Travel In Wetland

• Wear earth color cloths (earth color – colors found in nature such as brown in soil, green leaf, cloudy sky, blue water…) and hats, avoid bright colors!
• Wear shoes that cover your feet appropriately!
• Small, light-weight bag to carry field equipment and a drinking water bottle

• Stop – talking – become a tree, a rock, an animal…
• Stop – when there is an alarm call.
• Stop – when an animal looks at you
• Stop – learn to freeze
• Look – with splatter vision to see movement
• Look – at edges of fields and forests and water
• Look – for tracks and signs
• Look – deeply at patterns, shapes and shadows
• Listen – to what the birds are saying
• Listen – near and far for sounds
• Listen – for a rustle, swish or crunch…
• Listen – with deer ears
• Move – when an animal looks away from you.
• Move – in slow motion
• Move – with the wind

• Herb dominated Low Vegetation
• Herb dominated High Vegetation
• Annona Woodland
• Mixed Woodland
• Water with Floating Vegetation
• Open Water
• Highland Vegetation associated with wetlands

Every living thing needs energy in order to live. Everytime animals do something (run, jump) they use energy to do so. Animals get energy from the food they eat, and all living things get energy from food. Plants use sunlight, water and nutrients to get energy (in a process called photosynthesis). Energy is necessary for living beings to grow.

A food chain shows how each living thing gets food, and how nutrients and energy are passed from creature to creature. Food chains begin with plant-life, and end with animal-life. Some animals eat plants, some animals eat other animals.

A simple food chain could start with grass, which is eaten by rabbits. Then the rabbits are eaten by foxes. A food web consists of many food chains.

A food chain shows how each living thing gets food, and how nutrients and energy are passed from creature to creature. Food chains begin with plant-life, and end with animal-life. Some animals eat plants, some animals eat other animals.

A food chain only follows just one path as animals find food

eg: A hawk eats a snake, which has eaten a frog, which has eaten a grasshopper, which has eaten grass.

eg: A hawk might also eat a mouse, a squirrel, a frog or some other animal. The snake may eat a beetle, a caterpillar, or some other animal and so on for all the other animals in the food chain.

A food web is several food chains connected together.

What happens to the energy in a food chain?

Energy is used by living organisms to fuel their life processes. Only a small part of the energy taken in by an animal over its life span is stored; the majority is used by the animal to help it keep warm and perform bodily functions such as breathing, eating and moving. For this reason, the energy available to organisms at each successive stage of a food chain is always less than the total energy taken in by the preceding organisms. Energy, unlike most components in an ecosystem, does not recycle – it simply diminishes with each step in the food chain. Fortunately, with the sun as the ultimate source of energy, there is a considerable amount of energy remaining to fuel the food chains of today and tomorrow

Each level in a food web is described with a trophic level. Here are the five trophic levels:

• Level 1: Plants (producers)
• Level 2: Animals that eat plants or herbivores (primary consumers)
• Level 3: Animals that eat herbivores (secondary consumers, carnivores)
• Level 4: Animals that eat carnivores (tertiary consumers, carnivores)
• Level 5: Animals at the top of the food chain are called apex predators. Nothing eats these animals.

Things to think about as a little naturalist:

• What is your animal called?
• Which layer of the rainforest does your animal live in?
• What does your animal like to eat?
• Who likes to eat your animal?!
• Is your animal at risk from people?
• How has your animal adapted to rainforest conditions?
• What does your animal look like?
• What is the level of work you are producing?