Discussion Questions:

• How can the cull be considered an example of a practice that is “cruel to be kind”?
• Can culling be done humanely?  Defend your answer.
• What are the limitations to the humane practices of kangaroo sanctuaries and contraception?
• What do you think the best solution is to the surging kangaroo population: the cull, kangaroo sanctuaries or contraception? Explain your rationale.
• Is it wrong to kill an animal that has become part of the Australian identity?  Why or why not?

Background Essay:

The kangaroo is one of Australia’s most iconic animals, but their growing numbers have resulted in a controversy of epic proportions. In the last 50 years the kangaroo population in the Australian capital city of Canberra has exploded from a few hundred to tens of thousands, thusly earning the moniker “Urban Kangaroos.”

The area surrounding Canberra has been in a drought for the past 15 years. As a result, eastern gray kangaroos have been forced from their natural habitat in the hills above the city into suburban lawns and urban parks to graze on grass. Further exacerbating the situation is urban development and a lack of predation.  Urban expansion has resulted in land clearing that provides open pastures for grazing. Additionally, population control has all but wiped out the kangaroos’ natural predator, the dingo.

Overgrazing reduces grassy fields to dust and destroys the natural habitat of a number of endangered species, including the grassland earless dragon, the striped legless lizard, and the golden sun moth. With the kangaroo numbers continuing to grow, the government solution has been to reduce the population though culling, a process that is conducted under the strict environmental controls provided by the Australian Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999. The cull is carried out by experienced marksmen who shoot adult kangaroos in the head, while crushing or decapitating the young joeys. Media coverage and protest groups have brought a great deal of attention to this government practice and have prompted a national debate over the appropriateness of the cull.

The heated debate is leading many scientists to look for more humane and efficient solutions to the surging population that is currently damaging the ecosystem. One alternative is to move a portion of the kangaroos from overpopulated areas to dedicated sanctuaries that can easily accommodate them. Scientists have captured, rehabilitated, and released injured kangaroos into protected areas where the kangaroos can live in their natural habitat without threat or intrusion. Critics of this solution believe there are far too many kangaroos to safely and economically capture and release a large enough number to have a positive impact on the ecosystem. Scientists are also researching methods to limit the reproduction of kangaroos. The research is aimed at developing a species-specific, orally-delivered contraceptive vaccine that can be easily spread out in the wild for eastern gray kangaroos. Current research reveals the vaccine can provide sterility for at least three years. Ongoing drug trials will take researchers approximately 10 years to establish the long-term effectiveness of the drug and its environmental and ecological safety. Until this time, the cull will be the only safe and economic solution to the kangaroo population problem.

For more information, go to:

• Kangaroo Mob: Kangaroo Fact Sheet
• Birth Control for Kangaroos: Scientists’ Population Control Plan
• Kangaroo Population Control Methods
• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
• RSPCA Australia Knowledgebase

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:

Content Standard C: Life Science

Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Regulation and Behavior
  • All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.
• Populations and Ecosystems
  • A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time. All populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.
  • The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition. Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase at rapid rates. Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the growth of populations in specific niches in the ecosystem.
• Diversity And Adaptations of Organisms
  • Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient to allow its survival. Fossils indicate that many organisms that lived long ago are extinct. Extinction of species is common; most of the species that have lived on the earth no longer exist.

Grades 9-12:

Content Standard C: Life Science

Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• The Interdependence of Organisms
  • 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.
  • Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension has profound effects on the interactions between organisms.
• Matter, Energy, and Organization in Living Systems
  • The distribution and abundance of organisms and populations in ecosystems are limited by the availability of matter and energy and the ability of the ecosystem to recycle materials.

Content Standard E: Science and Technology

Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Understandings About Science and Technology
  • Scientists in different disciplines ask different questions, use different methods of investigation, and accept different types of evidence to support their explanations. Many scientific investigations require the contributions of individuals from different disciplines, including engineering. New disciplines of science, such as geophysics and biochemistry often emerge at the interface of two older disciplines.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• Raccoon kits stay with their mothers for up to a year, during which time they are taught different survival skills. How do you think a raccoon mother could teach things to her young?

After watching the video:

• Describe how the raccoon mother taught her young to enter the barn. Explain what she did in order to successfully get the last kit inside the barn.
• Discuss the role that raccoon mothers play during the first year of their kits’ lives.

Background Essay:

Scientists have long reflected on the question of what knowledge and behavior is determined by nature (genes and inheritance) and what is acquired by nurture (upbringing and environment). Some believe animal behaviors are primarily determined by evolution, while others believe that external factors play a major role in modifying animal behaviors.  Although the debate continues about whether nature or nurture plays a more important role in determining animals’ behaviors, most scientists agree that a combination of inherited and environmental factors contribute to species’ behaviors. Scientists believe that mothers can play a critical role in helping their offspring to develop and have found that young who spend time with their mothers through their development are generally smarter than those that don’t.

For more information, go to:

• Raccoon Fact Sheet

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Reproduction and Heredity
  • The characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination of traits. Some traits are inherited and others result from interactions with the environment.
• Regulation and Behavior
  • Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
  • An organism’s behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species’ evolutionary history.

Grades 9-12:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• The Behavior of Organisms
  • 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.
  • 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.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• Two Canadian scientists conducted a study in which they tracked the movements of raccoons in Toronto, Canada. What do you think they could learn from that type of study? What questions could they answer?

After watching the video:

• Discuss why Dupuis-Desormeaux and MacDonald decided to embark on this project and what they wanted to find out.
• What were the main findings of the study? What were some surprises that the scientists discovered after reviewing the data? What conclusions did the researchers make, based on the information they discovered about the raccoons’ territory size?
• In order to conduct this study, the researchers trapped, sedated and placed radio collars on 5 raccoons. What do you think about this methodology? Do you think scientists should place tracking devices on animals in order to gain more information about their behavior? Explain your reasoning.

Background Essay:

In the past 70 years, raccoon populations have dramatically increased in urban areas, including major cities like New York, Chicago and Toronto. Until recently, however, scientists had limited knowledge about how raccoons survive in cities. Thanks to modern technology, they can now track movements of different species and analyze their behavior patterns. In a ground-breaking study, highlighted in the video segment “Observing the Secret Lives of Raccoons,” Canadian biologists Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux and Suzanne MacDonald explored raccoon behavior by placing radio collars on five raccoons in Toronto. The radio collars provided the researchers with GPS locations for the raccoons every 5 to 15 minutes, while previous studies were only able to gather GPS data every 3 to 5 hours. As a result of the frequent readings, Dupuis-Desormeaux and MacDonald were able to gain new insight about where raccoons spend their time. They discovered raccoons don’t usually cross major roads and they tend to have small territories which are, on average, the size of about three city blocks.

Conducting research with wild species poses unique challenges for researchers, since they need to gain information about the animals in their natural environments, without negatively affecting the animals or interfering too much with the species’ activities. The “Three R’s” of animal research, originally outlined by scientists William Russell and Rex Burch in 1959, provide guidelines for humane research and experimentation with animals. The “Three “R’s” include “replacement” (replace animals with microorganisms, metazoan parasites or plants in research studies, whenever possible), “reduction” (use the minimal number of animals possible to conduct the study) and “refinement” (use the most humane and least invasive techniques possible).  Current research with wildlife incorporates modern technology and techniques to conduct research in a way that results in minimal discomfort or distress for the species.

Through their study, Dupuis-Desormeaux and MacDonald successfully gathered data about the behavior of raccoons at night in cities, rather than in a lab environment, zoo, or other controlled setting. The VHF signal transmitted by the radio collars made it possible for the scientists to gather data without having to re-trap the raccoons and remove the collar each time they wanted to download information.

For more information, go to:

• The Three ‘R’s of Russell and Burch
• Three Rs Microsite: Wildlife Research
• NC3Rs – Wildlife research
• Raccoon intelligence at the borderlands of science
• Raccoon Fact Sheet

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:
Content Standard E: Science and Technology
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Understandings about Science and Technology
  • Science and technology are reciprocal. Science helps drive technology, as it addresses questions that demand more sophisticated instruments and provides principles for better instrumentation and technique. Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to factors such as quantity, distance, location, size, and speed. Technology also provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis.

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Science as a Human Endeavor
  • Women and men of various social and ethnic backgrounds—and with diverse interests, talents, qualities, and motivations—engage in the activities of science, engineering, and related fields such as the health professions. Some scientists work in teams, and some work alone, but all communicate extensively with others.
  • Science requires different abilities, depending on such factors as the field of study and type of inquiry. Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human qualities, such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity—as well as on scientific habits of mind, such as intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, and openness to new ideas.
• Nature of Science
  • Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.
  • It is part of scientific inquiry to evaluate the results of scientific investigations, experiments, observations, theoretical models, and the explanations proposed by other scientists. Evaluation includes reviewing the experimental procedures, examining the evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations. Although scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretations of data, or about the value of rival theories, they do agree that questioning, response to criticism, and open communication are integral to the process of science. As scientific knowledge evolves, major disagreements are eventually resolved through such interactions between scientists.

Grades 9-12:
Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Understandings about Scientific Inquiry
  • Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data. New techniques and tools provide new evidence to guide inquiry and new methods to gather data, thereby contributing to the advance of science. The accuracy and precision of the data, and therefore the quality of the exploration, depends on the technology used.

Content Standard E: Science and Technology
Fundamental abilities and concepts that underlie this standard include:

• Understandings about Science and Technology
  • Science often advances with the introduction of new technologies. Solving technological problems often results in new scientific knowledge. New technologies often extend the current levels of scientific understanding and introduce new areas of research.

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Science as a Human Endeavor
  • Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise. Doing science or engineering can be as simple as an individual conducting field studies or as complex as hundreds of people working on a major scientific question or technological problem. Pursuing science as a career or as a hobby can be both fascinating and intellectually rewarding.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• Large numbers of raccoons are now found in cities. What are some reasons you think raccoons survive well in cities?

After watching the video:

• Describe traits, features and/or skills raccoons have which help them survive well in cities.
• Explain how the number of raccoons in cities has changed over the past 70 years.
• Describe some differences between country and city raccoon populations.
• In the segment, it is stated that raccoons, as a species, are possibly becoming smarter as a result of moving into urban environments. Explain this statement.
• Describe some similarities between humans and raccoons.
• Discuss how raccoons, as a species, have changed as a result of living in cities.

Background Essay:

Raccoons originally lived in the tropics and foraged along riverbanks. They then migrated northward in North America, adapting to new territories and expanding their diet. Raccoons are very successful at adjusting to a variety of climates and environments. Raccoons now live as far north as Alaska and in many major cities, including Toronto, Chicago and New York.

Raccoons stay with their mothers for up to one year, during which time their mothers feed, teach and protect them. Scientists believe that animals which spend time with their mothers through their development are, generally, smarter than those that don’t. Raccoon moms teach their young how to survive in urban environments, including how to increase their pace in order to safely cross over a road. Cars are the number one cause of death for urban raccoons. Therefore, learning how to safely cross roads and/or avoid busy streets is an important survival skill. Until recently, scientists knew very little about how raccoons survive in cities. In a recent study, Canadian scientists Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux and Suzanne MacDonald discovered that raccoons in Toronto have a very small territory size and, on average, tend to live in a three-block radius. This indicates that urban raccoons are able to find shelter, food and water without going too far. The study also found that raccoons tend not to cross major highways.

Cities are relatively new environments for wild species and, in order to survive in urban settings, animals must be extremely flexible.  Raccoons are especially well-suited for cities because of their body sizes, sharp sense of smell, omnivorous diet and nimble hands, which can open up doors and containers. They can find food anywhere. Urban food sources, such as garbage and pet food, bring together different species that might not normally be in close contact, making it easier for diseases to spread from one species to another. Raccoons have transmitted diseases– such as raccoon round worm, trichinosis and rabies– to dogs, horses, humans and other species.

City raccoons live longer and have more offspring than raccoons in the country. City raccoons are thriving, and some overrun cities are trying to grapple with the damage they cause on homes and other property. Kassel, Germany has the largest raccoon population in Europe, with up to 100 raccoons per square kilometer. In Kassel, raccoons have caused a lot of property damage. Upon observing the raccoons, scientists discovered that 70% of the time, raccoons caused damage or entered homes by going up drain pipes. Scientists created drain pipe protectors to prevent raccoons from climbing up the pipes. Raccoons learned how to pass over the protectors, leading scientists to create new protectors that were harder for raccoons to navigate. Raccoons are always looking at how they can solve problems and overcome new challenges to reach specific goals/rewards. Even though something might initially be an obstacle for raccoons, they will often find a way to overcome the challenge.

For more information, go to:

• Raccoon Fact Sheet
• Wildlife Damage Management Series: Raccoons
• Raccoons
• Nerves Frayed in Toronto over Roaming Raccoons

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:
Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Regulation and Behavior
  • All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.
  • Regulation of an organism’s internal environment involves sensing the internal environment and changing physiological activities to keep conditions within the range required to survive.
  • Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
  • An organism’s behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species’ evolutionary history.
• Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms
  • Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.

Grades 9-12:
Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Biological Evolution
  • Species evolve over time. Evolution is the consequence of the interactions of (1) the potential for a species to increase its numbers, (2) the genetic variability of offspring due to mutation and recombination of genes, (3) a finite supply of the resources required for life, and (4) the ensuring selection by the environment of those offspring better able to survive and leave offspring.
• The Behavior of Organisms
  • 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.
  • 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.

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Science and Technology in Local, National, and Global Challenges
  • Humans have a major effect on other species. For example, the influence of humans on other organisms occurs through land use—which decreases space available to other species—and pollution—which changes the chemical composition of air, soil, and water.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• In the 1970s, the Japanese began importing raccoons so people could adopt them as pets. Many of these raccoons were then released into Japan’s forested areas. What do you think are some potential consequences of these actions?

After watching the video:

• Explain why thousands of people in Japan started adopting raccoons in the 1970s. Discuss factors that have contributed to the increased numbers of raccoons in Japan since the 1970s.
• Describe the current raccoon problem in Japan and what people are doing to solve it.
• Explain why people released raccoons into the forest, and whether you think they anticipated the damage that raccoons have caused.
• Mammalogist Mieko Kawamichi has been hired to kill over 10,000 raccoons each year in order to reduce the raccoon population in Japan and protect the sacred temples and shrines. What do you think about this approach to the situation? Explain your reasoning. Can you think of another way to solve the current problem without killing the raccoons? Describe your solution.
• People started adopting raccoons as pets after watching the cartoon Rascal the Raccoon. What do you think the creators of a TV show or movie could do to prevent people from going out to adopt the species featured in the program? Do you think the creators of media programs have a responsibility to warn people of the potential dangers related to adopting animals as pets?

Background Essay:

Raccoons, which are not indigenous to Japan, have damaged more than 80% of Japanese temples. The forested areas of Japan are currently overrun with raccoons and, as a result, Japanese authorities have adopted a “zero tolerance” policy, killing over 10,000 raccoons each year in efforts to reduce raccoon populations and minimize damage to temples, shrines, and native wildlife.

Japan is not the only country with raccoon problems. In the early 1930s, a few raccoons were released in the German countryside outside Berlin to amuse hunters and, in 1945, about two dozen raccoons escaped from a local fur farm. Since that time, the raccoon population has multiplied and now Germany has approximately 1 million raccoons, the largest raccoon population outside of North America. Kassel, in Central Germany, has the largest raccoon population in Europe, with up to 100 raccoons per square kilometer. German authorities have tried different strategies to deal with the raccoon problem, including killing raccoons and creating drainpipe protectors to prevent raccoons from climbing up them and causing damage to homes. Germany and Japan are still trying to find the best ways to deal with their raccoon problems.

Although raccoons are not native to Japan, the cartoon Rascal the Raccoon, which aired in Japan in the 1970s, inspired individuals to adopt baby raccoons as pets and, as a result, Japan imported thousands of raccoons from North America. After keeping raccoons in their homes and seeing how violent and destructive they could be, thousands of families got rid of them by releasing them into the forested areas of Japan, as was shown in one of the scenes in the cartoon.

Other TV shows and movies featuring animals have similarly inspired people to adopt pets and then, after realizing that the animals weren’t as cute and cuddly as in the program, get rid of them.  This trend is often referred to as the “101 Dalmatians Syndrome” (or “101 Dalmatians Effect”) since thousands of families adopted Dalmatian puppies after the release of the popular movie “101 Dalmatians,” and then, after finding they were difficult to take care of, brought them to animal shelters and/or abandoned them. Within a year of the 1996 release of that movie, there was a 25% increase in Dalmatians at shelters and rescue organizations. Movies such as Legally Blonde and Beverly Hills Chihuahua, as well as Taco Bell commercials featuring a talking Chihuahua, led to increased popularity of Chihuahuas, and Along Came Polly led to increased interest in ferrets.

In recent years, in order to prevent people from running out to adopt a species featured in a show, media and animal rights organizations have distributed information about animals and encouraged families to conduct research before selecting a pet. For example, for the 2000 release of 102 Dalmatians, the Humane Society distributed information about the challenges of owning Dalmatians and Disney included a message at the end of the movie, encouraging responsible pet ownership. Similarly when the movie G-Force, featuring computer-generated guinea pigs, was released in 2009, animal rescue groups created information discouraging families from adopting guinea pigs, and statements were included in the movie’s promotional materials and website encouraging people to think carefully and conduct research before adopting pets.

For more information, go to:

• Raccoon Fact Sheet
• Hordes of raccoons invade Germany
• Why It’s Never “Just Fiction”
• We’ve come a long way, baby — Disney’s “102 Dalmatians” encourages moviegoers to consider pet adoption carefully

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Populations and Ecosystems
  • The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition. Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase at rapid rates. Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the growth of populations in specific niches in the ecosystem.

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Populations, Resources and Environments
  • When an area becomes overpopulated, the environment will become degraded due to the increased use of resources.
• Natural Hazards
  • Human activities also can induce hazards through resource acquisition, urban growth, land-use decisions, and waste disposal. Such activities can accelerate many natural changes.
  • Natural hazards can present personal and societal challenges because misidentifying the change or incorrectly estimating the rate and scale of change may result in either too little attention and significant human costs or too much cost for unneeded preventive measures.
• Risks and Benefits
  • Individuals can use a systematic approach to thinking critically about risks and benefits. Examples include applying probability estimates to risks and comparing them to estimated personal and social benefits.
  • Important personal and social decisions are made based on perceptions of benefits and risks.

Grades 9-12:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• The 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.

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Natural and Human-Induced Hazards
  • Human activities can enhance potential for hazards. Acquisition of resources, urban growth, and waste disposal can accelerate rates of natural change.
  • Natural and human-induced hazards present the need for humans to assess potential danger and risk. Many changes in the environment designed by humans bring benefits to society, as well as cause risks. Students should understand the costs and trade-offs of various hazards—ranging from those with minor risk to a few people to major catastrophes with major risk to many people. The scale of events and the accuracy with which scientists and engineers can (and cannot) predict events are important considerations.

Discussion Questions:

Before watching the video:

• How do you think a human could get wild turkeys to think he/she was their parent?
• Why do you think a person might be interested in becoming a parent to wild turkeys?

After watching the video:

• Discuss why Joe Hutto decided to embark on this project and describe the steps he took to have the wild turkeys imprint onto him.
• Describe the scientific process involved in Joe Hutto’s experiment.  What was he trying to find out?  What steps did he take?  Compare and contrast Joe Hutto’s experiment with the procedures involved in traditional science experiments.
• Describe your thoughts about the process of having animals imprint onto a human being.  Describe the possible pros and cons of this type of experiment.
• As a result of natural selection, hatchlings form a strong social bond.  Describe how the process of imprinting could be advantageous from an evolutionary perspective.  (For example, why would it be beneficial for a young bird or animal to imprint onto its mother or, if its mother wasn’t present, something/someone else?)
• Reflect upon whether or not you would like to have wild animals imprint onto you.  What would be the rewards of conducting an experiment similar to the one Joe Hutto conducted?  What would be the challenges?

Background Essay:

Imprinting is a biological phenomenon that occurs when animals form attachments and develop a sense of identity in the first few hours and days of their lives.  Birds and mammals are born with a pre-programmed drive to imprint onto their mother.  They have been prepared by natural selection to form an immediate and strong social connection.  Imprinting provides animals with information about who they are and determines who they will find attractive when they reach adulthood.  When poults are first born, they look for a parent with which to bond.  The process by which offspring imprint onto their parents is referred to as “filial imprinting”.  Once imprinting has occurred it is irreversible.

In the early 1900s, Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz conducted the first scientific studies on imprinting and discovered that young birds became attached to the first moving object they saw after coming out of their eggs.  In the wild, this object is usually their mother, but Lorenz successfully had young geese imprint onto him, as well as a variety of inanimate objects, including boots, a ball and an electric train.  For turkeys, as well as ducks, geese and other birds which walk soon after birth, it is critical for their survival for them to follow someone that will keep them out of danger.  After being exposed to an object for one to two hours, the young will show a strong preference to the imprinted object and will be upset if the object is taken away.

Although scientists have successfully had young animals imprint onto them, there are potential dangers of having animals imprint onto a human being.  Species that imprint onto humans often prefer human company to that of members of their own species, have a difficult time surviving in the wild, and are, sometimes, not able to successfully raise their own young.

For more information about imprinting, go to:

• My Life as a Turkey: Who’s Your Mama? The Science of Imprinting
• Newborns can bond to a “Mother” from different species
• Animal Behavior: Learning/Imprinting

National Science Education Standards:

Grades 5-8:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Regulation and Behavior
  • Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
  • An organism’s behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species’ evolutionary history.
• Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms
  • Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.
  • Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient to allow its survival. Fossils indicate that many organisms that lived long ago are extinct. Extinction of species is common; most of the species that have lived on the earth no longer exist.

Grades 9-12:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• The Behavior of Organisms
  • 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.
  • 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.

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Science as a Human Endeavor
  • Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise. Doing science or engineering can be as simple as an individual conducting field studies or as complex as hundreds of people working on a major scientific question or technological problem. Pursuing science as a career or as a hobby can be both fascinating and intellectually rewarding.

Discussion Questions:

• Based on the video, what are some similarities between turkey communication and human language?  What are some differences?
• What discoveries did Joe Hutto make about wild turkeys’ communication?
• In the video, Hutto mentions turkeys’ communication system indicates a high level of intelligence.  Based on what you saw in the video do you agree or disagree with that statement?  Explain your reasoning, using information from the video segment.

Background Essay:

Researchers have long been curious about non-human forms of communication and the type of information animals can transmit to each other.  Although scientists debate the details of animal communication, most agree animals are capable of communicating basic messages through vocalizations, movements, smells and other means.  Based on research conducted in the past several years, scientists have gained new insights into the communication systems of different animals.

Although some species have complex ways of communicating, there are still major differences between human language and communication systems of non-human species.  The main difference is grammar, which enables humans to create an unlimited number of messages by stringing together different words.  Humans verbalize sentences they have never heard before, rather than just repeating pre-existing vocalizations.  Humans can also discuss abstract concepts and communicate things which are not in their immediate environment.  These skills are much more developed in humans than in any other species.

The Nature episode “My Life as a Turkey” illustrates how wildlife artist and naturalist Joe Hutto gained insight into the communication systems of wild turkeys by living with them for over a year.  He became a parent to 16 wild turkeys by having them imprint onto him.  Imprinting is a biological phenomenon that occurs when animals form attachments and develop a sense of identity in the first few hours and days of their lives.  Through his experiences with the turkeys, Hutto was able to identify more than 30 different calls.  He discovered meaning was conveyed through different calls, as well as through specific inflections.  He discovered the turkeys were able to communicate information about what species they were encountering through their vocalizations.  He discovered some calls were intended to alert others to dangers, while others just provided information about the presence of another species or something noteworthy.  Through his experience, he was able to understand the meaning of many of the turkeys’ vocalizations.

For more information, go to:

• Animal Communication and Language
• The Difference between Human and other Animal Communication

National Science Education Standards:

Grades 5-8:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Regulation and Behavior
  • Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
  • An organism’s behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species’ evolutionary history.

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Nature of Science
  • Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.

Grades 9-12:

Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry
Fundamental abilities and concepts that underlie this standard include:

• Understandings about Scientific Inquiry
  • Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons. For example, they may wish to discover new aspects of the natural world, explain recently observed phenomena, or test the conclusions of prior investigations or the predictions of current theories.

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• The Behavior of Organisms
  • 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.

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Science as a Human Endeavor
  • Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise. Doing science or engineering can be as simple as an individual conducting field studies or as complex as hundreds of people working on a major scientific question or technological problem. Pursuing science as a career or as a hobby can be both fascinating and intellectually rewarding.

Discussion Questions:

• Based on the video, what are some things wild turkeys seem to know instinctively?
• What are some discoveries Joe Hutto made about what the turkeys knew and what they needed to learn from him?
• In general, which do you think plays a stronger role in an animal’s behaviors—nature (inherited traits) or nurture (external factors)? Explain your rationale.
• In the video, Hutto mentions that the turkeys have a basic blueprint about plants and animals. Do you agree with that statement or do you think they gain their knowledge through environmental cues, or through a combination of inherited knowledge and external factors? Explain your reasoning, using information from the video segment to support your position.

Background Essay:

Scientists have long reflected on the question of what knowledge and behavior is determined by nature (genes and inheritance) and what is acquired by nurture (upbringing & environment). Some believe that animals’ behaviors are primarily determined by evolution, while others believe that external factors play a major role in modifying animal behaviors.  Although the debate continues about whether nature or nurture plays a more important role in determining animals’ behaviors, most scientists agree that a combination of inherited and environmental factors contribute to species’ behaviors.

An example of this combination can be seen in dogs. Some breeds, such as Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers, tend to have very gentle demeanors, but if raised in an abusive or other type of negative environment, they may become more aggressive and violent. Scientists have conducted studies to explore whether nature or nurture plays a bigger role on various types of behaviors, including language. One study in Cambridge, England examined whether birds raised in isolation would have the same vocalizations as those raised in the wild. The study found that birds raised in isolation made similar sounds as those in the wild, but lacked some of the detailed vocalizations displayed by birds in the wild. The study illustrates that both nature and nurture play roles in shaping the birds’ vocalizations.

The Nature episode “My Life as a Turkey” illustrates how wildlife artist and naturalist Joe Hutto used his knowledge of wildlife to get 16 wild turkeys to imprint onto him. Imprinting is a biological phenomenon that occurs when animals form attachments and develop a sense of identity in the first few hours and days of their lives.  Wild turkeys are born with a pre-programmed drive to imprint onto their mother. In the absence of a mother, birds can imprint onto humans and inanimate objects.

Hutto lived with wild turkeys for more than a year and was able to closely observe what knowledge they instinctively had and what they needed to learn as they matured.   Hutto’s experiment provides some valuable information for the nature vs. nurture debate. Even though Hutto lacked knowledge a real turkey mother would have had, the wild turkeys he raised were still able to distinguish harmful from friendly animals and they had a deep understanding of their surroundings. Hutto believes wild turkeys are born with a “blueprint” of animals and the natural environment, which helps them distinguish harmful animals from friendly ones and identify potential dangers.

The nature vs. nurture debate is not just limited to thinking about behavior in wild animals. Scientists and psychologists have long debated about the impact of nature vs. nurture in human beings, as well.

For more information, go to:

• My Life as a Turkey: Who’s Your Mama? The Science of Imprinting
• The Nature vs. Nurture Debate
• The Language of Birds: Instinct or learning – Nature or Nurture?
• Animal Behavior: Is Nature or Nurture More Important?

National Science Education Standards:
Grades 5-8:

Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Reproduction and Heredity
  • Every organism requires a set of instructions for specifying its traits. Heredity is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another.
  • The characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination of traits. Some traits are inherited and others result from interactions with the environment.
• Regulation and Behavior
  • Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
  • An organism’s behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species’ evolutionary history.
• Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms
  • Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.

Grades 9-12:
Content Standard C: Life Science
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• The Behavior of Organisms
  • 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.
  • 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.

GRADE LEVEL: 9-12

SUBJECT MATTER: Science

TIME ALLOTMENT: Two or three 45-minute class periods

OVERVIEW

In this lesson, students will use segments from Nature: Wild Balkans to explore the roles and interrelationships of organisms in the varied environments of the Balkan Peninsula. In the Introductory Activity, students will identify the Balkan Peninsula on a map and hypothesize what natural environments and wildlife might be present there. Students will use an interactive map to identify different regions of the Balkan Peninsula and the wildlife that resides in each region. In the Learning Activity, students will explore the regions of the Balkan Peninsula in more depth by viewing and discussing segments from the episode. Students will explore the habitats and wildlife of each region and the ways in which species collaborate and compete, as well as the role of humans in these environments. In the Culminating Activity, students will explore one species in depth and create a 3-D diorama or computer-generated simulation of the species in its environment. Students will discuss their projects with the class.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

• Describe at least three different habitats in the Balkan Peninsula and the species that reside in each.
• Explain how species cooperate and compete within an ecosystem.
• Describe the roles that humans play in the Balkan Peninsula.
• Discuss one species in depth, including its preferred habitat and how it cooperates and/or competes with other species.

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
  • 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.
  • Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension has profound effects on the interactions between 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.
• The Behavior Of Organisms
  • 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.
  • 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.

MEDIA COMPONENTS

Nature: Wild Balkans, selected segments

• Danube Delta (Delta Dunarii)

A close look at the Danube Delta (Delta Dunarii), Europe’s most extensive wetland.

• Dobrudza

A look at the dry and stony region of Dobrudza.

• Durmitor

A look at the wildlife and terrain of Durmitor region of the Balkans.

• Kopacki Rit

A look at Kopacki Rit, one of Europe’s most extensive and important wetlands.

• Skadar Lake

A look at Skadar Lake, the largest lake in the Balkans.

• Tikves

A look at the terrain and the vultures & other inhabitants of the desolate, mountainous region of Tikves.

Access the streaming and downloadable video clips at the Video Segments Page.

Websites:

• Interactive Map: Wilderness of the Balkan Peninsula

This map on the Nature: Wild Balkans website highlights the different regions highlighted in the episode. This map is used in the Introductory Activity to provide an overview of the different regions of the Balkan Peninsula.

• Balkan Peninsula Map

This map features the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.

• Photo Gallery: Rare Animals of the Balkans

This page on the Nature: Wild Balkans website features images and descriptions of some of the Balkans’ rarest species. Students could use this as a resource in the Culminating Activity.

MATERIALS

For the class:

• Computers with internet access.
• Computer, projection screen and speakers (for class viewing of online/downloaded video segments).
• 1 copy of the “Regions of the Balkan Peninsula” answer key.

For each student:

• 1 copy of the “Regions of the Balkan Peninsula” student organizer.

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 “Regions of the Balkan Peninsula” student organizer for each student.

Print out one copy of the “Regions of the Balkan Peninsula” answer key.

Proceed to ACTIVITIES

Excerpts from the NATURE episode, Wild Balkans.

Danube Delta (Delta Dunarii)

Dobrudza

Durmitor

Kopacki Rit

Skadar Lake

Tikves

1. Danube Delta (Delta Dunarii)
A close look at the Danube Delta (Delta Dunarii), Europe’s most extensive wetland.

2. Dobrudza
A look at the dry and stony region of Dobrudza.

3. Durmitor
A look at the wildlife and terrain of Durmitor region of the Balkans.

4. Kopacki Rit
A look at Kopacki Rit, one of Europe’s most extensive and important wetlands.

5. Skadar Lake
A look at Skadar Lake, the largest lake in the Balkans.

6. Tikves
A look at the terrain and the vultures & other inhabitants of the desolate, mountainous region of Tikves.