Fox Squirrel | What's Wild

This episode of What's Wild observes some peculiar behaviors squirrel species have and the nutty ways they benefit the environment.  To find North America's largest tree squirrel, we'll travel to one of South Carolina's remote barrier islands and see what one tour company is doing to educate the public on this important critter! 

Standards

• 3.L.5 The student will demonstrate an understanding of how the characteristics and changes in environments and habitats affect the diversity of organisms.
  • 3.L.5A The characteristics of an environment (including physical characteristics, temperature, availability of resources, or the kinds and numbers of organisms present) influence the diversity of organisms that live there. Organisms can survive only in...
    • 3.L.5A.1 Analyze and interpret data about the characteristics of environments (including salt and fresh water, deserts, grasslands, forests, rain forests, and polar lands) to describe how the environment supports a variety of organisms.
• 4.L.5 The student will demonstrate an understanding of how the structural characteristics and traits of plants and animals allow them to survive, grow, and reproduce.
  • 4.L.5B Plants and animals have physical characteristics that allow them to receive information from the environment. Structural adaptations within groups of plants and animals allow them to better survive and reproduce.
    • 4.L.5B.3 Construct explanations for how structural adaptations (such as methods for defense, locomotion, obtaining resources, or camouflage) allow animals to survive in the environment.
• Life Science: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
  • 5.L.4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of relationships among biotic and abiotic factors within terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
    • 5.L.4A Ecosystems are complex, interactive systems that include both the living components (biotic factors) and physical components (abiotic factors) of the environment. Ecosystems can be classified as either terrestrial (such as forests, wetlands, and...
      • 5.L.4A.2 Obtain and communicate information to describe and compare the biotic factors (including individual organisms, populations, and communities) of different terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
    • 5.L.4B All organisms need energy to live and grow. Energy is obtained from food. The role an organism serves in an ecosystem can be described by the way in which it gets its energy. Energy is transferred within an ecosystem as organisms produce, consum...
      • 5.L.4B.3 Construct explanations for how organisms interact with each other in an ecosystem (including predators and prey, and parasites and hosts).
• Life Science: Diversity of Life – Classification and Animals
  • 6.L.4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of how scientists classify organisms and how the structures, processes, behaviors, and adaptations of animals allow them to survive.
    • 6.L.4B The Animal Kingdom includes a diversity of organisms that have many characteristics in common. Classification of animals is based on structures that function in growth, reproduction, and survival. Animals have both structural and behavioral adap...
      • 6.L.4B.2 Obtain and communicate information to explain how the structural adaptations and processes of animals allow for defense, movement, or resource obtainment.
      • 6.L.4B.3 Construct explanations of how animal responses (including hibernation, migration, grouping, and courtship) to environmental stimuli allow them to survive and reproduce.
• 7.EC.5 The student will demonstrate an understanding of how organisms interact with and respond to the biotic and abiotic components of their environments.
  • 7.EC.5A In all ecosystems, organisms and populations of organisms depend on their environmental interactions with other living things (biotic factors) and with physical (abiotic) factors (such as light, temperature, water, or soil quality). Disruptions...
    • 7.EC.5A.3 Analyze and interpret data to predict changes in the number of organisms within a population when certain changes occur to the physical environment (such as changes due to natural hazards or limiting factors).
  • 7.EC.5B Organisms in all ecosystems interact with and depend up on each other. Organisms with similar needs compete for limited resources. Food webs and energy pyramids are models that demonstrate how energy is transferred within an ecosystem.
    • 7.EC.5B.1 Develop and use models to explain how organisms interact in a competitive or mutually beneficial relationship for food, shelter, or space (including competition, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, and predator-prey relationships).
• 7-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
• 7-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.