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The Trees Have Gone Batty! How Bat Scat Helped Restore a Tropical Forest

  • Article
  • Middle School
  • 1 Classroom Period
  • Pollinators
  • Wilderness
  • Wildlife
  • Bats
  • Biodiversity
  • Ecosystems
  • Mining
  • Restoration
  • Seed Dispersal
  • Trees
A black and white drawing of a bat
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The scientists in this study were interested in knowing whether humans and other animals can help disturbed areas of land to become healthy ecosystems again. A mining company in Brazil asked the scientists to restore a tropical forest on their old mining site. The original tropical forest had been cut down to mine the area for bauxite or aluminum ore. The scientists wanted to know whether they could set up the conditions so that plants and animals could come in from outside the mined area without further human help. Then, the new plants and animals might help the land to become healthy again.

The Trees Have Gone Batty! How Bat Scat Helped Restore a Tropical Forest

Part Of

Tropical Forest - Vol. 3 No. 1

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  • For this FACTivity, you will be growing bean seeds and answering the question: What other benefits does animal scat offer to trees and plants? Four 4-inch plant pots with saucers...

    FACTivity – The Trees Have Gone Batty!

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    • Middle School
    • 4 Weeks
    • Agriculture
    • Bean Seeds
    • Experiment
    • Gardening
    • Hands-on
    • Indoor Activity
    • Manure
    • Outdoor Activity
    For this FACTivity, you will be growing bean seeds and answering the question: What other benefits does animal scat offer to trees and plants? Four 4-inch plant pots with saucers...
    Explore Activity Download FACTivity (PDF)
    Explore Activity Download FACTivity (PDF)

    Part Of

    The Trees Have Gone Batty! How Bat Scat Helped Restore a Tropical Forest

  • Test your knowledge on germination, mammals, and diversity.

    Word Search – The Trees Have Gone Batty!

    • Activity
    • Middle School
    • Less than 30 minutes
    • Pollinators
    • Wilderness
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    • Bat
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    • Germination
    • Mammal
    • Native
    • Vocabulary
    Test your knowledge on germination, mammals, and diversity.
    Explore Activity Download Word Search (PDF) Answer Key (PDF)
    Explore Activity Download Word Search (PDF) Answer Key (PDF)

    Part Of

    The Trees Have Gone Batty! How Bat Scat Helped Restore a Tropical Forest

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Glossary

View All Glossary
  • complex

    (käm pleks): Having many parts, details, ideas, or functions often related in a complicated way.

  • defecate

    (de fi cāt): To expel feces from the bowels.

  • disperse

    (di spǝrs): To cause to become spread widely; scatter.

  • diversity

    (dǝ vǝr si tē): The condition of having or being composed of differing elements; variety.

  • infertile

    (in fǝr tǝl): Not fertile or productive.

  • mammal

    (ma mǝl): Any of a class of warm-blooded vertebrates that include human beings and all other animals that nourish their young with milk produced by mammary glands and have the skin usually more or less covered with hair.

  • mine

    (mīn): To dig into for ore or metal.

  • native

    (nā tiv): Living or growing naturally in a particular region.

  • natural resource

    (na ch(ǝ) rǝl rē sȯrs): A feature or phenomenon in nature that enhances the quality of human life.

  • represent

    (re pri zent): To serve as a specimen, example, or instance of.

  • sample

    (sam pəl): A small subset group, representative of the entire group.

  • scat

    (skat): Animal fecal droppings.

  • A photo of Dr. John Parrotta

    John Parrotta

    Forest Ecologist

    I like being a scientist because I get to explore and learn about the natural world. Nature is like a bottomless treasure chest, full of surprises and mysteries. It is...
    View Profile

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  • Education Standards
  • Educator Guide
  • Education Files

Standards addressed in this Article:

Social Studies Standards

Social Studies Standards are educational guidelines outlining the essential knowledge, skills, and concepts students should learn in subjects such as history, geography, civics, and economics, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of societal structures, historical events, and global perspectives.
  • People, Places, and Environments
  • Science, Technology, and Society
  • Time, Continuity, and Change

Note To Educators

The Forest Service's Mission

The Forest Service’s mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. For more than 100 years, our motto has been “caring for the land and serving people.” The Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), recognizes its responsibility to be engaged in efforts to connect youth to nature and to promote the development of science-based conservation education programs and materials nationwide.

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What Is the Natural Inquirer?

Natural Inquirer is a science education resource journal to be used by students in grade 6 and up. Natural Inquirer contains articles describing environmental and natural resource research conducted by Forest Service scientists and their cooperators. These scientific journal articles have been reformatted to meet the needs of middle school students. The articles are easy to understand, are aesthetically pleasing to the eye, contain glossaries, and include hands-on activities. The goal of Natural Inquirer is to stimulate critical reading and thinking about scientific inquiry and investigation while teaching about ecology, the natural environment, and natural resources.

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  • Meet the Scientists

    Introduces students to the scientists who did the research. This section may be used in a discussion about careers in science.

  • What Kinds of Scientist Did This Research?

    Introduces students to the scientific disciplines of the scientists who conducted the research.

  • Thinking About Science

    Introduces something new about the scientific process, such as a scientific habit of mind or procedures used in scientific studies.

  • Thinking About the Environment

    Introduces the environmental topic being addressed in the research.

  • Introduction

    Introduces the problem or question that the research addresses.

  • Method

    Describes the method the scientists used to collect and analyze their data.

  • Findings & Discussion

    Describes the results of the analysis. Addresses the findings and places them into the context of the original problem or question.

  • Reflection Section

    Presents questions aimed at stimulating critical thinking about what has been read or predicting what might be presented in the next section. These questions are placed at the end of each of the main article sections.

  • Number Crunches

    Presents an easy math problem related to the research.

  • Glossary

    Defines potentially new scientific or other terms to students. The first occurrence of a glossary word is bold in the text.

  • Citation

    Gives the original article citation with an internet link to the original article.

  • FACTivity

    Presents a hands-on activity that emphasizes something presented in the article.


Science Education Standards

You will find a listing of education standards which are addressed by each article at the back of each publication and on our website.


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