Introduction
Can people and wildlife co-exist in nature?
This webquest aims to guide students as they explore how people and wildlife can co-habit a common environment.
Specifically, the learning goal for the activity is to identify how can we reduce human impacts on wildlife and their natural habitat.
Task
Explore the Nature Neighbor Project website of the NPS' Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. As you click on each suggested links on the website, answer the guide questions per section. Copy and paste the questions found on the Process tab in a word document then type your responses. Either print or send an electronic copy of your work to your teacher.
Process
Open Nature Neighbor Project by opening a new window or tab on your browser and using this link: https://www.nps.gov/samo/learn/management/nature-neighbor-project.htm
Question: Give one positive and one drawback of living next to a natural space like the park.
Click coexist with wildlife or the link below:
Fill-out the chart using information from the Urban Wildlife page.
| Type of animals | Common Visitor | Occasional Visitor | Rare Visitor |
| Large/Medium Mammals | |||
| Small Mammals | |||
| Bird | |||
| Reptile |
Click on the following on the page and respond to the questions:
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I make my yard wildlife friendly?
- How do I deter wildlife from my yard?
- How do I keep my children and pets safe?
- What do I need to know about protecting livestock in the Coastal Zone?
II. Avoiding Unintentional Poisoning
1. What is the common term used for anticoagulant rodenticides?
2. Describe how rodenticides works its way through the food chain.
3. Describe how anticoagulant rodenticides kills.
4. Based on the number of animals tested by NPS, identify how many percent of the following animals were exposed to anticoagulant poisons:
Bobcats: _____
Coyotes: _____
Mountain lions: _____
1. Give 2 examples of normal urban coyote behavior and 1 example of abnormal coyote behavior.
2. What can you do to reduce coyote conflicts?
IV. Is Your Home Ready for Wildfire?
1. Being alert means being ready for fires whenever there's a red flag weather. Describe the conditions during a red flag weather.
2. What are the core elements that can help reduce wildfire spread to your home?
V. Invasive Plants, Bully Plants
1. What are invasive plants?
2. Why are biologists so concerned about invasive plants?
a. List 3 ecological impacts of invasive plants
b. List 3 recreational and personal impacts of invasive plants.
3. How do invasive plants get into wildland habitat?
4. List 5 plants from the "Evil 25". Give their common and scientific name.
5. How are biologists tackling invasive plant populations in the Santa Monica Mountains?
VI. What Happened to the Night Sky?
1. What is light pollution?
2. What are some sources of light pollution?
3. What are sources of light pollution?
4. How can light pollution hurt you?
5. How does light pollution affects wildlife?
6. How can you help? List 5 ways to help reduce light pollution.
VII. Stream Pollution
1. What are examples of pollutants that can contaminate our local streams, beaches, and oceans?
2. How can the pollutants gets in the stream?
3. How can stream pollution impacts human?
4. How can stream pollution impacts marine animals?
5. What can you do to help reduce stream pollution?
VIII. Cats: Predators or Prey?
1. Are cats predators pr prey? Explain.
2. What can you do to keep your cat safe?
1. What are the 3 main reasons why you would want to keep your dog on leash while at the park?
2. Which parks allows dog to be off leash?
Evaluation
After completing your exploration of the different links on the website related to how we can co-habit nature with wildlife, how will you respond to the following questions?
1. Can we co-habit nature with wildlife? Explain.
2. How can we reduce our impacts to natural ecosystems? List and describe specific examples of actions human do that can potentially impact nature and discuss how we can reduce the impact.