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Project Learning Tree: Nature Activities for Families

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Project Learning Tree: Nature Activities for Families

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PLT Curriculum-Nature Activities for Families

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Project Learning Tree: PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide

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Project Learning Tree: PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide

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Project Learning Tree-Explore your Environment K-8 Lesson Guide

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Project Learning Tree-Explore your Environment K-8 Lesson Guide

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PLT Curriculum-Explore Your Environment_ K-8 Activity Guide

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Project Learning Tree: Going Green-8 activities to teach sustainability in Your Classroom (select PLT lessons)

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Project Learning Tree: Going Green-8 activities to teach sustainability in Your Classroom (select PLT lessons)

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Going Green 8 Activities to Teach Sustainability-Project Learning Tree

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Ultimate Camp Resource is a free resource for Camp Games, Camp Songs, Camp Skits and more. Ultimate Camp Resource is made for camp people, by camp people.

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Educators Guide to the Morse Wildlife Preserve

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Educators Guide to the Morse Wildlife Preserve

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Community Gardens-Orchards & Food Forests- of Pierce County

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Community Gardens-Orchards & Food Forests- of Pierce County

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Cooperative Play Game Book-Pierce County Parks and Recreation

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Cooperative Play Game Book-Pierce County Parks and Recreation

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"Play Just for the Fun of It"

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How To Guides-National Wildlife Federation

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How To Guides-National Wildlife Federation

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Get inspired! Learn how to create healthy, natural, and dynamic play spaces for young children

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ECHO is committed to providing the best resources available. Our collection of resources is curated to provide the most up-to-date reports, toolkits, research, and other information about connecting children to nature.

Books & Guides

Get inspired! Learn how to create healthy, natural, and dynamic play spaces for young children.

How-To Guides

Developed by the National Wildlife Federation, these How-To Guides provide all the information you need to get started on building select components for your outdoor learning environment.

These guidelines were created through a partnership between the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Learning Initiative to help communities manage and maintain their naturalized outdoor learning environments. It is intended for those working to engage children, youth, and families with nature and natural processes in the places of everyday life.

A Practitioner's Guide to Rules, Regulations, and Rating Systems for Outdoor Learning Environments in Colorado Child Care Facilities

Developed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Learning Initiative, this guide shows easy, affordable ways you can turn your backyard or other types of domestic outdoor spaces into vibrant nature play spaces for children so they can reap the physical and mental benefits of playing outside. Creating natural play opportunities can be part of the solution to increasing the amount of time kids spend in the great outdoors for the health of their minds, bodies, and spirits.

Download the full Nature Play at Home guide above, or select a nature play space from our individual guides below:

These National Guidelines were created through a partnership between the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Learning Initiative to bring nature play and learning to every community. It is intended for those who create, manage, or promote the development of nature in the everyday environments of children, youth, and families, especially in urban/suburban communities.

Nature Play Programs

Through environmental design assistance, professional development, research, and education, the Natural Learning Initiative promotes the importance of the natural environment in the daily experience of all children. Visit their Green Desk for activities, tips, and other information about creating high quality, healthy outdoor environments for young children.

The Children & Nature Network connects children, their families, and their communities to nature through innovative ideas, evidence-based resources and tools, broad-based collaboration, and support of grassroots leadership.

National Wildlife Federation Programs

By creating habitat for wildlife, people can build a daily connection to the natural world, literally just outside their door.

Schools can create and restore wildlife habitat on school grounds while providing outdoor classrooms for learning across curricula.

By pledging to create new habitats for monarch butterflies, Butterfly Heroes are bringing awareness to the declining monarch population and connecting gardeners, kids, and families to help monarchs and other pollinators.

For more than 50 years, Ranger Rick publications have inspired children to connect with wildlife and the great outdoors through a wide range of outdoor activities that are both fun and explorative.

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ECHO is committed to providing the best resources available. Our collection of resources is curated to provide the most up-to-date reports, toolkits, research, and other information about connecting children to nature. Get inspired! Learn how to create healthy, natural, and dynamic play spaces for young children.

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How to Fold an 8-Page Zine (Mini Journal)

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How to Fold an 8-Page Zine (Mini Journal)

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Projects promote scientific exploration, inquiry, and a deeper understanding of our natural world. The activities can be on-going or one-time events that can be repeated. These projects are ideally suited for the outdoors but often mention an indoor modification.

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Projects promote scientific exploration, inquiry, and a deeper understanding of our natural world. The activities can be on-going or one-time events that can be repeated. These projects are ideally suited for the outdoors but often mention an indoor modification.

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Wake Up Your Senses Activity (mini sit spot journal page+folding instructions)

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Wake Up Your Senses Activity (mini sit spot journal page+folding instructions)

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Mini Silent Sit Spot Pocket Journal (print then fold)

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Mini Silent Sit Spot Pocket Journal (print then fold)

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Silent Sit Spot Journaling-Poem Activity

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Silent Sit Spot Journaling-Poem Activity

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A sampling of activities and plans for outdoor education and park explorations.

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A sampling of activities and plans for outdoor education and park explorations.

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Go Back

Earth is what we all have in common.

Overview

Outdoor education can be any educational experience that takes place outside. Let's review some general examples of outdoor education:

Residential or journey experiences in which learners participate in a variety of challenges and outdoor activities such as hiking, climbing, canoeing, ropes courses and group games.

Outdoor experiences in nature to learn to appreciate it and its biodiversity to be more motivated to learn and get involved in providing for their health and maintaining healthy and sustainable environments.

Educational experiences that are conducted outdoors, more as just a place to learn, not as an environment that is necessary for what is being learned.

Actvities for environmental education & sustainability should have an outdoor component even though they may not be referred to as outdoor education.

Outdoor education develops the understanding and desire to defend public spaces because of the importance they contribute to:

Social justice and democratic practices

Health and well being

Play and recreation

The informal economy and social capital

Environmental and ecological sustainability

Cultural identity and place attachment

Source: Why Public Space Matters. Setha Low. 2022.

Planning information

Learner background information
A plan designed for learners who have prior knowledge in cause and effect, use of observations to make inferences, models as explanations for observble and non observable events, relative postion, and working in groups.
General information on planning

Activities for outdoors

1. Parks and people - Who cares for parks? an investigation or project with suggested activities to develop a deeper understanding of parks and their defense as public spaces as well as their importance for well being.

2. Board walking - team building and social skills activity

3. Cartography

4. Surveying a park or other area Tree survey:

5. Light and temperature activities

Black bear simulation

Orienteering

Animals on the lawn (school)

Power pole observation
Support materials
Lesson Plans

Based on learning cycle theory & method

Activity - Parks and People

First written by Robert Sweetland and Jill Niemann

These ideas can be used as an investigation, theme based unit or project or problem based learning about parks.
Materials

Notebook, pencil, digital camera, sensing devices & software
Big ideas & concepts Inquiry and process

People learn with careful observation.

Objects can be classified as either natural or of human design.

Evidence is something that is observed and can be used to understand what is happening and make predictions about future changes.

Parks are filled with man-made and non-man- objects.

Taking inventory of the park will provide useful information that will help make connections to understand how to care for parks.

Personal and social

There are many ways in which humans can help community parks thrive.

All living things need an environment to provide necessary environmental factors for them to survive.

All organisms cause change in their environments, which can impact environments, populations, ecosystems, diversity, and how organisms adapt. For example: An increase or decrease in population.

Background information
When learners are asked what they can do to support parks, they will mostly mention.

Pick up trash, plant trees, volunteer to paint, organize community events, ect. to help our parks as well as our community.
Misconceptions

There is nothing that 3rd graders can do to help.

Nothing is wrong with our parks.

Animal habitats have nothing to do with how well we take care of the plant life in the park.

Assessment

Diagnostic: Class discussion about possible concerns and what they think they will find at the park will help determine what they know.

Formative: Letters to the city, as well as journal summaries and individual top ten lists will demonstrate what the learner's understand.

Summative: What conclusions have you drawn from visiting the park and taking inventory?

Generative: How can you use this information in your everyday life?

Focus questions:

Parks what are they?

What should they be?

What value?

Who's responsibility?

What do you know about who takes care of the parks?

What can we do to maintain our parks?

What do you notice about the equipment?

How many difference animals do you think live in the park?

Where do they live?

How much litter do you see?

Do you see anything that concerns you?

What can we do to help our parks thrive?

Learning outcomes:

1. Listen to a park supervisor explain how parks are cared for and how that work is supported.

2. Inventory the park to observe what is in it and may be make recommendations to amintain or improve it.

Suggested procedures overview:

Exploration -

1. Put learners in pairs.

2. Prepare for a field trip to a park in the community.

3. In groups, they will spread out and inventory everything that they see, including plant life, animals and their habitats, and manmade things.

4. Each group will take pictures of the things they observe and record the things they discuss.

Invention -

1. Explain and discuss with the learners

2. Learners analyze the pictures they took at the park and discuss within their groups the relevance of the picture to the park.

3. Students will research any plant, animal, or topic from their pictures that they do not understand or are having a hard time connecting.

4. Students will listen to a speaker form the city talk about the park they visited; it's history, and what it takes to maintain the park.

Discover

1. Tell. Write a list of the top ten things you can do to help your community.

2. Write a summary in your journal of what you learned since beginning this project.

3. Review their lists and make a summary for the class.

4. Use the summary to collectively write a letter to the city of ..............; thanking them for the things they do for our parks and our community, listing concerns they have and give any suggestions they might have. Also include the ways they intend to help and why they feel it is so important.

Activity - Light And Temperature
Background information for temperature
Materials:

Focus questions:

1. How do light and temperature vary in the park?

2. Why is light important for life?

3. What organisms need light/

4. What organisms don't need light?

5. s there a relationship between light and temperature/

6. Is there a relationship between light and plant growth?

7. Is more light always good?

8. How can collecting data help?

9. Why is it important to collect data?

10. Why is it important to collect quantitative data?

Learning outcomes:

Explain how environmental factors of light and temperature vary based on Environmental conditions such as: earth materials, vegetation, animal life, ...

Suggested procedures overview:

Exploration

1. Put learners in pairs.

2. Use the probes to measure the amount of light reflected from the white paper at different heights (may also measure the temperature) (2 cm, 4 cm, 6 cm, 8 cm, and 10 cm - more if desired.) repeat the process with black paper. Take pictures as desired to record the procedures of data collection.

Invention

1. After practicing with taking temperature and recording them ask what worked and what they might need to do better.

2. Record their suggestions.

3. Aks. Ready to go outdoors and take some temperatures there?

Discover

1. Select a variety of surfaces in nature (cement, rocks, blacktop, wooded area, playground, sandy area, grassy mowed area, natural prairie area, other...).

2. Take pictures of the areas and collect probe reading from each of the areas at different heights.

3. What were the results?

4. Order the results from the most light to least light, highest temperature to lowest,

5. What kinds and number of organisms were in each of the areas?

6. Is there relationship between the number and kinds of organisms and the amount of light and/ or temperature?

7. What other patterns did you notice?

8. Is more light or less light better? Why?

9. Is there an optimum range of light?

10. What would you think it would be?

Activity - Black Bear Simulation

Adapted from Project Wild. How Many Bears Can Live in this Forest. 1983 edition. page 115-118.

Materials: prepare the flollowing ahead of time
Black bear facts sheet
Five 2x2 green squares for each learner

Mark each set of five cards with

1. B = bedding dense vegetation, rough terrain, large trees, for bears to rest during day and night when not feeding

2. T = travel ways include sheltered areas where bears can move between food, water, and shelter with the aid of thick vegetation and rough terrain.

3. D = dens for hibernating from November to April. hollow logs, caves, holes in hillsides, under buildings, culverts. May use more than one a year and seldom use more than once.

4. H = hiding cover where Black bears escape danger from predators and other bears by hiding in thick cover.

5. F = Feeding sites which are usually less covered than the other areas. They are usually close to hiding areas or bedding areas for quick escape.

Food Cards make one 2x2 card of each color for every learner.

Orange for nuts (acorns, pecans, walnuts, hickory nuts) mark 1 in 6 with N-20 and 5 in 6 with N-10

Blue for berries and fruit (blackberries, elderberries, raspberries, wild cherries) mark 1 in 6 with B-20 and 5 in 6 with B-10

Yellow for insects (grubs, larvae, ants, termites) mark 1 in 6 with I-12 and 5 in 6 with I-6

Red for meat (mice, rodents, peccaries, beaver, muskrats, young deer) mark 1 in 6 with M-8 and 5 in 6 with M-4

Green for plants (leaves, grasses, herbs) mark 1 in 6 with P-20 and 5 in 6 with P-10

The following are estimates of total pounds of food for one bear in ten days

nuts 20 pounds = 25%

berries and fruit 20 pounds = 25%

insects for 12 pounds = 15%

meat for 8 pound = 10%

plants for 20 pounds = 25%

Total 80 pounds = 100%

Water Cards make one and one-half 2x2 blue squares per student.

Mark them with

r = river,

l = lake,

st = stream,

sp = spring, and

m = marsh. One square would be needed for each black bear.

Focus questions:

1. What do animals need for survival?

2. What do you know about black bears?

3. What do you think black bears need for survival?

Concepts

Animals need certain environmental conditions to survive.

Environmental factors include food, shelter, water

Organisms' needs fall within a certain range, but there are optimum conditions for survival

Components of habitat include crowding, carrying capacity, habitat loss, habitat improvement, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and limiting factors.

Food, shelter cover for feeding, hiding, bedding, traveling, raising cubs, and for denning.

With limited space adult bears will kill young bears or run them out of the areas. These bears must keep moving or find a vacant space sufficient for survival. social tolerances or territoriality of the animal.

Food climatic fluctuations, competition more intense move range or live on what is available and may put in a poor condition for winter hibernation.

Learning outcomes:

Describe characteristics of black bears and the environmental factors necessary for their survival and how ecosystems may or may not provide their needs.

Suggested procedures overview:

Exploration

Put learners in pairs.
Activity preparation

Select a fairly large area (50 feet by 50 feet) and scatter the colored pieces of paper. (I have done these activities all together by scattering the squares for shelter, water, and food at the beginning, giving each learner an envelop that stands for different areas of shelter that they need to move among. Tell them they are black bears and they are surveying different areas of their habitat. They are to try to collect as many squares as possible, but they need to take each square one at a time to their envelop which is to stand for their moving from one area to another.

Tell them black bears move as individual bears (review or explain the nature of bears and have them simulate their behavior) across the area and gather pieces of paper. Don't tell the them what the letters on the papers represent. Only tell them that the papers represent what bears need for survival.

When all the papers are retrieved have them separate them into different piles according to their colors and letters.

Ask. What do you think the letters stand for?

Pass out and display a Black bear cards key and review what each card means.

Have the learners tell what cards they retrieved and how many of each they collected.

Encourage them to predict what different amounts and kinds might suggest for the health of a black bear.

Tell them that the bears would need at least one of each letter on the green squares to survive.

Have the students share different possible scenarios. For example if a bear didn't get a D or den they would not likely survive the winter.

How many bears survived?

What was the limiting factor for this population of black bears?

What other limiting factors could there be for black bears?

Ask Did you get what is necessary for them to survive.

Discuss.

Tell them that Black bear mothers would eat first and then their cubs, why?

Ask. How many have enough so that if they were a mother bear with a cub that they and their cub would survive?

Ask. Do you think the simulation is realistic?

Ask. How many have enough so that if they were a mother bear with twin cubs that they and their cubs would survive?

Invention

1. Note ...

2. While I recognize each of you are wanting to survive as a black bear.

3. The health of the species depends on the over all health of each population in different ecosystems.

4. What do you think the overall health of our black bear population is?

5. Discuss the overall health of the black bear population in your simulation.

Discovery

1. Select another animal or other organism and discuss how what they learned would relate to it.

2. Brain buster: Make a simulation for a ...

Activity Orienteering
Preperation
Decide on a large area (Ponca State Park). Decide how many stations and where they will be located. Mark the map where the stations are locatec. Place station markers (plastic jug with sand or water so they don't blow around) at the actual location in the park.

Materials
Concepts

A map can be used to locate objects.

Maps can be used to find objects.

Objects are located relative to a known object.

Maps are drawn to scale.

Maps can be used to follow a path.

Outcomes
Focus questions:

How can you use this map to find the places marked with numbers?
Learning outcomes:

Learners

Suggested procedures overview:

Exploration

1. Ask. How can you use this map to find the places marked with numbers?

2. Review the notes with a short history of orienteering and strategies.

3. Review a procedure:

Procedure

Have students practice how to orient a compass to north and read the degrees.

Measure a distance of 50 or 100 meters / feet and mark the beginning and end.

Have learners practice a steady pace and count how many steps they take to cover the distance. See counting steps and distance

When able to walk a steady pace walk the know distance and count the number of paces / steps.

Record the number of steps and repeat at least three times.

Use the data to find the mean number of paces that each student takes to cover so many feet or meters.

Review map reading.

Inform everyone of the orienteering activity. Orienteering is a game where each team is given a map with several locations marked.

Each team is to determine a route to take and move from station to station as quickly as they can.

When they arrive at a station they are to mark the station tag with their mark and move to the next.

When each team returns to the start their time is recorded.

Points are awarded for the number of stations visited and the faster times.

Invention

1. Go and orienteer.

2. Discuss strategies used and their success.

Discover

Explore more orienteering

Orienteering notes

History

Orienteering began in Scandinavia in the nineteenth century.

In 1919, Ernst Killander created the modern version of orienteering in Sweden.

In the early thirties, the Kjellstrom brothers, Bjorn and Alvan, and their friend, Brunnar Tillander invented a more precise compass that was easier and faster to use. With this compass and their skill they were able to win several individual championships.

Bjorn Kjellstrom brought orienteering into the US in 1946.

Strategies

Use the map and its reference objects with the following techniques:

Plan a route quickly, but carefully, as time is important.

Use a compass as little as possible.

If don't know your pace, then use counting steps and distance sheet.

Pacing - Use pacing (a 100-meter /feet... pace count equals _____) to keep track of the distance walked.

Use landmarks when possible.
Landmarks - permanent features known as landmarks (stream junctions, bridges, and road intersections) that can be easily identified on the ground can be used as points of reference to find the way.

Use thumbing - Thumbing is simply using a map folded into a small size so that the present location on the map can be marked by putting the thumb beside it. Keep the thumb on that point on the map and walk from the marked point to the next position. After walking to the destination position a new point on the map can be found by looking at the map and using the thumb as a reference point for the last location. This technique saves time from looking all over the map for new locations.

Use handrails - Handrails are features (such as trails, fences, roads, and streams) that allow rapid movement on the ground by using those features to select a route and stay on course.

Measurement

Equivalent

12 inches

1 foot

36 inches

1 yard

3 feet

1 yard

1 760 yards

1 mile statute

2 026.8 yards

1 mile nautical

5 280 feet

1 mile statute

6 080.4 feet

1 mile nautical

63 360 inches

1 mile statute

72 963 inches

1 mile nautical

Black bear cards key

1. B = bedding dense vegetation, rough terrain, large trees, for bears to rest during day and night when not feeding

2. T = travel ways include sheltered areas where bears can move between food, water, and shelter with the aid of thick vegetation and rough terrain.

3. D = dens for hibernating from November to April. hollow logs, caves, holes in hillsides, under buildings, culverts. May use more than one a year and seldom use more than once.

4. H = hiding cover where Black bears escape danger from predators and other bears by hiding in thick cover.

5. F = Feeding sites which are usually less covered than the other areas. They are usually close to hiding areas or bedding areas for quick escape.

Food Cards make one 2x2 card of each color for every learner.

Orange for nuts (acorns, pecans, walnuts, hickory nuts) mark 1 in 6 with N-20 and 5 in 6 with N-10

Blue for berries and fruit (blackberries, elderberries, raspberries, wild cherries) mark 1 in 6 with B-20 and 5 in 6 with B-10

Yellow for insects (grubs, larvae, ants, termites) mark 1 in 6 with I-12 and 5 in 6 with I-6

Red for meat (mice, rodents, peccaries, beaver, muskrats, young deer) mark 1 in 6 with M-8 and 5 in 6 with M-4

Green for plants (leaves, grasses, herbs) mark 1 in 6 with P-20 and 5 in 6 with P-10

The following are estimates of total pounds of food for one bear in ten days

nuts 20 pounds = 25%

berries and fruit 20 pounds = 25%

insects for 12 pounds = 15%

meat for 8 pound = 10%

plants for 20 pounds = 25%

Total 80 pounds = 100%

Water Cards make one and one-half 2x2 blue squares per student.

Mark them with

r = river,

l = lake,

st = stream,

sp = spring, and

m = marsh. One square would be needed for each black bear.

Black bear facts source 1

Christine Kronk, University of Michigan: October, 2002.

Classification

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:

Cordata

Subphylum:

Vertebrata

Class:

Mammalia

Order:

Carnivora

Family:

Ursidae

Subfamily

Ursinae

Genus:

Ursus

Species:

Ursus Americanus

Geographic Range

Black bears can be found from northern Alaska east across Canada to Labrador and Newfoundland, and south through much of Alaska, virtually all of Canada, and most of the U.S. into central Mexico (Nayarit and Tamaulipas states).

Habitat

Throughout bears' range, prime black bear habitat is characterized by relatively inaccessible terrain, thick understory vegetation, and abundant sources of food in the form of shrub or tree-borne soft or hard mast. In the southwest, prime black bear habitat is restricted to vegetated, mountainous areas ranging from 900 to 3,000 m in elevation. Habitats consist mostly of chaparral and pinyon-juniper woodland sites. Bears occasionally move out of the chaparral into more open sites and feed on prickly pear cactus. There are at least two distinct, prime habitat types in the Southeast. Black bears in the southern Appalachian Mountains survive in a predominantly oak- hickory and mixed mesophytic forest. In the coastal areas of the southeast, bears inhabit a mixture of flatwoods, bays, and swampy hardwood sites. In the northeast, prime habitat consists of a forest canopy of hardwoods such as beech, maple, and birch, and coniferous species. Swampy habitat areas are mainly white cedar. Corn crops and oak-hickory mast are also common sources of food in some sections of the northeast; small, thick swampy areas provide excellent refuge cover. Along the Pacific coast, redwood, sitka spruce, and hemlocks predominate as overstory cover. Within these forest types are early successional areas important for black bears, such as brushfields, wet and dry meadows, high tidelands, riparian areas and a variety of mast-producing hardwood species. The spruce-fir forest dominates much of the range of the black bear in the Rockies. Important nonforested areas are wet meadows, riparian areas, avalanche chutes, roadsites, burns, sidehill parks, and subalpine ridgetops.

Physical Description

Black bears are usually black in color, particularly in eastern North America. They usually have a pale muzzle which contrasts with their darker fur and may sometimes have a white chest spot. Western populations are usually lighter in color, being more often brown, cinnamon, or blonde. Some populations in coastal British Columbia and Alaska are creamy white or bluish gray. Total body length in males ranges from 1400 to 2000 mm, and from 1200 to 1600 mm in females. Tail length ranges from 80 to 140 mm. Males weigh between 47 and 409 kg, females weigh between 39 and 236 kg.

Black bears are distinguished from grizzly or brown bears (Ursus arctos) by their longer, less heavily furred ears, smaller shoulder humps, and a convex, rather than concave, profile.

Reproduction

The sexes coexist briefly during the mating season, which generally peaks from June to mid-July. Females remain in estrus throughout the season until they mate. They usually give birth every other year, but sometimes wait 3 or 4 years. Pregnancy generally lasts about 220 days, but this includes a delayed implantation. The fertilized eggs are not implanted in the uterus until the autumn, and embryonic development occurs only in the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Births occur mainly in January and February, commonly while the female is hibernating. The number of young per litter ranges from one to five and is usually two or three. At birth the young weigh 200 to 450 grams each, the smallest young relative to adult size of any placental mammal. They are born naked and blind. Black bear cubs remain in the den with their torpid mother and nurse throughout the winter. When the family emerges in the spring the cubs weigh between 2 and 5 kg. They are ususally weaned at around 6 to 8 months of age, but remain with the mother and den with her during their second winter of life, until they are about 17 months old. At this time the female is coming into estrus and forces the young out of her territory. They may weigh between 7 and 49 kg at this point, depending on food supplies.

Females reach sexual maturity at from 2 to 9 years old, and have cubs every other year after maturing. Males reach sexual maturity at 3 to 4 years old but continue to grow until they are 10 to 12 years old, at which point they are large enough to dominate younger bears without fighting. Male black bears do not contribute directly to their offspring but do indirectly by deterring immigration of new males, thus ensuring territorial spacing and reducing the amount of competition for food.

Black bears can live to 30 years in the wild but most often live for only about 10, primarily because of encounters with humans. More than 90% of black bear deaths after the age of 18 months are the result of gunshots, trapping, motor vehicle accidents, or other interactions with humans.

Behavior

Black bears are generally crepuscular, although breeding and feeding activities may alter this pattern seasonally. Where human food or garbage is available, individuals may become distinctly diurnal (on roadsides) or nocturnal (in campgrounds). Nuisance activities are usually associated with sources of artificial food and the very opportunistic feeding behaviors of black bears. During periods of inactivity, black bears utilize bed sites in forest habitat; these sites generally consist of a simple shallow depression in the forest leaf litter. Black bears are normally solitary animals except for female groups (adult female and cubs), breeding pairs in summer, and congregations at feeding sites. In areas where food sources are aggregated, large numbers of bears congregate and form social hierarchies, including non-related animals of the same sex that travel and play together.

Territories are established by adult females during the summer. Temporal spacing is exhibited by individuals at other times of the year and is likely maintained through a dominance hierarchy system. Males establish territories that are large enough to obtain food and overlap with the ranges of several females. The highly evolved family behavioral relationships probably are the result of the slow maturation of cubs and the high degree of learning associated with obtaining food and navigating through large territories. Black bears possess a high level of intelligence and exhibit a high degree of curiosity and exploratory behaviors. Although black bears are generally characterized as shy and secretive animals toward humans, they exhibit a much wider array of intraspecific and interspecific behaviors than originally thought. Black bears have extraordinary navigational abilities which are poorly understood.

Food Habits

Throughout their ranges in North America, black bears consume primarily grasses and forbs in spring, soft mast in the form of shrub and tree-borne fruits in summer, and a mixture of hard and soft mast in fall. However, the availability of different food types varies regionally. Only a small portion of the diet of bears consists of animal matter, and then primarily in the form of colonial insects and beetles. Most vertebrates are consumed in the form of carrion. Black bears are not active predators and feed on vertebrates only if the opportunity exists.

The diet of black bears is high in carbohydrates and low in proteins and fats. Consequently, they generally prefer foods with high protein or fat content, thus their propensity for the food and garbage of people. Bears feeding on a protein-rich food source show significant weight gains and enhanced fecundity. Spring, after the bears' emergence from winter dens, is a period of relative food scarcity. Bears tend to lose weight during this period and continue to subsist partly off of body fat stored during the preceding fall. They take advantage of any succulent and protein- rich foods available; however, these are not typically in sufficient quantity to maintain body weight. As summer approaches, a variety of berry crops become available. Summer is generally a period of abundant and diverse foods for black bears, enabling them to recover from the energy deficits of winter and spring. Black bears accumulate large fat reserves during the fall, primarily from fruits, nuts, and acorns.

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

Black bears have been known to occasionally raid livestock, though losses to bears are negligible. Bears sometimes damage cornfields, and berry and honey production. Some bears have become troublesome around camps and cabins if food is left in their reach. Black bears have severely injured and sometimes even killed campers or travelers who feed them. However, the danger associated with black bears is sometimes overstated, fewer than 36 human deaths resulted from black bear encounters in the 20th century. Black bears are generally very timid and, unlike grizzly bear females, black bear mothers with cubs are unlikely to attack people. When black bear mothers confront humans, they typically send their cubs up a tree and retreat or bluff. People who live in or visit areas with black bears should be aware of the appropriate precautions for avoiding black bear encounters.

Economic Importance for Humans

People have intensively hunted U. americanus, for trophy value and for various products, including hides for clothes or rugs, and meat and fat for food. In most of the states and provinces occupied by black bears, they are treated as game animals, subject to regulated hunting. An estimated 30,000 individuals are killed annually in North America. Relatively few skins go to market now, as regulations sometimes forbid commerce and there is no great demand.

Medical research on the metabolic pathways that black bears use to survive long period of torpor is yielding new insight into treatments for kidney failure, gallstones, severe burns, and other illnesses.

Conservation Status

Black bears once lived throughout most of North America, but hunting and agriculture drove them into heavily forested areas. Residual populations survive over much of the range in sparsely populated wooded regions and under protection in national parks. They are numerous and thriving, but continue to face threats regionally due to habitat destruction and hunting.

Other Comments

Black bears can run as fast as 25 miles per hour while they chase prey, and they are skillful tree climbers.

Black bears are timid and secretive and rarely are dangerous unless wounded or cornered. They are often captured and tamed.

Source: The Animal Diversity Web is an educational resource written largely by and for college students. ADW doesn't cover all species in the world, nor does it include all the latest scientific information about organisms they describe. Though they edit their accounts for accuracy, they do not guarantee all information in those accounts. While ADW staff and contributors provide references to books and websites that we believe are reputable, we cannot necessarily endorse the contents of references beyond our control.
Other references
Academic American Encyclopedia. 1994. Grolier Incorporated. Danbury, CT.

Collier's Encyclopedia. 1993. Collier Incorporated. New York, NY.

Encyclopedia Americana. 1994. Grolier Incorporated. Danbury, CT.

The Carnivores. Ewer, R.F. 1973. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY.

Walker's Mammals of the World, 4th Ed. Nowak, Ronald, M. and John L. Paradiso. 1983. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

Wild Mammals of North America. Chapman, Joseph, A. and George A. Feldhamer. 1982. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, MD.

World Book Encyclopedia. 1994. World Book Incorporated. Chicago, IL.

Black bear facts source 2

Ian Stirling, ed. Bears, Majestic Creatures of the Wild. Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1993. 240 pages.

Appearance

This medium-sized bear is usually black with a brown muzzle, lacks a shoulder hump, and often has a white patch on the chest. Although black is the predominant color, chocolate and cinnamon brown color phases are also common, which often results in people confusing them with brown bears. Black bears with white and pale-blue coats (known respectively as Kermode and glacier bears) also occur in small numbers. Kermode bears are found along the north-central coast of British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory, Canada. Black bears have strong, highly curved claws and the profile of the face is convex when compared with the more concave profile of a brown bear.

Size

Adult male black bears range from about 130 to 190 centimeters (50 to 75 inches) in length and weigh 60 to 300 kilograms (130 to 660 pounds). Females measure from 130 to 190 centimeters (50 to 75 inches) and weigh 40 to 80 kilograms (90 to 175 pounds). Black bears vary considerably in size, depending on the quality of the food available. Males may be from about 20 to 60 percent larger than females. At birth, cubs weigh 225 to 330 grams (7 to 11 ounces).

Habitat

Black bears are normally found only in forested areas, but within such habitat they are highly adaptable. They live in both arid and moist forests, from sea level to over 2,000 meters (6,560 feet). Historically, black bears are thought to have stayed away from open habitat because of the risk of predation by brown bears. Black bears have become established in the tundra of northern Labrador, a region where there are no brown bears.

Distribution

Black bears are widely distributed throughout the forested areas of North America although they have been totally driven out from some of their original range. They are presently found in northern Mexico, 32 states of the United States, and all the provinces and territories of Canada except Prince Edward Island.

Reproduction

Females reach sexual maturity at three to four years of age and males a year or so later. Mating takes place in June, July, and August, and pairs may remain together for only a few hours or for several days. Pregnancy last s about 220 days, and the cubs are born in a maternity den in January and February. Litter size ranges from one to five, but two is the average. Cubs may be weaned at six to eight months, but they remain with their mothers for a year and a half. Consequently, the most often that female black bears can mate, unless they lose their cubs prematurely, is every two years. Longevity in the wild is 20 to 25 years.

Social system

Except for females with cubs, black bears spend most of their time alone. During the breeding season, a male and female may remain together for several days at a time and groups of bears may feed in close proximity to each other if food is abundant, such as in berry patches or at dumps. Female home ranges are 3 to 40 square kilometers (1 to 15 square miles). While the home ranges of individual bears are usually exclusive from those of other bears of the same sex, male ho me ranges are larger and may overlap those of several females. A young adult female is often allowed to establish her territory within that of her mother, while subadult males must disperse.

Diet

Black bears are omnivorous and feed on a wide range of foods, depending on what is available. Insects (particularly ants), nuts, berries, acorns, grasses, roots, and other vegetation form the bulk of their diet in most areas. Black bears can also be efficient predators of deer fawns and moose calves. In some areas of coastal British Columbia and Alaska they also feed on spawning salmon.

Source

Id #

Tree species

Girth

Height

Crown

Other

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Go Back Earth is what we all have in common. Outdoor education can be any educational experience that takes place outside. Let's review some general examples of outdoor education: Residential or journey experiences in which learners participate in a variety of challenges and outdoor activities such as hiking, climbing, canoeing, ropes courses and group games.

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Wildlife Explorers Workbook Leaders Guide

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Wildlife Explorers Workbook Leaders Guide

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Using Outdoor Environments to Foster Student Learning of Scientific Processes

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