Wildlife Fact Sheets

Articles/Websites

Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10Biology

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

Open Resource

What it is

This collection of fact sheets will inform students about different species of animals in Connecticut, their status as endangered or threatened species, and the proper way to interact with them.
Students will learn about the animals' habitats, diets, and life cycles.

Teaching tips

Positives

Each animal fact sheet is incredibly detailed and includes images of the animals.
The resource gives practical ways to handle encounters with animals as nuisances or threats.

Additional Prerequisites

Students may need the terms extirpated, deciduous, coniferous, carrion, brackish, plastron, quarry, neurological, and others defined before they read the sheets.
Students should know how animal populations fluctuate due to various pressures.
The link for hunting information on the coyote fact sheet is broken.

Differentiation

Teachers can assign the fact sheets according to students' reading stamina, as the fact sheets vary in length.
For ELL students, teachers can use tools like the Google Translate Chrome Extension to translate the page into the student's preferred language.
Students can use the fact sheets and other resources to research an animal of their choice and how climate change has influenced their survival, habitat, and other factors.
Language arts students can write narratives from the perspective of one of the animals, describing their life throughout the year.
Teachers can coordinate with woodshop classes to have students build the nest boxes described in some fact sheets.

From the scientist review

This resource has students learn about Connecticut's fauna. It contains fact sheets that highlights information about common species found there. The fact sheets have been rigorously reviewed and have no scientific misconceptions. We suggest that teachers use this resource.

How we review resources

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Hosted on portal.ct.gov

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At a glance

Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Subjects: Biology
Format: PDF
Language: English
Location: North America, North America > United States, North America > United States > Connecticut
Provider: Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Authors: Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Published: May 13, 2024
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.7 + 11 more

Core

Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.7Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.1Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.10By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.10By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.1Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

MS-LS2-2.Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
MS-LS2-4.Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
MS-LS2-5.Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
5-ESS3-1.Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
HS-LS2-6.Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-ESS3-6.Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.
HS-LS4-C.3.Natural selection leads to adaptation, that is, to a population dominated by organisms that are anatomically, behaviorally, and physiologically well suited to survive and reproduce in a specific environment. That is, the differential survival and reproduction of organisms in a population that have an advantageous heritable trait leads to an increase in the proportion of individuals in future generations that have the trait and to a decrease in the proportion of individuals that do not. (HS-LS4-3), (HS-LS4-4)

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