OTTERS
Introduction Teacher s Notes The Widwood Anima Workbooks for Key Stage 2 incude Badgers, Otters, Frogs and Woves. Each workbook foows a standardised pattern so that chidren can seect different animas to study but sti cover the same themes. The activity sheets are appropriate for use either as an introduction before a visit or as foow up work. Each activity sheet is designed to ink in with and support Nationa Curricuum Programmes of Study for different subjects, incuding Science, Literacy, Numeracy and Art. There are aso Key Stage 1 workbooks covering the same animas to aid differentiation. Activity Sheets The foowing ist gives detais of the activity sheets contained in the workbook, incuding the reevant Nationa Curricuum P.O.S and the earning objectives which each sheet covers. Adaptation SUBJECT: Science 1 Sc2 - Living things in their environment LEARNING OBJECTIVES: To understand that different animas are found in different habitats. To understand that animas are suited to the environment in which they are found. Food Chains and Teeth SUBJECT: Science 2 Sc2 - Living things in their environment LEARNING OBJECTIVES: To understand that most food chains start with a green pant. To identify the structure of a food chain of a specific anima. To identify important features of an anima s mouth in reation to its diet.
Teacher s Notes Food Chains and Diet SUBJECTS: Science & Numeracy 3 LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Sc2 - Humans and Other Animas Ma4 - Processing, representing and interpreting data. To understand that different animas have different diets. To present evidence about foods eaten by an anima in a suitabe bar chart. Habitats and Homes SUBJECT: Science 4 LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Sc2 - Living things in their environment To identify different types of habitats. 5 Tracks and Signs SUBJECT: LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Science Sc2 - Living things in their environment To identify otters according to observabe features. Human Impact and Conservation SUBJECT: Science 6 LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Sc2 - Living things in their environment To recognise ways in which iving things and the environment need protection.
Myths and Legends SUBJECT: Literacy Teacher s Notes 7 LEARNING OBJECTIVES: En2 - Myths, Legends & Traditiona Stories To understand the difference between myths and egends and fact. 8 Quiz SUBJECTS: LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Literacy & Science En2 - Reading for information Sc2 - Living things in their environment To scan texts to find information. The Widwood Otters SUBJECTS: Art 9 LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Exporing and deveoping ideas To record from first hand observation. 10 Life Cyce SUBJECT: LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Science Sc2 - Living things in their environment To understand that aduts have young and that these grow into aduts which in turn produce young.
Activity SUBJECT: Literacy Teacher s Notes 11 LEARNING OBJECTIVES: En2 - Reading strategies To recognise words and show understanding of their meanings. 12-16 Activity SUBJECTS: LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Art & Engish Investigating and making art,craft and design En2 - Nonfiction and noniterary texts. To deveop contro of toos and techniques in art and design. To understand the structura and organisationa features of instructions. 17 Gossary SUBJECTS: LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Science & Engish Sc2 - Life processes and iving things En3 - Speing To deveop understanding of scientific vocabuary. To have a secure understanding of the purpose and organisation of a gossary. Pease note that throughout the pack, underined words can be found in the gossary.
Life in the Water Adaptation Otters are members of the wease famiy, a group of mammas which aso incudes the wease, stoat and badger. Otters ive near water and they have ots of features which hep them to swim and catch their food under water. Long, streamined body heps the otter move quicky and easiy through the water. Long, strong tai heps the otter to swim faster. Eyes, ears and nose on top of the head so that the otter ony needs to raise its head sighty above water to breathe and ook around. Long, sensitive whiskers hep the otter to find food underwater. Webbed feet hep the otter to push through the water. Waterproof fur keeps the otter dry and warm even in cod water. Short, strong egs for swimming. Question: Why do you think otters have such ong whiskers? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1
Food Chains and Teeth Food Chains Teeth Can you draw and fi in the gaps of this simpe food chain? Pant producer Herbivore consumer Carnivore consumer Sun Water Pant D _ O Otters have sharp teeth which are used mainy for eating fish, crabs, frogs and ducks. The teeth are different shapes with sma incisors for cutting canines for hoding and tearing carnassia teeth for shearing fesh. Can you name the different type of teeth on this otter sku? 2
Feeding Time Food Chains Diet Otters are hunters or predators. They mainy eat fish, which makes up about 75% (three quarters) of their diet. Otters eat fish that are easy to catch. Otters that ive near freshwater wi take the sower swimming fish, particuary ees if they can. Otters that ive near the sea catch bottom-dweing fish because they are sow. Because prey behaviour changes throughout the year, an otter's diet wi aso change in different seasons. Ees are taken more often in the summer as they burrow in the mud in the winter where they are hard for otters to find. Roach and samon are easier to catch in the winter when the water is coder and the fish swim more sowy. Athough otters speciaize on fish they are opportunistic animas and wi eat whatever they can get. Other animas taken incude crabs, frogs, ducks and mammas. Percentage (fraction out of 100) of different types of food taken by one otter over one month Ees Roach Pike Frogs Birds Mammas Crabs Percentage % taken 50 20 15 5 2 2 1 Can you compete the bar chart beow using the information from the tabe? (To hep you, ee numbers have been done for you). Percentage of food taken 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Percentage of different foods taken by an otter over one month Ees Roach Pike Frogs Birds Mammas Crabs Type of food taken 3
Habitats and Homes Habitats Homes Otters ike to ive near the water, in a pace where there are penty of bushes and undergrowth to hide in. This is their favourite habitat. Otters ive in hoes up to 10m underground which we ca hots. They may use od rabbit burrows or natura hoes among bankside rocks or the roots of certain trees. Otters don t ike to dig their own hoes! Some otters in Scotand ive cose to the sea; we ca them coasta otters. They have their hots among the rocks and caves of the sea shore. As we as their hots, otters aso have daytime resting paces which may be under a bush or inside a pie of brushwood. These are caed couches. Marking their home Otters are soitary animas - this means that outside the breeding season maes and femaes ive apart. However, famiy groups wi form when the femae has babies. We ca these kits. The kits may stay with their mum for about a year or sometimes onger. Mae otters and famiy groups have their own territories. These are areas where they ive which are defended by the anima that ives there. Otters mark their territory by eaving smey droppings, which we ca spraints, in paces where they can be easiy seen. Question: Can you think of any paces aong a river bank where an otter might eave a dropping? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 1
Tracks and Signs Tracks Signs Otters are very shy animas and are not often active during the day. They are therefore very rarey seen in the wid. In order to discover where otters ive, you need to become an otter detective and ook for the signs that they eave behind. Otter Hots Look out for hoes in the bank amongst waterside trees with arge roots or pies of sticks and brambes at the edge of the water. Otters that ive by the sea may make their home in rocky hoows aong the coast. 5-7cm Tracks Soft mud, sand or snow are the best paces to ook for otter prints beacuse they show up we. You might see trais eading to the water or patches of earth next to the water where the pants have been tramped and the ground smoothed. This might be a roing pace where the otter ros on the ground to get dry. Pathways eading down to a river or ake bank into the water may be used as sides by otters for pay. 2-8cm 1cm Otter droppings These are caed spraints.they usuay contain ots of fishbones and scaes. Otters eave them in paces where they can easiy be seen. This might be on top of a bouder, on a grass tussock or moehi, on sand bars or edges under bridges. Can you see any signs of otters in our otter encosure? Write down or draw a picture of any signs you see. 5
Otters and Humans Human Impact Conservation In the past otters have been kied for their fur, because it is very thick and coud be used to make warm cothing. Fishermen aso wanted them to be kied because they thought that the otters ate the fish which they wanted to catch. They have aso been kied just for sport by hunting with specia dogs caed otter hounds. Otter hunting used to be known as the sport of kings and became fashionabe in Eizabethan times. However, it was not unti the 18th century that it became a sport for its own sake. More recenty (in the 1960s) otters were affected by the use of pesticides.these were poisonous to otters. Farmers woud spray pesticides onto their crops but some woud wash off in the rain and tricke away into rivers. Then the poisons woud get into the bodies of fish. Otters woud eat the fish and become poisoned. Nowadays farmers use pesticides which are not so poisonous to widife. How can we hep otters? Otters are now protected by aw and it is against the aw to ki or trap them or disturb their breeding areas. The best way that we can hep otters is by ooking after their wetand habitat. Creating more suitabe habitat might aso hep otters to increase in numbers again. 1. A dirty river with very few fish. 2. A cean river with ots of fish. 3. Few or no trees on the riverbank. 4. Lots of trees and bushes on the riverbank. 6
Otter Myths and Legends Myths Legends Around the word, otters have been seen as animas with grace and courage, whose power can be caed upon in times of troube. Otters are payfu animas and today many peope see them as spirits of fun and joy. Stories Peope in Finand te the story of a hero who visited the God of the Dead in search of magic charms. He escaped from the dark ream by turning himsef into an otter to sip through the arge iron net thrown across the back river to trap him forever. The Vikings te a story of a man caed Otter who was turned into an otter by his father who was a magician. He was then kied by the fire God Loki who wanted his fur. Superstitions and Beiefs The Cets did not know if the otter was a mamma or a fish. Other peope beieved that otters were fish which grew fur when on and! Native Americans beieved that the otter coud turn into a human. Their hoy women used the otter s powers to make peope fee better and carried otter fur, teeth or caws in their medicine pouches. Native Americans aso thought of otters as the organizers of the anima kingdom because their homes are divided into rooms. Peope kept arrows in otterskin bags because they thought it kept them dry by magic. They aso thought otter skins were magica and wearing an otter skin woud save a person from drowning. Peope used the otter skin to hep soothe the pain of fever, smapox and chid birth. Licking a sti warm otter iver woud enabe the person to hea burns (by icking them). Can you make up your own story about otters? 7
Quiz Otter Quiz 1. What is an otter s home caed? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What is their favourite food? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. What do we ca animas that ony eat meat? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Does the mae otter hep to raise the kits (babies)? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Describe the otter s favourite habitat. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
Widwood s Otters The Widwood Otters At Widwood we have one otter - she is a femae. Our otter sometimes comes out during the day so you can watch her doing a ot of activities. Grooming is a very important activity as it heps to keep her dry. Otters have specia ois in their skin which are rubbed over their hairs when they groom to hep keep them waterproof. You might aso see our otter eating, swimming or roing on the banks of the pond to dry her fur. Have you seen our otter... (Tick the boxes) Eating? Grooming? Paying? Seeping? Use the space beow to draw a picture of one of the otters doing one of the above activities. 9
Life Cyce Otter Life Cyce There is ony one species of otter in Britain. This is the Eurasian otter (which means that it ives in Europe and Asia). However, some of the British otters ive near freshwater and some of them ive cose to the sea (in Scotand) - these are caed coasta otters. This difference in habitat means that the otters have some differences in their ife cyce. The coasta otters tend to have smaer itter sizes and breed in the summer. 1. Kits are born in the hot at any time of year. Their eyes are cosed but they have fur. Otters have 1-5 kits in a itter. 5. Adut otter. The kit can now catch its own food and wi eave its mother to find its own territory. 2. By two months od, the kits are reguary coming out of the hot and earning to swim. 4. The kits earn to catch their own food. 3. The kits have stopped drinking mik by the time they are 3 months od. Their mother catches fish for them. Question: Why do you think otter kits are born with fur? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10
Otter Word Search Activity Can you find a the words to do with otters in the grid beow? There are 20, running forwards, backwards, up, down, across and diagonay. Some of the etters are used in more than one word. To hep you, here are some cues for the words you are ooking for: K - a baby otter, H _ - an otter s home, W - an otter ikes to ive near this, R - some otters ive near this, S - other otters ive near this, D _ - otters ike to do this into the water, S _ - how otters get about in the water, W _ F _ - what otters use to hep them swim, L _ T _- what otters use to hep them dive, S - otters sometimes use these to get into the water, C - an otter s resting pace (we use them too!), S - an otter dropping, T - an area that is defended by the otter iving there, G - otters do this to keep their fur waterproof, M _ - an otter is one of these because it has warm-bood, C - an otter is one of these because it ony eats meat, F _, F, C - food that the otter ikes to eat, E _- the otters favourite kind of fish. T E E F D E B B E W N I D I V E R E L A I C K S T S L R A T A B R H Q E O O M E R G A A O E N V M R P E E I B L G I A E S L I D E S T N M V W S G O R F A R G I I C O U C H I A C R M O O R G X L C V S U T E R R I T O R Y 1 11
Art Make an Otter Mask! You wi need: w crayons or cooured pencis w a pair of scissors w seotape or gue w some thin eastic 1. Cut out the otter face and otter nose. Make sure you don t cut off the tabs! 2. Coour in the face and the nose. Ask a grown-up to hep you cut out the eye hoes. 3. Cut the 3 sits in the face and push the tabs through them. Fasten with seotape or gue. 4. Measure the correct ength of eastic to fit around your head. 5. Make two sma hoes in either side of the mask. Thread the eastic through and tie a knot. 6. Your mask is now ready to wear! 12
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Art Make a Dancing Otter Puppet! You wi need: w crayons or cooured pencis w a pair of scissors w seotape or gue w 2 oy sticks 1. Cut out the otter face and otter tai. 2. Coour in the head and the tai. Cut the sits in the whiskers and cur them around a penci. 3. Cut out two wide strips of paper (about the same width as the otter s head). Fod them into concertina fods. 4. Gue or seotape the two foded strips of paper together to make a ong body for your otter. 5. Gue or tape the head and tai onto the body. Gue or tape one oy stick onto the head and the other onto the tai. 6. Hod onto the sticks and make your otter dance and swim! 15
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Gossary Word List canine - fang-ike teeth at the side of the mouth often used for stabbing and hoding prey. carnassia - shearing, scissor-ike teeth used for eating meat. consumer - an anima which eats pants or other animas. They are sometimes caed herbivores, carnivores or omnivores. couch - an otter s resting pace, often used in the daytime. habitat - a pace where an anima ives. hot - a den near a river or by the sea which is used as a home by otters. incisor - rectanguar teeth at the front of the mouth, usuay used for cutting. mamma - a warm-booded anima which gives birth to ive young. opportunistic - wi take something by chance. pesticides - chemicas used by farmers to ki insects. predator - an anima which hunts and eats other animas. prey - an anima which gets hunted and eaten by other animas. producer - a green pant which can take energy from the sun and make food using the process of photosynthesis. side - a path used by otters to sip into the water. soitary - an anima which ives by itsef. species - a particuar type of anima. spraint - an otter dropping. territory - a pace where an anima ives, which it defends from other animas. 17