Eastern Cranes on the Florida Wintering Grounds
Feeling Blue and Crabby: Whooping Crane Winter Diet
The Crab Connection: Crabs in Trouble Equals Cranes in Trouble!
The Importance of Fresh Water for People and Wildlife
A Second Winter Home
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
Arrival Health Checks and Banding
Blue crabs are the most important food in a crane's winter diet. How do you think they eat them?
Alabama Course of Study Science Kindergarten #6 Compare size, shape, structure, and basic needs of living things. • Identifying similarities of offspring and their parents #7 Classify objects using the five senses. 1st Grade #4 Describe survival traits of living things, including color, shape, size, texture, and covering. • Describing a variety of habitats and natural homes of animals 2nd Grade #4 Describe observable effects of forces, including buoyancy, gravity, and magnetism #6 Identify characteristics of animals, including behavior, size, and body covering #10 Identify the impact of weather on agriculture, recreation, the economy, and society. • Recognizing the importance of science and technology to weather predictions 3rd Grade #8 Identify how organisms are classified in the Animalia and Plantae kingdoms. #10 Determine habitat conditions that support plant growth and survival. 4th Grade #5 Describe the interdependence of plants and animals. • Describing behaviors and body structures that help animals survive in particular Habitats #6 Classify animals as vertebrates or invertebrates and as endotherms or ectotherms. • Describing the grouping of organisms into populations, communities, and ecosystems • Classifying common organisms into kingdoms, including Animalia, Plantae, Protista, Fungi, Archaebacteria, and Eubacteria #7 Describe geological features of Earth, including bodies of water, beaches, oc 5th Grade #9 Describe the relationship of populations within a habitat to various communities and ecosystems. • Describing the relationship between food chains and food webs 6th Grade #7 Describe Earth's biomes. Examples: aquatic biomes, grasslands, deserts, chaparrals, taigas, tundras • Identifying geographic factors that cause diversity in flora and fauna, including elevation, location, and climate 7th Grade #7 Describe biotic and abiotic factors in the environment. Examples: - biotic-plants, animals; - abiotic-climate, water, soil • Arranging the sequence of energy flow in an ecosystem through food webs, food chains, and energy pyramids Biology (9th – 12th) #11 Classify animals according to type of skeletal structure, method of fertilization and reproduction, body symmetry, body coverings, and locomotion. #12 Describe protective adaptations of animals, including mimicry, camouflage, beak type, migration, and hibernation. #13 Trace the flow of energy as it decreases through the trophic levels from producers to the quaternary level in food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids. #14 Trace biogeochemical cycles through the environment, including water, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. • Relating natural disasters, climate changes, nonnative species, and human activity to the dynamic equilibrium of ecosystems Examples: - natural disasters-habitat destruction resulting from tornadoes; - climate changes-changes in migratory patterns of birds; - human activity-habitat destruction resulting in reduction of biodiversity, conservation resulting in preservation of biodiversity #15 Identify biomes based on environmental factors and native organisms. #16 Identify density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors that affect populations in an ecosystem. Examples: - density-dependent-disease, predator-prey relationships, availability of food and water; - density-independent-natural disasters, climate • Discriminating among symbiotic relationships, including mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism Environmental Science (9th-12th) #7 Identify reasons coastal waters serve as an important resource. #8 Identify major contaminants in water resulting from natural phenomena, homes, industry, and agriculture. • Describing the eutrophication of water by industrial effluents and agricultural runoffs • Classifying sources of water pollution as point and nonpoint #12 Identify positive and negative effects of human activities on biodiversity. • Identifying endangered and extinct species locally, regionally, and worldwide • Identifying causes for species extinction locally, regionally, and worldwide Zoology (9th-12th) #7 Explain how species adapt to changing environments to enhance survival and reproductive success, including changes in structure, behavior, or physiology. Examples: aestivation, thicker fur, diurnal activity #8 Differentiate among organisms that are threatened, endangered, and extinct. Aquascience Elective (9th-12th) #1 Differentiate among freshwater, brackish water, and saltwater ecosystems. • Identifying chemical, geological, and physical features of aquatic ecosystems Environmental Elective (9th-12th) Genetics Elective (9th-12th) Marine Biology Elective (9th-12th)