A STUDYGUIDE by Andrew Fildes

A STUDYGUIDE bY Andrew Fildes

www.metromagazine.com.au www.theeducationshop.com.au Overview

Planet Earth is a BBC production with five episodes in the first series (episodes one through five) and six episodes in the second series (episodes six through eleven). Each episode examines a specific environment, focussing on key species or relationships in each habitat; the challenges they face; the behaviours they exhibit and the adaptations that enable them to survive. Recent advances in photography are used to achieve some spectacular ‘first sights’ – in particular, stabilised aerial photography gives us remarkable views of migrating animals and the techniques used by their predators to hunt them. As the series examines pristine environments where possible, they are often extreme. These are the parts of the world where few humans have chosen to live as the climate and landscape is too challenging, too difficult and dangerous. The plants and animals that do survive here have made some spectacular adaptations in forms and behaviour to live in these far reaches of the planet. The series is suitable for middle secondary students studying Science and SOSE, and for senior secondary students of Biology, Environmental Science and Geography. SCREEN EDUCATION

Episode Seven: Great Plains arid grassland condition once the rab- (Australian Grasslands systems) bits had been removed by introduced http://www.science.org.au/events/ Grass is the engine that powers all diseases in recent years. grasslands/pech.htm life on land and the great swathes of (Tibetan Pikas assessed as pests as grass that blanket the plains of the Web Resources they compete with cattle for feed) earth are the focus of this second epi- http://www.arazpa.org.au/Education_ sode. Nothing living on earth can exist Teacher Links Onsite_Grassland.htm without the grass, or at least some http://www.southern.cma.nsw.gov. Werribee Zoo (Melbourne) excur- similar green species. au/pdf/SRBI-Grasslands.pdf sion - Senior Biology/Environmen- tal Sci. workshop Grassland plains cover between one Episode 7: Time Log fifth and one quarter of the earth, Great Plains Student Links usually in central continental areas http://www.bellmuseum.org/ where rainfall is low or highly seasonal. Intro 00:00 - 01:50 distancelearning/prairie/build Every continent has its grasslands – the Mongolian Gazelles 01:50 - 03:45 (interactive - junior) chilled steppes of Asia that extend and Eagles http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/ one third of the way around the planet; exhibits/biomes/grasslands.php the Pampas of South America and the Grassland fire and 03:45 - 06:00 (Senior – precise definitions of prairies of North America, the tropical Recovery terms like Steppe and Savannah central savannah and drier southern Savannah – Quelea 06:00 - 07:30 – and other ecosystems) veldt of Africa; the spinifex scrub of arid Flocks Central Australia. Any area of the world Species List that has some soil but insufficient rains Wildebeest Herds 07:30 - 08:25 to support forest beyond occasional • Mongolian Gazelle – Procapra gut- Arctic Grasses 08:25 - 09.50 clumps of small trees supports exten- turosa sive grassland. Even remote areas of Snow Geese 09:50 - 12:47 • Red-billed Quelea – Quelea quelea central Europe still have some rare pris- • Wildebeest – Connochaetes spp. Arctic Fox and Geese 12:47 - 14:35 tine grasslands. All are homes to herds • Snow Goose – Chen caerulescens of grazing herbivores and the predators Arctic Wolf and 14:35 - 18:05 • Arctic Fox – Alopex lagopus that stalk them, huge flocks of birds Caribou • Arctic Wolf – Canis lupus arctos that feed on their seeds and burrowing • Caribou – Rangifer tarandus Arctic Fox and Geese 18:05 - 20:52 rodents that live nervous lives, fearful of • Bison (Buffalo) – Bison bison sudden eagles in a treeless landscape. Prairies and Bison 20:52 - 23.21 • Yak – Bos grunniens • Wild Ass (Khulan) – Equus hemi- These are threatened habitats – many Grasses Flowering 23:21 - 25:30 onus hemionus have been destroyed or modified Tibetan Plateau and 25:25 - 27:09 • Plateau Pika – Ochotona curzoniae beyond recognition as they have been Yak • Golden Eagle – Aquila chrysaetos replaced with wheatlands in particular • Tibetan Snow Finch – Montifringilla and introduced grasses for grazing Wild Tibetan Asses 27:09 - 29:08 henrici huge herds of cattle and sheep. Of Pika (rodents) and 29:00 - 31:35 • Tibetan Fox – Vulpes ferrilata course, a wheatfield is technically a Foxes • Asian Elephant – Elephas maximus grassland as wheat and other cereals • Lesser Florican – Sypheotides are modified grasses, reminders of the Tropical Indian Long 31:35 - 34:50 indica times when humans collected grass Grasslands • Pygmy Hog – Sus salvanius seeds to make basic breads. Ninety- African Savannah 34:50 - 36:50 • African Bush Elephant – Loxodonta eight per cent of the North American and Elephants africana long and short grass prairies have • Lion – Panthera leo

been lost and the mallee of southern Elephants and Lions 36:50 - 38:10 • African Buffalo – Syncerus caffer SCREEN EDUCATION Australia and remote Asian steppes Chacma Baboon – Papio ursinus Lion night Hunt 38:10 - 43:20 • are threatened in the same way as they are converted to food and textile Savannah Floods and 43:20 - end production. However, many of the Baboons central Australian ‘deserts’ returned to (Timings are approximate) 1

Blackline Master | Planet Earth | Episode 7: Great Plains Viewing Questions SCREEN EDUCATION

1 What proportion of the earth’s surface is grassland? ��

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�� 6 Which animal migrates in huge numbers across the African Savannah? �� 2 What climatic conditions are required to create a grassland? 7 Where do the snow geese spend the winter?

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3 What animal grazes the Mongolian steppe? 8 How many snow geese migrate each year?

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�� 9 What animal is the goose’s main predator in the Arctic?

4 How does grass recover from fire? ��

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�� 10 What do the Arctic wolves hunt? SCREEN EDUCATION

5 Which species of bird is the most numerous? Where �� does it live? �� 1b

11 What was the original large grazing animal of the �� American prairie? �� 12 What is the highest great plain in the world? 16 What is its main predator? �� 13 Why is this plain such a dry place? 17 What is the advantage of long grassland for the ani- �� mals?

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14 Name the main large grazer of this system. ��

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�� 18 What techniques do lions use to attack and kill an elephant? �� SCREEN EDUCATION �� 15 What small animal is the most common inhabitant of the plateau? �� 2

Case Study | Planet Earth | Episode 7: Great Plains The Dust Bowl SCREEN EDUCATION

Ever since humans began to cultivate in balance with the ecosystem for hard to control. Many were killed to the land rather than hunt and gather, thousands of years, taking no more feed the workers building the railroads the grasslands have been threatened. than they needed. Twenty million bison that would bring even more settlers. They were the obvious environment to thundered across the plains, which the By 1889 only 541 bison were known graze animals for meat and wool or to Indians depended upon for food and to be alive in the U.S. The Indians had plant dry country crops such as wheat, clothing. Then as Europeans began been deprived of their main source of oats and barley that require rain in to move west in search of farmland to food. their early stages but need a dry, hot develop, encouraged by the Home- summer to dry the seeds on the stem. stead Act of 1862, 6 million settlers The settlers farmed the land once Of course, many of these cereal crops came to the prairies and created one covered with native bluestem, buffalo are just grasses that humans had col- of the worst environmental disasters in and grama grasses. The topsoil was lected for thousands of years, modi- world history. ploughed up and with it, the extensive fied by selective breeding for larger root systems of the native grasses.

seed heads and heavier yields. As the settlers moved out over the The farmers planted fleshy, introduced SCREEN EDUCATION plains, forcing out the Indian tribes, feed grasses for their animals and The vast grasslands of the Great they brought cattle and sheep to graze grain crops such as barley, oats and Plains and the Great Basin in the in the grasslands. They slaughtered mostly wheat. United States were once inhabited millions of bison, almost to the brink by many different Indian tribes and of extinction. They were not a ‘useful’ Early in the 1930s, an eight year abundant wildlife who had lived species as they were migratory and drought began, and a series of major 2b

wind storms swept over the Great Plains and the southwest creating huge smothering dust storms. The soil in the grasslands had become dry and loose from European style farm techniques such as ploughing and the damage caused by livestock grazing. The roots of the grain crops and introduced grasses could not hold the dry topsoil under such severe winds. Tons of loose fertile topsoil was picked up and carried for hundreds of kilometres. Fences were buried by huge drifts and dirt had to be shovelled out of houses. The dust was so thick that people could not see, lungs were damaged, and some people even became lost in the storms and died.

The southern Great Plains soon became known as the Dust Bowl as the drought continued and the The settlers began to restore and pro- 2. The snow goose eggs all hatch land stripped of its topsoil could not tect the land, and they planted trees within one to two days of each recover. Grass could not grow even as windbreaks. The land, the Indians, other – a million goslings at once. when there was rain and the clay sub- the settlers, and the bison species What survival advantage would soils continued to create new dust had all suffered greatly, and harsh there be in this close timing? storms every summer. Farms were lessons had been learned. But around 3. The Tibetan fox must hunt the now worthless. the world in many countries, the same pika out in the open with very little mistakes are being made and climate cover and get close enough to The land became so damaged there changes such as global warming are catch it. What physical adaptations was very little to harvest, so thousands accelerating the process. and behaviours help it to achieve of farmers and ranchers walked away this. to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Many Great Plains – Discussion 4. What similarities and what differ- continued west into California, often Questions ences are visible in the various looking like the lines of refugees seen grasslands in the documentary. in wartimes. It is estimated that some The grassland plains cover huge areas How do you explain these similari- 20 million hectares of land were badly of the earth and vary considerably ties and differences? damaged and 20 million more threat- depending on climate, some are short ened. The worst damage occurred in grasslands (steppes), some long grass Extension Tasks Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Texas (savannah) and some seasonal as in and New Mexico. the Arctic. Each provides a habitat for • Draw up a table or a visual presen- a complex ecosystem, including soil tation (poster) that compares two Because of the poor judgement of fauna, grazers and predators. They different grassland habitats and humans in converting the natural range from the wet, long grasslands the numerous differences between grassland ecosystems into grain crops of northern India, which can conceal the two. (monocultures), allowing the remain- an elephant, to the arid grasslands of • Discuss the principle threats to ing grasslands to be overgrazed, and central Australia which were reduced grasslands from human activi-

not using proper farming methods, the to desert by rabbit infestation. ties such as farming and grazing. SCREEN EDUCATION land was unable to cope with such Prepare a visual presentation such a long drought and unusually severe 1. The flowering of the grasses (did as a poster or PowerPoint pres- wind storms. The government set up you even know that grasses flow- entation that shows the extent of programs to help restore the land, and ered so beautifully?) was done with damage and the possible restora- they taught the remaining farmers how ‘time-lapse’ photography. How is tion measures. to protect the soil and reduce erosion. that process achieved? ANSWER SHEET

17. Even large animals like elephants 3. Its colour and the strange stalking Viewing Questions can conceal themselves and feed movements help it to get close themselves enough to dig out the pika before it 1. One quarter of the earth’s surface 18. They attack by night, select an can get too deep. Even the strange is grassland isolated animal of the right size square face may make it harder to 2. Insufficient rain for forest but too and attack in large numbers see when it keeps still. much for desert 4. None of them has trees in any 3. The Mongolian gazelle Great Plains – Discussion numbers. All have grazing animals 4. It re-grows quickly from the pro- Questions that rely exclusively on grass as tected base of the stem a food source. All have preda- 5. The red-billed quelea of the African 1. A film camera is locked into tors which have the ability to hunt Savannah position on a tripod. It is set to out in the open by various means 6. Wildebeest – two million herd take one shot every few seconds – sneaky animals like foxes, birds 7. In the Gulf of Mexico (very sensi- instead of twenty-four shots every like eagles, pack hunters like lions. bly) second. The film is then shown at However, some have sparse sea- 8. Five million normal speed that has the effect sonal grasses so grazers like snow 9. Arctic fox of speeding up the motion by up geese migrate for the growing sea- 10. Caribou to several hundred times. It makes son, others have permanent short 11. The bison (or buffalo) was the plants come to life. The same grasses that support migrating original prairie grazer process is used for animating clay herds and others have lush, long 12. The highest plain is the Tibetan models like Wallace and Grommit grasses that support large animals plateau and is easy to do – but very slow. all year around. 13. The Himalayas act as a barrier, 2. There are huge numbers of blocking clouds from the south goslings and only a few foxes to BBC and Planet Earth are trade marks (rain shadow effect) predate them so the chances of of the British Broadcasting Corpo- 14. The wild Asian ass survival are much better for each ration and are used under licence. 15. The pika, a relative of the rabbit individual gosling. It is one in a mil- Planet Earth logo © BBC 2006. BBC 16. The Tibetan fox hunts the pika lion possible targets for a fox! logo © BBC 1996.

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