Columbus Zoo
Transcript
Brianne: We're ready to get started, so welcome to the Columbus Zoo in Columbus, Ohio. My name is Brianne. And we are coming to you live from one of our exhibits here at the zoo today. We're going to be doing a really fun program about a pretty interesting animal. We are going to be talking about the manatee. Now in order to kind of get a better idea about the manatees and why they're here, what we're going to do is we're going to show you a live shot of a the manatees in their exhibit today, so I'm actually in Manatee Coast and I'm going to flip over and show you the live shot camera and here are some of our manatees.
And we are coming to you live from one of our exhibits called Asia Quest, right here in the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Columbus, Ohio. We're going to be talking about food chains today. I was wondering if someone could give me a definition of a food chain. Does anybody know what that is?
Student: It's like when something eats another thing.
Brianne: Very good! It's the way animals get energy. So the food chain just demonstrates the things that different animals eat and how they get their energy. So, we are going to use a little demonstration food chain today, and in order to do that I need a volunteer to tell me what you ate for dinner last night. Who wants to tell me what you ate for dinner?
Student: I ate chicken.
Brianne: Chicken, and what was your name?
Student: Kyle.
Brianne: Kyle? Is that right? Alright, so we are going to make a food chain out of Kyle's dinner last night. Alright, so let's see, so you guys can all see this. Ok, so we got Kyle here, and Kyle ate chicken for dinner. Can someone tell me what chickens eat?
Student: Corn.
Brianne: Yeah, chickens like to eat corn. They eat seeds. They kind of peck at things on the ground. And then where does corn get its energy?
Student: Water.
Brianne: It needs water. It also needs something else that's really going to provide energy for it.
Student: The sun.
Brianne: The sun, yeah. So, the sun is kind of going to be our ultimate source of energy in the sky to give energy to the plants. So, we've made the food chain, but in order to complete it we need arrows that show the transfer of energy. So the sun is going to give energy to the corn. The corn gives energy to the chicken. And Kyle gets energy from the chicken when he ate dinner last night.
A secondary consumer is our carnivores. So, the picture we're going to end up putting on the secondary consumer is the animal that is a meat-eater. And then a primary consumer is going to be the animal that is a plant-eater. And then our producers are going to be our plants. So now you can talk in your group and figure out which picture is going to go in each of those boxes.
Ok, so I want to start with food chain number one. If you had a number one on your envelope can you raise your hand for me. Ok, so we've got a few groups that had food chain number one. We need someone from one of these groups to tell me what your producer was. What was your plant?
Student: A prickly pear cactus.
Brianne: Excellent! A prickly pear cactus. And this is a picture of a prickly pear cactus. So now that you guys know that the prickly pear cactus is correct you can tape or glue that down onto your food chain. The prickly pear cactus is a pretty common plant to find throughout the desert. It has thick skin so water can't get out and it has little spines as leaves so it can conserve water really well. It also has really tough fruit. So these are the fruits of the prickly pear cactus. What is the primary consumer for food chain number one that would eat the fruits of the prickly pear cactus?
Student: The big horned sheep.
Brianne: The big horned sheep. Very good. This is our herbivore. And the big horned sheep is one of our larger primary consumers that we're going to find in the desert. And the big horned sheep likes to eat the fruit. That has a really strong mouth so it can really chew through the tough skin of the fruits of the prickly pear cactus. So you guys can glue or tape your big horned sheep. And then we've got one more to go and that's going to be a secondary consumer. Which one is that for food chain number one?
Student: The cougar.
Brianne: The cougar. Exactly. So we're going to go visit with our cougar. Now the cougar is also known as the mountain lion or the puma or the panther. The cougar is going to be a really good predator. They use all of their senses to catch their pray. So they listen and they are able to use their eyes and they even use their whiskers to help find their way around. They're very curious animals. They're stalk and ambush predators. They sneak up on their prey. Surprise it. Now the cougar is actually a really fast runner. They can run up to about 35 miles an hour, 40 maybe, 40 miles an hour. They also can jump really far so they have a super long tail so when they're jumping they can push their tail off the ground, give them a little extra leverage. They can jump even higher. So this is our secondary consumer for food chain number one.
So let's go visit with the bonnethead shark. The bonnethead shark is in the hammerhead shark family, so he is a kind of hammerhead shark. The thing about sharks that's neat is that they always have to be moving, so if you watch the bonnethead shark he never stops moving. That's because the water always has to be going into his gills. So he uses his gills to breathe. That's how he gets oxygen. And if he stops moving, then the water is not going to be going into his gills. So the only time he can ever stop is if he finds like a nice current where the water's moving and he can just kind of point his body towards that current and then the current will just bring water into his gills.
Now tigers are the only kind of cats with stripes. So, because he weighs so much he spends a lot of time on the forest floor. He's not a very good climber. So all of his stripes are going to help him to be camouflaged because of all the shadows that are going to be on the forest floor. Remember we said it's really dark. There's going to be lots of shadows from the branches. So he's going to blend right in. It's going to be easy for him to hide there. Now, the cool thing about tigers and their stripes is that a tiger is the only kind of big cat, the only kind of cat that does have stripes, and their stripes are unique to them. So no tiger has the same stripes as another tiger. Kind of like your fingerprints. You're the only person in the world with your fingerprints. No other person has those fingerprints. It's the same with a tiger. They are going to be unique. That's a way that you can identify them.
Alright, well we have one more animal to show you. This is our last rainforest animal. And this going to be one for fun. And this animal is going to be live in the exhibit right around the corner from where I'm standing. So what we want to do now is we want to give you guys the chance to ask some questions, because you did such a good job today. So we have a few more minutes before we go. So if you have questions about anything we talked about today, any of the animals we talked about today, or if you would like to ask a question about this animal that you see on the screen. This is Fluffy. Fluffy is also a rainforest animal, likes to live on the forest floor. She is a 24 foot long snake called a reticulated python. So does anybody have any questions for me about anything, any of the animals we talked about today?
Student: What does she eat?
Brianne: What does it eat? That's a really good question. Out in the wild, they're going to eat just mammals that are smaller than them usually. They can find something called a bearcat or a civet. Sometimes they could eat a monkey or another snake even. Here at the zoo they eat ten pounds of rabbits a week, is what she gets to eat.
Student: How big do they get?
Brianne: The biggest one ever recorded was 32 feet and nine inches long, almost 33 feet long. So she is about 15 years old. She's about 24 feet long, so she is going to continue to grow throughout her life.
Alright, well those were really good questions. Thank you guys very much. We're going to say "Bye Fluffy!" Bye Fluffy!
Students: Bye Fluffy!
Brianne: Alright, well thank you guys very much. You guys did an excellent job today. Thanks for visiting us here at the zoo! Bye everybody!
Students: Bye!