What Nobody Has Settled: teacher key

Bearded Vultures, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. Scientists do not yet know what a bearded vulture's beard is for or why it dyes its feathers orange. They do know how it digests bones and how released birds are tracked in the Alps.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What do scientists not yet know about the beard?
   • What it is for (answer)
   • How long it is
   • What color it is
2. Why do different bearded vultures have different shades of orange?
   • They eat different bones
   • They bathe for different lengths of time (answer)
   • They live at different heights
3. How long can digesting bones take for a bearded vulture?
   • About a year
   • Only a few seconds
   • Within a 24 hour period (answer)
4. What do flat feet and dull talons help a bearded vulture do?
   • Walk around a carcass and pick out bones (answer)
   • Dig a nest
   • Catch fish
5. Vultures remove dead animals from the land quickly. What does this limit?
   • The number of nests
   • The spread of disease (answer)
   • The height of mountains
6. In the text, what does caustic mean?
   • Very cold
   • Very quiet
   • Very strong at eating away (answer)

Words

• caustic: burning strong
• transmitter: signal sender
• talons: bird claws
• sludge: thick mush
• oxide: iron compound