C
24.
Getting food
2 hr +
•
FROM PROJECT REEF ED
© Great Barrier Reel Marine Park Authority
Concepts
Diversity
Herbivore
Carnivore
Predator
Grazer
Aim
•
To observe a variety of invertebrates feeding on the reef flat so as to analyse
the relationship between the environment, the animal's way of life and the
food it eats.
You will need
Skills
•
Reef-walking gear
Observing
• Snorkelling gear (optional)
Recording
• Transparent viewer for reef walks
Analysing
• Field sheet and pencil
Synthesising
• Underwater slate (optional)
•
Tape-recorder (optional)
Attitudes
•
Camera (optional)
Confidence in
own powers of
What to do
observation
1.
Throughout the time you are at the reef, make observations of reef
Curiosity invertebrates feeding (e.g. sea anemone, sea-cucumber, crab, gastropod,
chiton, clam).
Observe
each animal carefully and make notes on the field
sheet
(or record into the
tape-recorder) about:
•
its habitat (a brief description)
• what it is eating
•
how it obtains the food
• type of food
• whether the animal is mobile
or sessile (fixed)
• if mobile, how the animal moves
• if mobile, an estimate of its speed.
(See if you can devise a good way of
measuring speed so that comparisons between animals can be
made.)
2. When
you
have built up a number of
records, analyse the information. Can
you place any of the organisms you've observed into feeding groups such as
predator, grazer, filter feeder, scavenger. Can methods of food-getting be
related to other aspects of an organism's way of life, especially such things as
i mmobility and locomotion? Can methods of food-getting be related to an
organism's habitat?
Ideas for further things to do
3. You might like to get from books some more information about feeding by
animals you have seen in the field.
References
Talbot,
F.,
ed.
1984. Reader's Dige,t book of the Great Barrier Reef.
Sydney:
Reader's
Digest.
Bennett, I. 1981.
The Great Barrier Reef.
Sydney: Lansdowne.
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