TeachingSpace - What to do - Freshwater - Water Vole Survival Game

Water Vole Survival Game

Source:

This game was adapted from ‘Oh Deer’ in The Education Ranger’s survival pack. Ideally this game is played in the context of a visit to a freshwater habitat if you can find e.g. a clear grassy space by a river. It could also be played back in the playground as a follow-up to your visit. The game takes around 30 - 40 minutes to play.

OBJECTIVE

A variety of factors affect the ability of wildlife to successfully reproduce and to maintain their populations over time - disease, predator/prey relationships, weather, pollution, habitat destruction and degradation. Natural as well as human induced factors can prevent wildlife populations from reproducing in numbers greater than their habitat can support. Limiting factors can lead to elimination of a whole species.

The activity is designed for students to learn that:

A) good habitat is the key to survival

B) a population will continue to increase in size until limiting factors are imposed

C) limiting factors contribute to fluctuations in wildlife populations

D) nature is never in balance, but always constantly changing

E) and to have fun while doing it!

Did you know?

The classic "The Wind in the Willows" is based on the stories Kenneth Grahame told to his son, Alastair. The book was first published in 1908. The main characters are: Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad. ‘Rat’ was based in fact on the water vole - which was a lot more common in those times. Water voles are now one of Britain’s most threatened native mammals.

Water voles need freshwater and quiet bankside habitat where they can burrow and eat waterside grasses. However, non-native mink - escapees from fur farms, now established in the wild in Scotland - are fierce predators of water voles. Habitat loss such as bankside destruction through intensive farming, land drainage, and river engineering, has also contributed to the decline of water voles. To protect wildlife, conservation managers now trap mink where they occur.

Before the activity

Take a prepared table to record the number of voles surviving/dying against the 3 survival factors (food, freshwater, shelter) in their freshwater habitat, and predator limiting factor (mink). E.g.:

Round	factors	Number voles at start of round	Number voles at end of round
1	Food (number = ) Water (n = ) Shelter (n = )
2	Food (n = ) Water (n = ) Shelter (n = )
3	Food Water Shelter
4	etc


	(introduce mink after round 10)

The activity

Find a clear area ideally by a freshwater habitat to set the context.

Split into 4 groups. One group will be 'water voles', the other 3 groups each represent the things the water voles need, water, food and shelter. Make sure that the groups are about the same size. Choose a different person for each round to be the recorder.

Send the ‘water vole’ group to the end of the area, and the other 3 groups to the other end of the area.

The water voles need to find either - food, water or shelter. They use their arms to symbolise what they need:

Food (waterside plants) - hands over stomach
Water (for hiding in and as a means of travel) - hands over mouth
Shelter (burrows) - hands clasped over their heads

During each round of the game one person shouts out one of the 3 habitat factors and you must not change this factor during the course of the round. The groups representing the habitat components food, water or shelter use the same hand signals.

All players start with their backs to each other. When the habitat factor is shouted out, 'food', 'water' or 'shelter' turn and run to find your match. Each water vole must hold onto the match, and only one water vole to each habitat factor. Make sure that the round is stopped before all the habitat is used up.

The habitat and matched water vole now both become new separate water voles in the next round.

Any vole that fails to find their need dies (i.e. if the numbers of voles is greater than the number of available habitat factors) and is recycled to become part of the habitat group. Allocate recycled voles to habitat factor before the next round.

Play approximately 10 rounds of the game, recording the results each time - the habitat factors can change each time. After about 10 rounds introduce a predator - mink - and reduce shelter, food and water. Any water vole left holding a mink or missing a habitat factor dies. Record the rapid population decline!

Suggested follow-up

You can extend this activity by looking for signs of water vole activity when you visit any freshwater habitat (see download section for more information on this species).

The records table can be taken back to school, where the changes in water vole numbers can be displayed against the rounds played on a graph, as a visual record for the group to see.

Discussion:

What do the animals need to survive? What factors could people control? (The ethics of controlling one species - e.g. mink - to support the survival of protected species, could be discussed.)