MAMMAL STUDY
- Explain the meaning of "animal," "invertebrate,"
"vertebrate," and "mammal." Name three characteristic
that distinguish mammals from all other animals.
- Explain how the animal kingdom is classified. Explain where mammals fit
in the classification of animals. Classify three mammals from phylum through
species.
- Do ONE of the following:
- Spend 3 hours in each of two different kinds of natural habitats or
at different elevations. List the different mammal species and
individual members that you identified by sight or sign. Tell why all
mammals do not live in the same kind of habitat.
- Spend 3 hours on each of 5 days on at least a 25-acre area. List
the mammal species you identified by sight or sign.
- From study and reading, write a simple history of one nongame
mammal that lives in your area. Tell how this mammal lived before its
habitat was affected in any way by man. Tell how it reproduces, what it
eats, what eats it, and its natural habitat. Describe its dependency
upon plants, upon other animals (including man), and how they depend
upon it. Tell how it is helpful or harmful to man.
- Do ONE of the following:
- Under the guidance of a nature center or natural history museum,
make two study skins of rats or mice. Tell the uses of study skins and
mounted specimens respectively.
- Take good pictures of two kinds of mammals in the wild. Record
light conditions, film used, exposure, and other factors, including
notes on the activities of the pictured animals.
- Write a life history of a native game mammal that lives in your
area, covering the points outlined in requirement 3c. List sources for
this information.
- Make and bait a tracking pit. Report what mammals and other animals
came to the bait.
- Visit a natural history museum. Report on how specimens are
prepared and cataloged. Explain the purposes of museums.
- Write a report of 500 words on a book about a mammal species.
- Trace two possible food chains of carnivorous mammals from soil
through four stages to the mammal.
- Work with your counselor, select and carry out one project that will
influence the numbers of one or more mammals.
BSA Advancement ID#: 71
Source: Boy Scout Requirements, #33215E, revised 2002
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