Q & A  What does it mean for an organism to be endangered ? Do you know of any animals who are endangered?

Endangered Species

Classifying Species at Risk  Extinct – a species that is no longer found anywhere (i.e. Blue walleye)  (extinction)

Another One Bites the Dust …  Passenger Pigeon –Let’s meet Martha –Last passenger pigeon- – Died in 1914 in Cincinnati Western Black Rhino Became extinct in 2006 due to over poaching and habitat distruction

 Endangered – A species that is close to extinction in all parts of Canada (giraffes, polar bears etc. ) Eastern Cougar Extinct 2015

 Extirpated – any species that no longer exists in one part of Canada, but can be found in others (i.e. grizzly bear)

Classifying Species at Risk  Threatened – any species that is likely to become endangered if conditions are not reversed (i.e. wood bison)  Did you know ? –Almost once roamed the north but by the early 1900s their numbers had plummeted to fewer than 300. – ･ Since 1980 has brought their numbers up to approximately 4500 but bovine diseases, brucellosis and tuberculosis remains a major obstacle to further recovery

Wood Bison

 Vulnerable – any species that is at risk because of low numbers (i.e. grey fox)

Classwork  Page 14-15, #2  Read pages #1 - #3

Activity- Food Chains  3 groups: –18 Grasshoppers –6 Shrews –2 Hawks  Grasshoppers hunt for food first  Put as much food (plants and flowers) in their stomachs  You have 30 seconds to eat without the threat of predators (shrews)  You can continue eating once the shrews are hunting

 Shrews- Watch the grasshoppers feed like good predators  Try to catch the grasshoppers by tagging them  Once you tag a grasshopper, you take their bag of food and the grasshoppers goes to the side.  You can tag more than one grasshopper but watch out for hawks!  Hawks- Go and hunt some shrews! –Don’t forget to take all their bags of food !

Food Chain Activity- Back in the Class  Uneaten players – Count your total food tickets  How many green did you have ?  How many pink?

SURPRISE  All the green plants were actually sprayed with a pesticide  This pesticide accumulates in food chains  All surviving grasshoppers with green tickets = dead  All surviving shrews with more than half green tickets= dead  Hawks- you don’t die…. But….

Hawks  You have so much pesticide in your body that the egg shells produced during your next mating season will be so thin that they eggs will not hatch successfully.  Eggs are also so thin that they break easily.  This does not get better as time goes on.  Result- ??

The Bald Eagle  In the early 1900’s biologists noticed a decline in their numbers  A pesticide, DDT was harming them

 DDT is insoluble in water  It is soluble in fats and oils  DDT was sprayed to kill mosquitoes – which carry the disease malaria  Bald eagles would eat small rodents (mice) that had been exposed to DDT

 This caused them to lay thin shelled eggs  As a result the baby eagles would not survive  Population numbers dropped  DDT has been banned in Canada since the 70’s

 Bioamplification: the movement of a toxin up the food chain (i.e. from plants – carnivores)

Endangered Species Video  Can you list the endangered species from the video?  What was causing them to become endangered?  What was being done to help them?  Was it working?

Scallops and Sharks  What is happening to the sharks?  How is this affecting the scallops?  Why is this happening?  What can be done to prevent it?