Snakes are hunters - but they have natural enemies, too. Birds, raccoons, foxes and coyotes see snakes as tasty fast food. Sometimes the patterns on a snake's skin look vivid to us, but in their natural habitat those rings and blotches blend into the background. Designs can help break up the snake's outline.
Test it: Cut out a dozen snake shapes from cardboard. Then, using a field guide, color your snakes to match some of the patterns of snakes in nature.
Now head out to do some field research. Take your cardboard snakes to a wooded area and scatter them around. Challenge your friends to find the snakes - and write down (on the back of the snakes) which order they were found (first, second....). Then go to a different habitat, like a grassy area or a rocky area. Scatter your snakes around and see which ones are found first.
Do some patterns work better than others? Why?Check out other things happening over at STEM Friday.
This would be a great activity for the classroom! Thank you for writing about this, Sue.
ReplyDelete