MAMMAL STUDY - Troop 109 - Home
mammalstudy
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICAMERIT BADGE SERIESMAMMAL STUDY
Requirements1. Explain the meaning of “animal,” “invertebrate,” “vertebrate,”and “mammal.” Name three characteristics that distinguishmammals from all other animals.2. Explain how the animal kingdom is classified. Explainwhere mammals fit in the classification of animals.Classify three mammals from phylum through species.3. Do ONE of the following:a. Spend three hours in each of two different kinds ofnatural habitats or at different elevations. List thedifferent mammal species and individual membersthat you identified by sight or sign. Tell why allmammals do not live in the same kind of habitat.b. Spend three hours on each of five days on at leasta 25-acre area (about the size of 31/2 football fields).List the mammal species you identified by sightor sign.c. From study and reading, write a simple life historyof one nongame mammal that lives in your area. Tellhow this mammal lived before its habitat was affectedin any way by humans. Tell how it reproduces, what iteats, and its natural habitat. Describe its dependencyupon plants and other animals (including humans),and how they depend upon it. Tell how it is helpfulor harmful to humankind.35916ISBN 978-0-8395-3271-7 2003 Boy Scouts of America2009 PrintingBANG/Brainerd, MN10-2009/059123
4. Do ONE of the following:a. Under the guidance of a nature center or natural historymuseum, make two study skins of rats or mice. Tell theuses of study skins and mounted specimens respectively.b. Take good pictures of two kinds of mammals in thewild. Record light conditions, film used, exposure, andother factors, including notes on the activities of thepictured animals.c. Write a life history of a native game mammal thatlives in your area, covering the points outlined inrequirement 3c. List sources for this information.d. Make and bait a tracking pit. Report what mammalsand other animals came to the bait.e. Visit a natural history museum. Report on how specimens are prepared and cataloged. Explain the purposesof museums.f. Write a report of 500 words on a book about amammal species.g. Trace two possible food chains of carnivorous mammalsfrom soil through four stages to the mammal.5. Working with your counselor, select and carry outone project that will influence the numbers of one ormore mammals.MAMMAL STUDY3
Antelope
ContentsWhat Is a Mammal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Classifying Mammals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Where Mammals Live. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Study Skins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Photographing Mammals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Making a Tracking Pit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47The Food Chains of Mammals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Reporting on Mammals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Managing Mammals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Resources for Mammal Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60MAMMAL STUDY5
Baleen whale
.What Is a Mammal?What Is a Mammal?When you hear the word “animal,” chances are that you thinkof a dog, a cat, a bear, or a squirrel. And you’re right, of course.Sometimes, though, the word “animal” is used in its scientific meaning. To a scientist, the word covers a much broaderfield. It includes insects, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, shellfish, worms, and many other living things. In fact, it includeseverything that can move on its own power and a few creaturesthat can’t. The sponge, for example, spends its whole adult lifeattached to the bottom of the ocean, but it is an animal.Anybody can see that although fish, frogs, snakes,birds, and mammals all have backbones, they arepretty distant cousins. They do not look much alike,they do not act alike, but many of them share thesame habitat.Why? Because it does not manufacture its own food. Lightin combination with chlorophyll, the substance that gives grassand other vegetation its green color, enables plants to makesugars from water and carbon dioxide. Animals cannot do this.But when we get down to the simplestliving organisms, even scientists can’t alwaysagree on whether they are plants or animals.We can say that: Most animals move on their own;plants cannot. All green plants make their food;animals cannot. Most plants have cellulose cell walls;animals do not.RabbitMAMMAL STUDY7
What Is a Mammal?.All vertebrates have some kind of backbone; invertebrates donot. Vertebrates like the shark and ray have a cartilaginousbackbone with a central rod called the notochord. In the highervertebrates, the backbone is made up of segmented bonescalled vertebrae. These vertebrates include fishes, amphibians,reptiles, birds, and mammals.A shark's backbone is made up of cartilage; sharks are vertebrates.So how does a scientist decide what a mammal is? Thefirst question a scientist asks is: Does the animal nurse itsyoung? If it does, it is a mammal. No other animal can producemilk for its young.8MAMMAL STUDY
.What Is a Mammal?Another question is: Does it have hair? If it does, it is amammal. Some insects have growths that look like hair, butonly mammals have true hair. Some mammals have verylittle. Rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, elephants, and whalesare in this category. But if it does have real hair, it has to bea mammal.CheetahsMAMMAL STUDY9
What Is a Mammal?.Another important difference between mammals and otheranimals is the brain. If you could give an IQ test to every species of animal, all mammals would score in the high range andall other animals would score low. There would be big variations among the mammals, of course. Humans would be at thehead of the class, while the platypus and opossum would befar, far in the rear. Their brain development has made mammals the dominant kind of animal in the world. They are notthe most numerous; in fact, mammals make up less than onehalf of 1 percent of all species of animals.Mammals have certain bodily structures that other animalsdo not have. They have fewer bones in the skull than othervertebrates. Their teeth are different and usually rather specialized. They have a diaphragm that separates the chest from theabdomen. And nearly all mammals have seven vertebrae inthe neck.A mammal may weigh as little as 1/12 ounce, as dosome shrews, or as much as 150 tons, like the blue whale. Itmay spring, waddle, swim, or even fly. But if it has milk forits young, has hair of some kind—even quills like the porcupine—is relatively intelligent, and has warm blood, then it isa mammal.Mammals are warm-blooded. This is importantbecause it means that mammals have a stable bloodtemperature even when it is cold or hot outside,so they can adapt to all kinds of climate. Birds arewarm-blooded, too, but reptiles, amphibians, andfish are not.10MAMMAL STUDY
Ancestral Protozoa—The Animal Kingdom“Tree of ophoraPoriferaProtozoa
.Classifying MammalsClassifying MammalsA million or more different kinds of animals are now alive. Thescientist needs to have an orderly way to identify animals byname. The system of classification was developed to separateanimals by their differences and groups them according to theways they are alike.Scientists have grouped mammals intothree categories, called orders: arsupials, like the kangaroo (right) andMthe opossum, are all “pouched.” When theyoung are born, they find their way to themother’s pouch. The young stay there forseveral weeks or months, nourished bytheir mother’s milk. onotremes are mammals that lay eggs.MOnly three species exist—the duckbillplatypus (right) and two types of echidnas—and they all can be found only in Australiaand New Guinea. These mammals areclosely related to reptiles.Placentals are mammalsthat bear live young. The word “placental” comesfrom a similar word, “placenta,” which is the organthat grows inside the mother to nourish the youngas it develops before birth. Examples include almostany mammal you can think of, including rabbits(left), lemurs, bats, aardvarks, horses, whales, pigs,and humans.MAMMAL STUDY13
Classifying Mammals.Six steps are used in this classification, with each step narrowingdown the range of differences and increasing the similarities betweenanimals. (There may be some substeps, too, but we won’t go intothem.) The final two steps—the genus and the species—give theanimal its scientific name.The six steps are:Phylum (plural, phyla)This very broad, basic division comprises animals with one or morecharacteristics in common. Although all zoologists use the samesystem of classifying animals, they do not always agree on how theclassification should be done. And so the animal kingdom may bedivided into 20 or more phyla: Many of the phyla are made up of verysmall, simple organisms that we do not usually think of as animals atall, such as microscopic animals, insects, and worms. All animals withbackbones belong to the phylum Chordata.ClassEach phylum is divided into classes. Chordata, for example, includesClasses Pisces (fish), Amphibia (amphibians), Repitilia (reptiles),Aves (birds), and Mammalia (mammals). Mammals are in a separateclass because they are the only animals that produce milk for theiryoung and have true hair.OrderNext, each class is divided into orders. In Class Mammalia, 18 ordersare commonly recognized. Of these, 11 are native to the United States.They are the Orders Marsupialia, Insectivora, Chiroptera, Edentata,Lagomorpha, Rodentia, Cetacea, Carnivora, Sirenia, Perissodactyla,and Artiodactyla.Each order has distinguishing characteristics. Rodentia, for example, is madeup entirely of gnawing mammals, andPerissodactyla of mammals with eitherone or three toes on each hoof. The OrderPrimates includes you. It also includesapes, monkeys, marmosets, and severalother small mammals, none of themThe monkey is a member ofthe Order Primates.native to the United States.14MAMMAL STUDY
.Classifying MammalsFamilyEach order is next divided into families made up of mammals witheven greater similarities. For example, the Order Carnivora, which ismade up of flesh-eaters, includes both dogs and cats. Obviously catsand dogs are different in many ways. So the cats are placed in theFamily Felidae, while the dogs are in Family Canidae.The number of families in each order varies. The largest order,Rodentia, has 34 families. The aardvark, a strange-looking African anteater, is the only species in the only family of Order Tubulindentata.Genus (plural, genera)Now that we have separated the cats from the dogs, we are gettingnear the end of our classification. Members of the same genus are verysimilar to each other. Within ourFamily Canidae, for example, wefind the wolves, foxes, coyotes,and dogs. But there are plenty ofdifferences among them, too, sothey are separated into genera.The coyote and the wolf are fairlyclose cousins, so they are includedin the Genus Canis within theThe leopard is a member of theFamily Canidae.Family Felidae.SpeciesLastly, the sixth classification further divides animals into species.Here is where an animal gets its full scientific name, which includesits genus and species. Thus the coyote becomes Canis latrans and thetimber wolf becomes Canis lupus.There often is a seventh step in classification when there aretwo or more members of the same species that may vary slightly inappearance or geographic distribution. They are given a third title, thesubspecies. But members of a subspecies can interbreed with those ofthe species, so they actually are considered to be the same. You knowthat all kinds of dogs—from terriers to Dalmatians—can interbreed.Therefore, they are all of the same species, even though they mightnot look alike.MAMMAL STUDY15
Classifying Mammals.It’s NotJust a DogKingdom: AnimalPhylum: ChordataClass: MammaliaOrder: CarnivoraFamily: CanidaeGenus: CanisSpecies: DomesticusClassifying Mammals You SeeWhile it may sound confusing, the classification procedurewill become more easy with practice. When you begin studying mammals, you will need a field guide to help you withthe Latin names for genera and species.Suppose you see a squirrel in the park and decide toclassify it. You can quickly take the first two steps becauseyou already know that it is a mammal. Therefore, it mustbe in the Phylum Chordata and the Class Mammalia. If youcould examine its teeth (but do not try to do that), you wouldfind that as a rodent it has only two incisors (gnawing teeth)above and two below.Most rodents have four toes on each front foot and fivetoes on each hind foot. If the squirrel has these, it is a memberof the Order Rodentia. Consulting your field guide will leadyou to discover that it belongs to the Family Sciuridae, whichincludes squirrels as well as woodchucks, chipmunks, andprairie dogs.16MAMMAL STUDY
.Classifying MammalsGray squirrelAs the squirrel scampers up a tree, you note that it is apretty good size and that its color is mixed gray and a yellowish brown. The tail is big and bushy and tipped with white. Itsunderbelly is whitish.If you live east of the Mississippi River, you can be prettysure that what you see is an Eastern gray squirrel. Its scientificname is Sciurus carolinensis. If you live in the West and seea squirrel that is a little grayer, it is a Western gray squirrel(Sciurus griseus). Note that while the genus (Sciurus) is thesame for both, the species is not.Take your field guide into a large park orwoods and try your skill. Observe anymammals you see as closely as possible.Find out, if you can, what it eats. Estimate itssize. Note its color. Remember what its bodylooked like, particularly the head. Does it stayon the ground? Does it burrow? The answersto these questions will help you classify theanimal exactly. Of course, you will need aguide to the scientific names, but with ityou should have no trouble classifying thecommon mammals in your area.MAMMAL STUDY17
Polar bear
.Where Mammals LiveWhere Mammals LiveIf you want to spot a black bear, you would not go lookingfor it in the desert. And if you hope to see tree squirrels, youwould not begin your search on the treeless Great Plains. Youknow that you have to go where these animals live.Every animal needs a food supply, shelter, water, and living space. It makes its home where these needs are met. Suchan area is called the habitat. A beaver, for example, needs awatercourse in order to carry out its life functions. It needs asupply of deciduous trees, preferably aspens, cottonwoods, orwillows, that can be used for food. And so if you want to lookfor beaver, you must look along streams bordered with hardwood trees. You will not find a beaver very far from water.On the other hand, the kangaroo rat, which lives in desertsin the West, may never comeFoodwithin miles of a watercourse.And it may never drink water. ItLiving spaceproduces its water supply directlyfrom the food it eats by a specialadaptation of its body. But likeany other animal, it needs shelter,and the kangaroo rat finds it byburrowing underground.Mammals can be found inevery natural habitat—grasslands,forests, woodland border areas,sea coasts, swamps and marshes,rivers and lakes, oceans, mountains, and deserts. Even wherehumans have changed the faceCoverof nature, mammals are likelyto thrive—in city parks, streets,backyards, cemeteries, evenAnimal needs for lifebarren playgrounds.WaterMAMMAL STUDY19
Where Mammals Live.But in nature, mammals will be foundin one or more of the conventional habitats.Many, like the red fox, can adapt themselvesto several habitats where their needs can bemet. You may find this fox in a brushy areanear a marsh, in woodlands, on mountains,or even in your backyard if you live in asuburb. A meat-eating animal (of the OrderCarnivora, remember?) may travel overseveral habitats in search of dinner.The following pages describe themajor habitats of mammals in the UnitedStates and the mammals you are mostlikely to see in each.Red foxFields and PrairiesWolvesWith everything from lush green mountainvalleys to hot, barren deserts, fields andprairies can be home to many mammals.The number of trees dotting fields andprairies is small in comparison to woodlandareas, so the mammals who live in theseareas will not be dependent on the shelteror bounty that a tree can provide. Field andprairie mammals may live underground, and sometimes theirwater supply is scarce. Some of the resident mammals, like theelk and deer, feed mainly on grasses and other plants, and somepredatory mammals, like wolves, may feed off other animals.White-tailed deerElk20MAMMAL STUDY
.Where Mammals LiveVoleEastern WoodlandsMeadow mouseThis geographic term is commonly usedto describe the eastern half of the UnitedStates. Just as its name implies, thearea typically is greatly populated withtrees, wildflowers, and shrubs that canbe used resourcefully by the mammalsthat live there. The four seasons in thisclimate are moderate, so the animalsneed not be extremely adaptive. Some ofthe mammals you will find in this regioninclude black bears and bobcats.Black bear cubJackrabbitRaccoonWeaselMAMMAL STUDY21
Where Mammals Live.MinkWoodchuck, or groundhogStreams, Lakes, and MarshesWetlands provide prime real estate for mammals likemoose and beavers, who get their food supply fromthe products of the nutrient-rich waters. The mammalshere can be dependent on other forms of life that thrivein wet areas, like the bat, which feeds off the manymosquitoes, flies, and beetles that make their homesnear water.SkunkManatees live in estuaries, rivers, and shallow waters off many coasts.In the United States they mainly are found off the coast of Florida.Manatees are not related to sea lions or dolphins, but more closely toelephants. These curious and friendly creatures can weigh well over aton, and can grow from 8 to 15 feet long. Manatees continuously growmolars, which is goodbecause the sand on theplants they eat tends towear down their teeth.Manatees have beenhunted extensively andare now mainly in danger from water pollution,boat propellers, and lossof habitat.22MAMMAL STUDY
.Where Mammals LivePorcupineRed squirrelWestern Pine ForestThe mammals that inhabit the pine forest regions of the westernUnited States are much the same as those of the eastern woodlands. The forest areas receive adequate rainfall to provide allanimals with needed nourishment, and the vegetation tends tobe lush and green.Sighting MammalsNo doubt you have seen wild mammals in nature, even if youlive in the heart of a large city. Squirrels abound in most parks,and you may also see cottontail rabbits and perhaps field orother mice in the park.But you know that mammals do not rush out to greetyou in the wild. Most of themare very shy. And a largepercentage of mammals arenocturnal—that is, they stay intheir dens or burrows duringthe day and venture out forfood at night.For these reasons, spottingmammals is not easy. Thebiggest population of wildlifeis likely to be found in whatecologists call an “edge”habitat, that is, on the borderbetween a field and a woodedarea or the border betweenwoods and swamp.MAMMAL STUDY23
Where Mammals Live.Naturally, theless noise youmake the morelikely you are tospot animals.Tips for Spotting MammalsHere are some of the ways you can increase yourchances of seeing mammals in their natural habitat.Blend Into the Landscape. Find a comfortable spot tosit or lie prone. Stay absolutely still and be patient.Some mammals will lose their fear of you after a timeand venture out of hiding. If you want to make yourpresence even less obvious, build a blind one day andgo into it a day or two later when the animals havegotten used to it. Take binoculars if you have them.Go Out at Night. With your parent or another Scout,visit a natural habitat at night. Take a flashlight. Shinethe light at intervals on the trail ahead, into treetops, andinto dense brush. Skunks, foxes, deer, flying squirrels,raccoons, and opossums may be looking at you.Take to the Water. Look along a stream bank orlakeshore for tracks in the mud and sand. That night,go out in a boat with a flashlight and row to a pointoffshore from where you saw the tracks. Sit quietly,and at the slightest sound, aim your light toward it.Or anchor near a beaver dam or muskrat house andshine your light whenever you hear a sound.Stake Out a Burrow. If you spot a hole in the groundwhile on a hike, poke some pencil-sized sticks lightlyinto the ground around it. If the hole is a mammal’sburrow, you will find the sticks knocked down whenyou come back to look at it later. So sit down in acomfortable spot nearby and wait. If you are patient,you may be rewarded by a look at a woodchuck,badger, ground squirrel, pocket gopher, or chipmunk.Make a Tracking Pit. A tracking pit is a baited areadesigned to attract animals to food so that you canget their tracks. If you sit quietly some distance from atracking pit at night and shine a flashlight occasionally atthe pit, you may spot mammals enjoying the free lunch.24MAMMAL STUDY
.Where Mammals LiveReading Mammal SignsRegardless of whether you have good luck at spotting mammals, you should learn to recognize the signs, or evidence, ofmammals. The most common signs are tracks, but you canalso find droppings and signs of feeding, scratchings, gnawings,rubbings, and game trails. You can also find animal homes—nests, burrows, and dens.When you learn how to look for them, you should haveno trouble in turning up mammal signs on any hike.TracksAnimal tracks are quite easy tofind in any habitat where there issome soft material, such as snow,mud, soft earth, or dust. As a rule,the best places to look are streambanks, puddles, and lakeshores.Many times you will find atrack that does not look like anythingin your field guide because it isnot all there. Perhaps the ground isirregular, and so claws or other features do not appear in thetrack. The same animal’s track may look different in the snowand in dust. The “perfect track” may not appear very often.In addition, you must remember that not every track you seewas made by a mammal. Reptiles, birds, and amphibians maketracks, too.Marmots are hefty members of the squirrel family—they can weigh asmuch as 16 pounds. Marmots feed on vegetation all summer to preparefor their hibernation. In winter, the marmot climbs down into the burrowit has dug with its powerful claws, and closes up the entrance, packingit tightly with soil and plants. When hibernating, marmots reduce theirheart rate, body temperature, and use of oxygen, and they live offtheir body fat. Most marmots hibernate for about seven months, but inAlaska they are known to stay underground for as long as nine months.During the summer, some marmots choose a more open space tolive, such as between rocks at the bottom of a mountain slope.Marmot burrows can be hundreds of feet long, and have openingsfor escaping and scouting. Snakes, raccoons, foxes, and other animalsuse abandoned marmot burrows as their new homes.MAMMAL STUDY25
Where Mammals Live.Generally, the front foot and the hind foot of the same mammal makedifferent tracks. The size, shape, and number of toes are likely to be different. Like anything else, skill in reading tracks comes only with practice.FRONTFRONT81/2"HINDFRONTHIND11/8" X 11/8"7"House NT21/4" X 21/8"HINDHIND21/8" X 17/8"DogFox21/4" X 13/4"21/8" X 33/4"HIND3"HIND21/2" X 2"Coyote41/4" X "HINDSkunkWeasel26HINDMAMMAL STUDYHINDHINDRabbitChipmunkPorcupine
.Where Mammals LiveAs an aid in learning how to read tracks, you may want to preserve afew that you find in the wild. This can be done by plaster casting.To make a plaster cast of a track you find on the trail, you willneed a cardboard strip and some plaster of paris. Notch the edges ofthe cardboard and bend it to form a collar. Place the collar around thetrack you want to preserve. Mix the plaster of paris, pour it into thecollar, and wait for it to harden. In warm weather, the cast will hardenin about 20 minutes. When it is completely dry, remove the cast andbrush off the dirt. On the back of the cast, write the date and location.When you have identified the animal that made the track, write itsname as well.Casting a mold is a way to bring home asouvenir of a track you found.MAMMAL STUDY27
Where Mammals Live.When you have learned to identify common mammaltracks, you can “read” interesting animal stories. You may seewhere a raccoon lunched on mussels and left the shells alongthe lakeshore.As soon as you can identify a few tracks, try a littledetective work. With practice, you will be able to learn anumber of things about the animal just from its tracks. Forexample, how far apart are the tracks? The answer tells youtwo things—the size of the mammal and whether it waswalking, running, or something in between. The depth of thetrack and whether it is deeper in front than in back helps totell whether it was traveling slowly or swiftly.DroppingsAnimal droppings may also be found. It usually takes a littlepractice to identify droppings for sure, unless tracks at thesite can be definitely identified. Often droppings can tell astory just as well as tracks—for instance, if you find mousehairs in the “scat” of a fox. You will find drawings of thedroppings of mammals in A Field Guide to Animal Tracks.Feeding SignsSometimes the signs of feeding will tell you what mammalsare in the area. They take many forms. Gnawed bark of atree, nipped twigs and small branches, shells of acorns orother nuts, bits of fur or feathers, skeletons or carcasses,closely clipped grass, holes in the ground—all these may besigns of feeding.Signs that plant-eating animals like deer and rabbits arearound usually are easy to find. Rabbits will browse on lowgrowing shrubs, nipping off the ends of new shoots. Theyalso will eat the bark on young saplings. Deer, too,browse on the tender buds and twigs of trees andshrubs. In harsh winters the snow level will causetheir browse line to be higher as they reach for food.Muskrats eat the tender parts of some waterplants, discarding the tougher parts, which float tothe surface of a lake or pond.Porcupines like tree bark, and often you maysee the top of a pine stripped of bark all the wayaround. Sometimes a hole in the ground will tell youthat a skunk or fox found a mouse nest and dug itout for supper.28MAMMAL STUDY
.Where Mammals LiveDens, Nests, and BurrowsMammals have a wide variety of homes—or no home at all.Many of the hoofed animals, such as the deer, have no permanent shelter. The white-tailed deer, for example, wandersaround its home range of about one to two square miles.But most mammals do have some kind of a home—inthe earth, in a shallow nest on the surface, in a cave, in arock crevice, or in a hollow tree.Some mammal homes are easy to spot and identify. Youcan’t miss a beaver lodge or a muskrat house because of theirdistinctive construction.Burrows are harder to identify because many mammalsare burrowers. Generally the size, location, and shape willgive you a clue. Woodchuck burrows are often found in openfields and, if you look carefully, you will find two holes, onewith a mound of dirt nearby and the other without a mound.Beavers cut downentire trees neartheir water dens,then cut them intoshorter lengthsand store thebranches on thestream bottom.During the wintertheir food supplymust be closeat hand.WoodchuckMAMMAL STUDY29
Where Mammals Live.A red fox burrow resembles a woodchuck’s but the tunnelis bigger and the location is less likely to be near buildings orroads used by people. But if it is in an appealing place, a foxmay take over and enlarge a woodchuck’s burrow. Skunks orrabbits may also live in abandoned woodchuck burrows.Bears use caves, hollow logs, undercut banks, and uprooted trees for their dens. In the high-mountain country of thewestern United States, cougars use caves or rock crevices forshelter. Bats are most at home in caves.Prairie dog burrows look like miniature volcano craters.The mound around the entrance is used as a lookout post and also keeps surface water from runningdown the hole. Coyotes, ground squirrels, chipmunks,some mice, gophers, and moles also make theirhomes underground.Another mammal that gives clear evidence of itspresence is the woodrat. This tiny rodent is the kingof thieves among mammals, and its big nest of leaves,twigs, and debris may look like a junkyard. The woodrat brings home everything it finds and is especiallyfond of bright things like mirrors and bits of metal.Woodrat30MAMMAL STUDY
.Where Mammals LiveGame TrailsGame trails are like wildlife highways. Animals may share asingle pathway through the woods, across a meadow, or up ahillside, and use that trail for many years. Look for evidenceof animal tracks, droppings, and hair on any well-used pathway through the brush. Find a secluded spot a little bit off thetrail to observe the mammals that pass through. Be carefulnot to get too close to the trail so not to spook the animalsthat use it.Other SignsEvidence of mammals also may be found in signs of rubbings,gnawing, and scratching. Buck deer, for example, rub the “velvet” from their newly grown antlers in the spring by scrapingthe antlers against a sapling. Look for scarred or smoothedbark on young trees.Bears will tear off the outer bark of evergreen trees to eatthe inner bark, and you may find the vertical rips made by abear’s teeth. You also m
f. Write a report of 500 words on a book about a mammal species. g. Trace two possible food chains of carnivorous mammals from soil through four stages to the mammal. 5. Working with your counselor, select and carry out one project that
Eagle Troop activated in April 2015. Four months later, the troop and 1st SBCT deployed to NTC. Eagle Troop’s experience from activation through validation at NTC is my focus here. I will briefly discuss weapons-troop theory, organization, scenarios, capabilities and recomm
FM 17-97 is one of three publications in the cavalry troop family. It provides troop leaders with a doctrinal reference to link training and fighting. ARTEP 17-487-30-MTP, Mission Training Plan for the Regimental Armored Cavalry Troop, outlines how to train the troop. FKSM 17-97-3, Cavalry Troop Common SOP, describes
Organization of a Boy Scout Unit A Boy Scout Unit is called a Troop. It is composed of a maximum of thirty two (32) boys plus three (3), the Senior Patrol Leader, the Troop Scribe and Treasurer, and the Troop Quartermaster. A Troop is divided into four (4)
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MMPA as any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance which—(i) has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild; or (ii) has the potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding,
to unusual mortality (and morbidity) events Title IV: Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response. NOAA. Components of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. FWC. Marine Mammal Conservancy. Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. Mote Marine Lab. Biomonitoring / Health Assessments. NOAA.
argue that classical social theory is primarily a theory of modernity and that the classical tradition of modern social theory raised fundamental questions concerning the nature, structure, and historical trajectories of modern societies. By putting modern societies in broad historical perspective, by emphasizing the linkages between their differentiated social institutions, and by expressing .
