This activity is part of the Detours and Distractions: How Humans Impact Migration Patterns unit.
 
1.   Assign student groups to a focal animal for their unit project.

• Group students together based on their interest in one of the following animals, as recorded on their Choose Your Migrating Animal exit ticket completed during the Why and How Animals Migrate activity:
• Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
• Reindeer (caribou) (Rangifer tarandus)
• Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea)
• Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)
• Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)
• Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
• Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
• White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)
• Globe skimmer dragonfly (Pantala flavescens)
• Sandhill Crane (Antigone canadensis)
• Canada goose (Branta canadensis)
• Painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui)
• Explain that over the course of the remainder of the unit, each group will create a paper map highlighting their animal’s migration route, research how its migration is impacted by humans, identify how its migration affects its ecosystem(s), and develop solutions to the human impacts. 

• Elicit students’ background understanding of animal tracking. Ask:
• How do you think we know where animals go during migration? (Possible responses: we can follow them, we can track them, drones.) Emphasize that scientists and explorers use a wide variety of methods to track and study animals to understand their migrations.
• Direct project groups to read the What is Animal Tracking? page from Movebank, a free online database of animal tracking data, in order to identify three interesting facts about animal tracking. Then, in a class discussion, have groups share out interesting facts while recording them in a visible place for all to see. 
• Explain the purpose of today’s activity is to:
• Introduce students to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which students will focus on more deeply in a later activity.
• Explore a variety of resources and learn about how different animals are tracked.
• Get comfortable interacting with and interpreting animal migration maps, which students will be making for their unit project.

• Create two lists on the board that are titled “Animal Migration Tracking Methods” and “Animal Migration Maps.” Encourage students to identify the different tracking methods and maps they encounter throughout the activity. As they are addressed during the discussion, record student contributions to the lists on the board.
• As you scroll through the animation, choose students to read text portions aloud as appropriate. As you engage with the content, emphasize the following:
• North American Elk Range: Call attention to the difference between the historic and current elk ranges. Mention that students will be creating a similar multilayered map for their unit project showing the typical migration route and the human interrupted migration route for their project animal.
• Greater Yellowstone Superherd: Ask students to paraphrase the elk’s migration pattern. 
• Winter: Click the arrow to start the animation. Explain that the movement of the dots represents average elk herd movement in March. Ask students:
• What tracking method is mentioned here? (GPS collar)
• What does this map depict? (Elk herd movements in their winter feeding grounds)
• If needed, prompt students to add the tracking method, the map title, and description to the class list.  
• Spring Migration: Click the arrow to start the animation. Explain that the movement of the dots represents average elk herd movement between April and August. Ask students:
• What does this map depict? (spring migration, herds moving into the park)
• If needed, prompt students to add the map title and description to the class list.
• Pulse of the Park: Click the arrow to start the animation. Explain that the movement of the dots represents average elk herd movement between August and January. Ask students:
• What does this map depict? (fall migration, herds moving out of the park when snow begins to fall)
• If needed, prompt students to add the map title and description to the class list.
• Nine Elk Herds: If needed, prompt students to add the map type (migratory routes for nine elk herds) to the class list.
• Who Owns This Land?: Call attention to the different groups of people that own land that the elk migrate through. Ask students:
• What are some impacts to the elk’s migration that might arise on these different kinds of land? (Possible answers: Elk might be hunted if they are on private land, tribal land, or in the wilderness; elk may be impacted by crossing roads, ranching, fencing, and projects that are ongoing on state or local government land.)
• A Single Elk: Explain that the next few maps are a narrowed version of the maps we have already seen that focus on one elk’s (Elk 22) migration journey.
• Winter Range: Click the arrow to start the animation. Explain that the movement of the dot represents one elk’s movement (Elk 22) between March and May, the winter range.
• Hazardous Return: Call attention to the large number of elk killed by hunters.

• Highlight that students have learned some tracking and mapping techniques for elk migration. Prompt students to consider how well these methods might work for other migrating animals (e.g., their focal animal, small birds, insects, amphibians, aquatic animals, urban wildlife). Do they expect similar or different approaches—and why?
• Explain that project groups will now research different types of animal migration maps, which will prepare them to think more strategically about their culminating project map.
• As groups explore the following resources, encourage group members to work together and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies they learn about, and to add as many methods to the “Animal Migration Tracking Methods” list and as many map names to the “Animal Migration Map” list as they can. If project groups choose to divide the resources between their members, assign at least two of the following to each student or pair to ensure every resource is investigated at least once.
• Butterfly Surveillance video
• Tales of a Tail-Feather video
• Long-distance Ocean Travels maps
• Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators
• Tracking Animal Migrations GeoStory
• Explorer Profile: Brian Kastl
• As groups work, prompt thinking with questions like these to remind students to keep their unit project in mind: 
• What tracking methods are most appropriate for animals of different sizes?
• Which type of map is best suited to track animal migration by air, land, and sea?

• Consider again ideas for students to take additional action after the unit concludes, to continue momentum toward helping end negative human impacts on animal migration and extend the impacts of their project work into the local or global community.
• Gauge student interest and feasibility of conducting different courses of action.
• Identify local migratory organisms. Create a backyard “pit stop” for the most vulnerable—such as a bat box or specific native flowering plants.
• Author a class letter to Congress, local government, or a local business to encourage an animal migration solution (e.g., building a wildlife crossing bridge). Students can submit copies of their maps and presentations as evidence.
• Download the Animal Tracker app or eBird app and follow and add to scientific knowledge about migrating animals through student citizen science field work.