Evidence

We collected data by using a camera trap during the day and night. Over the course of the days we put the camera in two spots. One by the old football goals and one by the back of the football fields . We left the camera out each day for two to three days in each spot over the course of the week. The first spot was the old football goals. The camera took a total of 953 photos in the three days, but in only 2 of the 953 pictures we got were two deer. Unfortunetly, the other photos were just motion caused by grasses moving from the wind. We took our data and made it into two charts to show how much our data was by making a pie chart and a line graph. The pie chart shows how many photos were taken and how many were actually data we could use.

Discussion

My group tested this question. How does the animal population in the Prairie compare to the field outside of the Prairie? We were interested in this question because we wanted to know what kinds of animals were in the prairie compared to outside of it and wanted to see if animals actually live there. We thought that there would be more animals in the prairie because we had found that there was more of a food source compared to the outside field beside it. What is the prairie exactly? It is a plot or multiple plots of land with plants and flowers of all kinds. What makes it a Prairie is that it is a flat and fertile land dominated by grasses and can be roamed by many animals (National Geographic, 2011). Our prairie is located by the Free state baseball fields and the old football goals in the back. So we decided to try to catch some animals in action by using a camera trap.

Reasoning

We collected many pictures when the camera was positioned into the prairie, mostly because of the movement of the grass that triggered the camera to take pictures. When the camera was turned slightly on the edge of the prairie, it took two pictures of deer. When the camera was by the fence behind the football stadium, there was not movement (animal or plants) to trigger the camera.

It is likely that we got the pictures of the deer in the location next to the prairie because this camera was placed on the edge of the woods and the prairie. It is likely that the deer like this open space compared to the tall grass in the prairie. The space farther away from the prairie behind the football stadium was likely not ideal habitat for the deer - it was too open and the grass is mowed regularly and much shorter. Based on our experiment, it seems that the deer prefer an area with some tall grass and also coverage from the woods. The prairie provides them with fresh green grasses and plants to eat and a close place by the woods to feel protected.

Bibliography