Who’s eating who?

Have you ever wondered how animals manage to survive in the harsh Antarctic environment? What do they eat during those long winter months when ice and darkness cover the land and sea?

This article explores two of the big ideas in science: food webs and adaptations for life.

A food web image and accompanying text explain the movement of energy from phytoplankton through to top predators – seals, whales and orca. This is an engaging way to support learners to make sense of diagrams while supporting the science capability ‘Interpret representations’. One important science concept to note is that the arrows in the food web go from prey species (those who get eaten) to predators. This shows the movement of the energy in food from one animal to another – not who eats who.

The article also explains the special adaptations that allow Weddell seals and Antarctic toothfish to survive in the extremely cold conditions. The animals have both structural adaptations (fat deposits and the ability to see in low-light conditions) and physiological adaptations (the ability to slow their breathing and/or heart rates).

Teacher support material

The teacher support material (TSM) can be downloaded from TKI. (Look for the PDF download icon under the article abstract.) It includes three activities:

• Design an article of clothing (structural adaptations).
• The impact of relative surface area (body size).
• Thinking ethically (toothfish research).

Check your school resource area for this article from the 2012 level 4 Connected journal ‘Oceans: a source of life’ or order it from the Ministry of Education.