Climate change is forcing hares to rethink the basics of camouflage

The purpose of the lesson: to expand students' knowledge of a wild animal - a hare, to study the main parts of the body, nutrition, mode of movement.

Tasks:

• form ideas about the hare as a representative of wild animals;
• correct higher mental functions; ability to work in pairs;
• develop learning motivation.

Equipment: musical work by P.I. letters, text with missing words, proverbs - 4.

Pictures:

• Animal body parts
• hare in winter
• hare in summer
• hare family
• Find bunnies
• hare footprints
• Hare on the run

For staging: hare costumes - 5 pieces, a bench, Christmas trees, a gun, white fabric.

DURING THE CLASSES

I. Organizing time

- Guys, today we have not a simple lesson in the development of speech, but a lesson in traveling to a fairy forest. So let's take a trip, close your eyes and listen
The music of P.I. Tchaikovsky sounds.

– This magical music by P.I. Tchaikovsky, a Russian composer, took us to a forest clearing, and it is called “Snowdrop”.

II. Let's start with the calendar

- Why do you think this particular melody helped us get into the fairy-tale world?
- Tell me, is it really spring in this forest? What signs of spring do you see and can you name them?
Sun, sky, thawed patches, rook, buds, streams, snowdrop (children name spring signs, and the teacher attaches words to the board - supports)

1 child writes a story.

- What is a forest without forest inhabitants, but try to identify them. (Body parts of wild animals: bear, boar, fox, hare, wolf.)

- BUT the protagonist of our fabulous forest, WHITE, GRAY, OBLIQUE, FAST, SMART, SMIGHT, COANY, LONG-EARS. Who is it?

- So, today in the lesson we will talk about the hare, about its main parts of the body, nutrition, mode of movement.
Open your notebooks and write down the date and topic of the lesson. We will work according to this plan.

“But what is that knock?” This fairy tale is knocking on our door, guys. Look at it carefully, and then you will learn a lot about the life of rabbits, and this will come in handy for us today!

III. new material

1. Dramatization of the fairy tale about hares

On a winter evening, thick darkness shrouded the trees and houses.
And even the dog does not bark, but only lazily yawns.
Bright lights go out in the windows,
And slowly dreams come into those houses.
And the dreams are so different: serious and strange.
And they can be funny and even be colored.
Here the moon revealed its face,
She poured silver light on the village, forest, fields,
The native land sleeps.
Our Yegorka slept on the bench, he saw the tenth dream,
How he rolled on a sleigh from the mountain into a pine forest.
Jumping past, dodging, a fluffy hare slipped through.
In a white fur coat, he will not freeze in winter.
Suddenly Yegor stopped because he was surprised
In the clearing, in the snow, hares were playing leapfrog.
Then the hare came and said:

Bunny:

"Quiet! Suddenly the fox will hear you, then it will come running here.
Or a toothy wolf, he is so dangerous.

The bunnies immediately calmed down and sat on their hind legs.
The ears are long, erect, the hares sit in a row.

Bunny:

You played and made noise, but did you have time to eat?

1 bunny:

We spent the night in the forest and ate what we found.

2 bunny:

Gnawing the bark from the aspen brother, I was glad of the dry grass.

3 bunny:

Well, we were sitting in the bushes,
They ate thin branches.
Oak, birch, willow, maple -
This is our diet.

And the children brought branches to the hare mother for breakfast.
Suddenly, a lump rolled down from the mountain, but not snowy - somersault.
The older brother appeared like that and fell on his back.
He raised his hind legs and screamed in fear.
And behind him, with a gun in his hand, the watchman was chasing lightly.

Watchman:

What have the scythes done? I lost five apple trees.
They ate the bark at night, shoot you at the right time.

3 bunny:

You do not destroy us, please forgive.
It was very cold and, of course, hungry.

2 bunny:

We have learned a lesson, it will suit us exactly for the future.
We would live to see the spring, until the green grass.

Watchman:

Bunny:

Kids, it's time to rest. During the day you should sleep
Well, look for food at night.
Yes, while you are sitting here, tell me the whole truth,
Whoever committed the misdemeanor, smashed the grandmother's portrait.

1 bunny: I am guilty, but I will sleep and collect that portrait.

3 bunny: Since it's getting colder, I'll bury myself in the snow to sleep.

1 bunny: I'll lie down under the tree, I won't run away.

Who is in the weeds, and who is in the bushes. It's time for silence.

- Let's try to assemble a portrait of a hare, but unusual, but from geometric shapes. Take an envelope and try to assemble a hare figure from geometric shapes. What figures are more? How many did they need? What is made of ovals?

- Hare - what kind of animal is it? (This is a wild, not carnivorous (herbivore) animal)
First, let's analyze the body parts of a hare.

2. What parts does the body of a hare consist of?

1. Head
2. torso
3. Tail

- What is located on the head of a hare? (Shows a child)
Let's play the game "Whose is this?" (Hare mouth, bunny whiskers, bunny ears).
- At the hare long ears why do you think?
First of all, ears are needed to hear. And the larger the auricle, the sharper the hearing of its owner. The main way to avoid danger is to flee. And here, in addition to quick legs and special tricks, the hare is helped by ... ears. It is the long (and not round!) ears that are tightly pressed against the body, providing better aerodynamics. Also, large ears save the running hare from overheating, actively radiating heat without losing valuable moisture. This quality gives the hare a significant advantage over predators: it is because of overheating that they quickly get tired and stop chasing.
The conclusion is simple: long ears for a hare are a vital necessity, a real gift of nature.
The body of a hare is covered with short hair. Remember the riddle associated with the coloring of the hare?
Why does the hare change color? (The hare is shedding)
- What do you think, does the change of color help the bunny to live in the forest? ( White wool in winter helps the hare to merge with the snow and be invisible on it.)

How many paws does a hare have?
What is the rabbit's tail? The tail is in the form of a fluffy white ball. The tail is small, but still clearly visible.
The skin is fragile and weakly attached to the body, so often shreds of skin remain in the teeth of a predator, like a lizard's tail.
What parts does the body of a hare consist of?

3. What does a hare eat?

- Where does the hare live? (In the woods). Hare food varies with the seasons.
- Take envelopes with hares, and you will find out what hares eat in the summer, for this you need to make words from these letters. (Differentiated task, children of group I collect a word of 6 letters)

In winter, hares sand trunks and lower branches of trees (willow, birch, aspen). Often in hungry, snowy winters, hares come to refresh themselves in the gardens, where they peel off fruit trees.

It is known that hares prefer the thinnest, terminal shoots of plants. It is these vegetative parts that have the greatest nutritional value. In winter, as the snow cover grows, part of this food is hidden under the snow, but in return, the median and apical shoots of larger shrubs become available. In addition, rather large willow bushes bend under the weight of snow, and often break, and hares get the opportunity to feed on the bark of these plants. In winter, hares feed at dusk and at night.
- What do rabbits eat?

4. Cubs

- Guys, do you know what the hare's cubs are called?
Rabbits (1-6, less often up to 12) are born sighted, with thick fur, and at first they sit motionless in the grass so as not to leave marks, and the mother comes to feed them 1-2 times a night. At the same time, she feeds not only her rabbits, but also strangers. In places where there are a lot of hares, all hares sometimes become, as it were, common.

- Guys, tell me who is drawn in the picture? (Hare, hare, hares, bunny)
- Little hares decided to play hide and seek in a magical forest, take cards and try to count how many there are?

- Not only hares love to play and relax, let's have a rest with you too.

Fizminutka

Children imitate the movement of characters in the text.

A bunny jumped through the forest, a bunny was looking for food,
Suddenly at the bunny on top
Ears rose like arrows:
A quiet rustle is heard, someone is sneaking through the forest.
The hare confuses the tracks, runs away from trouble!
He jumped to the side, turned and curled up under a bush.

5. Way of moving the hare

- The same hare paws?

Why do rabbits have long hind legs? (He flees from his enemies, while easily repelled by his hind legs). Therefore, he climbs the mountain easily, and rolls head over heels down the mountain. There is even such a saying: “Uphill - running, and downhill - somersaulting” because the front legs of the hare are short.

The hare's defenses are just cunning and quick legs. Here the hare is taken for tricks. If he needs to rest, he will not immediately lie down under the bush. He will follow his trail and run back, and jump to the side. Dancing, jumping, finally, the last huge jump. And there is a special trick in this last jump. And he also lays down obliquely with his head in the direction from which he came, in order to notice the enemy in time and have time to escape.

AT winter time they arrange lying under the protection of snowdrifts, in snow holes and niches, and sometimes closed shelters in the snow, from which, in case of danger, they suddenly jump out, breaking through the ceiling. In summer, beds are arranged under the bushes or openly. The day is spent under bushes, in a shallow hole, less often in rodent burrows. Hares are active at dusk and at night.

IV. Work in a notebook

The rabbit lives in...
In summer, hares eat ..., and in winter ...
In the spring, a hare is born ...
In winter, hares ... and in summer ...

People have long noticed some features of the hare, because it is not for nothing that they compose not only riddles, poems, but also proverbs about it.

Folk art characterizes the fluffy animal with such unflattering epithets. But the bunny is not a coward at all - he is just cautious, because too many people want to eat him. And sometimes even shows miracles of courage.
Let's remember what fairy tales you know, where one of the characters is a hare. (Books: Hare Paws, Bouncer Hare, etc.)

V. Summary of the lesson

- In order to return back from the forest fairy tale to the classroom, we need to guess by one word whether it is a hare. If we are talking about a hare, you clap, if it is about another animal, you stomp.
JUMPS, DOOVES, BUTTS, gnaws, JUMPS, BITES, SHEVERS, Hibernates.
What wild animal are we talking about today? (Hare)
- What kind of animal is that? (This is a wild, not carnivorous (herbivore) animal)
- What did you learn about the hare?
Marks.

Children should know:

Names of wild animals of our forests: bear, wolf, elk, wild boar, badger, beaver, fox, hare, squirrel, hedgehog, lynx;
- that wild animals get their own food, build their own dwelling;
- what is the name of the dwelling of a bear (den), a wolf (lair), foxes (burrow), squirrels (hollow);
- which other animals live in minks (hares, moles, mice, ground squirrels, hamsters);
- which of the animals changes the color of the coat (hare, squirrel), horns (elk, deer);
- distinguish between the names of body parts of animals and people.

Extension vocabulary children:

Nouns: bear, wolf, fox, hare, hedgehog, elk, deer, wild boar, badger, lynx, squirrel, lair, lair, hole, hollow, wool, skin, predators;

Adjectives: shaggy, shaggy, fluffy, strong, cunning, prickly, fast, dexterous, brown, toothy, clumsy, clumsy, shy, long-eared;

Verbs: hunts, sneaks, howls, gets scared, jumps, rolls over, cunning, hunts down, stores, digs, hibernates, lies down, falls (hibernates).

Conversation "How wild animals prepare for winter."

Winter will come soon. The animals of the forest have the hardest time. They are getting ready for winter. Some animals will sleep peacefully in their houses all winter. Who is it? Bear and hedgehog. Three months is a very long time, so now these animals must eat properly, accumulate a lot of fat so as not to freeze and not get hungry until spring. They insulate their houses.

Where is the hedgehog hiding? In the hole.

Where will the bear sleep? In the den.

But there are animals that do not have a house and they will run through the forest all winter, looking for food.

The hare changes his summer coat for winter. It is not only warmer, but also a different color.

What? - Why white?
- From whom do the hare's long legs and white fur coat save? From fox and wolf.

These are predatory animals. If a hare is caught, it will not be good. The fox has a house - a hole, where she can hide from the winter cold, and the wolf has a wolf's lair.

Do the fox and wolf need to change their fur coats for new, winter ones? Of course you do.
After all, in the summer we wear light clothing so that it is not hot, but in winter we put on warmer clothes, so the animals also have to change clothes.
This does not mean that they take off their skins and put on new ones, they just grow a different, warmer fur. This period in the life of animals is called molting.

Another small fluffy inhabitant of the forest, which changes the color of its coat for the winter.
The squirrel was red all summer, and by winter it becomes gray.

Where does the squirrel live? In the hollow
How did she prepare for winter?
She collected mushrooms and berries all summer and autumn and hid them in various places. In winter, she looks for her reserves, but, unfortunately, she does not always find them. But in the place where the cones or nuts were hidden, a small sprout may appear in the spring and in a few years a new tree or bush will grow here.

But this handsome forest man wears a beautiful decoration on his head.
- Who is it? Elk.
- What do moose eat? Plants.
How many plants can be found in the forest in winter?
There are many trees and shrubs in the forest. It is their bark that this big beast eats. How much does he need for food? Lot. Therefore, foresters feed these beautiful animals so that they can overwinter. Forester - a person who monitors the safety of the forest.

Didactic exercise "One-many" (education plural nouns):

Fox - fox.
Hedgehog - hedgehogs.
Squirrel - protein.
Hare - hares.
Wolf - wolves.
Elk - moose.
Boar - boars.

Didactic exercise "Call it affectionately" (formation of nouns with diminutive suffixes in singular and plural):

Squirrel - squirrel.
Fox is a fox.
Hare - bunny, bunny.
Squirrel - squirrel.
Bear is a bear cub.
The wolf is a wolf cub.

Didactic exercise "Count to Five"(coordination of nouns with numerals):

One rabbit, two rabbits, three rabbits, four rabbits, five rabbits.
One fox, ..., five foxes.
One wolf, ..., five wolves.
One bear, ..., five bears.
One squirrel, ..., five squirrels.

Didactic game "Whose? Whose? Whose? Whose?"

Fox tail - fox tail.
Bear paw - bear paw.
Wolf teeth - wolf teeth.
Hedgehog needles - hedgehog needles.

Whose trace? - fox, wolf, bear, hare, squirrel.
Whose ears? - fox, wolf, bear, hare, squirrel.
Whose head? - fox, wolf, bear, hare, squirrel.

Didactic exercise "Choose definitions" :

Wolf (what?) - gray, toothy, scary, ...
Bear (what?) - brown, clumsy, clumsy, ...
Fox (what?) - cunning, fluffy, red, ...
Hedgehog (what?) - prickly, small, ...
Hare (what?) - long-eared, shy, cowardly, small,

Didactic game "Who lives where?" (use of the nominative case of nouns):

In the den lives (who?) - a bear.
In a hole lives (who?) - a fox.
In the den lives (who?) - a wolf.
Lives in a mink (who?) - a hedgehog.
In the hollow lives (who?) - a squirrel.

Didactic exercise "Compare animals with people."

Humans have mouths, while animals have mouths.
A person has a face, and animals have a muzzle.
Humans have teeth, while animals have fangs.
Man has a belly, and animals have a belly.
Humans have nails, while animals have claws.
Humans have hands, while animals have paws.

Didactic game "Name the family" (exercise in word formation):

Dad is a bear, mom is a bear, cub(s) is a bear cub (cubs).

Dad is a wolf, mom is a she-wolf, cub(s) is a wolf cub (wolf cubs).

Dad - fox, mom - fox, cub (s) - fox (foxes).

Dad is a hare, mom is a hare, cub (s) is a hare (hare).

Fox - yapping.
The bear is growling.
The wolf is howling.
Hedgehog - snorts, etc.

Didactic exercise "What is superfluous and why?"

Squirrel, fox, cow, wolf (cow, as the rest are wild animals).
Hedgehog, bear, hare, dog (dog, as the rest are wild animals).
Hare, dog, cow, cat (hare, as the rest are house animals).
Fox, cat, hare, wolf (cat, as the rest are wild animals).
Horse, bear, goat, dog (bear, as the rest are domestic animals).

The game "To whom shall we give?"

Meat for the wolf.
Raspberry - ...
Honey - ...
Carrot - ...
Apple - ...
Nuts - ...
Mushrooms - ... etc.

The game "Who - who?"

The bear has cubs.
The fox has...
The wolf has...
The rabbit has...
The hedgehog has...
Squirrels - ... etc.

Two long-eared relatives have already met in the text: the white hare and the hare. If they meet in person, they can enter into a legal marriage - the kids, the so-called cuffs, will be quite viable. Belyak, so named for the habit of dressing entirely for the winter in a snow-white fur coat, in general, a forest dweller, however, he is not averse to looking into the tundra or the steppe. Rusak, on the other hand, almost never acquires a camouflage robe for the winter and loves open spaces south of the forest zone, although it does not shy away from, say, the rural lands of the Moscow region or the Vladimir region and, in general, most of the territory of Europe. Rusak crowds to villages and villages. In winter, he is hungry in the forest, and it is difficult to run: 16-18 g per square centimeter of his paw. And the hare glides on loose forest snow, as if on skis - the load per square centimeter of his wide paw, overgrown with a thick brush of hair, is only 10 g , ten times less than that of a wolf, and four times less than that of a fox.

In winter, on the belly of the white hare, the hair lengthens so that the insides do not freeze in the snow, and the hair that has grown around the nostrils, like a white handkerchief, covers the nose from frost. But the hare didn’t hit the dirt with his face - his winter coat is twice as thick as a summer one. And here's what is remarkable: the largest white hare (5.5 kg in weight) live where there are terrible frosts - in the tundra of Western Siberia, and heavyweight hare (7-8 kg) have chosen Bashkiria, where it is also by no means hot in winter. For the winter, the Bashkir hares turn white, but not to such a perfect state as the whites. In the Crimea, Ukraine and Belarus, the hares are smaller, and absolutely dwarfs (3 kg) live in Transcaucasia and Iran.

Let's leave the dwarfs alone and take care of molting - an important circumstance in a hare's life. A white-white hare lying in the snow will be noticed only by an experienced eye - only the tips of the ears and nose darken. And, perhaps, brown eyes. It is through the eyes that the signal for hare dressing goes. At least, that's what the solid manual of comparative animal physiology says. Daylight hours are shortening - the hare is preparing for winter, the day is lengthening - the animal is switching to summer clothing. Behind this simple phrase are hidden the most complex perturbations in the body of our long-eared neighbor. So, the "physiologically brown" state of the white hare is inextricably linked with a high content of gonadotropins in the blood, and the "physiologically white" state with their reduced concentration.

Hare fur is often dyed by furriers, but you can also recolor a live hare, or rather, make it repaint itself. Long-eared fur owners were injected with extracts from the pituitary gland containing gonadotropic hormones, and they changed color, as if by magic, though not instantly, but first they molted. This means that without the pituitary gland, as well as without eyes, the hare will not change clothes. Occasionally, news of the capture of pitch-black hares is heard from Siberia. What about their hormones?

Hormones are hormones, but without the appropriate air temperature, there is no need to change a fur coat. This is confirmed by the scientific publication of V. E. Gaiduk from the Brest Pedagogical Institute. After examining 350 hare hares, it became known exactly that in autumn the lower part of the hind legs begins to molt first, and the spring molt goes exactly the opposite - it starts on the head and ridge, and ends on the legs. But this is something else - each section of the hare body changes hair at a strictly defined, so to speak, beloved, air temperature. For example, in autumn, the outer part of the ears changes color in the temperature range from +6° to -2°, and the inner part changes color a little earlier, when it is a little warmer and lighter outside.

And yet the main thing for hare equipment is light, light and light. Back in the pre-war winter of 1940/41, bright electric lamps were turned on in the evenings in the enclosure of the Moscow Zoo, where the whites lived, and confused animals walked around in summer clothes in the winter, and in the spring the enclosure was blocked with dark paper and white fluffy lumps jumped in it.

In winter, it is not difficult to figure out where the white hare and where the hare are, while in the summer both hares are of some vaguely reddish-brown color. And to make sure exactly who you are dealing with, take a look at the tails - in the middle of a short hare tail, a black stripe flaunts both in winter and summer. But the tolai hare, or sandstone, cannot be confused with anyone; the name of this miniature creature itself says where he lives. And, finally, in the deciduous forests of the Ussuri Territory, hares of the last, fourth species of those living in our country run. This so-called Manchurian hare is rare and very poorly studied.

The climate on our planet is constantly changing, forcing its inhabitants to adapt to new conditions. This process is easier for some species, more difficult for others, and can put others on the brink of extinction. Thus, the expected decrease in winter snow cover and the duration of the cold season creates serious problems mammals that change coat color in order to camouflage themselves and survive successfully.

There are only 10 species of animals in the world, which, depending on the season, change color from dark brown to white. It is to them that the American, or small white hare belongs ( Lepus americanus), on which researchers from the University of Montana College of Forestry and Conservation focused their attention. Professor L. Scott Mills and colleagues observed 148 wild hares in western Montana. Weekly, the researchers assessed the color of their coat, the amount of snow cover around the animals, and the percentage of mismatch between the color of the hare and its background.

Interestingly, in a relatively short period of observation, scientists have recorded two records in the duration of snow cover over the past 40 years: an incredibly long season in 2010-2011 and a very short one the year before.

For the entire period of observation, the molting of animals took place as usual - in spring and autumn, however, its length in spring period changed depending on the presence of snow. It is generally accepted that when determining the season of coat change, hares are guided by the length of the day, however, in 2010-2011, the course of the spring molt clearly slowed down.

“The molt of the hare—the color change from brown to white—takes about 40 days,” says Dr. Mills. "Reverse changes require a few more days, and our research shows that animals can adjust these periods depending on the temperature and the duration of the snow."

For a species within which predators are the main cause of death (85-100%), the ability to disguise itself is the key to successful survival and existence.

In the next step, by averaging 38 climate models, the researchers developed a snow cover scenario for the future. Then they correlated it with data on the molting of animals. Scientists predict a decrease in the duration of snow cover by 29-35 days by the middle of the century and from 40 to 69 days by its end.

An article published in the journal PNAS notes that such changes can increase the number of days by 4-8 times when the color of hares will stand out against the background. environment making them vulnerable to predators.

Animals that change color seasonally can adapt to climate change in two ways. First, since predators will begin to exterminate those who did not have time to “change clothes” with increased intensity (for example, white hares on a dark forest floor), natural selection will occur. In this case, only those who are able to adjust the timing of their molting, depending on the state of the snow cover, will remain. The second way is an individual behavioral adaptation, when, depending on its coloration and the state of the environment, the animal changes its habits in obtaining food, choosing an overnight stay, and other things.

In connection with climate change, the hare are going to have hard times, they will either have to adapt or become a victim of natural selection. For a species within which predators are the main cause of death (85-100%), the ability to disguise itself is the key to successful survival and existence.

Using the example of animals that are used to radically changing their color, there is a unique opportunity to study the ability to adapt in the wild in real time. And in the near future, scientists plan to find out whether the discrepancy between the hare color will provoke an increase in predation, or whether the hare will show miracles of adaptation.