Natural History Goat Notes

Lecture 1

Introduction

Course Advice

• Photographs in textbook – know names
• Increased detailed – know well
• Brief listing – not as important

Midterm – 110 questions

Final – 180 questions

Quick Facts

• Moose go angry – ears go back
• Bull moose antlers during mating season make it hear better
• Beavers sleep on back
• Animals included mammals, reptile, amphibians, birds, insects, etc. (included a broad spectrum)
• Harvester butterfly – only carnivorous caterpillar, otherwise eat leaves (caterpillars are young moths or butterflies)
• Hummingbird pollinator of cardinal flowers

Natural history is the interaction between plants and animals

• Pollination
• Exploitation
• And interactions between animals

Natural history is the real world

Natural history is the observation of living plants and animals – flora (plants) and fauna (animals) – and their interactions. It is an observational science 

Someone with a general interest in natural history is a naturalist

Animal Defences - Appearances

Camouflage - is concealment, meaning the thing is hidden from the observer.

- Background matching - is hiding by matching the surrounding area.

- Sparrows have vertical lines on their body to help them blend into their

background, such as meadowlands.

- American Bittern camouflages using Background Matching in grassy environments such as marches (have stripes on their bodies and put their beak up) – there response is to freeze, whether in background or out in the open

- Crypsis - is hiding by not moving.

- Female Spruce Grouse camouflages using cryptic AND background

matching

- Eastern Screech Owl uses Crypsis AND Background matching

- Mimicry is copying the background of something.

- Gray Tree Frog camouflage by changing their color to match their background,

and is a Bark Mimic

Seasonal Color  - is changing an animal’s color to match the appropriate season’s

background.

- Change Snowshoe Hares / Varying Hare change from brown to white for

winter, being pure white for winter, changing color to help them hide.

Two names for plants and animals:

• Common name
• Scientific name – founded by Linnaeus

Every naturalist has the same singular thought – what the heck is this?

Dictionary definition of a naturalist: one who mas a special study of animals or plants (a less précis term than zoologist, biologist, etc.)

Not required to know items in list below

Herpetologist: study amphibians and reptiles

Mammologist: study mammals

Botanist: study plants

Entomologist: study insects

Dipterist: study flies

Lepidopterist: study butterflies and moths

Coleopterist: study beetles

Ornithologist: study birds (or birder)

Malcaologist: study slugs and snails

Naturalist: general interest, look at everything

Chapter 1: Staying Alive

Defences: chemical, visual or physical, appearances

Camouflage = concealment

Habitat: special set of plants and fiscal area that the animal calls home, everyone has certain shapes associated that allow for certain concealment to take place

Grasslands (fields, meadows) have: vertical lines – a lot of sparrows (savannah, song, etc.) live in this kind of habitat as they have streaks of vertical lines on their body to help them blend in the background – this kind of camouflage is called background matching and only works if the animals stays still (needs to be cryptic)

Crypsis: the avoidance of detection by combining motionless behavior with some form of camouflage

Cattail marsh – vertical lines galore; know the American Bittern – exemplifies background matching

Some habitats have vertical lines, and animals have matching lines to blend in; background matching

Animals on the bottom of the forest floor – i.e. Ruffed Grouse – has a blotchy patterns and matches blotchy pattern of light on forest floor, important for ground nesting birds (i.e. stays near tree to look like tree root)

Spruce grouse – male leaves, female carries on own – Female Spruce Grouse – a few meters away can hardly see sitting in nest

From Jasper White-tailed Ptarmigan; male easier to see, however female has more grey and is more difficult (blends with rock) – patter of white and black on rock blends

Background matching: matching the environment next to you and not moving when you employ you coloration to help blend in

White tailed fawn deer– spots would be a good form of concealment in woodland forest

Tree trunk  - Eastern Screech-Owl has the same pattern as the bark, hidden to not be attacked by blue jays or crows

Gray-tree frog in tree cavity, common locally, night active, climb trees, they can change colours from grey to green to match tree, half their body water turns to ice in water, become frog ice cubes in winter – they also have blotchy pattern

They have background matching and bark mimic

Resembling bark = Mimic

Backgrounds can change with the season

Snowshoe hare (varying hare) change in late fall from brown to white, so pure white by winter

Sometimes patterns that can create concealment or whole appearance of the animal can become a certain color to come in

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