Diet Analysis of a Snow Leopard
Overview
Approximate time to complete: 45-70 minutes
This activity can be used in place of dissecting an owl pellet. Students decide which 4 prey items the snow leopard ate, make a bar graph, make a food web and then research and locate information about snow leopards.
BIO 1.1
Develop and use a model to explain cycling of matter and flow of energy among organisms in an ecosystem. Emphasize the movement of matter and energy through the different living organisms in an ecosystem. Examples of models could include food chains, food webs, energy pyramids or pyramids of biomass.
Snow Leopard Diet Analysis
Scenario: Your snow leopard has eaten 3 small prey and 1 large prey in the last 10 days. You decide which prey that it ate.
*Total biomass is the number in your sample multiplied by the kilograms.
**Percent biomass is taking the total biomass of one organism and dividing it by the TOTAL biomass of all the organisms added together. Then multiply by 100 to get percent. For example, if you got 2 marmots and 1 hare your total biomass is 6 kg (2 marmots) + 2 kilograms (1 hare) =8 total kilograms of biomass. To determine the percent of hare, take 2/8 = 0.25 which is 25 %. Marmots would be 6/8=75%.
- Make a bar graph to show the types and amount of prey. You can make your graph in Google sheets and then copy and paste it into this doc.
- Construct a food web with the snow leopard at the highest trophic level. Include a photo of the snow leopard at the top and add photos of all the 6 prey items listed in the data table at the top of this page. Use the internet to help you find photos of the prey and also photos of what each organism eats. You can make a food web using Google Drawings and paste is into this doc.
- How many different trophic levels are represented in your food web?
- If a snow leopard needs 20 kg of food per day, how many marmots would it need to capture? Show your work.
- Assume a snow leopard eats 25 pikas (1kg each) and 1 wild sheep (25kg each). Did the pikas or the wild sheep contribute the most to the snow leopard’s diet? How do you think that foraging time affects this? (foraging means search/hunting for food)
- Using snowleopard.org, answer the following questions:
Where on earth can snow leopards be found?
What does their ecosystem look like? Describe.
What would happen to the snow leopard if all of the goats, sheep and ibex suddenly disappeared due to climate change? Explain using at least 3 sentences.