Swallow-Tailed Kites | Making It Grow

Much of the forested land in the Southeast is privately owned. Today, many landowners harvest their trees sustainably, preserving habitat for animals of all kinds, including the world’s most beautiful hawk, the swallow-tailed kite. An ETV crew joined a group of scientists, forest managers and representatives of International Paper to follow this story in a managed forest near Georgetown, South Carolina.

Standards

• Life Science: Environments and Habitats
  • 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.
• 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.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.3 Construct explanations of how animal responses (including hibernation, migration, grouping, and courtship) to environmental stimuli allow them to survive and reproduce.
• 7-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.