Predator/Prey
This game is superficially
just simple tag, but through its different variations, it helps campers to
examine why plains animals tend to live in herds but forest animals live alone
(with some exceptions as always). This
is also a memorable game and one that returning campers often request.
For this game to work, you
will need two distinguishable areas, one grassland and
one forest. My pavilion at Kirchenwald is situated on the border of the two habitats,
but you might have to look around your property for a good spot to play this
game.
Start the activity by quickly
discussing what predator and prey means for groups that do not already
know. Next emphasize that the campers
are going to help you with an ongoing experiment about why animals live as they
do. The experiment compares open
grasslands with forested areas, and the campers will test whether group or
solitary life is more appropriate for each situation.
Begin by examining the
grassland environment. Play two rounds
on the grass area, during which time, the players must remain on the grass at
all times. In the first round, instruct the campers to hide by themselves (out
of direct vision of each other) on the grass area. The prey
are of course allowed to run away from an attacking predator. In the second round they must live as a
herd, and it might be a good idea for them to select a herd leader. Allow each round to last three to four
minutes depending on the size and energy of the group.
Choose a predator for each
round, whose goal is to tag the other players.
Once tagged, the prey players are out of the game for that round. In the first round, the predator should catch
quite a few prey, but he should catch fewer when the
campers live as a herd on the plains.
Often, I discretely stack this game by choosing a faster predator for
the first round and a slower predator for the second to make sure that the
results are in accordance with the ecology of the problem .
Help the campers to process
why herd living is better on the plains.
Herds allow more eyes to watch out for predators. While one animal has only a partial field of
vision, two or three animals together can see a full 360 degrees. Show this for humans by having all the
campers wiggle their fingers and gradually move them out to the sides until they
are barely visible, indicating their field of vision. Instruct the campers to arrange themselves
back to back with two other partners until each one's fingers overlap forming a
full 360 degree view of the surrounding area.
The other advantage of herd
life is basically statistical. If an
animal is alone on the plains and a lion attacks, if anything gets eaten it
will be that animal. However, if an animal is in a herd, the lion has twenty or
a hundred or a thousand options. Any
individual's chances of survival are therefore much higher in a herd, assuming
that the animal is not debilitated in some way.
Move onto examining the forest
environment and how animals survive best there.
The rules are the same as above, but the game takes place in a more
sheltered habitat wooded. The first forest round should be with the
campers living individually. During this
round the predator should find very few prey and be
able to catch even fewer. In the next
round, instruct the campers to move as a herd in the woods, which should result
in an almost complete extermination of the prey.
Call the campers back in and
discuss why animals live by themselves in the woods. Ask them why they did so poorly living as a
herd in the forest (it is hard to move and hide in such a large group). But individually, an animal can hide quite
effectively in the woods. These few
principles dictate why one never sees a pack of squirrels moving through the
woods.
I often conclude this activity
by leading the group in sneaking up on another group of campers moving around
in the same area. You can also add a
discussion about other ways that animals defend against predators. For instance, musk ox form
a circle around the youngest animals so that wolves are not able to attack
them. Play out how a musk ox might protect
the young by forming a circle and defending it from a wolf's attack.
Debrief the activity by
focusing on how each animal uses its unique capabilities to survive in a
specific habitat. A squirrel would not
survive well on the plains of