Complete page 2 of the student virtual fieldwork booklet for this section.
The Southern Brown Bandicoot is a small native marsupial that is found in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
The introduced Red Fox is a major predator of the Southern Brown Bandicoot and one of the reasons why it is a threatened species.
To protect the Southern Brown Bandicoot from foxes, National Park Field Officers manage fox populations, for example, fox baiting programs.
Before they can do this, they must first prove that Southern Brown Bandicoots live in an area.
To determine the presence of Southern Brown Bandicoot populations in an area, random GPS points are generated on a computer. Wildlife cameras are then installed at those sites that have suitable habitat – the abiotic and biotic features most suitable for the animal.
If cameras detect the presence of the animal at the selected site, a fox control program may be developed.
Your task is to analyse data collected from two sites located at Bobbin Head to determine which is the more suitable habitat for the Southern Brown Bandicoot and to recommend to National Parks Field Officers which one they should place a monitoring camera at.
Before you do this, you must complete the fieldwork planning activities to learn about:
Southern Brown Bandicoot biology and habitat
The study site
Fieldwork equipment and methodology
Planning and predicting
Once you have done this you will be ready to analyse the data collected from the two sites and make a recommendation to National Parks Field Officers about where they should place the camera.
Good luck!!
During this program, you will be required to undertake activities that enable you to engage with several of the Working Scientifically skills.
In particular, there will be fieldwork tasks that require you to:
question and predict
plan investigations
conduct investigations
processing data and information
analysing data and information
The program supports Module 3 and 4 of the Year 11 Biology syllabus: Module 3 - Biological Diversity and Module 4 - Ecosystem Dynamics.
1. How do adaptations increase an organisms ability to survive?
2. What effect does one species have on another species in an ecosystem?
3. How do humans impact on an ecosystem?
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