Inquiry Based Zoo Fun

Have Fun with Ethograms!

Spend some time at an exhibit.  Make your own scientific study of animal behavior called an ethogram.  What kind of questions do you have about the animals you see?  What are the animals doing?  How are they interacting with their environment and other animals in their exhibit?

Use this activity sheet to create a fun behavioral study of your own!

How do you start an ethogram?  First, choose your subject and your question.  For example:

• What toys does the baby dolphin like to play with?
• Where in the exhibit does the polar bear like to hang out?
• How close to mom does the baby gibbon stay?
• Who does the silver back gorilla interact with?
• What is the camel doing?

Choose a recognizable animal.  If there is only one animal in the exhibit, this can be easy.  However, if there are multiple animals, you should choose one that is easily recognizable.  For example:

• The baby dolphin is the smallest dolphin in the pool.
• The baby gibbon is the smallest white gibbon in the group.
• The silver back gorilla has a silver back!

If you can recognize other animals in the exhibit, mark their differences down.  Use size, color, patterns, and other differences (bent horn, broken tusk, scars).

How will you test your question?

• Baby dolphin's toys - List all the toys that are available, and check what toy the baby is playing with after a set amount of time passes
• Polar bear in exhibit - Divide the exhibit into zones (like near the trees or in the pool), and check what area the polar bear is in after a set amount of time
• Baby gibbon near mom - Could look at by zones (0-5ft, 5-10ft, etc) or by location (same branch, different tree, etc)
• Silver back gorilla interaction - List the separate animals in exhibit, mark which one the silver back is interacting with after a set amount of time passes
• Camel activities - List the separate possible activities (sleeping, eating), and mark which one is occurring after a set time period

Hypothesis means an educated guess.  What do you think will happen?

• The baby dolphin will play with the basketball the most
• The polar bear will spend most of his time in the pool
• The baby gibbon will stay on the same branch as its mom
• The silver back will spend most of the time with the adult female gorilla
• The camel will spend most of its time sleeping

What is a good amount of time? It really depends on you.  How much time would you like to spend in this area?  It's better to have more data, but if there are little ones, you won't have much time.  Still, if you spend five minutes on this project, checking for the answer to your question every 30 seconds, you'll have ten data points, which is more manageable for younger ages.

To collect the data, check one of the options at every 30 second mark.  For example, if the baby dolphin is playing with the basketball when 1 min has passed, you will check the box marked "basketball".  If he is still playing with it after another 30 seconds go by, check that box again.  Be sure to have a box for "no toy."

After you collect your data, you're ready to show your results.  These types of problems tend to work best with a bar graph.  Record the number of times you made a check for each option, and draw a bar with the total number of checkmarks.  You can use any other graph you'd like, depending on how you set up your study.

Once you have your results, what do you think they mean?  Do your results match with results you got on a different day or at a different time?  What could have influenced those results?  Did a bigger animal take a toy away?  Was another animal acting aggressive?  This is your chance to try to understand why you got your results.

Check out this sample ethogram (featured animals are favorites from Sea Life Park Hawai'i).  Be sure to take pictures and have fun!

Sample Ethogram

Scientific Inquiry- Animal Behavior                                        Bottlenose dolphin           

Question:      Who does the baby dolphin like to swim with?                                  ^(species)

Hypothesis:  He likes to swim with his mom

Subject Name/Description:  Nalu, the baby in the pool, smallest little one.  He has a chubby body with a notch in his dorsal fin, and a very flat tail fluke

Other Animals in Exhibit:  Laka, Nalu’s mom- biggest in the pool

Adela, Nalu’s sister- has a very flat back edge of her dorsal fin, like a shark -à

Lupita- has a long, yellowish rostrum, small hole in dorsal fin

Kawili Kai- darkest in color, blunt rostrum
 

Data:  Recording who Nalu is with, every 30 seconds for 30 minutes

	La	Lu	A	KK		La	Lu	A	KK		La	Lu	A	KK		La	Lu	A	KK
1		X		X	16				X	31	X				46	X
2		X		X	17				X	32	X				47	X
3		X		X	18		X		X	33	X				48	X
4		X		X	19		X		X	34	X				49	X
5	X				20		X		X	35	X				50	X
6	X				21		X		X	36	X				51		X		X
7	X				22		X		X	37	X				52		X		X
8	X				23		X		X	38	X				53		X		X
9	X				24	X				39	X				54	X
10		X			25	X				40	X				55	X
11	X				26	X				41	X		X		56	X
12	X				27	X				42	X		X		57	X
13	X				28	X				43	X				58				X
14	X				29	X				44	X				59				X
15				X	30	X				45	X				60				X
																40	14	2	19

Results:

 

Conclusion:

What did you test?  Who Nalu stayed with over 30 minutes.

What were your results?  Nalu stayed mostly with his mom, and sometimes with Kawili Kai and Lupita.

Why do you think you got those results? What might have affected them?

Nalu stayed mostly with his mom, which makes sense, because he is a calf who is still nursing.
 

When he stayed close to Kawili Kai, she was usually swimming with Lupita before he joined her.  Lupita did not leave when Nalu joined Kawili Kai, but she didn’t seem interested in the baby. 

Adela came and swam next to Laka for a minute. She did not seem interested in the baby.
The only time Nalu was close to Lupita alone, he was showing aggressive behaviors, like biting, and Laka appeared to call him back and possibly discipline him by putting him in the tucked position, swimming directly over him.

Kawili is the right age to start learning how to parent, and might be displaying a behavior known as alloparenting.

Have a Scien-Terrific Time!