Biomass pyramid activity

In this activity students will us data from trail cameras to build a biomass pyramid from Gorongosa National Park in Africa.

1.  Sign up for a Zooinverse account:  LINK TO SIGN UP

2.  After you have signed up, go to the Wildlife Cam and click start: LINK TO WILDLIFE CAM

3.  The Gorongosa field guide can help you find information on the animals in this activity.  LINK TO GORONGOSA FIELD GUIDE

4.  View the 25 assigned pictures from the trail cameras.  For each picture you should do the following

• Identify and list each species of animal in that picture (use the field guide)
• Record how many of each species of animal you count in that picture

5.  Classify each species of animal that you saw in the trail cam pictures as a primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, etc.  (Use the field guide for information on what each species eats)  Use the most commonly eaten source of food to classify each animal.

6.  Group the animals together by consumer type (i.e all the primary consumers together, all the secondary consumers together, etc).

7.  Calculate the total weight of each of the groups of consumers.  To do this:

• Calculate the total weight of each species in that group by multiplying the total number of each species counted by the average weight of that species
• Add the total weights of all the animals in a consumer group together

8.  Calculate the total weight of ALL the animals seen in the trail cam pictures.  To do this:

• Add the total weights of the primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers

9.  Calculate what % of the total weight each consumer group represents.  To do this:

• Divide the total weight of each consumer group by the total weight of all the animals.  Example: (total weight of primary consumers)/(total weight of all animals)

10.  Construct a biomass pyramid.

11.  Enter you results using this form:  LINK TO FORM