Land habitats can be shady or sunny, wet or dry, warm or freezing. Here are four big ones: forests, grasslands, deserts and icy polar places.
- A forest has many trees growing close together.
- A grassland is wide and open, covered with grass and few trees.
- A desert gets very little rain.
- A polar place is cold and icy for much of the year.
Key idea
Each land habitat has its own weather, so each has its own plants and animals.
Why it works
What makes a desert a desert is dryness, not heat. Some deserts are hot in the day and cold at night. Some are cold all winter. Cactuses, lizards, snakes, hawks and kangaroo rats all live in deserts.
Worked example: Let's think it through
A kangaroo rat lives in the desert. How does it get water?
- There is very little water to drink in the desert.
- A kangaroo rat eats seeds.
- It gets the water it needs from its food.
Answer: From the seeds it eats. It almost never needs to drink.
Common mistake
Children often think deserts are always hot and have nothing living in them. Many deserts get cold, and all of them have plants and animals that are good at saving water.
For the grown-up. Polar bears live in the far north, near the North Pole. Most penguins live in the far south. They both live in icy places, but they never meet in the wild.