Australasian at Woodland Park Zoo Pre-visit Information for Teachers

If you are planning a zoo field trip and wish to have your students focus on Australasian animals during their visit, this pre-visit sheet can help them get the most out of their time at the zoo. We have put together an overview of key concepts related to Australasian animals, a list of basic vocabulary words, and a checklist of Australasian species at Woodland Park Zoo. Knowledge and understanding of these main ideas will enhance your students’ zoo visit.

OVERVIEW: Due to many factors, including being comprised of numerous, isolated islands, Australasia is a region with unique flora and fauna, many species of which are not found anywhere else in the world. Woodland Park Zoo exhibits a wide variety of Australasian animal species (see attached checklist) in several different areas of the zoo. A field trip centered around Australasian animals could focus on the diversity of Australasian animals (see “Concepts” below), comparing and contrasting different Australasian animals or learning about biomes and observing the physical characteristics of Australasian animals in different biomes.

CONCEPTS: Definition of Australasia Politically, the term Australasia has been used to refer to and New Zealand together. However, Australasia as the term is applied at Woodland Park Zoo is a biogeographic definition. Thus, the western limits of Australasia are defined by Wallace’s line, which runs on a SW-NE diagonal between Bali and Lombok and Borneo and ; the line then curves to the east and divides the Philippines from Sulawesi and the Moluccas. The eastern limits of Australasia lies among the islands of the Southwest Pacific (Oceania), east of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and north of Papua New Guinea.

Wallace’s line

Countries of Australasia Indonesia (the country is split by Wallace’s line; all the islands east of Wallace’s line are part of Indonesia, including the west half of New Guinea), East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia (France), Vanuatu

Biomes of Australasia Australasia has many different biomes. A biome, or bioclimatic zone, is a region broadly defined by the relationship of the area’s temperature patterns, annual precipitation and living organisms. Australasia’s biomes include temperate and tropical forests, chaparral (Mediterranean-climate shrublands), temperate and tropical grasslands and deserts. Across the globe, these biomes are characterized by patterns of annual variations in temperature and precipitation and assemblages of species that are adapted to these patterns.

Evolution of Australasia It is believed that the incredible diversity of Australasia’s plant and animal species can be mainly attributed to island biogeography, plate tectonics, and evolution. The plates containing modern-day South America, Antarctica and Australasia have been separated from the Northern Hemisphere continents for 200 million years. Due to their isolation from larger continents with widespread species, islands are ideal places for unique species to evolve. Australasia has been separated from South America for 45 million years. During this time, marsupials in Australia diversified in the absence of placental mammals (rodents and bats are only placental mammals to reach Australia without human intervention).

Despite this extremely high level of diversity, many Australasian species have adapted to fill similar niches as placental mammals on other continents; this concept is called convergent evolution. Convergent evolution refers to the development of very similar physical traits in animals that are only distantly related to each other (the evolution of species in different taxonomic groups to similar form). In convergent evolution, species have similar adaptations because they occupy similar niches (roles in the ecosystem) in similar biomes. Structures that arise from convergent evolution (e.g. bat wings and wings) are called analogous structures. There are many living or extinct marsupials that fill the same niche and sometimes look very similar to familiar mammal species:

• Thylacines (Tasmanian wolf) similar to wolves and dogs • Quolls (native wild cats) similar to ocelots and other small cats • Wombats similar to ground hogs • Marsupial moles similar to placental moles and burrowing insectivores • Flying possums similar to flying squirrels of North America • Numbat (marsupial anteater) similar to placental anteater • Marsupial mice similar to placental mice

VOCABULARY: *Adaptation: Any change in the structure or functioning of an organism that is favored by natural selection and makes the organism better suited to its environment. * Camouflage: The natural coloring or patterning of an animal that allows it to blend in with its surroundings. Carnivore: An animal that obtains nutrition by killing and eating other animals. Crepuscular: Organisms that are active during dawn and dusk. Diurnal: Organisms that are active during the daylight. *Ecosystem: A natural unit consisting of all plants, animals, and microorganisms (biotic factors) in an area functioning together with all of the nonliving physical (abiotic) factors of the environment.* Energy: The capacity to do work (includes heat energy). Food chain: The eating relationships among organism within an ecosystem where food energy is transferred from one organism to another as each consumes a lower member and in turn is preyed upon by a higher member. *Food web: The complex eating relationships among species within an ecosystem. In a diagram of a food web organisms are connected to the organisms they consume by arrows representing the direction of energy transfer.* Forest: A large, continuous stand of trees. Herbivore: An organism feeding on producers such as plants, algae or lichens. Insectivore: An organism that obtains nutrition by feeding on insects. *Niche: The position of a species or population in its ecosystem. A shorthand definition of niche is how and where an organism makes a living.* Nocturnal: Organisms that are active at night. *Nutrients: A food or chemicals that an organism needs to live and grow, or a substance used in an organism's metabolism that must be taken in from its environment.* Omnivore: An organism that obtains nutrition by feeding on plant and animal matter. Oxygen: An atmospheric gas necessary for the process of aerobic respiration. Skeleton: The bony, internal structure that provides support and protection for a vertebrate organism’s body and internal organs. Predator: An animal that obtains food by killing and eating other animals. Prey: An animal that is killed and eaten by other animals. Warm-blooded (endothermic): Refers to an organism that can control its internal body temperature, maintaining a relatively constant body temperate regardless of the external environmental conditions.

PRE- AND POST- ASSESSMENT: The following activity will provide you with an understanding of your students’ current knowledge of Australasian animals. In order to encourage their creativity and expression, remind students that the accuracy of the information is not important. They are not being tested on what they know. Rather, this exercise is a way to reveal our preconceptions and often misconceptions about a topic. After your students have participated in their zoo field trip focusing on Australasian animals, repeat the activity and compare student work from before and after.

* Vocabulary words marked with an asterisk are included in the Washington State Science Standards. Australasian Animals KWHL Chart Materials: paper, pencils Draw a KWHL chart on the board (see example below). Ask students to take out one sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. Have them draw a KWHL chart on their paper. Now, allow them at least five to 10 minutes to fill in the first three columns about the chart using Australasian animals as a subject. They can write down factual information they believe to know about the subject, memories about the subject, questions about the subject, or impressions about the subject.

What do we already What do we want to find How can we find out What did we learn? know? out? what we want to learn?

Have students write their names and the date on their pages and turn them in to you. After your zoo visit or at the end of your study of Australasian animals, return the KWHL charts to your students. Have them fill in the final column of the chart. Ask students to share what they filled in about what they learned. Discuss as a class what ideas were confirmed or possibly changed or corrected for students as a result of this unit.

Australasian Animals of Woodland Park Zoo

Australasia Day Exhibits ‰ Blue-faced honeyeater ‰ Eastern blue-tongued skink ‰ Common wallaroo ‰ Inland bearded dragon ‰ Emu ‰ Matschie’s tree kangaroo ‰ Laughing Kookaburra ‰ New Caledonia giant gecko ‰ Red-necked wallaby ‰ Prehensile-tailed skink East Conservation Yards ‰ Reticulated python ˆ Lowland anoa Willawong Station Trail of Adaptations ‰ Bourke’s parakeet ‰ Kea ‰ Budgerigar ‰ Komodo dragon ‰ Cockatiel ‰ Eastern ‰ Kea ‰ Princess of Wales

Conservation Aviary ‰ Raggiana bird of paradise ‰ Sulawesi red-knobbed ‰ Victoria crowned pigeon

*Note: This list is current as of September 2010. The zoo’s collection is subject to change. Questions about this information or your zoo visit? Please call 206-548-2424.