Target Audience: High school Biology

 

Project Description:

            Students investigate the alleged appearance of a cougar (Puma concolor) at the University of Texas-owned Brackenridge Field Laboratory (BFL), near downtown Austin.  Though the process of comparing cougar habitat and prey requirements with BFL habitats in a quantitative, systematic, spatially explicit way, students develop a relative probability map of the property.  A similar exploration situates central Texas relative to the continental distribution of cougars.  Students learn about the genetics and conservation status of cougars, and hold a debate on cougar population management issues.  Students then design and carry out their own mapping project or investigations related to a possible cougar presence at BFL.  Suggested topics for these include: the physics of cougar jumps, density and distribution of cougar food sources, or the characteristics of a cougar-friendly reserve in the Austin area,

 

Driving Question:

            How would a cougar survive and where would it live if it came to Brackenridge Field Labs?

 

Overall Goals: familiarize students with GIS technology, help students conceptualize the probability of rare events, expose students to scientific literature, help students develop mathematical models of biological events such as dispersal and predator/prey interactions.

 

Project Objectives:

Students will be able to:

use GIS to generate maps from field-collected data

interpret graphs and maps

identify the main findings from published scientific literature

evaluate the probability of a variety of rare events

mathematically describe the relationship between a predator animal and its herbivore prey, and between herbivores and plants

identify common local plants and vertebrates

 

Background:

During the fall of 2006, an undergraduate student at the University of Texas in Austin reported that she saw a cougar (Puma concolor) at the university-owned Brackenridge Field Laboratory (BFL).  The student claimed to have caught a glimpse of the large cat near a bird feeding station that she was observing as part of a class research project.  BFL is an 88-acre property located in downtown Austin, and bordered on one side by the Colorado River.  The research station as such was established in 1967, when graduate student housing on the property was torn down.

The interaction between cougars and humans is an important one, both because it provides a rich case for learning and because it is socially relevant.  Cougar abundance has changed dramatically over the last 150 years due to human activity, with populations in most places declining precipitously in the early 20^th century.  In the last 20 years, abundances in some locations have appeared to increase substantially, triggering fears of increasing human and livestock deaths from cougars as well as hope for the long-term establishment of new populations.  Perhaps the best indicator of the divided public opinion about cougars is that two North American subspecies are protected by the Endangered Species Act, but other subspecies are hunted legally without restriction.  Finally, the US Fish and Wildlife Service recently (February 2007) began a status review of the eastern cougar (P. concolor cougar), one of the endangered subspecies, to ensure that the species recovery plan reflects the latest scientific and commercial information available.  Because recent genetic research indicates that all North American cougars are members of one subspecies (Culver, Johnson, Pecon-Slattery, & O'Brien, 2000), such a review could end with both endangered “subspecies” being de-listed.

 

Rationale:

            A good driving question meets certain criteria (Krajcik, Czerniak, & Berger, 1999).  The question, “how would a cougar survive and where would it live if it came to BFL?” meets these criteria.  First, it frames the curricular unit by indicating the specific topics that are going to be addressed: predator/prey interactions and habitat requirements of animals.

Second, the question is worthwhile.  It can be broken down into subquestions that closely model what actual scientists would ask about the situation: what is the habitat at BFL like?  How would a cougar have gotten onto the property?  How much food is available for cougars?  Species distributions and community interactions are rich areas of ongoing scientific research, and the processes and relationships that are relevant to answering these questions can be modeled mathematically, linking concepts across disciplines.

It is feasible to answer this driving question, because relevant data can be gathered by students themselves on-site or from online sources.  Tools for analyzing, organizing and sharing the data (GIS, spreadsheets) are also relatively accessible to the high-school-aged students for whom this project is designed.  BFL itself is fenced and small enough that students can safely work on-site without having to stay together as a whole class.  It is also diverse enough that students can develop meaningful investigations and collect enough data to answer their questions.

This question is strongly contextualized.  The fluctuation in cougar population sizes in this century has caused a number of practical problems, first centering around conservation and more recently around public safety.  Because cougars are not common in central Texas, students may not be familiar with those problems in advance, but the driving question also relates directly to students’ lives.  “What does it eat?” and “where does it live?” are basic questions about animals, and students already have a large body of knowledge they can use to start answering those questions for cougars in particular.  In addition, students will have direct experience of some of the organisms and processes involved – BFL is so small that the deer are easy to spot, even during the daytime, and signs of deer browse are also very easy to identify.
            Large predators are inherently appealing, making this driving question interesting.  Students can also relate this driving question to their own lives because there are several local animal issues that a driven by similar population changes (deer overabundance, invasion of fire ants).

Finally, the question is open-ended and complex.  Students using different data (habitat characteristics vs. prey availability) may come to different conclusions about where a cougar would live, for example.

 

Literature Cited

Culver, M., Johnson, W. E., Pecon-Slattery, J., & O'Brien, S. J. (2000). Genomic ancestry of the American Puma (Puma concolor). The Journal of Heredity, 91(3), 186-197.

Krajcik, J., Czerniak, C., & Berger, C. (1999). Teaching children science: A project-based approach. Boston: McGraw-Hill.