Animal Observation Notes

Taking Notes from a Video:Animal Behavior

Animal: Date:

Live footage ______

Video_____________

URL or search term:

Who made or posted it:

Location

_____________________

Weather

_____________________

Physical Appearance

Size: _________________________________________

Color: ________________________________________

Shape: _______________________________________

Special Characteristics:

_________________________

______________________________________________

Other: ________________________________________

# of target animals visible(tally as more appear)

# of other species visible

Behaviors

Questions/Other comments

The best way to learn about an animal’s behavior is to watch it in the wild. Of course, we can’t always get to remote or distant habitats. So the next best thing is to watch live animal cams or recorded video footage.

As you watch, keep these things in mind:

Be sure to pay attention to where the video or camera feed is coming from. Is it live or recorded? How long ago was it taken?

You may need to watch a video more than once. You can also use the pause button so that you don’t miss important details while you are writing.

While the notes sheet can help you to think about what to notice, you do not need to fill it out completely. Just look for what makes the most sense to record what is important about this observation. This is just what scientists do!

Be as clear and descriptive as possible in your observations. Try to state only what you see (“The mockingbird flew at the cardinal”) instead of opinions (“The mockingbird was mean”).

Your observations can become firsthand information to put into a report. Just be sure to cite the video or the animal cam website.