Ranges and Routes: teacher key

Gyrfalcons, grade 11 edition, written for 11th grade. Satellite tags, nest surveys and prey counts reveal how far gyrfalcons travel and how many live where.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. How far did the adult male gyrfalcon tracked by satellite travel?
   • 83 kilometers in 3 days
   • 3,137 kilometers in 38 days (answer)
   • 50 kilometers in a year
2. What share of prey items at 15 Askinuk Mountains nest sites were ptarmigan?
   • 58 percent (answer)
   • 8 percent
   • 100 percent
3. Why did Alaska biologists have two observers each survey nest sites?
   • To estimate how well different observers see nests (answer)
   • To count the eggs twice
   • To band the chicks
4. How many living subspecies of the gyrfalcon are currently accepted?
   • Two
   • Nine
   • None (answer)
5. What does the range of home ranges, 140 to 1,197 square kilometers, suggest?
   • All birds use the same area
   • Nobody tracked them
   • Territory size varies a lot (answer)
6. What does transmitters mean?
   • Local kinds
   • Tracking tags (answer)
   • Farm poisons

Words

• subspecies: local kinds
• transmitters: tracking tags
• pesticides: farm poisons
• raptors: birds of prey
• ptarmigan: a bird