From 93 million miles away, the sun fixes its heated gaze on the scorched desert expanse of Death Valley National Park — the hottest, driest place in North America. But this is no typical desert. Here, breathtaking mountains rise two miles above sprawling salt flats, and mighty sand dunes dance alongside deep craters. Nowhere else is a land so exquisite in its beauty yet brutal in its extremes.

In this ultimate testing ground, the rules are simple — adapt or perish. Fascinating desert dwellers have ingenious ways to outwit Mother Nature in their quest to survive. Tiny antelope squirrels lay with their bellies to the ground in order to purge their bodies of excess heat, while jackrabbits use their long ears to cool themselves.

Whereas the animals appear to do everything in their power to avoid the extreme conditions of Death Valley, many visitors are drawn to the park for the sheer challenge. Top athletes flirt with their own mortality in what has become known as the toughest footrace on the planet, the Badwater Ultramarathon. This 135-mile road race snakes through the valley during the cruel blaze of summer.

In Death Valley, things are never quite as they seem. Beneath its parched surface lies one of America’s largest aquifer systems. Rare access into this astonishing, water-laden underworld brings viewers into a secret realm. Here, a team of biologists works to protect the critically endangered Devil’s Hole pupfish, a species that has lived in this watery cavern since the last Ice Age.

Explore the mystique and the majesty of the largest park in the continental United States on Life in Death Valley.

Online content for Life in Death Valley was originally posted September 2004.

Stretching across more than 2.2 million acres of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho is one of the greatest expanses of unspoiled nature and wildlife anywhere on Earth — Yellowstone National Park. Designated America’s first national park in 1872, Yellowstone now receives almost three million visitors each year. Yet only a small fraction of those who glimpse the park’s stunning vistas, geological wonders, and animal residents do so during the winter months, a time when nature’s inhospitality is matched only by its serenity.

NATURE follows in the snowy footprints of Yellowstone’s red foxes, spies on the predatory warfare of wolves and elk, and climbs into the den of a grizzly bear that gives birth to two cubs while deep in hibernation. In addition to mesmerizing footage of landscapes and wildlife, trail alongside author and photographer Tom Murphy, who has been coming to Yellowstone for the past 26 winters, camping and photographing amid the silence and solitude of the park. And go behind the scenes with filmmaker Shane Moore to find out how he kept up with Murphy during an at times harrowing trek, reminiscent of the legendary John Colter’s first journey into the park nearly two hundred years ago. Buy the DVD. This film premiered in November 2006.

Photo © Tom Murphy

After his ‘Lobo’ adventure, Ernest Thompson Seton went on to become a world famous writer and naturalist. © Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library

In 1893, Ernest Thompson Seton traveled west to New Mexico with a singular purpose: to kill the wolf named Lobo. However, as The Wolf That Changed America reveals, the time Seton spent there profoundly transformed his worldview.

After Seton’s encounters with Lobo, he returned east and set about recording his adventure. But in the story he wrote, Seton himself is the villain, and Lobo is the hero. His book, Wild Animals I Have Known, became a worldwide success and turned Seton into a major celebrity.

Seton found new purpose in speaking out against the destruction of America’s wilderness. He lobbied for the creation of new national parks, and fought for protections for wildlife.

For Seton, it wasn’t just a question of saving the wilderness. He believed that people had to experience nature in order to care about it — that it should be a part of everyone’s upbringing.

What’s your connection to nature? Why do you value it? Use the comment form below to share your own experiences of the natural world with NATURE viewers everywhere. Tell us your favorite stories and memories of the wilderness and wildlife around you. 

Background:
Grizzly bears were once scarce in Yellowstone National Park and on their way to extinction. After becoming designated as an Endangered Species over three decades ago, governmental protections have allowed these natural predators to make a comeback. But the grizzly’s success has come at a destructive and often dangerous price for people living nearby. These clips from the NATURE episode “The Good, The Bad and the Grizzly” examine how human exploitation endangered the grizzlies in the first place, how human intervention helped restore their numbers, and how delicately humans coexist with the resurgent grizzlies today.

Suggested Focus Questions:

Clip 1: Bears’ Lunch Counter

1. What was the effect of Yellowstone’s former policy of feeding the bears?
2. What was the eventual solution to the problem of dwindling bear populations?

Clip 2: This is Their Land

1. What is a “bear jam” and why are they dangerous?
2. Why is it so important for bears’ safety to design garbage bins that they can’t break into?

Clip 3: Bears Don’t Recognize Boundaries

1. Why is livestock so vulnerable to bears?
2. When do bears do most of their hunting?

Clip 4: Bears in the Schoolyard

1. What is the biggest attraction for bears in Wapiti?
2. How do Wapiti residents try to minimize this problem?

Clip 5: Bear Necessities

1. What are the four major foods for bears in Yellowstone?
2. When these foods are scarce, where will bears come to seek food?

Clip 6: To List or Not To List:

1. How would taking bears off the endangered species list change their habitat?
2. Who might be most interested in taking bears off the endangered species list?

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.)

Clip 1, Bears’ Lunch Counter

Clip 2, This is Their Land

Clip 3, Bears Don’t Recognize Boundaries

Clip 4, Bears in the Schoolyard

Clip 5, Bear Necessities

Clip 6, To List or Not to List

GRADE LEVEL: 9-11

TIME ALLOTMENT: Three to four 45-minute class periods, with additional time for homework

OVERVIEW: Grizzly bears were once scarce in Yellowstone National Park and on their way to extinction. Now, however, America’s greatest predator is making a comeback. The story of the grizzly’s return is one of the biggest successes in conservation history. The restored presence of the bears has brought visitors and revenue to the park, but it has also brought frustration and destruction to local ranchers, homeowners, and tourists living and working nearby.

Using the NATURE episode “The Good, The Bad and the Grizzly,” students will discover how human beings have both saved and harmed a species. Students will investigate how human beings have interacted with and impacted the lives of grizzly bears, sometimes deliberately and sometimes inadvertently. Students will be able to articulate the complex and competing perspectives on how to best handle the burgeoning bear population, and describe the multiple factors contributing to the destabilization of the bear’s Yellowstone ecosystem.

The lesson will begin with students participating in an introductory activity, in which they will challenge their notions of what is “good,” “bad,” “true,” and “false” about grizzly bears and animal conservation efforts. Following the activity, students will research the habits and habitats of grizzly bears. Then, utilizing segments from the NATURE episode, students will explore the complex relationships between humans and grizzlies in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Students will then play and refine a classroom-based simulation game illustrating the challenges and obstacles to grizzly life in the national park and the surrounding area. As a culminating activity, students will write a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, either asking for special protection for the Yellowstone grizzly population, or endorsing the bear’s de-listing from the Endangered Species Act.

SUBJECT MATTER: Living Environment/Biology

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to:

• Describe intentional and inadvertent impacts human beings have had on the grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone ecosystem;
• Articulate how the relationship between humans and grizzlies has changed over time;
• Evaluate the complex contemporary relationship between humans and grizzlies, as well as the challenging aspects of wildlife protection programs;
• Identify the grizzly bear’s critical food sources in the Yellowstone ecosystem, and the threats posed to these food sources;
• Describe the challenges and obstacles faced by bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem, and refine a simulation game with their knowledge;
• Make an informed decision about whether or not to support the de-listing of grizzly bears from the Endangered Species Act.

STANDARDS AND CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT

National Science Standards for Science Content

CONTENT STANDARDS C; Life Science

As a result of activities in grades 9-12, students should develop understandings of:

• Interdependence of Organisms

• Human beings live within the world’s ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, technology, and consumption. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly affected.

New York State Regents Core Curriculum Alignments
Living Environment Core Curriculum

Standard 4. Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science. This change over time is well-documented by extensive evidence from a wide variety of sources.

Key Idea 1: Living Things are both similar to and different from each other and from non-living things.

Performance Indicators

1.1 Explain how diversity of populations within ecosystems relates to the stability of ecosystems.

1.1a Populations can be categorized by the function they serve. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposer carting out either autotrophic or heterotrophic nutrition.

1.1c In all environments, organisms compete for vital resources. The linked and changing interactions of populations and the environment compose the total ecosystem.

Key Idea 7: Describe the range of interrelationships of humans with the living and non-living environment

7.1c Human beings are part of the Earth’s ecosystems. Human activities can, deliberately or inadvertently alter the equilibrium in ecosystems. Humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, consumption and technology. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems may be irreversibly affected.

7.2a Human activities that degrade ecosystems result in a loss of diversity of the living and non-living environment. For example, the influence of humans on other organisms occurs through land use and pollution. Land use decreases the space and resources available to other species, and pollution changes the chemical composition of air, soil and water.

MEDIA COMPONENTS

Video

NATURE, The Good, The Bad and the Grizzly, selected clips:

Clip 1, “Bears’ Lunch Counter”

This segment explores how the relationship between humans and grizzly bears has changed over the course of American History, and describes the closing of the Yellowstone garbage dumps in the 1970s.

Clip 2, “This Is Their Land”

This segment examines how the human/grizzly relationship has changed since the closing of the Yellowstone dumps, and the challenges posed to both humans and bears.

Clip 3, “Bears Don’t Recognize Boundaries”

This segment focuses on the problems bears are creating on ranch land surrounding Yellowstone National Park.

Clip 4, “Bears in the Schoolyard”

This segment focuses on the precautions humans must take in the face of a growing grizzly bear population.

Clip 5, “Bear Necessities”

This segment focuses on the four foods most important to grizzly survival, and the threats to each of them.

Clip 6, “To List or Not To List”

This segment focuses on the ongoing debate regarding whether or not grizzlies need special protection for their population.

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

Web Sites

Windows into Wonderland
Take your students on an electronic field trip to Yellowstone National Park where they can explore bear ecology, history, and the challenges of bear management.

Plain Graph Paper PDF Generator
This Web site allows you to create customizable and printable graph paper. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in, available for free download at Adobe, in order to open and print the graph paper you create.

Yellowstone National Park Official Map
This Web site from the National Park Service provides an 11×17 detailed map of services, facilities, features, and attractions at Yellowstone National Park.

Cardinal Points of the Compass
This Web site features a depiction of a compass with the cardinal points illustrated.

MATERIALS

For each student:

• “Dare to Care for A Grizzly Bear” Student Organizer (PDF) (RTF)
• Pencil and paper

For each team of 4 students:

• One sheet of graph paper on 11×17 paper, created with the Plain Graph Paper PDF Generator, according to the specifications listed in the “Prep for Teachers” section below.
• One copy of the Yellowstone National Park Official Map on 11×17 paper or transparency
• One compass, downloaded and printed from Cardinal Points of the Compass
• One copy of Yellowstone Bear Adventure Game Rules (PDF) (RTF)
• One basket, box, or envelope containing the Yellowstone Adventure Bear Scenarios (PDF) (RTF), cut into individual strips.
• One basket, box, or envelope containing the Yellowstone Adventure “Outside the Park” Bear Scenarios (PDF) (RTF), cut into individual strips.
• A minimum of five Teddy Grahams or bear-shaped animal crackers
• Two brightly colored markers in different colors

For the classroom:

• A map of the United States
• Four large signs; one each reading “GOOD,” “BAD,” “TRUE,” and “FALSE”
• “Dare to Care for a Grizzly Bear” Answer Key (PDF) (RTF)
• Computers with Internet access
• LCD projector
• Chalkboard or whiteboard
• Additional Teddy Grahams or animal crackers for eating

PREP FOR TEACHERS

Prior to teaching this lesson, you will need to:

Preview all of the video clips and Web sites used in the lesson.

Download the video clips used in the lesson to your classroom computer, or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s Internet connection.

Bookmark the Web sites used 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.

For the Introductory Activity and Culminating Activity:
Create signs with the words “GOOD,” “BAD,” “TRUE,” and “FALSE.” Put one sign on each wall of your classroom.

Download and print the “Dare to Care for a Grizzly Bear” Student Organizer, the “Dare to Care for a Grizzly Bear” Answer Key and make copies of all for each of your students.

For the Culminating Activity:

Download and print the Yellowstone National Park Official Map, and make one copy on 11×17 paper for each group of four students in your classroom. Download and print the Compass Web site and make one copy of the compass for each group of four students in your classroom.

Visit the Graph Paper Generator Web site, and create graph paper according to the following specifications: PDF document size = 11×17 inches; minimum border = 0.5 inches; grid line weight = 1 point; grid line spacing = 1 line per inch. Download and print the PDF of the graph paper you have created onto 11×17 paper or transparency. Make one copy of the graph paper for each group of four students in your classroom.

Download and print the Yellowstone Adventure “Bear Scenarios,” and make one copy for each group of four students in your classroom. Cut each set of Bear Scenarios into a series of strips, with one scenario listed on each strip. Put a complete cut-up set of bear scenarios in a box, envelope, or basket for each group of four students in your classroom.

Download and print the Yellowstone Adventure “Outside the Park” Bear Scenarios, and make one copy for each group of four students in your classroom. Cut each set of “Outside the Park” Bear Scenarios into a series of strips, with one scenario listed on each strip. Put a complete cut-up set of “Outside the Park” bear scenarios in a box, envelope, or basket for each group of four students in your classroom. Each group of four students should have a set of both the Bear Scenarios and the Outside the Park Bear Scenarios.

Next: Proceed to Activities

Mysteries and surprises abound in the nocturnal world of Leopards of Yala.

For more than a century, Yala National Park in Sri Lanka has been one of Asia’s most celebrated wildlife preserves, a lush windswept tropical forest rich in rare aquatic birds and abundant with ferocious predators, such as crocodiles and sloth bears. But only in very recent years has Yala’s big cat distinction been brought to light: It contains one of the world’s largest concentrations of leopards. NATURE takes viewers deep into the jungle habitat of these elusive animals, in Leopards of Yala.

Over a period of six years, Jehan Kumara, a businessman from Sri Lanka’s capital city of Colombo, and Dr. Ravi Samarasinha, a physician from the local countryside, devoted their spare time to tracking leopards in Yala. In the course of their work, they are joined by Scottish cameraman Gordon Buchanan, attracted to Yala by the lure of finding the only big cat he had never captured on film.

To order a copy of Leopards of Yala, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Leopards of Yala was originally posted April 2003.

The foundation for the massive sandstone massifs was laid when South America and Africa made up the continent Godwanaland. Water and air are thought to have transported sand from nearby eroding mountain ranges to the area that would become the Guyana Highlands, home to the tepuis. When South America broke apart from Africa, about 180 million years ago, fissures and fractures formed in the highlands’ sandstone plateaus known as the Roraima Group. Forces within the earth lifted up some sections of the plateaus higher than others. Erosion over millions of years did the rest. Made of sandstone and quartz, the tepuis have been in their present form for the past 3 to 4 million years.

The towering tabletop mountains are found mostly in southeastern Venezuela, though some examples exist in northern Brazil and western Guyana. The largest and most imposing examples are located in Venezuela’s Canaima National Park.

The soil on top of the tepuis is acidic and poor in nutrients — a fact that makes some of the Lost World’s best-known plants carnivorous. On the top of some tepuis, dwarf forests can be seen; on others, meadows. Peat covers many of the summits. Jagged piles of quartz and sandstone jut out of the mountains’ surrounding savannas and jungles.

This is a humid environment and the area is crisscrossed with rivers and waterfalls (often seasonal), among which the 3,212-feet-tall Angel Falls — the world’s highest waterfall, located on the Churún River — serves as the star attraction. River beds of solid jasper in reds or oranges also provide an exotic touch — one of the most popular stops for tourists is at Jaspé Falls.

Temperatures generally range from 46° to 68° Fahrenheit. On the top of Mount Roraima, temperatures have dipped as low as 33.8° F, but no frost has been recorded. Rainfall is plentiful (79 to 157 inches per year) and humidity consistently high.

Angel Falls is more than three times the height of what famous monument?

The Empire State Building

The Eiffel Tower

The Great Pyramid of Giza

The Sears Tower

Want to go to Angel Falls? Prepare for an adventure. If you opt to depart from Canaima National Park on a dugout canoe with a Pemón guide, travel time can take up to three days during the dry season (roughly December to April) with plenty of canoe-carrying thrown in. During the wet season, canoe travel can be quite dangerous; some guides will outright refuse to go. If water doesn’t work, Avensa, Venezuela’s national carrier, also runs daily flights over the falls as part of a tour package to Canaima National Park. Failing that, there’s a less popular cross-country trek to the falls from Kavak or Uruyen tourist camps. Travel time? Between 6 to 10 days of hiking.