Teachers’ notes – Endangered animals and plants
Synopsis
It is intended that teachers select the activities they wish to use and choose the order in which
they work with them to encourage children’s thinking about endangered animals and plants.
This activity is concerned with species, both plant and animal, which are under threat. It
begins with a mind-mapping exercise to establish the meaning of ‘threatened’, ‘endangered’
and ‘extinct’.
Learners may tend to think of the ‘star’ animals in the context of extinction – dinosaurs and
such. Their attention can be drawn to the fact that plants, also, can be threatened,
endangered or extinct. The slipper orchid is such an example and occasionally, these plants
make the news. Learners could be reminded or made aware that many plants are protected
by law. Slipper orchids may reappear in unexpected places and when they do so, they cause
a stir and need protecting.
Attention then turns from the present to the past, with an invitation to consider specific
examples of extinction. It is likely that learners will refer to significant historical examples –
dinosaurs, dodos, and so on, but whatever is generated will offer opportunities to consider
why species became extinct, their way of life and impact on the planet, and related species
that remain.
Having been exposed to issues of the fragile nature and interdependence of species and the
vulnerability of habitats to human and other intervention, attention can be brought back closer
in both time and place, to consider priorities in Wales. The starting point is to consider a list of
plants and animals to discuss which of the selection are endangered in Wales, and which are
not.
Extinctions have to be understood as happening not just in the past and with the threat of
further cases in future. Extinctions are happening in the present and very recent past. An
example is the Great Auk (larger cousin of the razorbill, puffin and guillemot), which died out
less than two hundred years ago. The extinction of the Great Auk offers a warning of the
potential impact of human activity on the environment.
Puffins, razorbills and guillemots are very popular birds with children and adults, and prolific
around the rocky coasts of Wales. Could these birds become extinct? How might the fishing
industry have an impact on their numbers? What can we do to protect our environment and
our interdependent existence with other living things?
Curriculum links
Interdependence of organisms:
4. through fieldwork, the plants and animals found in two contrasting local environments, e.g.
identification, nutrition, life cycles, place in environment
5. the interdependence of living organisms in those two environments and their representation
as food chains
6. the environmental factors that affect what grows and lives in those two environments, e.g.
sunlight, water availability, temperature
7. how humans affect the local environment, e.g. litter, water pollution, noise pollution
Skills
Communication: 1 & 2
Enquiry – Planning: 2 & 3
Enquiry – Developing: 5, 6 & 7
Enquiry – Reflecting: 5 & 6
Activities
Tab 1
One of the aims of this exercise is to encourage the expression
of, and reflection on, the meaning of vocabulary relevant to the
idea of extinction. Learners could be encouraged to put in linking
words and phrases as they discuss the meaning of the terms.
The intention is to sharpen learners’ appreciation of the concepts
about protection of species that are threatened or endangered,
possibly facing extinction.
Species are generally considered to be ‘threatened’ when their
numbers are falling significantly and constantly over time. Some
decrease might be temporary, due to abnormal weather
conditions, for example. Falling numbers are regarded as
potentially threatening if not attended to and therefore requiring
some form of intervention or human action if the decline is to be
halted.
‘Endangered’ is a more serious matter, with a real danger of
extinction, perhaps imminent.
The word ‘extinct’ in its strongest sense means that the species
is no longer to be found alive on the planet. However, the
expression ‘extinct in Wales’ might be used to refer to a species
that once occurred in Wales but no longer does so, though it
might continue to exist in other parts of the world. For example,
the Golden Eagle no longer occurs in Wales though it breeds in
other parts of the U.K.
Having thought about the terms and the concept of extinction,
each learner might be invited to reflect on any particular plant or
animal that they would be most concerned to lose to extinction.
This discussion could focus on the sense of personal interest and
involvement in protecting endangered species. Some attempt
should be made to relate the discussion to habitats the children
know and have studied, with possibilities of maintaining or
reintroducing plants and animals in a responsible manner.
Tab 2
Plants can be threatened, endangered or extinct as well as
animals.
This is a photograph of the rarest plant in the UK – the Lady’s
slipper orchid. More information and some beautiful images can
be
found
at
http://www.arkive.org/ladys-slipperorchid/cypripedium-calceolus/#text=All
The photograph offers the starting stimulus for discussion, with
the rollover questions designed to introduce discussion points.
The discussion can be steered in the direction of the ways in
which such plants become endangered, especially the human
factors.
The Latin name for the Lady’s Slipper orchid is Cypripedium
calceolus which can be translated as ‘the shoe of Venus’ –
Venus being the ancient Roman goddess of beauty and love.
There is an opportunity to discuss ideas about how plant
numbers become reduced, for example, as the result of
1. Reduction or other changes in the environment they need
in which to grow;
2. People picking the flowers, which prevent the plants from
producing seeds and reproducing;
3. People digging up the entire plant to grow in their own
gardens;
4. Orchid enthusiasts and collectors digging up the plants for
their own selfish purposes.
Orchids attract insects which pollinate them. Some flowers (such
as the bee orchid) mimic insects themselves, and this may help
to attract particular insects to crawl through the flower, pollinating
it as they squeeze through.
Tab 3
In this tab, learners are invited to think about some of the
challenges of protecting rare plants in the community and in
particular the pros and cons of asking for police protection to
ensure the security of rare plants. The instance used in the
activity could be used as a basis for wider discussion of
protecting wild plants.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article1273702/Britains-rarest-flower-Lady-Slipper-orchid-gets-policeprotection.html#ixzz0x9mfPU8O about the appearance of these
slipper orchids in 2010.
“She is a rare exotic beauty more heavily guarded than the
Queen.
Britain's last remaining lady's slipper orchid, which is due to
flower in a few weeks, has been given 24-hour police protection
from thieves.
Local bobbies have been ordered to mount hourly patrols around
the valuable plant, which has been growing at a protected site on
a golf course for at least 100 years. It is also being security
tagged to prevent anyone snipping a cutting, which can fetch up
to £5,000.
And police are considering spending thousands of pounds on
CCTV cameras to keep a constant watch on the site in the north
of England.
Although experts have tried to re-introduce the purple and yellow
bloom in other areas, none have flowered.
PC Tony Marsh, community beat manager, said: 'The lady's
slipper is an incredibly important plant, having survived for over a
hundred years when all other plants were thought extinct.
'People travel from all ends of the country on what is almost a
pilgrimage to view the plant in bloom and are often overcome
with emotion at the sight.'
He and the force have good reason to be worried. The priceless
plant, which is protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act
1981, has been attacked and mutilated twice in six years.
Last June a thief took a cutting, leaving it with just six flowers. In
2004, a collector tried to dig up the plant by its roots, but
managed to get away with just a part of it. The perpetrators were
never found.
PC Marsh added: 'The biggest threat is collectors. When flowers
were taken last year, we think purely just to press and put in a
book, the value on the crime report was thousands of pounds.‘
Thanks to Daily Mail Online and Rebecca Camber, Daily Mail for
permissions to reproduce the above materials. The orchids have
been found on other golf courses. ‘It seems that orchid seeds are
being transported on the spiked soles of golfers’ shoes and are
starting to appear at other golf courses. (See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/20/orchids-england)
Children might use ‘thinking hats’ to present the views different
people might hold about the protection of the slipper orchid. For
example, golfer, police, golf course owner, conservationist, child,
gardener, local victim of robbery etc.
Tab 4
Learners consider what they know about the Wildlife Countryside
Act 1981 and record their ideas in a KWHL grid.
Tab 5
Learners should be invited to think of any examples of extinctions
that they are aware of and share these with the group or class.
They should be encouraged to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Name the plant or animal
Describe it
Suggest where it lived
Describe how it lived, what it ate, etc.
Offer some suggestions as to how or why it became
extinct
Suggest how long ago the extinction occurred
Consider the role of people, if any, in the extinction.
Many children are likely to suggest ‘dinosaurs’ but may have little
idea of when or why they died out. The dodo might be familiar to
some – a flightless bird found on the island of Mauritius, which
became extinct due to human activities in the late 17th century.
The expression, ‘Dead as a dodo’, might be known to some.
A set of postage stamps was issued by Royal Mail in 2006,
showing
extinct
ice-age
animals.
http://www.norphil.co.uk/2006/03c-iceage.htm.
Children who
have postage stamp collections may be aware of this set which
could provide a stimulus for discussion.
Tab 6
The list of plants and animals offers a starting point for a
consideration of species that are common in Wales and those
which are in some way under threat. As far as possible
(depending on the school’s location) children’s awareness of the
possibility of these species occurring in habitats they have
studied or visited should be explored.
In the list, only the Grey Squirrel and the Daffodil are NOT on the
priority list for protection in Wales.
Children who are familiar with fishing as a hobby may know of
the shad, of which there are two species, both on the priority list
A useful (though advanced) source of technical information is the
Biological Records Centre website, http://www.brc.ac.uk/.
The Biological Records Centre (BRC), was established in 1964
as the national focus in the UK for land and water species
recording (other than birds). It works with the voluntary recording
community throughout Britain and Ireland. The BRC database
contains over 15 million records of more than 12000 species.
BRC holds data on the distribution of wildlife in the British Isles.
For details relating to Wales (and the list is extremely detailed)
see
http://www.biodiversitywales.org.uk/content/uploads/docum
ents/Species%20Habitats/MASTER%20S42%20Species%20L
ist%20041208%20LatinEnglishWelsh.pdf
Tab 7
Image: Great Auks. Collector cards from Tiere der Urwelt
(Animals of the Prehistoric World), Series Ia (from a set inscribed
1916). Created by Heinrich Harder. This image is in the public
domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the
European Union, Canada, the United States and those countries
with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.
Illustrations of the nearest living relative of the Great Auk, the
razorbill, have been added to this historic image in order to show
their comparative size. As the narrative (below) unfolds, the
Great Auks disappear from the scene, leaving only the modernday razorbills.
The story of the Great Auk is a sad tale to tell. It is a special
story because there are good written records of how extinction
occurred.
The last known pair of birds was killed on an island called Eldey,
near the coast of Iceland. Their killing was paid for by a collector.
Stuffed animals were popular at the time, especially rarities which the Great Auk had become.
The Great Auk lived most of its life at sea, coming ashore to
breed. It was there, in its dense nesting colonies, that it was
vulnerable to humans.
Funk Island, off the coast of
Newfoundland, 3000 miles from the coast of Wales, was a known
nesting site. It is estimated that 100,000 pairs gathered to breed
on that one island. Ships from Europe sailed to the area form the
sixteenth century onwards, because it teemed with fish – about
350 ships a year from France, Spain, Portugal and the British
Isles. These early explorers called the large flightless birds
‘penguins’ – perhaps after the Welsh for ‘white head’. Its closes
living relative is the razorbill – a common nesting bird along the
rockier parts of the Welsh coast and islands.
The eggs and the birds themselves were a source of food for
humans. They occurred in such numbers that they were
collected by the barrel-load and preserved with salt. The
feathers were also brought back to Europe and the birds were a
source of oil for lamps. Ships’ crews began to live on Funk
Island, keeping the birds in low-walled pens. As the result of
these human activities, the Great Auk was no longer to be found
on Funk Island by the beginning of the nineteenth century. Some
smaller colonies remained around northern Europe, in particular,
off the coast of Iceland. In March 1830, the eruption of an
undersea volcano destroyed an important Great Auk nesting site
off Iceland called Geirfuglasker. One known nesting site, Eldey,
nearer the coast of Iceland, remained. It was there that the last
two birds were killed by men on 3rd June 1844.
“All that remains of the Great Auk now are seventy-eight
mounted skins (mainly from Eldey), twenty-four complete
skeletons, two collections of preserved viscera [internal organs],
and around seventy-five eggs.”
Summarised from ‘Extinct’ (2001) Gill, A. and West, A. Channel
4 Books.
The television programme can be seen at
http://www.seesaw.com/TV/Factual/p-4586-The-Great-Auk
See also: The Great Auk The extinction of the original penguin.
Errol Fuller (2003) www.bunkerhillpublishing.com
Tab 8
This tab shows the relative size of a) a hen’s egg; b) a puffin’s
egg and c) the egg of a Great Auk. The eggs appear against a
grid which allows their dimensions to be read off. Good places at
which to pause the film are when the names of each egg appear
in turn on the screen. Learners can read off the measurements
at that point. By finding the mass of a hen’s egg and comparing
its size with that of the Great Auk’s egg, children will be able to
estimate the mass of the extinct bird’s egg. Teachers could
explore other dimensions including estimating the mass of a
Great Auk and comparing the mass with other birds that are
eaten, including chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys. Before it
became extinct, the eggs of the Great Auk were collected for
food by the native North American people. It was only when the
Europeans arrived in the North Atlantic that the collection of eggs
and birds became unsustainable.