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JEREMY WOODHOUSE/PHOTODISC/GETTY IMAGES
ANALYZING DATA TRENDS
Secrets of the Hunt
Scientists uncover how the clever
cougar tackles its jumbo prey
B
iologist Terrie
Williams has studied
big cats for 31 years.
And yet, she had
never found an answer to a
basic question about these
animals: How does a single
100-pound cat take down
prey up to six times its size?
Using new technology,
Williams and a team of
researchers from the
University of California, Santa
Cruz, recently set out to find
the answer for cougars, a
type of big cat. It’s the key
to understanding how the
animals survive.
Big Comeback
Williams and her team
knew that observing cougars
hunting in the wild wasn’t
likely. People rarely see these
shy, secretive hunters. And
although thousands of cougars
now roam the mountains of the
western United States, they had
nearly become extinct from the
U.S. a century ago. Their major
comeback is the result of laws
that protect the cats.
In recent decades, the
increase in cougar numbers
has allowed scientists to study
the cats more closely. But
Williams and her team needed
a high-tech solution to unlock
the secrets of the big cats’
hunting style.
continued on page 3 ➜
2
Smart Collar, Clever Cat
This SMART collar gathers data
on the cougar’s location,
movement, and energy usage.
Researchers
sedate a cougar
so they can weigh
and collar it. Then
they release it
back into the wild.
fact, they tend to walk very
slowly, which saves energy.
The crafty cats also adjust
their hunting strategies
depending on the type of meal
they’re pursuing. A cougar
may stalk only briefly to snag
a raccoon. It saves its most
powerful pounces for prey like
the mighty elk.
“We found that they’re very
efficient when they hunt for
food,” Williams says.
Protecting Their Home
Scientists say that
understanding a cougar’s
hunting style is important for
protecting the animals’ future.
For example, destruction of the
3
DYNAMATH • APRIL 2015
trees and plants the big cats use
for cover while hunting could
threaten their survival. It would
make hunting more difficult,
and the cats could starve.
Williams hopes further studies
will uncover whether this sort
of habitat loss has increased the
energy demands on cougars
and, if so, by how much.
“Now the collars are available
to people around the world to
study all types of animals, from
lions to wolves to polar bears,”
says Williams. “This technology
gives us a whole new level
of understanding that can
really help move conservation
forward.”
—Natalie Smith
PAGE 3: BRUCE KELLMAN/THE NEWS TRIBUNE/AP PHOTO (RESEARCHERS AND COUGAR); COURTESY OF
T.M.WILLIAMS/UC SANTA CRUZ (COUGAR COLLAR); PAGE 4:
MATTHEW STAVER/LANDOV (COUGAR ON TREADMILL)
The team developed a
device called a SMART collar
that can measure a cat’s
movements, speed, and
calories burned. But before
they could use the collars on
wild cougars, they needed
to study captive cougars to
understand how the collars
would track a cat’s energy use
during different activities.
The researchers attached
the SMART collars to three
cougars in a wildlife park in
Colorado. They monitored
the animals performing a
wide range of activities, from
grooming to pouncing. Over
eight months, they even
trained the animals to run on
a treadmill! After gathering
data for each activity, the team
was ready to put the collars
on wild cats in the Santa Cruz
Mountains.
The researchers found that
wild cougars do high-energy
activities, like running, only
for short periods of time. In
Analyzing Data Trends
Graphs and coordinate planes help us analyze trends, solve real-world problems,
and make predictions. Williams and her team collected and graphed the data from
their SMART collars. The graphs tell the story behind how cougars hunt.
Let’s say Williams makes a graph of a female cougar’s
movement patterns during a hunt. Use the information
in the graph to answer the questions that follow.
Female Cougar’s Speed During a 120-Minute Period
SOURCE: INSPIRED BY THE RESEARCH
OF WILLIAMS ET AL.
SPEED (miles per hour)
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
TIME (minutes)
1
What is the cougar’s
maximum speed?
2
During which time interval
did the cougar remain
stopped for about 10 minutes?
3
What does the graph
tell you about this cougar’s
movement patterns during
a hunt?
4
Why is a line graph a good
way of displaying this data?
Let’s say a male cougar’s
SMART collar gives the
following data over a 20-minute
period. Use the data to sketch
a line graph. Then answer the
questions that follow.
A Cougar’s Speed
Over 20 Minutes
Time (minutes)
0
5
10
15
20
Speed (mph)
2
3
1
0
0
5
After how many minutes
did the cougar’s speed
fall to 0 mph?
6
How long did the cougar
remain stopped?
7
The team trained three captive cougars to walk
and run on a treadmill as part of the study.
Based on the data,
what might the cougar
have been doing during
that time?
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LESSON PLANS
page 1 Analyzing Data Trends
Secrets of the Hunt
Content Standard
Measurement and Data
Mathematical Practices Standards
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the
reasoning of others
4. Model with mathematics
5. Use appropriate tools strategically
OBJECTIVE
Students will use the data from the line graph to
analyze and interpret data on cougars and their
activity levels.
Materials
graph paper
LESSON
Engagement
1. Before reading the article, ask questions and
facilitate discussion either as a whole group, in
small groups, or with a partner:
•Have any of you ever seen a big cat (such as a
lion, tiger, or cougar) at the zoo or in the wild?
•How fast do you think it can run?
•Discuss how long you think a big cat can run
at the speed you predicted.
Concept Development
2. After reading the article, ask the following:
•Discuss the type of graph the article uses to
represent the data.
•What does the data in the graph represent?
•Discuss why this type of graph was chosen to
represent the data.
(As the discussion progresses, be sure to clarify
and correct any misunderstandings the students
may have.)
3. Project the graph at the top of the next
column for all to see. (You can also project the
color version on page 4 of the article.)
Discuss as a class: Who can identify and circle
the graph’s title? (Female Cougar’s Speed During
a 120-Minute Period)
•Who can identify and highlight the graph’s
y-axis? What does it stand for? (speed)
•Who can identify and underline the graph’s
x-axis? What does it stand for? (time)
•What unit is speed represented in? By what
increments are these units increasing?
(miles per hour; they’re increasing by 10-mph
increments)
•What unit is time represented in? By what
increments are these units increasing?
(minutes; they’re increasing by 20-minute
increments)
Application
4. Have students work on problems 1 through
4. Once they are finished, have them share their
solutions and look for similarities or differences.
5. When students create their own graph for
problems 5-7, remind them to be cautious with
their units and x- and y-axis increments. The
increments may differ from the graph in the first
problem set. Students must decide on increments
that may be more appropriate.
Closure
6. Extend this activity by having students create
their own line graph that represents something
from their everyday lives.
Concept Reinforcement Online
www.scholastic.com/dynamath
Click on the “Skills Sheet”
button in your digital issue for
the “Coordinate Grid Stories”
skills sheet. Students will get
more practice problem solving
with a coordinate grid. (Also
availableattached below.)
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NAME
_______________________________
Coordinate Grid Stories
In “Secrets of the Hunt” (pages 1-4), you used graphs to understand how cougars hunt. Plotting data on a
coordinate grid can help us see the meaning behind the numbers. For example, a runner tracks his pace (time
per mile) during a half marathon, a 13-mile race. By studying the data, we can form an educated guess as to
what the runner was experiencing during the race.
Use the chart below to create your own graph and answer the questions.
DISTANCE
PACE
DISTANCE
PACE
Mile 1
9 minutes/mile
Mile 8
10.5 minutes/mile
Mile 2
6 minutes/mile
Mile 9
11 minutes/mile
Mile 3
6 minutes/mile
Mile 10
12 minutes/mile
Mile 4
8 minutes/mile
Mile 11
15 minutes/mile
Mile 5
8.5 minutes/mile
Mile 12
11.5 minutes/mile
Mile 6
9 minutes/mile
Mile 13
10.5 minutes/mile
Mile 7
9 minutes/mile
1
Use the information in the chart to graph Jeremy’s speed during the half marathon. Don’t forget
a graph title and to label the axes and their units.
2
During which two miles did Jeremy run the fastest? [Hint: The lower the number of minutes/
mile, the less time it took Jeremy to travel one mile.]
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Jeremy’s Half-Marathon Pace
3
he race’s course included a large hill that runners had to climb toward the end of the course.
T
According to Jeremy’s pace, at what mile would it be reasonable to think that he encountered
this hill?
5
During which four-mile interval did Jeremy’s running speed remain the same, give or take
1 minute per mile?
How much did Jeremy’s pace change between mile 11 and mile 13? Why do you think that was?
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4
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