Student Page Name____________________________________________

Title: Best Buddies

Introduction: In nature, plants and animals develop complex relationships. Some are relationships you may know of are producer/consumer/decomposer or predator/ prey. You may be less familiar with mutualism, commensalisms or parasitism. These relationships are sometimes amazing to see because they remind us of human types of behavior. In this activity you will investigate the plant and animal world as well as the human side of interactive relationships.

Procedures:1. Turn to a partner and describe what you think it means to be a “buddy” to someone else.2. Define the following terms that are used to define “buddies” in an ecosystem:

Producer

Consumer

Decomposer

Predator

Prey

Mutualism

Parasitism

Commensalism

3. Work with your group and pass the pictures of pairs of organisms around the class. Write down in the data table what role each organism plays and what kind of relationship they have. Choose from producer/consumer, producer/consumer/decomposer, predator/prey, mutualism, commensalisms or parasitism.4. Write a skit to demonstrate one of the relationships from part three. The skit should not be about any of the organisms from the assignment, but rather between humans. Be sure the conversation illustrates one of the interactions you have learned about today.5. Watch the other skits and see if you can determine which ecological relationship they have modeled.

Data:

Picture number Organism and Role Organism and Role Type of relationship

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

Dialog for Skit:

Forest/ Mushroom

Only green plants are able to trap the sun’s energy and change it into food energy. Some of this energy is used in the forest as trees and other plants grow and produce seeds. The rest is stored in the trees and plants, and can be used by other living things. When a tree/plant dies in a forest it decays-rots and most of its nutrients are taken up by another plant like mushrooms that cannot make their own food. Mushrooms break down the plant matter into compounds that make the soil richer.

Forest

Mushroom

Grassland/Elephant

When an elephant eats grass it receives some food energy. Only green plants are able to trap the sun’s energy and change it into food energy. Some of this energy is used by the plants as they grow and produce seeds. The rest is stored in the plant, and can be used by other living things. When the elephant eat the grass, it receives some of the grass’s stored energy. It also gets some nutrients which animals need for growth.

Grassland

Elephant

Grasshoppers/ Leaves

Grasshoppers feed on leaves. Adults climb plants and while clinging head-down chew on the edges of leaves at various distances from the tip. A grasshopper eats a gouge one-eighth inch long into the edge and continues to take bites of the leaf at this level until nearly the entire width is consumed. Then it progresses in a similar way feeding toward the base of the leaf. If a leaf is severed, the grasshopper holds on to the cut section with the front tarsi and continues to feed on it.

Leaves

Grasshopper

Lioness/ ManA lioness will hunt and kill other animals for food including man. The animals that lions hunt have developed ways of escaping from the lions. Some escape by running, swimming, or flying away. Man can shoot lions with guns or rifles.

Lioness

man

Aphids/Ants

Aphids are creatures that have developed mouthparts that enable them to pierce the outer cells of plant stems so that they may tap the sugary juices of the plants. Aphids suck the highly concentrated sugar solution from the plant and extract the tiny amount of useful nutrients that are contained in this solution. Because such a small amount of the liquid is useful, the aphid has to take in large amounts of the plant juices and so has to get rid of lots of unwanted sugar and water. This is the sticky waste substance called honeydew, is released from the aphid.

Wherever colonies of aphids are found ants of various species are found as well. This is no coincidence, as the ants are interested in the aphid’s honeydew. They find this substance almost irresistible, although it is not a very useful food. The ants approach the aphid from the rear and stroke its hind end; this stimulates the aphid to release honeydew, which the ants lap up (eat).

In one species, the ants rake fine earth up to the leaves and stems of plants and, using their own saliva, cement together tiny shelters, shaped like mud huts, for their aphid partners. These shelters help to protect the aphids from severe weather and to some extent from predators.

ant

aphid

Buffalo/CowbirdCowbirds follow the buffalo hopping around the animals’ feet, and feeding on the insects that are disturbed as the buffalo move through the grass. They also clean insects and other parasites from the buffalo’s body and act as a protector, warning of approaching danger.

Buffalo

Cowbird

Honey Guide/ Badger

The honeyguide, a tiny African bird, forms a strange partnership with a badger. The honey guide belongs to the woodpecker family. Its diet consists of larvae and bits of waxy honey comb. But this small, delicate bird is not strong enough to break open the bee’s’ nest to get at the honey comb inside. The Badger loves to eat honey as well. The honeyguide and badger work together as a team to find a bees’ nest and feast on it. When the honeyguide spots a bees’ nest, it searches for a badger. The bird flies around the badger’s head chirping away to get its attention. The badger follows the bird to the bee’s nest, then breaks it open and feasts on the honey and bee grubs. When the badger is full, it is the honeyguide’s turn to eat.

Badger

Honey Guide

Hermit Crab/Snail

The hermit crab can’t make its own shell, so it finds the shell that the snail has left behind. The snail shell protects the crab’s soft body from predators. There are many predators who would love to chomp on a soft morsel like the body of a hermit crab.

Hermit Crab

Snail

Deer/Deer tick

Deer ticks are difficult to see and are only about the size of a pinhead. They attach themselves to the deer’s skin and suck its blood. Their bodies swell up like little grapes. Ticks can carry germs that cause disease as well as the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. The tick has a nice home on in the fur of the deer.

Deer

Tick

Warbler/CuckooWhen the cuckoo lays its egg in the nest of a warbler, the warbler can tell that an unfamiliar egg is there. The warbler then builds a new nest above the first one and leaves all the eggs in the first nest untouched both hers and the strange one. If the cuckoo comes back and leaves another egg behind in the second nest, the warbler will build a third nest above the second one. The warbler’s own eggs will die each time it must build a new nest.

Cuckoo

Warbler

Ostrich/Gazelle

There are heaps of hungry predators hiding among the long grasses of African landscapes, so these two animals tend to graze close to one another.Gazelle have good hearing, so he can hear the noise of an approaching predator and make an alarm call. Ostrich, on the other hand, has good eye sight and because of its height can see far away, so it can detect a predator from a distance and let the gazelle know..

Ostrich

Gazelle

Remora fish/shark

Remora fish are equipped with large oval suckers on the top of their heads which they use to attach themselves to a shark. These fish attach themselves onto the under surface of sharks and stay their there until the shark (host) stops to feed. Sharks are messy eater, biting lumps off their prey and spilling a great deal of food in the process. When the remora fish disconnects itself from its host the remora share in the feast and only attaches itself again when the host is finished and ready to move off. While the host (shark) is on the mover the remora fish travel all over its body removing parasites and dead matter. In this way the remora have a comfortable life, as they are most unlikely to be attacked while attached to the bodies of a shark.

Remora

Shark

Clown fish/ Sea AnemonesClown fish live in the warm, clear water of tropical coral reefs. They have many different colors and patterns and associate with several species of anemone. The fish live among the stinging tentacles of the anemone and are completely unharmed by the poison. When the clown fish approaches the anemone for the first time the fish is very careful and only gently brushes into the tentacles. Slowly it becomes bolder, swimming through the tentacles until it can quite happily remain in the center of the anemone in constantly touching the stinging cells. It is believed that the mucus layer surrounding the fish is changed by each minor sting until the protection is complete and the fish can touch the tentacles without being harmed. This relationship built up by the fish with the anemone is highly individual, as the immunity from the poison is specific to one anemone only. If the clown fish moves onto another sea anemone it is just as likely to be poisoned as any other fish.

Clownfish and the Sea Anemone

Barnacle

Whale

Barnacles/ WhaleBarnacles are small, cup-shaped shelled animals that attach their suction cups onto almost anything including a whale. Barnacles look like small lobsters when they are young and are able to swim around freely. Once they become adults, they can settle down on a whale, for instance, and never move again. They feed by waving their feet to send water carrying bits of food in through the opening in their shell. Because the whale swims around the barnacle is able to find more food. The whale doesn’t realize that the barnacle is attached to it, but it does weigh it down making it work harder. Sometimes the whales will try to scrape the barnacles off on gravel beds.

Moth

Sloth

Moth/Sloth

Sloths are tree-dwelling mammals that live in tropical Central and South America. There is a moth that lives only in the sloth's fur and eats the algae. The moth lays its eggs on the dung of the sloths, which provides food for the growing larvae.