Scientists spend a great deal of time making painstaking observations of the animals they study.  Choose an animal to be the subject of your behavioral study. I would prefer it if you went to the Holtsville Ecology Center, a petstore, aquarium or wildlife area.  This will allow you to study an animal you are not used to seeing and one that does not have much opportunity to interact with people.  As a last resort, you may use a household pet. Observe the animal’s behavior for 30 minutes and make a list of the ten most common behaviors you observe during this time and how many times the animal displayed the behavior.  Possible behaviors include eating or looking for food, vocalizing, climbing, interacting with others, and so on.  Include your data in your report.
 
 

QUESTIONS
1. What animal did you study?
2.  Where was this animal?
3.  What made you choose this animal?
4.  Summarize your observations of the animal’s behavior.
5.  What effect, if any, do you think you might have had on the animals behavior?
6.  Write three questions about the animal’s behavior that occurred to you while making your observations.
7.  Put yourself in the animals place, take a guess, and answer each the three questions.
8.  If you could ask the animal one question, what would it be?