Contents
return to tracks home page
How we see the world is influenced by our own human perspectives. We are limited by our senses and our size. Still, some scientists are able to suspend their human prejudices and make astonishing breakthroughs in the understanding of other worlds. The biologist, Katy Payne, once sat by captive elephants and felt vibrations through her body. This caused her to hypothesize that elephants were using extreme low frequency sounds to communicate across great distances. Experimental tests have shown this to be the case, opening up new horizons of understanding in animal communication.
As you begin your explorations of other worlds, remember that animals do things for a reason. Their very survival depends on selecting appropriate places to live, places that provide for all their needs. Most animals do not modify their environment very much. They need to choose appropriately, based on instinct and experience.
One way to expand your horizons is to try to look at the world at a smaller scale than our human one. This will help you see a miniature landscape, to sense the importance of clumps of balsam fir or patches of grass to a mouse. Trying on the perspective of another animal before making hypotheses about that animal may help you "cut to the chase" much more quickly. There are so many kinds of ways to see the world. Here is an exercise to help you develop new ways of seeing and to understand the importance of habitat at a micro site scale.
back to contents
Imagine you are a small animal.
- How would your world look to you? What features would be important?
- Do you have favorite look-out points or places to soak in the sun?
- Where will you hide from predators?
- Where will you spend the winter, if you don't migrate?
- Where will you hide from storms?
- Do you have a place to find a mate, to have your young or care for eggs?
- Where can you find the different kinds of food you need?
- What pathways will you follow around your territory to move easily and stay safe from predators?
You have been provided with a natural history sketch (Deer Mouse) about your animal and its habits. Your job is to look at the forest as if you were this animal and draw a map of your home. Your animal has just such a map in its head that allows it to survive. Think of potential scenarios (stories) in the life of your animal.
Draw pictures of special features and label their importance to you. Use your compass and pacing to place objects at approximate locations. You may wish to consider whether you are a male or female since habitat requirements may differ for each.
If you try this exercise with students, they can conduct the background research about an animal of their choice and create the necessary natural history background sketch.
back to contents
My Name ___________________
My Animal __________________
back to contents
Description
About 5-6.5 inches in length from nose to tail. Brownish above
with a long tail (3 to 4 inches), bulging black eyes, and large
dusky ears rimmed in white.
Food
Forages mainly at night using its nose to locate food. Food includes
earthworms, insects (crickets, springtails, beetles, caterpillars,
grubs), flower and grass seeds, mushrooms, and nuts. May hide
groups of seeds and nuts in caches under logs, in crevices, or
in holes in the ground.
Behavior
Territory is small, encompassing 0.1 (66 ft X 66 ft) to 0.5 acre.
Rests by day in a baseball-sized nest made from grass and leaves, lined with fur, feathers, or shredded plant material that may be placed in a rotting stump, under a log, or in a tree hollow. Nests in winter are larger, to give greater warmth. May spend much of its time climbing in small trees. Active throughout the winter, foraging above and below snow.
Females usually breed in April or May, giving birth in a nest in a sheltered location.
Potential Predators
Snakes, owls, hawks, weasels, fisher, fox, coyote, domestic dogs
and cats.
back to contents
return to tracks home page