Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
1. Where in the world?
Pre/Post-visit activity
This activity is ideally suited as preparation for a student excursion to Wild: Amazing
Animals in a Changing World at Melbourne Museum. It allows for the exploration of
prior student knowledge of animals and the regions they are from.
What you’ll need
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Post-it notes or scrap paper and Blu-tack
A large colour printout of the ‘World regions’ map (provided next page)
What to do
Give every student three Post-it notes. Have the students write down or draw three
terrestrial animals. Ask students to consider a broad range of wonderful and unusual
animals from around the world.
The World Animals section of Wild is divided into eight biogeographic regions:
Africa (‘Afrotropic’), South America (‘Neotropic’), North America (‘Nearctic’),
Eurasia (‘Palaearctic’), Indomalay, Oceania, Antarctica and Australasia.
These regions, together with the Arctic, are shown on the map overleaf, and can be
described by the countries and continents they include, as well as the names above.
After discussing the regions, the students stick their Post-it notes on the part of the
world that they think their animal is from. This can be open to discussion if there is
any uncertainty.
In this way, the map becomes a visual representation of prior knowledge.
After seeing Wild, students can revisit this display and assess whether they need to
make changes to their choices based on the information they gathered in the
exhibition. They could tick off the animals that they saw in the exhibition, or add new
animals that they saw in the exhibition to the map.
Extension activity
Once students have placed their animals on
the map, group discussion can begin on
how particular animals are suited to their
environments. This could include physical
characteristics, such as colouring or body
shape, as well as behavioural
characteristics, like hiding from predators.
For example, what makes kangaroos so
good at living in the desert? Kangaroos
have huge feet for jumping on sand, strong
legs for traveling long distances to find
water, the ability to ‘pause’ pregnancies
during times of severe drought, etc.
Kangaroo
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Antarctic
Afrotropic
Palaearctic
Nearctic
Neotropic
Arctic
Biogeographic regions
Indomalay
Australasia
Oceania
Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
2. Design your own animal!
Pre/Post-visit activity
Your task
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Design an animal to suit the various aspects described
below. Try not to copy an animal that you already know.
Present your animal to the class as a labelled diagram.
Explain the features you have included to suit those in
the table.
Animal
Habitat
1
Rainforest
Niche
(home
within the
habitat)
Tree tops
Movement
Waking/
sleeping
hours
Diet
Diurnal
Fruits and flowers
Leaf litter
Swings with
legs and tail
Flies
2
Rainforest
Dawn/dusk
Dead plants
3
Dry forest
Tree hollow
Slopes
Nocturnal
4
Grasslands
Under a log
Slithers
Diurnal
5
Desert
Burrow
Scurries
Dawn/dusk
Insects, small lizards,
bird eggs and fruit
Small lizards and
small mammals
Cacti
6
Alps
Swims
Diurnal
Insects, algae
7
Coral reef
Scampers
Diurnal
Plankton
8
Ocean
depths
Creek or
stream
Inside a
discarded
shell
Under a
layer of sand
Pounces
Dead fish
9
Iceberg
Ice cave
Waddles
Awake only
to feed
weekly
Diurnal
Shellfish
This activity could be modified in various ways. For example:
1. Create your own table with options for each category.
2. In a team, brainstorm additional options for each category.
3. Cut up the table and select options out of a hat – keeping
the habitat and niche together, but separating the other
categories (i.e. a hat for movement, a hat for diet, etc.).
This could end up with quite bizarre creatures!
Extension
As an extension, name your animal using the binomial
nomenclature activity on the next page – a genus and species
for each. Latin and Ancient Greek derivatives/roots can be a lot
of fun to use and can be easily found on the Internet.
Illustrations this page: John Retallick and Jonathan Shearer; Source: Museum Victoria
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
3. What’s my name?
Pre/Post-visit activity
Scientific names for organisms, such as Homo sapiens for humans, follow a set of
rules according to the Linnaean Classification System (Linnaean Taxonomy) and
Binomial Nomenclature.
Binomial means ‘two names’ and is very similar to the idea of First Name (e.g. John)
and Family Name (e.g. Smith). In science, the names are around the other way – the
first name is actually the genus to which the organism belongs, a bit like its family.
The second name is the species name specific to that organism.
Binomial nomenclature generally uses Latin and Greek words to name organisms,
choosing words that describe the features of the organism. For example,
Homo sapiens means ‘man of wisdom’,
Canis domesticus means ‘domestic dog’.
In recent decades, however, scientists have used place names, people’s names and
even private jokes in the naming of new species. For example,
Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, the
Sumatran Rhinoceros;
Oratosquillina berentsae, the Mantis
Shrimp, named in honour of Dr Penny
Berents of the Australian Museum;
Qantasaurus intrepidis named for the
corporate sponsorship that enabled
excavation of this Australian dinosaur.
Your task
Using the table of Greek and Latin
words on the right, create your own
scientific names for organisms. You
may need to include some vowels to
help join the words together.
Remember that organisms are not
just animals, but plants, fungi,
bacteria and other tiny cells.
Share your scientific names with your
classmates and challenge them to
work out the meaning behind them.
More Greek and Latin roots can be
found on websites such as Wikipedia.
Can you work out what
Punctatomys mephitisiped
might look like?
Greek/Latin
Ceros
Chloros
Cola
Cristatus
Dactylos
Derma
Dino, deino
Echinatus
Erion, erio
Flor
Gaster, gastro,
gastr
Hirsuta
Lineatus
Mephitis
Micro
Mys
Nanos
Odon, odus
Pedi
Pennatus
Phyto
Punctatus
Rhis, rhino
Reptans
Saura, saur
Stoma
Tardus, tardi
Trich, thrix
Velox, velocis
Versicolor
Virosus
Volans
vulgaris
Language
of Origin
Greek
Greek
Latin
Latin
Greek
Greek
Greek
Greek
Greek
Latin
Greek
English meaning
Latin
Latin
Latin
Greek
Greek
Greek
Greek
Latin
Latin
Greek
Latin
Greek
Latin
Greek
Greek
Latin
Greek
Latin
Latin
Latin
Latin
Latin
Hairy
Striped, lined
Bad odour
Small
Mouse
Dwarf
Tooth
Foot
Winged
Plant
Spotted
Nose
Creeping, crawling
Lizard, reptile
Mouth, opening
Slow, late
Hair
Swift, fast
Multi-coloured
Poisonous
Flying
Common
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Horn
Green
Dweller
Crested
Finger or toe
Skin
Terrible
Prickly, spiny
Wool, woolly
Flower
Belly
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
4. Adaptations wall of fame
Pre/Post-visit activity
Animals and plants demonstrate amazing adaptations. The more you investigate, the
more bizarre examples you will find.
Adaptations can be grouped according to whether they are:
• behavioural (what they do),
• structural (what they look like inside and out),
• physiological (how they work inside and out).
Alternatively, adaptations can be grouped according to their purpose, for example:
• reproduction,
• defense,
• feeding,
• transport/locomotion, etc.
Your task
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Divide a wall in your classroom into sections according to one of the two
groupings of adaptations above.
Create a poster which includes an image of an animal, the name of the
animal, and a particular adaptation that made you think “WOW!”
Pin the poster to the wall in the classroom in the appropriate section.
Continue to add to the wall as a class every time you come across another
amazing animal adaptation.
Little Forest Bat
Platypus
Adults weigh less
than 4 grams!
Senses electromagnetic
fields to find its food!
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
5. Wild games
Pre/Post-visit activity
Go to the ‘Wild Fun’ section of the exhibition website:
http://museumvictoria.com.au/wild
A set of Animal Collector Cards are available to download and print.
There is a range of different ways the cards can be used as education tools.
Five examples are given below.
Animal Heads
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Ask four students to line up facing the
class.
Without allowing the students to see their
own or each other’s cards, place an
Animal Collector Card on the forehead of
each student.
Students take it in turns to ask yes/no
questions about their card in order to
identify the animal – questions should
relate to the information on the card.
The rest of the class judge whether the answer
is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – ‘yes’ answers give the student
another turn.
The winner is the student who first correctly
identifies their animal.
Memory Matches
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Using two sets of the Animal Collector Cards and working in small
groups, shuffle the cards, then spread them all out face down.
Students turn over 2 cards on each turn, trying to make a match –
matched pairs are removed, unmatched pairs are replaced face
down.
The winner is the student with the largest number of pairs.
This game works best in groups of 2 or 3 due to the number of pairs
possible.
You could create your own cards to increase the numbers, using
images available for educational use, or photos you or the students
have taken of local animals.
Animal images that are free for educational use can be found at
http://www.pics4learning.com/
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
Guess the Animal
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•
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Using two sets of Animal Collector Cards and
working in pairs, each student randomly selects an
animal card from their own set.
• The student places the remaining cards face up in
front of them but in a position that the cards cannot
be seen by their partner.
Students then take it in turns to ask yes/no questions to identify their partner’s
animal, using the information (visual and text) on the cards as stimulus and
turning over the cards in front of them when they fit a ‘no’ response.
Through a process of elimination, students should be able to narrow down the
possible animals in order to identify their partner’s animal.
As with ‘Animal Heads’, a ‘yes’ response gets another turn, a ‘no’ response
passes play to the other person.
The winner is the person who is first to correctly identify their partner’s animal.
Snap
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Using 2 sets of Animal Collector Cards, shuffle and deal
equally among the players.
Take it in turns to place a card face up in front of the group.
When 2 cards that are similar (same animal) are placed on
top of each other, the first to place their hand over the cards
and say ‘Snap’ retrieves all the cards under their hand.
The winner is the person with the most cards when others
have none.
For variety, try matches that involve something other than simply the animal. For
example, if the animals are from the same region then they could be a match, or if
they have the same survival status they could be a match.
Bingo
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Use the Animal Collector Cards to
make different 3x3 grids of animal
pictures.
Select an information type from the
Collector Cards to use as clues, e.g.
survival status, common name,
physical feature, etc.
Call out the clues, allowing time for animals to be identified and crossed off the
grid.
The winner is the first person to cross off 3 animals in a row (horizontal, vertical
or diagonal) and call out ‘BINGO!’
To increase the length of the game, try a grid that is 4x4. Additional Animal Collector
Cards could be created by students and used to further increase the number.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
6. Family Tree
Pre/Post-visit activity
Organisms are classified in a hierarchy of categories. Just like first name and
surname, organisms have a species and genus name. But to show ‘extended family’
there are even more categories:
Human
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Hominidae
Homo
sapiens
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Wolf
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Carnivora
Canidae
Canis
lupus
As you can see above, humans and wolves are related – they are both mammals
and therefore chordates and animals. They are different from Order to Species.
You would also expect that the more levels of classification two organisms share, the
more related they are and therefore the more similar they are.
These categories are called the taxonomic hierarchy.
Your task
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Using a set of Animal Collector Cards from the Wild website or simply a
series of ~20 animals, find out the taxonomic hierarchy for each and write it
on the back of each card. Cards can be downloaded and printed from
http://museumvictoria.com.au/wild/
Place all cards in front of you. What do you notice about the Kingdom for
each?
Split the cards into groups according to the next level, Phylum. Do these
animals look like they’re in groups of similar animals?
Split the Phylum groups into Class groups and ask yourself the same
question. The animals should appear to be progressively grouped according
to more specific features.
Continue splitting the groups down to species level.
Represent these divisions in a tree diagram.
If you’re not using the Animal Collector Cards for this task, it would be a great idea to
select 20 animals from the same area.
For example, you might create a Wetlands Family Tree.
An incomplete example is given below:
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Class Aves
Class Reptilia
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Amphibia
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Sea star
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
7. Documentary making
Onsite activity
Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world is full of stories about the survival
strategies, successes, struggles and failures of a very diverse range of animals. If we
are to improve the chances of even a few of these animals, we need society to know
of, understand and care about biodiversity.
Your task
In teams, create a short documentary video or advertisement which highlights the
survival status of one or more animals in the Wild exhibition and any measures being
taken to improve this status.
Together with your teacher and your team, discuss the roles each person will play in
producing the final video. More than one student can work on a role. You can add to
and delete from the list below to suit your needs.
Chief Editor – oversees the production, sets timelines and coordinates the efforts of
the team.
Editor – responsible for scripting, including spelling and grammar.
Reporters – interview relevant people and organisations.
Researchers – use the Internet, books and newspapers to carry out background
research and make sure facts are accurate and referenced.
AV designers – decide how the visual artistic layout will look, including visual effects
for scene transitions.
Photographers – responsible for finding and/or producing suitable images and
editing them for the final product.
Sound technician – responsible for recording and editing audio, including voiceovers.
Special effects expert – responsible for creating any special effects such as
Slowmation or Flash animation that might be required.
Create a checklist of tasks for each person, adding timelines/due dates where
possible. This checklist may be useful for Chief Editors to use to keep track of team
member progress.
Make sure every team member can answer the question: ‘What information will I
need to collect from the exhibition during my visit that is relevant to my assigned
role?’
Each person should create a second checklist specifically for tasks and information
to be collected while at the museum.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
Team Discussion
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What exactly do we want as the focus of our video?
What are some of the main sections/topics within our theme?
What do we want the finished product to accomplish/achieve?
What is our ideal finished product?
e.g. a DVD with animated menu screen, multiple chapters and bonus
features.
What is the bare minimum for our finished product?
e.g. an edited movie burned to a DVD.
Who is our target audience?
What skills do we need to achieve these aims? Do we have them within our
team?
Materials/equipment required
Essential
• Access to video recording devices (e.g. video cameras, digital still cameras or
mobile phone cameras with video functions)
• Access to audio recording device (e.g. MP3 device with voice recorder)
• Computer with editing software (Moviemaker for PC, iMovie for Mac)
Optional (NB. not possible at the Museum)
• Tripod
• Microphone
• Lights and scrims (light-diffusing screens)
• Flash animation software (or similar)
NB. Most current mobile phones have video and audio recording capabilities.
Planning, teamwork and assessment resources
NB. A file containing these resources is provided as part of the Wild education kit.
A storyboard may be a useful way to plan the structure of the video. It provides a
format to identify what images, audio and text will be needed. Storyboards help to
ensure that the video achieves its purpose without unnecessary footage, audio or
effects. It should be completed before filming takes place.
A team agreement/contract may help to create task lists for each team member. It
can also be used as a reference to identify who you might need to contact about
ideas or issues. It can also help the Chief Editor by providing a basis for encouraging
team members to fulfil their agreed responsibilities.
A work log can help you to plan your time carefully. Possible hurdles can be planned
for, so that deadlines might still be met. It is also particularly useful to look back on to
see what progress has been made.
An assessment rubric is a very effective way of communicating strengths and
weaknesses. It is important to consider, in group tasks, which criteria might receive
individual marks and which criteria might need the same mark for everyone in the
group. Modify the rubric provided to suit your group’s needs.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
Online resources
For an introduction to Film Production:
http://www.acmi.net.au/learn_production_resources.htm
For an introduction to Movie Maker, available free with Microsoft Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/DLmovies.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/create/polish.mspx
For an introduction to Photo Story, also free with Microsoft Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/PhotoStory/default.mspx
For an introduction to iMovie, available free with Mac:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie
For an introduction to vodcasts (Mac):
http://www.macworld.com/article/46066/2005/07/howtovodcast.html
For an introduction to documentary making:
http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/learning/diydoco/
For an introduction to digital storytelling:
http://www.storycenter.org/
A useful website to assist with digital storytelling:
http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/storytelling/index.html
For an introduction to Slowmation:
http://www.slowmation.com.au/
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
8. Food webs
Pre/Post-visit activity
What you’ll need
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Ball of wool or string
Flash cards
Your task
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•
•
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Identify 20 organisms that exist in a particular habitat, remembering to include
plants, invertebrates and fungi.
Write the name of each organism on a flash card. Distribute one card to each
student in the class.
Sit in a circle. One student holds a ball of wool, reads aloud what organism
they have and shows the picture to the rest of the class.
Any student who thinks there is a link between this organism and their own
puts up their hand.
The person with the wool keeps hold of the end and throws the ball to
someone with their hand up, who then says what their organism is and what
the connection is.
People with a link to the new animal now put their hand up and the game
progresses.
Eventually you will have a series of connections shown by the web of wool.
The ball of wool cannot be passed twice between the same two people.
Possible connections are
• That organism eats me.
• I eat that organism.
• That organism and I compete for the same food.
• That organism and I share the same habitat.
• That organism and I are both nocturnal/diurnal.
• That organism and I are both aquatic/terrestrial/arboreal.
Extension
Nominate one person to be a scribe. They use a diagram of the circle to draw the
connections with a marker as they are made.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
9. Dichotomous Keys
Pre/Post-visit activity
A dichotomous key is a type of tree diagram for classifying things into different
groups. At each stage the objects are divided into two groups, based on an
observable characteristic. The descriptors must be has/has not for this to work. For
example, if you were classifying kitchen utensils, you could base your first two groups
on whether they are wooden or not wooden.
START HERE
Kitchen Utensils
Knife, rolling pin,
fork, wooden spoon,
whisk
Wooden
Rolling pin,
wooden spoon
Not wooden
Knife, fork, whisk
The two sub groupings (wooden and not wooden) now splits into two more
categories. This keeps going until every item has been separated from all others.
Your task
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•
Form groups of three or four.
Give each group a set of Animal Collector Cards, (available for download
from the Wild website http://www.museumvictoria.com.au/wild/ ) and sort
them into 2 groups of similar animals.
Compare the groupings across the class. Did all groups choose the same
features?
After sharing your ideas, continue to divide each group into 2, writing down
the divisions until a dichotomous key has been formed.
An incomplete example is on the next page. It would need to continue until all
animals have been separated and hence classified.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
All animals
Cold blooded
Fins
Fish
Not cold blooded
No fins
Fur
Slimy
Not slimy
Frog
Lizard
No fur
Dichotomous key games
This dichotomous key can now be an excellent aid to playing Animal Head (see Wild
Games activity on page 15 above).
In fact, Animal Head can be likened to a verbal dichotomous key with only 2 possible
responses correlating with 2 possible paths on the key.
This game will also reinforce the use of a key in classifying animals.
For example, if the person was a wombat, they could ask:
‘Am I warm blooded?’ Yes.
‘Am I furry?’ Yes.
‘Do I live in trees?’ No.
Extension activity
1. Choose an Australian animal that was not on a collector card. Follow the steps of
the key to see where it would fit. Do you need to add categories to your key?
Continue to other areas of the world. The more areas and animals you include,
the more categories you are going to have to add to your key.
2. Create a key to classify all the objects in your pencil case. Then test your key on
someone else’s pencil case to see if your system works.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
10. To clone or not to clone?
Post-visit activity
The Thylacine debate
The Thylacine was a large carnivorous marsupial, now believed to be extinct. It is
also known as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf. A Thylacine can be seen in
the Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world exhibition.
Although the precise reasons for extinction of the Thylacine from mainland Australia
are not known, it appears to have declined as a result of competition with the Dingo
and perhaps hunting pressure from humans. The Thylacine became extinct on the
Australian mainland at least 2000 years ago.
Its decline and extinction in Tasmania (1936?)
may have been hastened by the introduction of
dogs, but appears mainly due to having been
hunted by European settlers. From 1888, a
bounty of one pound was offered for every
Thylacine caught or killed, as it was believed
that they were attacking settlers’ sheep.
We may have an almost unique opportunity to
obtain Thylacine DNA. When animals are
stored by scientists, they are either stuffed and
mounted through a process called taxidermy, or
stored completely immersed in a liquid that
stops them from rotting. The liquid that is
usually used is a chemical called formaldahyde.
This prevents bacteria and fungi from breaking
down the animal, but it also destroys DNA
inside the animal’s cells.
Thylacine joey stored in ethanol
Source: Museum Victoria
In 1866 a Thylacine joey was preserved in ethanol, rather than formaldahyde.
Ethanol does not destroy DNA like formaldahyde does, so in theory it is possible to
extract some Thylacine DNA and use cloning techniques to breed new Thylacines.
The technology to do this does not exist yet. If it did, though, the real question is
whether we should clone these extinct animals.
This is entirely a matter of opinion and everyone has the right to have their own
opinion. It is good scientific practice, however, to base your opinion on facts and
evidence.
Your task
You and your group take one side of the debate about whether or not to clone
Thylacines. Another group takes the opposite point of view.
Using the websites listed below as well as books and Internet resources, research
facts and opinions that will encourage people to believe your side of the argument.
Write a script for each person in your group to present some of these ideas.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
Before you start the debate, take a survey of the opinions of people in the audience.
Before hearing your arguments, how many people think we should clone Thylacines?
How many think we shouldn’t? How many have no opinion on the subject?
Each group then presents their arguments by reading out their speeches.
After the speeches, survey the audience again and see whether people have
changed their minds.
Some Questions to consider
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•
•
•
Arguments for cloning
European settlers made the
Tasmanian Tiger extinct by hunting
it. We should ‘fix’ this by creating
more.
We could clone Thylacines just for
public zoos, not for release into the
wild.
If we clone Thyacines, we could
also clone other extinct animals like
Wooly Mammoths.
Should we do this just because we
can? Perhaps we will learn new
scientific techniques that will be
useful in other areas.
•
•
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Arguments against cloning
For almost 80 years there have
been no Thylacines in Tasmania.
What effect would it have on the
ecosystem to reintroduce them
now?
Current technology means that
most clones don’t survive. Is this
technology unethical?
There are no mother Thylacines,
so the baby would have to grow
inside a different animal like a
Tasmanian Devil. Is this cruel? Is
this ethical?
Is it ‘playing god’ to recreate a
species that has become extinct?
Some good websites to check out
Cloning the Thylacine: Fact or fantasy?
http://museumvictoria.com.au/scidiscovery/dna/cloning.asp
Cloning the Thylacine
http://www.biotechnologyonline.gov.au/enviro/Thylacine.html
Fact sheet on the Thylacine
http://australianmuseum.net.au/The-Thylacine
How cloning extinct animals works
http://www.extinctanimal.com/cloning.htm
Australian Museum dumps plans to clone the Thylacine
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_1302459.htm
How to clone a mammoth
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1281866.html
Extension Activity
Use ‘De Bono’s Thinking Hats’ to discuss as a class whether we should clone
Thylacines. A description of De Bono’s hats can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
11. The Wild Survival Game
Post-visit activity
Background information
The Wild Survival Game enables students to explore the interactions between
predators and prey. While this game is not an exact representation of these
interactions in nature, many of the rules in the game are modeled on real animal
survival strategies. After playing the game, animal survival strategies can be
discussed by the whole class.
A copy of the board for the game is provided below. Print the game board on A3
sized paper. It can be coloured and glued to cardboard to make it more durable.
As an ICT activity, students could create their own colourful board in a paint program.
However, they will need to ensure that it has the same number of spaces and food
spots.
Below are some points to help you with your class discussion:
There are more herbivores than carnivores.
In nature there is a careful balance in the size of species populations that can be
sustained. If there are too many carnivores in a given ecosystem, food for them
becomes scarce and many will die off. If there are few, they will thrive and breed, as
food is plentiful. This keeps the balance of carnivores to herbivores very stable.
As a general rule of thumb, there are 15-20 carnivores for every 100 herbivores in a
predator/prey relationship. This is reflected in the game, where herbivores start with
five animals, while carnivores start with one.
As an exercise, get students to try playing the game with lots of carnivores and one
herbivore. The result should be a lot of hungry carnivores!
For herbivores, stopping to feed is a risk.
Unfortunately for them, it is a necessary risk. Many carnivores wait until their prey is
eating or drinking before attacking. This can give them the element of surprise. If the
herbivore player wants to win, they are going to have to take some risks.
Herding is great protection.
‘Safety in numbers’ is a very successful survival strategy for herbivores. In nature,
many animals travel in herds, flocks or schools for reasons of safety. This has
several advantages. You can be feeding while your herd-mates are looking for
danger; also, if a predator is only hunting for one animal, living in a herd reduces the
chances that that animal is you!
In the Wild Survival Game, herding has two advantages. Firstly, it makes it harder for
the predator to roll the right number to land on you. Secondly, only one animal from
the herd will be eaten, so the larger the herd the more likely it is that you, the player,
will survive.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
Keep watching the carnivores.
Herbivores in the wild are often highly adapted to detecting the presence of a threat,
such as a predator. In the Wild Survival Game, if a herbivore player can see that the
carnivores are on the other side of the board, it is probably safe to stop and feed.
If a predator finds you, flee!
Most prey species are adept at running, hiding, or both. The fight or flight response is
a strong survival instinct in most species. In the game, if a carnivore is in the same
space as you and you don’t run, you are asking to be eaten.
The life of a predator is energy intensive.
It takes a lot of energy to chase down an animal and if your prey gets away, all that
energy was for nothing. If a predator hasn’t fed in a while, they are not going to be at
their fittest next time they hunt. This is reflected in the game by the carnivore being
removed if it hasn’t fed for three turns.
Red Fox
Image: Anne and Steve Toon
Source: NHPA
Eastern Barred Bandicoot
Image: Gary Lewis
Source: Cheryl Lewis
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
Rules
Set-up
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The Wild Survival game is for 2-6 players.
Place two food counters on each food circle.
Each player chooses to be a carnivore or a herbivore.
There cannot be more carnivores than herbivores. You must have either
equal numbers of each, or if there are an odd number of players, more
herbivores than carnivores.
Herbivores players get 5 herbivore counters each; carnivore players get
1 carnivore counter each.
All herbivore counters begin on the ‘start’ circle in the middle of the board.
Carnivore players can choose to start their counter on any ‘food’ circle.
The herbivores try to move to a food circle to take a food counter (worth 1
point) without being eaten. They can move in any direction.
The carnivores try to land on the same space as a herbivore and eat them.
Carnivores can also move in any direction.
Moving
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To decide who goes first, every player rolls a dice. The highest roll goes first,
and play then proceeds clockwise around the other players.
Herbivores: In their turn, the player may choose to move some, or all 5 of
their herbivore counters. Each counter is moved by rolling a six-sided dice
and moving that many spaces, so herbivore players can have up to 5 rolls of
the dice each turn. Before they roll the dice each time, the herbivore player
must declare which counter they will move, and then move it accordingly.
Each herbivore counter can only be moved once per turn.
Carnivores: The carnivore player gets 2 rolls per turn and so can move their
single counter twice. They can also choose to not move, or to move once for
a turn.
Scoring
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If a herbivore counter is on a food circle containing at least one food counter
at the start of the player’s turn, the player can choose not to move it. The
herbivore gets to ‘feed’ – it takes a food counter and gets one point.
If there are no food counters left on a food circle, you cannot feed there.
If a carnivore counter lands on a herbivore counter, it eats the herbivore. The
carnivore player gets a point and the herbivore counter is removed from the
board. Once a carnivore has eaten, its turn is over, even if it had a second roll
to take.
If a carnivore lands on a space that has more than one herbivore on it, a dice
is rolled for each herbivore counter. The herbivore with the lowest roll is
eaten, the rest are safe.
If a carnivore starts its turn on the same space as a herbivore, the carnivore
player can choose not to move and instead eats that herbivore. Once it has
eaten, its turn is over.
If a carnivore doesn’t eat for three turns in a row it is considered to be too
tired to hunt and is removed from the board.
The game ends when either all the herbivores or all the carnivores have been
removed from the board. At this point, the player with the highest score wins.
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
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Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world
Secondary student activities
Playing pieces
Print out these playing counters, colour them in, then glue them to cardboard and cut
them out.
Carnivore 1
Carnivore 2
1
Carnivore 3
3
2
Herbivore 1
1
2
3
4
5
Herbivore 2
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
Herbivore 3
1
2
3
4
5
Food counters
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