Name: ______Date: ______Mods: ______AP Environmental Science

Endangered Species Activity

Objective: To get to “know” one endangered species of New Jersey and develop an action plan (Habitat Conservation Plan) for it.

Endangered species occur around the world and New Jersey is no exception. The Endangered Species Act requires that a plan be developed to better insure each species’ survival. The web sites below contain lists of species of animals and a few plants endangered in our state.  www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensphome.htm o Click on “NJ’s Endangered and Threatened species” under “Additional Links”  http://www.fws.gov/northeast/njfieldoffice/Endangered/index.html

From one of these sites:  Choose one endangered organism that no one else in the class has selected. You must sign up with your teacher. You may NOT choose a threatened organism.  Record both its scientific and common names.

Task: The class will serve as the state government. With a partner, your task is to convince the government that the limited resources they have allotted for endangered species should be spent on your species. To do this, you must prepare:  A PowerPoint presentation consisting of images ONLY! This is to supplement the document you will provide to the state government. Your presentation should be 3-5 minutes in length. You should have a title slide with your organism’s name, your names and 4-5 supporting slides of images.  In a 1 page, bulleted, handout fully address the following by conducting Internet or other research: o A picture of the organism. o A description of the species, including its range and approximation of how many exist in the wild or in captivity (it may be helpful to look at nesting pairs for bird populations). o The organism’s niche: where and how it fits into its ecosystem, and any special importance it has to humans. o The major threat(s) to its survival, such as human destruction of habitat, excessive hunting, poaching, disease, adaptability to climate change, population increase of predators, etc. o What steps you recommend be taken to increase the species’ chances to survive and increase in number. This is your Habitat Conservation Plan. o Document your sources. Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable source!!!! Use footnotes or superscripts and the website address.

The class will vote to decide which 2 or 3 species (depending on class size) will be saved. Extra credit will be given to the winners.

Due date: Sunday March 19, 2017 at NOON

The handout must be shared with your teacher as a PDF so Miss Clark can make copies for Monday morning! Please save the PDF as ModEndangeredSpeciesInitials_PDF (ex. 1EndangeredSpeciesJC_PDF) and the Slides Document as ModEndangeredSpeciesInitials (ex. 1EndangeredSpeciesJC).