Education:Science Projects: This Territory's Mine!
Tigers are territorial animals. They use scent markers to warn other animals away.
Use these simple items to test your ability to detect scents.
You've heard about territorial animals like tigers, gazelles, wolves, bears, and deer. They stake out a particular part of their habitat and establish it as THEIR territory. How do they do that? By using scents! Here's an experiment to see if you are as good at smelling out someone else's territory as these animals are.
What you need
• A friend to be your "rival"
• Two clean spray bottles (none of the original contents should be inside)
• Some white vinegar
• Some strong smelling cooking extract–like mint, orange, or lemon
• Water
What you do
1. Fill each spray bottle about half full of water.
2. In one bottle, pour in vinegar to fill the bottle about 2/3 full.
3. In the other bottle, put in many drops of the extract and mix it in, until the liquid has a strong smell.
4. Put the spray tops on the bottles and give one to your friend.
5. Now go outside to choose your territories. While you keep your eyes closed or turn around (no peeking!), your friend chooses a space, and sprays the ground in a straight line around a chosen area to mark off his or her territory.
6. Then it's your friend's turn to close his or her eyes, while you choose a space and spray the ground in a straight line around your chosen area to mark your territory.
7. Put the spray bottles down, and get ready to sniff! Each of you move around the area smelling hard, trying to locate your "rival's" territory. You may even need to get down on your hands and knees! If you find a spot, then tag it with a piece of paper or a rock, and try to find the whole line in both directions from that spot.
So how good is your nose? Did you find your rival's territory? Where did the trail start and end? Did your territories cross each other at any point? Now imagine if you had to check a territory that was miles wide every few days. Maintaining a territory can sure be a lot of work!
Catch Dr. Zoolittle in an entertaining show in the San Diego Zoo's Children's Zoo daily during the summer and every weekend and school holiday.
