All About Habitats

Photo: Batiste Pannetier, http://artlibre.org/license/lal/en

Have you heard about habitats? A habitat is a place where a living thing lives and has its needs met, such as getting shelter, food, water, and

companionship. As you can imagine, different living things require different habitats according to their needs.

Photo: Goncalo Veiga

There are large habitats and small habitats. In fact, nearly every part of the world is a habitat for something. Examples of large habitats are deserts,

jungles, rainforests, arctic tundra, wetlands, rivers, oceans, and lakes. What animals do you think live in these large habitats?

Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License

This gopher snake is an example of a reptile that needs a desert habitat. Gopher snakes like to live in areas that are hot with little grass and

vegetation. They eat small desert rodents, lizards, and birds and do not need to access standing water. They find great hiding spots in rodent dens, sand,

and under rocks. This makes the desert a perfect habitat for them.

Photo: Mark Bratton

This ant hill and its surrounding area is an example of a very small habitat. Ants build these hills to protect their colonies, which are usually underground. Ants need habitats that have lots of building materials (pine needles, dirt, and

sand), food (nuts, nectar from aphids, and more) around them. The ground beneath some trees with tasty aphids close by would be a perfect habitat for

a group of ants, don’t you think?

Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kleiner_Ameisenh%C3%BCgel.jpg

Can you think of some other types of habitats? What living thing do you

think has the smallest habitat? How about the biggest?

Remember, all living things need a place to live that gives them shelter,

food, water, the right climate, and companionship and this is what a

habitat is!

Photo: Nick Hobgood, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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