Blank Sheets for Recording Animal Facts

Hundreds of facts pop up when you are studying for Habits and Habitats. You want an efficient way of keeping control of these facts and not having to look them up again and again. I would suggest that you make yourself a table or chart so that as you read you are recording facts in a way that is a. easy to find again and b. makes it easy to see the comparison between different animals.

Here is a rough example, semi-filled in by hand, as you would do while studying. (N.B. The information about each animal goes over 2 lines.)

Below is an example of a more formal, typed chart making comparisons between medium sized and small antelopes.

	WATERBUCK	BUSHBUCK	IMPALA	REEDBUCK
SHOULDER HEIGHT	130CM	70-80	90CM	80-90 CM
FEMALE HORNS?	NO HORNS	NO HORNS	NO HORNS	NO HORNS
LATIN NAME	Kobus ellipsiprymnus	Tragelaphus scriptus	Aepeceros melampus	Redunca arundinum
SHONA NAME	Dhumukwa	Dzoma	Mhara	Bimha
HABITAT	Woodland, reeds, long grass, near permanent water,	Riverine woodland with water	Savanah woodland, some cover but also short grass	Tall grass, reeds
Diurnal/ Nocturnal	Diurnal	Diurnal	Diurnal	Diurnal
SOLITARY/ GREGARIOUS	Groups of 5 -10	Solitary & small family groups	Gregarious	Pairs or families
TERRITORIAL	Territorial, aggressive male	Non-territorial, over-lapping home ranges	Males exceedingly territorial during rut
DIET	Grazers	Mainly browse	Browse & graze – latter in early rainy season, former as grass dies off	Grazers, a little browsing
LIFE SPAN			F 12-14 yrs	M – 10 yrs
1ST BREED	M 5-6 yrs	F	M	F – 18 mths	M – 4 years	F	M
MATING SEASON	Winter peak		End of wet season/early winter	June
GESTATION PERIOD	8-9 months	6 months	6 ½  – 7 months	7 – 7 ½ months
BIRTH SEASON	Summer peak	Any time	Early rains – baby hides few days (with other calves) then joins mother during day	Summer/rains
NUMBER OF OFFSPRING	1 – twins not uncommion	1	1	1
INTERVAL IN BREEDING			Year

N.B. A great deal of the value of this sort of chart comes from FILLING IT IN YOURSELF – the act of finding and summarizing the material helps you to get it into your brain. It is not nearly so helpful to get hold of someone else’s charts!

Below you will find a blank chart for you to copy many times and fill in as you are studying – but it is likely that you realise that you can make a better chart of your own that divides the information up in a way that makes the most sense to you.

Remember also that you will want slightly different charts for different animals. For example, with antelope you want to remember if the females have horns or not – but that does not apply to crocodiles or lions.

click below to download

https://wholeeartheducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Blank-recording-sheets.zip