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Unit 3--Do a GIS Analysis of an animal species in your area

Mountain Environments Expert On-line Activity

Activities:

This activity allows students to research an animal and conduct their own GIS analysis. Students can find data from Game and Fish, Wildlife Federation, Bureau of Land Management, etc. There are some links below that students may find helpful. Each student should do a 1- 2-page ecological information search that discusses habitat, prey or predators, human interaction, etc. The region that each student picks out should be a well-defined area, county, or wilderness area. It may be helpful for students to work in small groups of 2-3. This will allow each student to do a different aspect of the information search. Be sure to pick enough attributes that you can create own GIS map—vegetation, topography, prey/predators, and water.
 

Other Internet sites:

  1. NMP Mountain Environments A site Montana State University has on-line for information.
  2. United States National Parks list.
  3. Montana State Library NRIS The GIS page for Montana.
  4. Bureau of Land Management's Geospatial GIS page.


GIS Analysis:

Gather the data and collate it into the x-y (Cartesian) coordinate system. Remember that you need the location of your data to be the (horizontal) x-axis; the vertical axis values will represent the attributes your students have researched. It is very important to remember that the horizontal axis is always the x (or y) and the vertical axis is the z-axis when working with GIS. Scatter plots, from Excel or any graphing calculator will allow you to graph vegetation, water, and topography.
 
 

Students should answer each of the following regarding their chosen animal species:

  1. How does social interaction affect the species (contact with people, and interaction with other members of its species)?
  2. Management practices: if there are not enough or too many animals in a given region, what would you tell the Game and Fish Department to do next year pertaining to increasing/decreasing hunting licenses, winter feedings, etc?
  3. If the animal you have selected is a predator--what is the effect of people moving into its habitat?

Major Extension--Potential Applications from Yellowstone National Park, NIH Image, Image tool. This needs work!! Brian if you have any ideas, let John know.