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<< A Crittercam-wearing emperor penguin plunges into a dive hole at the Penguin Ranch research station in Antarctica. Photograph by Greg Marshall

Help the Crittercam team study humpback whales! Your job? Build a video camera and attach it to a humpback whale.

Biologist Fred Sharpe needs your help. He wants to know how humpback whales use a method called bubble feeding to trap fish. He needs you to build a Crittercam and attach it to a 90,000-pound (40,000-kilogram) humpback whale in Alaska.

Scientists use Crittercam to study behaviors they normally cannot witness, like underwater feeding. The video camera is harmlessly attached to the animals and records a few hours of footage before the scientists retrieve it. The result is a unique animal's-eye view of their lives.

It sounds simple, but designing a camera for animals to wear—not to mention attaching it!—is tricky business. The cameras have to meet the scientists' needs without harming the animals. Adding a light source (a necessity in some habitats) might make the camera too heavy for small animals. Do you need to record sound? That will add extra weight, too.

And how do you attach the camera? That's perhaps the trickiest part of all. Crittercam scientists have used clamps, suction cups, harnesses, even glue to attach the devices. But first you have to get close to the animal—how are you going to do that with a humpback whale?

Help the Crittercam team get the information they need on the humpback whale—jump in and design the perfect camera.

Younger Xpeditioners: After you have successfully completed your mission, dry yourself off and document your work. Print out this picture of a humpback whale and add a drawing of your Crittercam to the picture. Then color it in and keep it as a record of your success!

Older Xpeditioners: Once you've completed your mission, think of another animal you would like to outfit with a Crittercam. Maybe you would like to study leopards in Africa or giant tortoises in the Galápagos. What kind of camera would you need for these animals? How would you attach it?

Once you have designed your Crittercam, print out a picture of your animal and add a drawing of your camera. Have it ready in case the Crittercam team needs your help again!

Parents: Encourage your children to be inventive. What would they like to design if they could? Take their ideas and help them create (on paper or out of clay or cardboard) their inventions.

Give your children a disposable or digital camera and take them to a park or a zoo. Have them choose an animal and "follow" it as much as they can, recording their movements and behaviors.

Note: Make sure children know that they shouldn't attempt to attach a camera to any animal—without the proper care the animal or the child could be injured.

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0229817.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.