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Friday, July 6, 2018

Report writing



A couple of weeks ago Te Ngahere started an informational report about pests. Our learning intention was to use the correct structure for an informational report. Our structure was a total of nine paragraphs that were pretty hard to do but with the right information it was easy. These paragraphs were first: the animals Classifications, Animal name (what it meant), Anatomy/Appearance, Locomotion, Diet, Habitat, Behaviour, Defence/Offence and Why was it introduced? I think I wrote the structure very good for my first time in a while. Next time I need to write more information in my paragraphs.

Success Criteria:
Use colons and semicolons in my writing.
I need to use words that give the reader detailed and specific information.

Intro:

The rat, a destroyer to animals and plants. An introduced pest that was brought in the 1250 - 1300 in a boat from Polynesia. There are more than 50 species around the world but three species inhabit our beautiful land of Aotearoa. These are the Norway rat, the brown rat and the ship rat.

Classification:

The rat classifications are: kingdom animalia, phylum chordata, class mammalia, order rodentia, suborder myomorpha, family muridae and genus rattus. Kingdom represents what it is animal or not, phylum represents if it has a backbone or not and class represents what type of animal it is like mammals or cold blooded animals.

Animal name:

The name rat is described as a big rodent that resembles a big mouse. A male rats name is buck, a female is a doe and a baby rat is called either a kitten or pup. The rats scientific name is Rattus norvegicus.

Appearance:

Rats are mostly slender and have sharp, curved heads, large eyes and furry ears. The shape of a rat's body is the same shape as a pear. An average brown rat weighs around 230g which is a quarter of a kilogram. Their claws can grow to one centimeter. Their teeth are sharp and pointed. All rats have four legs unless they have been cut off. Rat legs tend to be short and so are the arms.




Locomotion:

Rats scurry along on all four of their legs pretty fast. Mostly three of the legs are on the ground at a time. When it jumps it uses the two back legs to fling through the air. They can jump over 77cm. A rats tail is necessary for survival because it helps them keep their balance. It is important that they move like this because otherwise they will be caught and killed.

Diet:

Rat diets consist of many things. They are pests to the animals in our ngahere. So our birds are in their diet and have been for centuries. So in the wild they eat mostly anything they come across. Mostly this consists of grains, fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, bugs, birds and other small animals that they can kill. Rats are omnivores, this means they eat meat and plants. Rats aren’t fussy eaters and eat everything they come across. Even though a rat kills birds about the same size as itself it is near the bottom of the food chain.

Habitat & Range:

Rats usually inhabit dirt holes in dark places such as underneath houses in basements or cellars. Ship rats originated from India and arrived in New Zealand in the late 1800s. Norway rats originated from Norway and the Polynesian rat originated from Polynesia.

Behaviour:

Rats are cheeky, smart and sly. Some rats are solitary which means they live or hunt alone. Rats make passageways underground from their nest to food locations. They also create burrows to get away from other animals.

Defence/Offence:

The rat defends itself from predators using escape routes like their burrows but if cornered and hungry with no escape they use their claws to scratch. Wild rat bites can be infectious.


Why was it introduced/ How did it get here?:

Rats were brought to New Zealand on the first settlers ships in the 1200s through to the 1300s. The first settlers brought rats unknowingly and didn’t know that rats were onboard.

Conclusion:

Rats are killers and were brought by the first settlers. They were brought unknowingly. They are the brown rat, Norway rat and the Polynesian rat.

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