and governments. Our project is conducted in close collaboration with Save the Elephants, a Kenyan-based NGO that pioneered the use of GPS telemetry for savannah elephant research and conservation. When first approached by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Save the Elephants saw the potential of using GPS telemetry for forest elephant conservation, and funded the first six collars deployed in central Africa. Save the Elephants continues to share its vast experience and expertise with the WCS team and has generously donated a total of 14 GPS telemetry collars.

“Biologists and conservation site managers from WCS are working with collaborators to deploy a total of over 30 GPS collars across critical elephant conservation areas in central African forests. We are proud of the part we play in what has become a truly collaborative field research and conservation venture. We have developed sampling plans, which meet scientific and management information requirements while respecting the prerequisite of minimizing risk to both elephants and humans. Field veterinarians from the WCS Field Vet Program supervise immobilization and ensure the highest standards of elephant handling during collar deployment. A pygmy tracking team, composed of former elephant hunters of the BaAka pygmies, has been trained over several years to help veterinarians approach and dart elephants efficiently — their lifetime experience being critical to success in the thick forest conditions of central Africa. The collars are programmed to collect GPS fixes every day, from between three to 24 times per day, with an expected battery life of about two years.”

Kimberly Bostwick

Kimberly Bostwick Dr Kimberly S. Bostwick is Curator of Birds and Mammals at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates and a Research Associate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University in New York.

Kim has analyzed high-speed video of manakins in their incredible courtship dances. Manakins are a group of tiny, colorful birds native to Latin America whose males have a curious way of impressing the females. Unlike most birds, they don’t sing — they clap. The video has revealed how they slap their wings together with remarkable speed (twice that of a hummingbird’s wings) and force to make the percussive snapping sounds that accompany their mating dances.

Phil DeVries

Phil DeVries Phil DeVries recently left his post as Director for the Center for Biodiversity Studies at the Milwaukee Public Museum and Adjunct Professor in Biology at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee to join the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of New Orleans. He studies species diversity, especially tropical butterfly communities, and the evolution of symbiotic associations between caterpillars and ants.

“My work includes two major books on the comparative biology of Costa Rican butterflies and over 70 separate research articles on a broad range of topics relevant to understanding insect diversity. Several significant awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Dodge Foundation Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship have supported my research,” he says.

Phil has been involved in several television programs, including National Geographic’s BUG ATTACK and HEROES OF THE HIGH FRONTIER.

Roman Dial

Roman Dial “Through the late ’70s, the ’80s, and most of the ’90s, I pursued a near obsession with Alaskan wilderness, while simultaneously nurturing an academic intrigue with ecology. I scaled rock and ice, skied glaciers, paddled rivers. I studied for four degrees, two in mathematics and two in biology. I learned to ‘packraft,’ ‘hellbike,’ and ‘glacier skate.’ Magazines and newspapers ran my hyperbole and exploits; peer-reviewed journals published my theory and data. For me the wild side feeds emotion and spirit; the analytic side feeds intellect and family.

“So now, as a professor at Alaska Pacific University, I feel blessed with an eclectic convergence. I can take a class to the tropics or the arctic, where we can lie on our bellies and watch musk ox[en] or dangle from ropes and watch monkeys. We can even move from tree to tree, collecting observations en route. We can paddle autumn rivers into Canada, or read Sir Robert May on chaos, Benoit Mandelbrot on fractals, and Per Bak on complexity. We can do wilderness and travel, math and statistics, nature and science, and we can find surprise and delight and challenge in it all.”

In DEEP JUNGLE, viewers watch Roman at work in the Bornean rainforest. Part of his research includes comparing different rainforests’ canopy structures and investigating how they relate to the animals that live there. Borneo’s extraordinarily tall and spacious canopy is home to more than half of the world’s gliding species — including flying frogs, lizards, snakes, geckos, squirrels, and lemurs.

Jeremy Holden

Jeremy Holden Jeremy Holden originally traveled to Kerinci Seblat in Sumatra as a photographer in 1994, but an encounter with the mysterious Orang Pendek, a bipedal ape of Yeti-like reputation, changed his life. He and Debbie Martyr persuaded Fauna and Flora International (FFI, Britain’s oldest conservation organization) to fund a project to photo-trap the elusive animals of Kerinci Seblat.

In addition to allowing Jeremy to study animals like tigers and tapirs, the project revealed animals previously thought to be extinct (Schneider’s pitta) as well as those that had never been photographed before (the Sumatran rabbit).

Jeremy now lives six months of the year in Sumatra and spends the rest of the time photographing around the world for FFI. He is still trying to obtain the first ever photo of the Orang Pendek.

Elisabeth Kalko

Elisabeth Kalko Known as the “Bat Woman of Panama,” Elisabeth Kalko is at the forefront of research on bats, the most diverse mammals in the tropics. Kalko is intrigued by bats’ hunting and feeding strategies and methods. She is also interested in studying bats’ indispensable roles in dispersing large quantities of seeds, pollinating flowers, and controlling insect populations.

Elisabeth Kalko is a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and works at the University of Ulm in Germany, but also conducts research in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Ivory Coast, and Europe. She uses a range of technology, from thermal and infrared imaging to laptops capable of analyzing the bats’ echolocation.

Nalini Nadkarni

Nalini Nadkarni Nalini Nadkarni has been called “the queen of forest canopy research.” A fierce crusader for preserving the immeasurable biodiversity that resides in and depends upon the canopy, Dr. Nadkarni is a true pioneer in forest ecology. After two decades of climbing tall trees in Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific Northwest, she has demonstrated that it is critical to actually be in the canopy in order to comprehend the interactions of the species that live there.

A faculty member at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, Dr. Nadkarni focuses on the ecology of tropical and temperate forest canopies. In 1994 she co-founded the International Canopy Network, a not-for-profit organization devoted to facilitating communication among researchers, educators, and conservationists concerned with forest canopies. The organization conducts outreach programs through schools and works with policy makers on matters concerning forest conservation.

To enhance the field of canopy research as a whole, she worked with a team of fellow researchers and computer scientists to build a state-of-the-art database to manage, analyze, and disseminate data pertaining to multiple scientific disciplines.

Dr. Nadkarni has written more than 70 scientific papers and books documenting the roles that canopy-dwelling plants play in fostering diversity, providing resources for arboreal birds and mammals, and increasing the efficiency of nutrient cycling. In 2001, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship to explore the obstacles that scientists face in sharing their information with nonscientific audiences. Dr. Nadkarni’s creative, nontraditional methods for generating grassroots support — such as lobbying major league baseball player Mark McGwire to vouch for the connection between forests and baseball bats — have captured the interest of popular media. Her work has been featured in GLAMOUR magazine, an IMAX film, and the children’s magazine HIGHLIGHTS, as well as more traditional scientific publications. A rare combination of scientist, adventurer, and forest evangelist, Dr. Nadkarni has a message that is both thrilling and empowering.

Series Producer
DAVID ALLEN

Camera
DAVID ALLEN
JUSTINE EVANS
GAVIN THURSTON
MARK YATES

Additional Camera
RALPH BOWER
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ROLAND THERON

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JAMES ALDRED

Sound
LAURENT LANGLOIS
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GEOFF PRICE

Music
WILL SLATER

Editor
ANDREW CHASTNEY

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PAUL ACKERMAN

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Thanks to:
Air Gabon
Beth King, STRI
Casimir Rafamantanantsoa
Cede Prudente, North Borneo Safaris Sdn Bhd
Dany Cleyet-Marrel
English Heritage, Down House
Fauna & Flora International
Forestry Commission, Gabon
Hans Banziger
Kasanka National Park
Patrice Pasquier, Mistral Voyages
Pedro Mendez
Sabah Forestry Department
Save the Elephants
Sean Morris
Sepilok Orang Utan Centre
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Taman Safari
Videographics Production, Sabah
Waidi Sinun
Wildlife Conservation Society

Researcher
JAMES REED

Assistant Editor
GARY THOMAS

Assistant Producers
BECCA CECIL-WRIGHT
BILL MARKHAM
BARNY REVILL

Production Coordinators
HELEN WHILE
LISA MENIKIDES

Production Manager
WOLFGANG KNOEPFLER

Associate Producer
RUPERT BARRINGTON

Head of Production
TERESA WATTS

Executive Producer
BRIAN LEITH
© Granada 2004

For NATURE

Series Editor
JANET HESS

Supervising Producer
JANICE YOUNG

Producers
PATTY JACOBSON
JILL CLARKE

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IRENE TEJARATCHI
GIANNA SAVOIE

Production Secretary
RACHAEL TEEL

Manager
EILEEN FRAHER

Production Manager
JULIE SCHAPIRO THORMAN

Online Editor
BRUNO PELLEGRINI

Sound Mixer
ED CAMPBELL

Series Producer
BILL MURPHY

Executive In Charge
WILLIAM GRANT

Executive Producer
FRED KAUFMAN

A Co-Production of Granada Wild and Thirteen/WNET New York in association with National Geographic Channel International and France 5.

This program was produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, which is solely responsible for its content.

© 2005 Thirteen/WNET New York. All Rights Reserved.

Web Credits

Producer
DANIEL B. GREENBERG

Associate Producer
TANNER VEA

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MICHAEL DIMAURO

Pagebuilding
BRIAN SANTALONE

Technical Director
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About the Writer
David Malakoff is a journalist covering research discoveries and the politics of science for SCIENCE MAGAZINE in Washington, D.C. His writing has appeared in a wide range of venues, including THE ECONOMIST, THE WASHINGTON POST, and ABCNews.com.

Photos for “Overview” and “Meet the Scientists” © Rupert Barrington / Granada Media Group. Photos for “For Educators” and “Resources” © Granada Media Group. Photo for “Jungle Travel” © Cede Prudente. Photo for “Tracking Forest Elephants” © Michael Kock. Other images from DEEP JUNGLE.

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Dan Goldman, Executive Director, thirteen.org. Bob Adleman, Business Manager.