Yellowstone National Park announces the premier of To Eat or Be Eaten, airing March 10-12, 2004, on the Windows into Wonderland electronic field trip site: www.windowsintowonderland.org.

Redesigned by Earthtalk Studios in Bozeman, Montana, the site has a fresh, inviting format. School groups will find the electronic field trip, eTrip, user friendly and filled with scripted dialogue, animations, streaming video, and audio content. Educators are encouraged to register online at the Web site and preview the eTrip before it officially premieres.

Park staff will answer questions posted on a message board that will open at 9:00 a.m. MST on March 10 and will close at 4:00 PM MST on March 12. Participation is free to all.

Field trip creators call the new trip a "Yellowstone Who-Done-It." Participants will eavesdrop on a special sleuthing team as it examines the disappearance of an elk in the park's Hayden Valley. Students will learn about tracking techniques and complex predator-prey relationships as the investigators snoop for clues in the forms of disturbed ground, bones, prints, radio and GIS collars, and blood stains.

Designed for a middle school audience, the program uses local students from the Yellowstone ParKids program to help tell the story of predator/prey relationships in Hayden Valley. Students participated in activities with researchers and park staff to further their understanding of wildlife interactions and helped develop the field trip's script. The program lasts approximately 50 minutes. Lesson plans, correlated with the National Education Standards, are included to extend the on-line experience.

To Eat or Be Eaten is a product of Eyes on Yellowstone. Eyes on Yellowstone is made possible by Canon and is an ecological research and teaching collaboration between Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc., and the Yellowstone Park Foundation. The program was established to fund important scientific research and break new ground in conservation, endangered-species protection, and the application of cutting-edge science and technology essential for the management of park wildlife and ecosystems. Another element of the program is increased public access via the Internet to the wonders of Yellowstone. To Eat or Be Eaten showcases video clips and still images shot with Canon digital camcorders and digital cameras, including footage of predators and prey in the wild.

The three new eTrips for the 2003-2004 school year-Yellowstone's Trumpeter Swans, Zooming in on Hayden Valley, and To Eat or Be Eaten-feature streaming video and audio. Five previous trips, which aired in 2001 and 2002, remain available online and focus on Yellowstone's fires, the early human history of Yellowstone, the natural history and management of bears, the natural history and reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone, and the influence of art in preserving the treasures of the world's first national park.

Since its establishment in 2001, Windows Into Wonderland has reached classrooms and homes in all fifty states and thirty-five countries. Electronic field trips establish a connection between the classroom and a national park experience. To obtain further information concerning Yellowstone National Park's eTrips, log on to the Web Site: www.windowsintowonderland.org or contact Yellowstone's Formal Education Program Manager, Janet Ambrose at: 307-344-2253.

Information provided by the NPS