CritterTrack

Tag: MS-LS2-2

  • Map yourself: technologies to track people

    Create a visualization map that tracks your activities at regular times throughout the day or week. When designing a wildlife tracking program, researchers need to determine several things. For example, the tracking collars on the coyotes in the Visualizer send signals at the same specific times each day to mark the animals’ locations. Why do you think those times were selected? How many times and at what specific time(s) of day will you document your location? Why? 

    Share your map with others and see what they can infer about your travels and locations.

    Technologies exist that enable us to track people or vehicles remotely. Can you find examples? Why would people want information on the location of other people or vehicles?

  • Design a coyote territory and habitat

    Using art materials or computer generated graphics, design a scale representation of what you think an ideal habitat and territory would be for a coyote. Incorporate the elements a coyote needs to survive. Using the data obtained from the Visualizer, what would be the size of your created territory?

  • The family life of coyotes

    Using the Visualizer, study the travel patterns of the adult coyotes during different weeks or seasons. Research the life history of coyotes to learn when coyotes mate and have pups. 

    Can you infer or determine:

    • When the coyotes represented in the Visualizer mate or have pups?
    • When the pups leave their den?  
    • How long pups stay with the adults in the same territory?

    When coyote pups mature and disperse out of their original home territory, where do you think they go? Why do you think they don’t stay in their original home territory? Some young adult coyotes, however, do stay for several years within their parents’ territory. What role do you think they play in the family group? Do coyotes hunt or travel in packs or are they solitary? 

  • Finding food

    What do coyotes eat? What types of food are the coyotes likely to find in each of their territories? What food sources might be present that habituate coyotes to humans? How do wildlife biologists verify what coyotes are eating in a given territory? Create a food web or chart for a coyote. Or, create a Coyote Cafe menu!

  • Where would coyotes live in your area?

    Look at a satellite imagery map of your county. Based on what you learned from studying the coyotes’ habits in the Visualizer,  predict where coyotes might live in your area or neighborhood. What travel corridors might they use? Where might they locate a den? Where would they find food? Water? Shelter? Has anyone ever seen coyotes in your county?

  • How have society’s attitudes towards, and treatment of, coyotes changed or remained the same?

    How have coyotes been viewed through history?  How have attitudes towards them changed or stayed the same?  

    What characteristics and behaviors of coyotes that you observe on the Visualizer, or discover in other research, might influence these attitudes? 

    How have coyotes adapted to co-exist despite human presence and human pressures?

    Interview family members or friends to obtain their opinions about coyotes. What influenced their opinions? Have they ever seen or heard a coyote?

  • Have coyote populations in Illinois changed over time?

    How has the estimated population of coyotes in Illinois (or your state) changed over time? How do wildlife biologists estimate wildlife populations? What factors influence the population numbers? Does regulated hunting or trapping affect the overall population of coyotes in Illinois? Why or why not?