Click here for a higher graphics version

Unit 2 -- Mountain Lion Sightings

Mountain Environments Expert On-line Activity

Introduction:

In the first unit, students researched Bighorn Sheep and learned about their habitat. This is similar to what scientists do. This information is then used to determine why certain animals are found in particular areas, why the majority of the sightings are where they are, is their food supply nearby, what and where are their predators, etc.

Purpose: This second unit deals with the Mountain Lions found in Yellowstone National Park and the technology scientists use to locate them.

Activities:

Ecological Literature Review

The first part of this assignment is to conduct an information search on Mountain Lions. Where do mountain lions live? What type of habitat do they live in? What do they eat? Do they have predators, and if so what are they? Why are more and more people sighting mountain lions? What is going on in to produce more and more sightings? Students are to have at least 5 sources and one full page of text with one-inch margins. Even though we live in a technological age, there may be many things that cannot be found on the Internet. Students should be familiar with how to conduct an information search by using the library, an Internet search, or writing letters/phone calls to State or National Departments for information.

This research can be conducted using the following:

Montana State University MSU has created a web page of additional links on mountain lions.
Arizona State University mountain lion information.
Bitterroot Valley Mountain Lions description of an ongoing study concerning mountain lions.
Local Libraries
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks agencies
Federal Fish and Wildlife agencies
National Parks

Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

In the previous unit students conducted research on Geographical Information Systems (GIS). If you didn't do the first unit on GIS, here are some areas that students can research:

What is GIS? How is it used? What types of data can you find? What math is used? Can you make a "simple" model from data? Students need to know how GIS works, not the full-blown mathematical reasoning, but enough that when they look at maps, they understand what was done.

The following links may be helpful to your students in finding areas of research:

Montana State Library NRIS The GIS page for Montana.
Montana Natural Resource Information System Montana page that has GIS links for information.
IDRISI Tutorial GIS tutorial gives some information about a particular GIS program.
Boulder County, CO GIS page, some information on how it is used.

C. Analyzing Real Ecology Data-Yellowstone Park personnel have created GIS maps of various parameters inside the park as they relate to the range of Mountain Lions. Among the parameters available are topography, distance to water and vegetation types utilized by the lions as food and cover.

If you have not completed the first unit, you will need to work on learning about GIS first. If you finished the Bighorn Sheep unit, continue on the Mountain Lion unit.

Students should obtain the GIS maps for vegetation, topography, watercourses, and sightings of the lions in the park. These are a series of data layer interpretations that predict the kids of habitat needed by mountain lions in Yellowstone National Park. These maps are maps obtained from Henry Shovic, scientist at Yellowstone National Park.

Students should compare their data--vegetation, topography, water, and prey, with the GIS maps from Yellowstone National Park. Did their research reflect the same vegetation as being important to Mountain Lion prey, how far do lions need to live from water, what type of topographical regions do they live in.

Do the individual maps reflect where your research indicated Mountain Lions would be found?
Are there other places where you expected to find lions?
Can you explain why your data and the final maps may have differed?
Were there other factors you haven't considered?
Before going on, combine your topography and vegetation maps? Does this help with your predictions? Now look at the first overlay map.

The scientists at Yellowstone National Park have electronically overlaid the maps. The final overlay shows topography, watercourses, and vegetation of Mountain Lions. The overlay should reveal to the students the relation of the three parameters to occurrence of the lions in the park. The scientists at YNP have produced other maps that students will use in their analysis: one on lion sightings over a period of time and a map of "how far can I get from the roads".

Why are mountain lions found here? Is it related to topography, vegetation/prey, or water?
Look at the map on "how far can I get from the roads", where can I go to be the farthest from people. Does this map have any bearing on these sightings?
Does vegetation for prey and being able to hide from people matter to the lions?
Does the invasion of different species into area, their population cycles, historic and hereditary patterns, affect where you would expect to find mountain lions?
As more and more people move into lion country, will the number of confrontations increase or decrease? Where would you expect to find lions if this was your own area, and not Yellowstone National Park? Would you expect sightings of lions to go up or down as more people move into the mountains?

Part 4-Assessment

1. Student's computer capability to retrieve the GIS information from the Internet.

2. Students research on Mountain Lions and text presentations of their work.

3. Manipulation and composing of GIS data maps.

4. Discussion and interpretation of GIS map manipulations.

5. An electronic portfolio of the information collected to use on succeeding units.