Field Trip --- Woodland Park Zoo

Field Trip --- Woodland Park Zoo

-Shuaiqin (Helen) Men

Brown bear

PART 1 (8 points)

       
       We saw two brown bears there. One of them slept in the open area and the other slept in a shelter like a cave. I was surprised when I heart that the hibernating brown bears can be awaken.

Since brown bears eat both meat and vegetables, their shoulders are strong enough to dig food from ground. Besides, they could also get berries from bushes. No matter how, there was no doubt that brown bears are predators. When looked at the skull of a brown bear, it was obvious that brown bears have incisors while the sagittal crest was visible as well. In addition, their orbits face forward on the skull, giving them binocular vision.

If you want to find brown bears, go to northern Eurasia and North America; most of the bears are found across there. According to the introduction of the brown bear, the twins cubs are usually less than a pound when born and will stay with their mom for a couple years.

When identifying whether a brown bear is male or female, we can look at its leg. Female brown bears have shorter and thinner legs than males’. In addition, comparing their shoulders is also a good way; males have shoulders wider than head, while females have narrow shoulders that the same width as head.

Back to the hibernating, I am still curious why the brown bears can be waked up; is there any organ or structure make this happen?

PART 2
Compare & Contrast (4 points)

In addition to the brown bear, we went and saw the sloth bear in the area of India Tropical Forest. My first impression of the sloth bears was that it didn’t as big as that of brown bears. However, the shape of sloth and brown bear skull is almost the same. But on the other hand, sloth bear miss incisors for suction path. That’s because they eat fruits, eggs, and insects. Exactly, there are many insects in the forest. Besides, sloth bears love honey. Similar as brown bears, female sloth bears produce one to three cubs at once, and the babies will live with their mother for a couple of years as well. According to these comparisons, I think the reproduction is their ancestral traits while their feeding is the derived trait because it due to the location where they live in.

River Otter

PART 1 (8 points)

When I first saw the river otter, I was very excited that it was so cute. It swam in the river, like dancing. There are some short stakes in the river; the river otters occasionally use the nose to lift them up.

It surprised me that the young river otters don’t know how to swim and they have to learn from their mother. Except the desert and the Florida Keys, river otters could be found all across the America. Not only rivers, they can also live in lakes or ponds. A sentence says that “fortunate is the person who has seen a long, graceful river otter swimming beneath the clear surface of a quiet pool in a mountain stream or lake”.

In addition to water, river otters can also live on the land. The sea otter is a member of the Mustelidae family. It’s a predator of those small fishes which swim slowly. Besides, insects are also the food of the otters. Moreover, they don’t care if the water is fresh water.

Looking at its skull, we can see that river otter has pointed tooth but also canines. The eye is similar to those of terrestrial mammals: face forward on the skull. In addition, there’s also sagittal crest which is not as that sharp.

Since river otters are not born swimmers, I really want to explore if they can swim as fast as those fish that who knows how to swim once they come to this world. Or make the question simpler, how fast a river otter swims?

PART 2
Compare & Contrast (4 points)

Asian small-clawed otter, the one which is the most similar to the river otter, was found in tropical Asia. This kind of otter was the smallest in the world. Even though there was a small water pool, no otter was in there. Instead, there was a pair that lied in a cave. It was amazing that they are pairs mate for life. Not as the same as river otters, this Asian small-clawed otter find food near freshwater streams. Comparing river and Asian small-clawed otter skull, it’s easy to distinguish from the size. However, the other characteristics are almost the same. In my mind, most of their living styles are the ancestral traits while the mating is the derived trait.

Elk

PART 1 (8 points)

       As the elk are very large, they can be seen in a long distance. It’s so funny that the elks have a brown body but a white butt. There were two elks there, one was male and the other one was female. It was easy to distinguish because the male has a horn and the angle above the base is divided into two branches, the branches extending upward, and then divided into many small branches.

       The elks are located in the forest and forest edge and grass, plants, leaves and bark are what they are fed on. Besides, elks are ruminants just like cow. They are native to North America and eastern Asia, but now they are well introduced to many other countries.

       Since elks are herbivores, they have pointed tooth without canine. Their eyes are not face forward because they don’t have to have eagle eyes. Not like predators, elks are preys and they don’t have sagittal crest.

       At the time we saw the elks, the male one was using his horn rubbing a large pile. Why did he doing like that? I mean if the purpose was tickle or polish in order to make it horn more beautiful. Since the branched horn of the elk is unique, what does the horn for? Moreover, when elks are introduced into other countries, how do they adapt the new living environment?

PART 2
Compare & Contrast (4 points)

In African Savanna, a kind of dear, Gazelle, looks the most similar to elk. At first, I wanted to make comparison between the two. However, I now noticed that Gazelle is a kind of sheep, not deer. Even though they both have horns, we have to know that in the deer family, only elks have horns and that’s why we say they are unique.

Gray wolf

PART 1 (8 points)

       Once I saw the gray wolf, I recognized it as a dog. The Alaska sled dog has almost the same body size as the gray wolf. The only different is that the gray wolf is white while the dog is chequered with black and white.

       The wolves were having lunch at the time we visited. 4 to 7 pounds of meat is needed by one adult wolf each day. It is a truth that the gray wolf, when gathering (always 6 to 12 single wolf), can hunt large mammals like moose. The young wolves are born in late spring, when there are plenty of foods. They get small animals like ribbits that hunted by the wolf group.

       It’s common that wolves howl. They howl in order to find each other. It also helps reinforce the relationships in the wolf group. In addition, their howl might scare the strangers so that they can easily protect themselves.

       The same as most of the carnivores, it’s easily to see the incisors as well as canine when looking at the skull. Exactly, the eyes are face forward and it has sagittal crest. However, it doesn’t have nasal turbinate.

       It’s sad that gray wolves were hunted to near extinction. However, some survive and live in Europe, in Alaska, Canada, as well as Asia. At this situation, why gray wolves are being hunted? Is that means that gray wolves have a high value?

PART 2

Compare & Contrast (4 points)

The maned wolf, which lives in the temperate forest, looks really like a fox. Their orange fur coat helps them blind in tawny grasses under the sun. It has larger ear than the gray wolf and this helps them a better hearing capability when hunting at night. Besides meat, the maned wolf also eats fruit. In addition, maned wolf has longer legs which are efficient that they could see its home when standing in tall grasses. I could only say that feeding on meat is the trait that inherited from their ancestor, while the other traits are all derived due to different living areas.

Great Gray Owl

PART 1 (8 points)

In the northern forest, there’s a hunter live in silence called great gray owl. Looking at the picture, the owl stands on a branch of the tree. To tell the truth, I didn’t find it at once due to its color which helps him easily blind there.

The great gray owl is the tallest owl that has broad wings and long tails. They have a big face. Even though they are not as large as other owls in volume, the weights are almost the same; the great gray owl’s weight is mostly feathers.

Not the same as most mammals who use eyes to find preys, the great gray owl find food by hearing the sound. The shape of its face helps reflected sound while its feathers help swoop down the noise.

Looking at the great gray owl skull, I’d say the eye is kind of face forward but not really. The owl doesn’t have good eyesight. Instead of incisors and canines, the owl has a really sharp and pointed peak that is used for hunting. However, it doesn’t have sagittal crest.

       Across North America and Eurasia, are the two recognized races of the great grey owl. They like the dense coniferous forests of the taiga, near open areas, such as meadows or bogs.

       Back to their feeding style, I am thinking if we put a sound shield, whether the owl can hunt?

PART 2
Compare & Contrast (4 points)

Comparing with the Snowy Owl who also lives in the same area as the great gray owl, the most obvious difference between them is the feathers’ color. In addition, snowy owl often hunted by day instead of night. That’s also the reason why it is white; it doesn’t need to be a dark color to blind itself in the darkness. When there’s no enough food in one area, the snow owl will move to another place, even the place that is far away.

Reflection (4 points)

In our BIOL 212 class, we have discussed many different kinds of animals. In one of our labs, we learnt how to identify a skull and this helped us to distinguish whether the animal is a predator or a prey. On the contrary, we could also do this backward. I mean when observing an animal and we already known that it is a predator or prey, we could easily know some main characteristics of its skull. This method made it easier to analyze the animals’ feeding style. In addition, when comparing two animals from the same family, we could fist think the ancestral traits that both of them might have.

No matter how, this is the first time I thought deeply about an animals’ living style, not just saw how cute they were. I am thinking if it’s much easier for people to become friends with animals after we get to know what they prefer to do and to eat and what living environment they like most. To tell the truth, I thought it was a waste of time before I went to the zoo. However, I found it was so interesting especially when comparing the differences between the two animals. It was fun when figure why the two that from the same family have such different traits.