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

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 Keys 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).