Name:______Unit:______Date:______Pd:___

Operation Cat Drop

CP Biology – Mr. Comerford

THE DAY THEY PARACHUTED CATS INTO BORNEO

This is an activity that demonstrates the importance of the connections among the different components, both non-living (“abiotic”) and living (“biotic”) in an ecosystem. It also illustrates how difficult it is for humans to identify all these components and their relationships.By the way, this is based on a real situation.

PART 1 – Ordering Events: Work in pairs and try to arrange the following events in chronological order. When you think you have the correct sequence, ask me for the answer. Rats brought the plague.

Mixed-Up Order of Events / Predicted Order of Events / Actual Order of Events
Rats increased / 1. / 1.
Cats died / 2. / 2.
Caterpillar numbers went up / 3. / 3.
World Health Organization sent DDT to Borneo / 4. / 4.
Caterpillars ate grass roofs / 5. / 5.
Cats were parachuted in / 6. / 6.
Lizards slowed down / 7. / 7.
Mosquitoes were wiped out / 8. / 8.
Cats caught lizards containing DDT / 9. / 9.
Roaches stored DDT in their bodies / 10. / 10.
Lizards disappeared / 11. / 11.
Lizards ate roaches and got DDT / 12. / 12.
Malaria spread throughout Borneo / 13. / 13.
Sylvatic Plague and Typhus outbreak among people / 14. / 14.
Balance restored / 15. / 15.
Parasitic caterpillar wasps were wiped out / 16. / 16.

PART 2 – Design a Food Web: Create a diagram that shows how all organisms listed in the story (also listed below) interact with each other. Only use the names of the organisms, no other words.

Organisms

  • Rat
  • Cat
  • Caterpillar
  • Lizard
  • Mosquitos
  • Roach
  • Wasp

Food Web

Questions

  1. What do food webs show?
  1. Why are food webs important?
  1. What consequences does altering a food web have on an ecosystem?

THE DAY THEY PARACHUTED CATS IN BORNEO

(Operation Cat Drop)

In the early 1950’s the Dayak people in Borneo suffered from malaria. The World Health Organization had a solution: they sprayed large amounts of DDT to kill off mosquitoes which carried the malaria. The mosquitoes died, the malaria declined. But there were some unforeseen side-effects. Among the first was that the roofs of people’s houses began to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT was also killing a parasitic wasp which had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. Also, while the DDT killed mosquitoes, others insects, such as roaches, merely stored DDT in their bodies. The roaches were eaten by lizards which also inhabited Borneo. Instead of killing the lizards the DDT only slowed them down. This made it easier for cats to catch the lizards, one of their favorite foods. The lizards eventually disappeared and the cats died from eating the poisoned lizards. Rats moved in because there were no cats to control their population. Rats brought in plague and typhus which threatened the human population. With no way to bring the rats under control the World Health Organization sent out emergency calls for cats. An air drop was organized that parachuted 14,000 live cats into Borneo in an attempt to solve the problems created by the original actions of WHO.

----Jan Braun, January 2006

THE DAY THEY PARACHUTED CATS IN BORNEO

(Operation Cat Drop)

In the early 1950’s the Dayak people in Borneo suffered from malaria. The World Health Organization had a solution: they sprayed large amounts of DDT to kill off mosquitoes which carried the malaria. The mosquitoes died, the malaria declined. But there were some unforeseen side-effects. Among the first was that the roofs of people’s houses began to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT was also killing a parasitic wasp which had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. Also, while the DDT killed mosquitoes, others insects, such as roaches, merely stored DDT in their bodies. The roaches were eaten by lizards which also inhabited Borneo. Instead of killing the lizards the DDT only slowed them down. This made it easier for cats to catch the lizards, one of their favorite foods. The lizards eventually disappeared and the cats died from eating the poisoned lizards. Rats moved in because there were no cats to control their population. Rats brought in plague and typhus which threatened the human population. With no way to bring the rats under control the World Health Organization sent out emergency calls for cats. An air drop was organized that parachuted 14,000 live cats into Borneo in an attempt to solve the problems created by the original actions of WHO.

----Jan Braun, January 2006