Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways (KS2, Year 5)
Know how the green woodpecker is similar to and different from the great spotted woodpecker.Know that these differences enable the woodpeckers to live together in Nowhere Wood
adventures in time and in space, life depends on life, organisms are organised, spring stories
The story of the green woodpecker is a game of spot the difference. The great spotted and green woodpeckers are similar. They probably shared a common ancestor that lived in Europe about 10 million years ago.
This story is about how the green woodpecker is similar and not similar to the great spotted. The differences are important: they allow both species to live together in the same wood, and are essential to the long-term survival of both species.
In terms of evolution, the common ancestor 10 million years ago (or so) ensures that the woodpeckers are similar. (Humans and Chimpanzees shared a common ancestor between 5 and 7 million years ago, and are clearly similar to each other.)
The evolution in the woodpecker species since then has developed and maintained the differences, which ensure that both species can survive in the same wood, without the one species competing with and replacing the other..
In this way, the story approaches the National Curriculum statement:
identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution
Green and great spotted woodpeckers have different ways of feeding. How does this help them to live alongside each other in Nowhere Wood?
Species live alongside each other in Nowhere Wood if they do not compete with each other for important resources, like food, shelter and nest sites. Having different ways of feeding is a great way of avoiding competition between the two woodpecker species.
What might happen if they shared the same food supply?
If they both shared the same food supply, and if it was not sufficient to support both species, then the woodpeckers would compete for the food, and the loser would probably not be able to live in Nowhere Wood.
