Incredible Shrinking Wolf Habitat

Subject
science and social studies

Wisconsin Model Academic Standards:

• Science: A.4.3, A.4.5, B.4.1, F.4.1, H.4.4, A.8.6, B.8.6, F.8.2, F.8.7, F.8.9, F.8.10, H.8.2
• Social Studies: E.4.8, E.4.10, E.8.4, E.8.8, E.8.12

Students will recognize that loss of habitat is the most critical problem facing wolves today.

Materials
green and blue construction paper
classroom desks, tables or chairs
five or six large bed sheets or blankets for a student group of 25

Background
All around us, and all over the planet, wildlife habitat is being lost. Whenever an area of land is paved for a shopping center, divided and excavated for homes for people, and sometimes when it is plowed to grow a crop, animals lose their homes, frequently their sources of food and water, and, in some cases, the large expanse of habitat they need to survive. A wolf pack's territory may cover 20-120 square miles. This need for a large range often results in conflict as human and wolf territories overlap. Today, timber wolf populations are improving in our state with the help of research, protection, and public education programs. But there is concern over how the growing human territories will impact wolf populations.

The major purpose of this activity is for students to simulate some of the potential impacts of land development on wildlife and its habitat, and to understand that loss of habitat is generally considered to be the most critical problem facing wildlife today.

Procedure
1. Discuss the elements necessary for a habitat (food, water,shelter and enough space) with your students. Then explain that they will be simulating wolves in their native habitat.

2. Divide the students into four groups: deer and beaver (herbivores), wolves (carnivores), vegetation (trees, shrubs,grasses) that deer and beaver may eat and people who will be land developers. If the students are not familiar with these terms, provide them with definitions. Plan for three times as many deer and beaver as wolves with a small number of developers in proportion to the other two groups. The number of students acting as vegetation may vary. For example, two developers, three wolves, nine deer and beaver, and six trees or bushes.

3. Establish a large, open area either in the classroom, or outside in a place that can be used to simulate a large tract of forest before development. Developers should stay on the sidelines and keep an eye on the undeveloped land while they meet nearby to discuss the possibilities of developing this land into a community with a major highway.

4. Provide each deer/beaver with two desks or chairs (or hulahoops outdoors) to use as a shelter, three pieces of green construction paper to represent food, one piece of blue construction paper to represent water, and some vegetation (as portrayed by other students). Provide each wolf with one desk or chair to use as a "lair" (or hula hoop outdoors), space equivalent to that used by three herbivores, three herbivores as a potential food source, one piece of blue construction paper to represent water, and some vegetation portrayed by students.

5. Ask the herbivores to arrange their food, water and shelter, including the students who are "vegetation," in order to represent their habitat. Then, ask the wolves to move into the area to establish their habitat and look for possible food sources (herbivores). Have each animal role play its characteristics. This phase takes about 10 minutes, with the developers planning while the deer/beaver and wolves arrange their habitat.

6. Once all the animals are established in their habitats, it is time for the developers to enter the picture. These developers have been given the opportunity to create a housing area with shopping and a highway system leading out of the community. (They may use 3 to 7 minutes to construct their development, explaining their actions as they take them.) Restrict them to an area equivalent to the space of three herbivores. Have developers use sheets and blankets to build their development. They may remove trees (represented by the students) gently so no student gets hurt, shelter (represented by desks), food, and water.

7. Once they have finished building their development, discuss what happened. What took place? With what consequences? Would or did animals die? From what causes? Could developers have done anything differently to change the consequences? Could they have developed in a different pattern, with what effects? Would it have reduced negative consequences for wolves and other wildlife if they put the development in a different area of the habitat? Were there any positive consequences? How were they achieved? Ask the students to discuss what was realistic about the activity and what was not.

8. Ask the students to summarize some of the possible impacts on wolves and other wildlife from land development. Are there places in your community where wildlife habitat has been lost by human development? Are there places where wildlife habitat has been enhanced by human activity? What choices, if any, are there to development of previously undeveloped areas? What trade-offs are involved: for example, in developing vacant areas within communities rather than undeveloped areas outside of communities? What kinds of actions, can people take to minimize the negative consequences for wildlife, vegetation, and other elements of the environment?

Read about the timber wolf
Back to Teaching Activities.