Wildlife Ranger

Wildlife Ranger is an excerpt from the film Wildlife Ranger (19 mins), produced in 1979.

Wildlife Ranger: Set in the beautiful but isolated Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, Wildlife Ranger traces the duties and lifestyle of a national park ranger, including protection of and research into the diverse range of flora and fauna in the area. The program follows two rangers plying the boat along the waterways in the wet season to check out a remote rookery. This allows the viewer a close inspection of this unique environment, both at ground level and through breathtaking aerial photography. The northern monsoonal forests, grasslands and wildlife are shown in all their beauty, colour and diversity. The program also touches on the problems of remoteness from major towns, illustrated with the arrival of the fortnightly mail plane from Darwin.
Wildlife Ranger was produced by Film Australia.

Reading standard: Students read and view imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that explore ideas and information relating to challenging topics, themes and issues. They explore the ideas, themes and issues explored in these texts, and provide supporting evidence to justify their interpretations. They produce personal responses, for example, interpretive pieces and character profiles.

Writing standard: Students produce, in print and electronic forms, texts for a variety of purposes, including speculating, hypothesizing, persuading and reflecting. They write arguments that state and justify a personal viewpoint; reports incorporating challenging themes and issues; personal reflections on, or evaluations of, texts presenting challenging themes and issues.

Speaking and listening standard: Students express creative and analytical responses to texts, themes and issues. They identify main issues in a topic and provide supporting detail and evidence of opinions.

The activities in this learning module are relevant to the Interdisciplinary Learning strand of Level 5 Communications (Listening, viewing and responding standard; Presenting standard) and Thinking Processes (Reasoning, processing and inquiry standard; Creativity standard).

The activities are also relevant to the Physical, Personal and Social Learning strand of Level 5 Interpersonal Development (Building social relationships standard; Working in teams standard) and Personal Learning (The individual learner standard; Managing personal learning standard).

Much of Australia’s far north is tropical wilderness that falls within various National Parks. The Cobourg Peninsula is situated on the northwest corner of Arnhem Land and juts out into the Arafura Sea. The peninsula is part of the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park and is managed jointly by the traditional Aboriginal land owners and the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory. Governments employ wildlife rangers to patrol remote areas and enforce environmental laws, for example; the poaching of crocodiles. Much of their work is prevention as well as enforcement. The wildlife ranger has a vast area to patrol. He has to love living and working in a remote wilderness area where food may be dropped off by plane and many nights are spent camping outdoors. He needs many skills for this kind of work including sharp observation of nature. Pristine wilderness National Parks are a highly valued resource and in need of protection.

1. 1. List five jobs the ranger has to do.
   2. Explain why his wife doesn’t worry about him.
   3. Write a 50-word description of your impression the ranger and his work.
2. 1. Discuss and list the personal qualities and physical skills the ranger displays.
   2. Give reasons why the ranger carries out this work What are the costs and benefits to him?
   3. List the costs and benefits of our society in doing this work. Do you think that it isnecessary investment? Give reasons.
   4. The video clip shows a male ranger. Do you think females could do the job of ranger? Give reasons.
   5. Discuss and define the term ‘hero’. Would you consider the ranger to be a hero?
3. Construct an A4 page advertisement for the job of Wildlife Ranger. Include information under the following headings:

• job description
• personal qualities needed
• physical skills required
• what to expect
• at least 250 words of text