Interpretation/ Storytelling Component:
This assignment required me to communicate key aspects of my ecological issue through the art of interpretation and/or storytelling. I chose to create a nonfictional story, in the form of a book, involving mountain lions that were affect by a fire in Mission Trails Regional Park, where my study site took place for my ecological inquiry project that was also for this course. I needed to be creative and communicate both information and meaning effectively to my audience.
This was created for my Regional Ecology: Biodiversity of Southern California course in Fall of 2019.
Abstract
Mountain lions are the apex predator in the biodiversity hotspot that runs through San Diego, California. Wildfires are also prone in this area. This study took place at four locations in Mission Trails Regional Park, in two burned and two unburned areas. The goal was to determine if there was enough plant abundance in either area to see where deer are more likely to gather for feeding. A one diameter meter circle was used to collect the presence or absence of plants and what type of plants were present. The results showed that new grasses are growing in the burned area and could be better feeding ground for deer due to the plant abundance. More research is needed to know for sure where deer and mountain lions would be found before and after a fire. This interpretation piece will focus on the effects that wildfires pose to mountain lions in both burned and unburned areas.
Audience
The audience of this interpretation piece are third grade school children. Children were chosen as the audience because they are still learning about animals and the do’s and don'ts of the world. Analogies have a cause and effect which depending on how they are used can transfer the information in a beautiful way, where children can understand the information (Beck and Cable, 2011). Sharing a piece of information children can relate to, they are able to understand the information and care about the species they are hearing about. By informing children about the effects fires have on mountain lions there is a chance that this generation grows up respecting wildlife and understands the dangers fire poses on wildlife while learning what they can do to help prevent fires. There is a book called, “It’s nice to be a Mountain Lion” and the book informs children that mountain lions are not scary animals, but rather beautiful animals that live in America (Woodward, 2018). The goal of the book series is to teach children about endangered, threatened, and specially protected animals (Woodward, 2018). By teaching children this information on mountain lions they begin to care and understand and they can share it with their friends.
The story involves a mountain lion cub and her mom. They will learn through the story of how the mother needs to catch prey, and the favorite prey being deer, but how a fire has started and is affecting the mother’s chance at finding prey. The story will go into some fire facts and mention some data that was collected and stated in the ecological inquiry final paper. The gift of story and the gift of interpretation is being used because most children can relate to a cat or at least knows what one looks like. A story also inspires and provides information to broaden people’s viewpoints. For example, “The Ugly Duckling” is a story that most people have heard about a little duckling who got lost and he thought it was because he was ugly, but it turns out his mother loved him very much and was so happy to have him back. The story goes from a sad duckling trying to find his way and turns into a beautiful duck who everyone loves. This story inspires kids to always strive to do their best and focus on their goals so they can bloom into a beautiful person. This story also has the goal of getting children to be fire smart as to decrease the number of human-caused fires each year which involves showing them the cause and effect method through the story. This interpretation story will entertain, educate, and hopefully motivate the children to do what they can to prevent fires from occurring to protect wildlife, but also understanding that some fires are natural and help the ecosystem remain healthy.
Interpretation Story
Here is the link to my book: https://www.canva.com/design/DADryUZE1u8/oANTLMCZ-M2Ci5RQHQsTpQ/view?utm_content=DADryUZE1u8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink
Below is the story page by page.
Title Page: The Little Lioness- A Short Story by Tabitha Reed.
Title Page Picture: A mountain lion cub.
Page 1: This story is filled with facts and things you can do to help mountain lions and lower fire risks. Paw print icon: This icon means this information is a fact. Share these facts with your friends and family. Checkmark icon: This icon means the information are things that you can do to help mountain lions and prevent wildfires. Share these tips with your friends and family so everyone can take steps in helping our wildlife.
Page 2: One evening in March, there was a little spotted mountain lion cub named Meadow in Mission Trails Regional Park. She was hungry so her mom went out to get her food. Her mom searched and searched but came home without any food.
Page 2 Pictures: Mission Trails Regional Park and a mountain lion mother and cub.
Page 3: Her mom came back and told her there was no food to eat because a wildfire started near the campground, and animals tend to flee burning areas. Humans at the campground left their campfire unattended, and the embers caught a nearby bush on fire and the wildfire began to grow.
Page 3 Fact: Campfires that cause wildfires make up 44% of human-caused wildfires each year (Evans, 2018). Human-caused wildfires create an average of 61,375 fires each year (NIFC, 2018).
Page 3 Tip: Always watch your campfire and never leave it unattended. When you are done with your campfire make sure it is completely put out.
Page 3 Picture: Wildfire in Mission Trails Regional Park
Page 4: Her mom came back to where Meadow was hiding in the unburned area, where the plants showed signs that deer have been there before.
Page 4 Fact: Mountain lions are opportunistic stalk-and-ambush hunters that favor preying on deer (Hansen, 1992). This means mountain lions will eat almost anything around them and they follow their prey. They grab their prey with a surprise attack to make sure their prey can not run away.
Page 4 Picture: Flattened grass possibly by deer in Mission Trails Regional Park.
Page 5: Once the fire was extinguished, animals begin returning to the burned area, so the mother mountain lion went out to hunt for deer again.
Page 5 Fact: Mule deer like to forage on new growth after a fire, which could lead to an increase in mountain lion kills (Goldman, 2019).
Page 5 Picture: A deer.
Page 6: The mother mountain lion saw fresh deer tracks in the mud and knew the deer were nearby. The plants were growing back in the burned area where the fire was and it attracted the deer who fled the area because of the fire.
Page 6 Picture: A mountain lion.
Page 7: The mother mountain lion was lucky! She caught a deer!
Page 7 Fact: A female mountain lion with cubs will find prey once a week, while a male will find prey every couple weeks (Williams, 2018). Mountain lions can eat up to 20 pounds of food at one time, and they save whatever is left for later, visiting the leftovers over the next few days (Williams, 2018). A car tire weighs 20 pounds, so imagine a mountain lion eating a car tire every time it eats!
Page 7 Picture: A mountain lion mother and cub.
Page 8: Meadow and her mom return the burned area about every week in search of food, and they remain in the unburned area to rest and relax. They visit the burned area because deer enjoy eating the fresh new grasses that are growing from the ashes of the wildfire.
Page 8 Picture: A mountain lion mother and cub.
Page 9: Meadow and her mom continue to be the apex predator in the biodiversity hotspot of San Diego, California. An apex predator is one that is at the top of the food chain. A biodiversity hotspot is an area where several species live in one area and are threatened.
Page 9 Fact: Wildfires are a natural event in southern California and are needed for some plant and animal species to thrive in their environment (Goldman, 2019).
Page 9: Let’s keep Meadow and her mom safe by preventing human-caused fires and allowing them to hunt their prey species in their habitat without interference from humans.
Page 9 Picture: A mountain lion mother and cub.
Page 10: What You can do to Help. 1) Always watch your campfire and never leave it unattended. When you are done with your campfire make sure it is completely put out. 2) Stay on trails, to avoid running into mountain lions and other wildlife. Staying on trails also helps protect plant life. 3) If you run into a mountain lion make a lot of noise and act much bigger than you are. NEVER turn your back to a mountain lion or crouch down. 4) If you see a fire call 9-1-1 immediately so the fire department can get the fire under control. 5) Mountain lions need deer far more than humans do. Tell people you know to participate in sustainable deer hunting to ensure the mountain lions still have food. They can not go to the grocery store and buy food when they get hungry. 6) Mountain lions were in this area long before humans were. We must learn to coexist with them since this is their home. They can not move into the next neighborhood and build a house and remain there until they grow up. They must travel around with plenty of space.
Page 11: Literature Cited
Book and Ebook
This story will take place in the form of an e-book. Children are still excited about reading and enjoy looking at the pictures in books. The goal of this book is to review some mountain lion facts, inform the children that they are not vicious killers even though they are a predator, explain their prey and that deer are their favorite. This book will also discuss how fires affect the mountain lion and the deer they hunt and what that means for each animal in the burned and unburned area of Mission Trails Regional Park. This story will combine how fires are a natural occurrence but are also human-caused and can create a healthy ecosystem while also negatively affecting wildlife, like the mountain lion. Stories can relate to everyone and each story affects everyone differently. Since stories are more easily remembered, the goal is to have the children remember this story or even just parts of the story that stick out to them so they can prevent fires and help protect wildlife like the mountain lion.
Reflection
Creating this interpretive piece really made me focus on taking the information I had and making it appropriate for children. I am so used to sharing things with adults that it was a little bit of a struggle making it for children, but children are our future and I believe sharing information with them now gives us hope that as they get older they will care more about animals and work on protecting them. If they were never told the information they can never care about it. It was fun to put myself in the shoes of the mountain lion mom and cub and think, ‘what would they do now’. These beautiful cats are one of several animal species that need humans to be a voice for them to ensure their safety and ensure they do not go extinct, due to human impacts. Making a story was a different way to share the information but it also made it more fun and more enjoyable to listen to, rather than just sharing facts. It is like a movie, only the listener or reader can create their own movie in their head based on what they interpreted from the story. The coolest thing is that no one will ever have the exact same movie playing in their head while listening or reading any story, so it is something that only belongs to the reader or listener themselves. Next time I would spend more time on learning how to best make it appropriate for a certain age group and spend more time and effort on learning how they best learn so they story truly remains and relates to them.
Visual Aid
The idea of having a book and ebook came from the book, “It’s Nice to be a Mountain Lion” by Molly Woodward. The book provided information in a kid friendly way to show that it is nice to be a mountain lion and that they are not mean creatures. They use this interpretation style to teach children about endangered, threatened and specially protected animals (Woodward, 2018). They have multiple books with each book focusing on one type of animal.
Literature Cited
Beck, L. & Cable, T.T. (2011) The gifts of interpretation: Fifteen guiding principles for
interpreting nature and culture (3rd ed.). Urbana, IL: Sagamore Publishing LLC.
Evans, Alexander. “Increasing Wildfire Awareness and Reducing Human-Caused Ignitions
in Northern New Mexico.” Forest Stewards Guild, Mar. 2018, www.forestguild.org/publications/research/2018/Wildfire_awareness_2018.pdf.
Goldman, J. G. (n.d.). Forest fires are getting too hot-even for fire-adapted animals. National
Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/08 /forest-fires-too-intense-adapted-woodpeckers/#close
Hansen, K. (1992). Cougar the American lion (1st ed.). Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Publishing.
Self, Z. (2018, March 6). Fire erupts at Mission Trails Park. Retrieved from
Reed, T (2019). Mission trails regional park photographs.
Williams, J. (2018). Path of the Puma (1st ed.). Patagonia.
Woodward, M. (2018). Its nice to be a mountain lion. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books.
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