Wildlife Systems

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Wildlife Systems

• Two Rivers Wildlife Park presents a discussion
  about ecosystems, food chains and biodiversity.

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Wildlife is..

• Wildlife includes wild mammals, birds, reptiles,
  and amphibians.
• It also includes fishes, plants, fungi, algae,
  bacteria, and other wild organisms.
• In other words, wildlife includes all living
  things that are not domesticated, including
  plants.

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Why is Wildlife Important
Most things we have or use as human beings has
its roots in nature, and most of these in
wildlife. Without wildlife, the planet could not
support human life!
Most importantly, all living things perform
essential functions that keep this complex planet
suitable for life. We can think of these as
jobs that they have.
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How Does Wildlife Help Us Live?
Humans do not produce food. Plants and other
animals produce it for us. Can you think of some
food that comes from wildlife?
Most wood and paper products still come from
natural forest ecosystems .
Aspirin, one of our most common drugs, comes from
the bark of the willow tree, though it is now
manufactured synthetically.
Clothing! We get our cotton comes from the cotton
plant, and leather from cows. Many synthetic
fibers come from the remains of wildlife of
several million years ago.oil!
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What do Wildlife Eat?
Here are some words that describe the food habits
of animals. What category do you fit in?

• Herbivore means an animal that eats plants (
  example deer)

Carnivore means a meat eater (example cougar)
Omnivore means an animal that eats both plants
and animals. (example black bear)
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How Do Wildlife Get Their Food?

• A predator is a carnivore that hunts live prey (a
  wolf hunts a deer).
• Prey are animals that are hunted by predators (
  deer hunted by wolves).
• A scavenger eats dead animals that it finds (a
  vulture).

How do you find your food? At the grocery store?
In the refrigerator? In the garden? Do you hunt
for your own food?
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What is a Food Chain or Web?

• Food chains and food webs are ways of viewing the
  earths energy and nutrient cycles.
• The interactions of the organisms at each level
  are often represented as links of a chain or
  strands in a web.

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How do Food Chains Work?

• Most of the earths energy comes from the sun, is
  trapped and converted, along with soil nutrients,
  to stored energy (food) by green plants.
• It is then passed along to animals and
  microorganisms through the rest of the food chain
  until it is returned the soil, where the process
  begins again (a food web is just a more complex
  version of a food chain).

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Food Chain Jobs
There are names for different roles or jobs at
various levels of the food web.
Green plants are called producers.
Animals that eat plants are called primary or
first level consumers.
Animals that eat other animals are called
secondary or second level consumers
Animals that eat secondary consumers are called
tertiary consumers.
Microorganisms and fungi that make a living
breaking down dead material are called
decomposers.
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Guess the Wildlife Job!

• Is a tree a producer or a consumer?
• Are bacteria consumers or decomposers?
• Is an eagle a primary or secondary consumer?

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What is an EcoSystem?

• An ecosystem is a complex concept. It is
• A system of plants, animals (including humans),
  and microorganisms along with non-living parts of
  their environment and the ecological processes
  that are related to these environments.

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What are some examples of an ecosystem?
An ecosystem can be a small area, like a pond.
An ecosystem can be a larger area like the Mira
River and surrounding area.
An ecosystem can be contained on an island, like
Sable Island.
An ecosystem can be a forest or part of a forest.
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What is BioDiversity
Biodiversity is the variety of living things.
Biodiversity can refer to a species or where the
species lives.
Diversity can refer to how many or how few
different species live in an ecosystem. OR It can
also refer to the number or diversity of
ecosystems across the landscape. Example Cape
Breton Island has a large variety of forest
types, rivers, ponds, streams, meadows and
grasslands. It has good biodiversity!
A diverse ecosystem is a healthy ecosystem
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To Learn More about Wildlife Systems
We hope you enjoyed this presentation about
Wildlife Systems. Complete the activity sheets
and then visit Two Rivers Wildlife Park to learn
more about Food Chains, Ecosystems, and
Biodiversity! Hope to see you soon!