Student Worksheet

How Do Animals Live With Bushfires? - Activity Instructions

Part A: What Does ADAPTATION Mean?

Step 1.

In this activity you will look at the adaptations some native fauna has developed to help them live with fire. If you’re unfamiliar with the term adaptation, you could watch the following clip:

Living Things Change: Crash Course Kids (https://youtu.be/xDSFlRunlrU)

If you are familiar with the term adaptation, have a go at describing it in your workbook, or have a go at describing it to an adult.

Note: In summary, adaptation is a characteristic that helps an organism live in its environment.

Step 2.

There are two types of adaptations. These are structural adaptations and behavioural adaptations:

Structural adaptations are the physical features of an organism
Behavioural adaptations are the things organisms do to survive.

Can you think of an example of each in terms of animals? Use your workbook to record some ideas, and check the tips below:

Structural adaptation (Tip: Think about the features that animals have and how they help them live in their environment)
Behavioural adaptation (Tip: You could think about the ways some animals do different things in different seasons).

Step 3.

Once complete, you can check your ideas against the ideas we had. Ask for an adult to help you check through your ideas to see if you were on the right track:

An example of a structural adaptation could be the fur of a kangaroo (the fur keeps the roo warm), the big ears of an elephant (the blood vessels in the ears help the elephant to regulate its body temperature) or the tail of a fish (the tail helps the fish move through the water)
An example of a behavioural adaptation could be the ways some animals move from place to place with the seasons (migration) or the ways some animals can put their bodies into torpor during hibernation.

Part B: What Is Fauna?

Step 1.

In this activity, you will be thinking about the impact bushfires have on our environment, and looking at how our native Australian fauna have adapted to bushfires.

The first thing to do is to understand what is meant by the term fauna.

What do you think fauna is? Write your ideas in your workbook or talk to an adult about what you think fauna means.

When you’re done, check a dictionary or conduct some research online to find out if you were correct. If you’re checking your answers online, you might want to use this link.

Step 2.

What are some examples of Australian fauna that you know of? Write or draw your ideas in your workbooks.

What types of fauna did you think of? We’re sure you’re more familiar with some of these, such as the kangaroo, koala, echidna, wombat, and possum. But what about the less familiar marsupials, such as bettongs, potoroos, and woylies? What about the birds? What about the insects? And the amphibians and reptiles? And the fish?

There are so many different types of flora and fauna in Australia. In fact, it is estimated that 83% of mammals, 90% of fish and insects, 89% of reptiles, and 93% of amphibians are endemic to Australia (endemic means they are only found here).

Watch the following clips from a scientist who studies invertebrates in Australia:

Jess Marsh, Kangaroo Island Invertebrate Scientist—The importance of invertebrates (https://vimeo.com/537480061)

Once complete, talk to an adult about what you found interesting in this clip, and what you'd like to know more about. Can you think of a way you might investigate this?

Part C: Native Fauna And Bushfires

Step 1.

In this part of the activity, you will be thinking about how native fauna lives with bushfires. Bushfires have been a part of the Australian landscape for a very long time, and many of our native fauna species have had to find ways of living with fire.

Have you heard of any adaptations or behaviours that help native fauna live with fire? Suggest your ideas in your workbook, using keywords.

Step 2.

You will now look at some of the adaptations that some species of native animals have developed in response to fire.

You can read this article: The Conversation - Animal response to a bushfire is astounding. These are the tricks they use to survive

You can then watch the following clip:

How do native Australian animals survive Australia's harsh environment? | Ask An Expert (https://youtu.be/6eOTZGSd1U0)

Once complete, take some time to think about what you saw and reflect on anything you found interesting or surprising. Record your ideas in your workbook.

Step 3.

You could now take a look at the Flora, Fauna, Fire resource. Open up the resources and work through the story until you reach the page listing all the species that have been studied following the Black Saturday bushfires.

Select one fauna species and read through the article. You might need an adult to help you. Once complete, spend a few minutes talking to an adult about what you noticed in this article, what you found interesting, and what you’d like to know more about. Take some notes about key ideas or record some keywords as you talk. Did you find any information about adaptation in this article?

Following your discussion, you can then write one paragraph to summarise the key points of the article, and one or two sentences to summarise the key ideas raised in your discussion.

Part C: Giving Animals A Helping Hand

Step 1.

Bushfires - like the Black Saturday fires - can create a lot of challenges for our native fauna that live in those areas, even though they have adaptations that help them cope with fire. For those of us who live a long way away from the sites where the bushfires occur, it can feel like there’s not much we can do to help these animals.

But there is always something we can do to help our native fauna.

Read through this article: The Conversation - Want to help save wildlife after the fires? You can do it in your own backyard

Step 2.

Once complete, take a few moments to identify something from this article that you think you could do in your area. This could be in your own backyard or in your street.

Alternatively, you might be aware of an organisation or group that is already working to help native fauna in your area. Can you take steps to join them or ask them for information about what species in your area need help?

It might be that you decide to create a poster or flyer that includes actions on it for helping fauna. Maybe you could display this somewhere or drop it into the letterboxes of the people living in your street or building.

Find out more about some actions you can take with the following resources:

Reflection

Finally, take a moment to reflect on this activity and record your answers to the following in your workbooks:

Even though many native animals have adaptations that help them live with bushfires, why do you think it might be important to help them?

Share your thoughts about this lesson with an adult!

How Do Animals Live With Bushfires? (home learning)

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