Week 3: Animal Identification

Purpose & Objectives

Students will use common physical traits to develop a dichotomous key for each wildcat lineage. They will use a field guide to identify photographs of species known to be on the menu for their leopard.

Classroom activity

• Assign wildcat photos to the appropriate place on the phylogenetic chart.
• Identify leopard prey and label with scientific name.
• Plot the data points from their leopard.

Independent activity

Each student is to be assigned a leopard prey species. Using the internet students are to complete the relevant information on the activity sheet, which includes the average size, distinguishing features, diet and habitat requirements of their leopard prey species.