Plant and Animal Partnerships

 

Directions:  Here is a simple, introductory worksheet that reinforces young people’s awareness of some of the partnerships that enable the Northeastern Forest lands to keep healthy.  Encourage your students to color the various creatures as beautifully as possible  (time permitting)  and to draw lines that will connect the animals and plants with their partners in each column.  Older students can just write the name or number of the animal whose life activities benefit a particular plant next to the image of that plant – i.e., the name or number of that creature whose relationship with the plant (direct or indirect) enhances the survival of both parties of this ‘team.’  

Here are the pairings:

    1.  Bumblebee – Lady Slipper Orchid
    2. Woodpecker – A tree that can be preyed upon by bark beetles
    3. Robin – A tree that produces berries
    4. Squirrel – Hickory Tree (a tree that produces seeds in armored shells / nuts
    5. Bobcat – a tree whose saplings are often eaten by mice (The mouse is not the partner!)   
    6. Beaver – Cattail (a plant that requires wetlands to grow)

It is very important – and energizing – for young people to realize that mutualistic relationships abound in the world around – and within – us!   (A coloring page on cooperative interspecific interactions at the microscopic level is planned for this website soon.)  Too much emphasis in Science Education (and the mass media of ‘modern industrial’ cultures) has been placed upon the competitive, often brutal, interactions that are frequently found in food chains and food webs.  In reality, mutually beneficial  symbiotic interactions are equally vital in allowing Life to persist and blossom.   Pollination, Dispersal, the essential but subtle effects of Trophic Cascades, and the activities of ‘Keystone Species’ are just a few examples of such mutually beneficial, coevolved  interspecific relationships.  This worksheet tries to direct young people’s attention towards a few of these interactions (sometimes easily observed, sometimes rather hidden / obscure) that contribute so much to the mutual flourishing of diverse beings within the N. American bioregion.  

(Even on the scale of the non-human / more-than-human realm, the well-loved Bantu proverb often has relevance:  Ubuntu – I am because we are!)

Here is a downloadable pdf of this activity page:

Plant and Animal Partnerships EB 2026