Resource created by Leeds Museums and Galleries: The Discovery Centre.

This small resource is part of a series looking at how museum collections can help scientists researching human impacts on the natural enivronment, including pollution, habitat destruction and climate change.  You can find others in the series under the 'Related Stories' button, or at the bottom of this resource.

There are lots of examples of animals that are endangered because they are specialists. Instead of using Giant Pandas or Polar Bears, the Tansy Beetle is a great UK case study. This beetle is also bright green, shiny and attractive, and sometimes called “The Jewel of York”.

Curriculum Links

• Science Key Stage 2: (Upper) Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution. 
• Science Key Stage 3: How organisms affect, and are affected by, their environment.

Discussion and activity ideas

• Download the card sort activity and ask pupils to sort the animals into either generalists or specialists.
  • Then separate the specialists into habitat specialists and those that are food specialists. There may be some that are both.

• What are the advantages of being a specialist? (Limited competition for food and habitat).
• What are the advantages of being a generalist? (Less competition for food and potentially for habitat, can survive more easily if one source of food is scarce).
• Are humans specialists or generalists? (Generalists)
  • How has this been advantageous for us as a species? (Able to spread across different habitats, able to eat a variety of foodstuffs, able to withstand a range of temperatures).