HABITAT
• A place where a plant or animal lives is termed as its habitat.
• An animal needs five things to survive in its habitat:
i. Food
ii. Water
iii. Shelter
iv. Air
v. A place to raise its young one
• Animals require different amounts of space. Habitats can be big like a forest or they can be much smaller like a burrow.
• Some other animals need only a small amount of space and can put up with neighbours.
• Different animals need different habitats.
• The home of an animal is within its habitat.
For example:
I. A fish needs clean water to live.
II. A grasshopper, however, needs a big space where it can hop and leaves that it can eat.
III. A lion's home is the den and the forest is its habitat.
• There are five main habitats on our planet:
Polar Regions and Mountains:
• The core of the Arctic is a great ocean - the Arctic Ocean - parts of which are covered all the year round by ice.
• The Antarctic is an isolated continent surrounding the South Pole.
• It has high mountains and glaciers and is the coldest, driest and windiest continent on Earth.
• Polar bears are perfectly adapted for survival in the Arctic.
• The polar bear is the only bear considered as a marine mammal.
• Although most polar bears are born on land, most of their life is spent at sea.
• Polar bears are adapted to live in extreme cold conditions like –
• White fur – Their fur acts as an insulating material and protects them from cold.
• Fat - The fat not only protects them from the cold but also adds to the bears’ buoyancy in the water.
Figure 1: Polar bear
Other examples -
Penguin, seal, walrus, etc.
Figure 2: Polar region animals
Desert:
• A desert is a dry, often sandy region that receives very little rainfall.
• They are the world's dry places and cover at least 1/5th of the Earth’s surface.
• Because there is so little water, deserts are bare landscapes with few plants or animals.
• Deserts are often very hot during the day and cold during the night.
• Most deserts are a combination of landscapes.
• Deserts may be flat, stony plains, rocky hills and mountains.
• The Sahara is the world’s largest desert after Antarctica.
Figure 3: The Sahara desert
• Animals that live in deserts have special features to withstand the hot and dry climate.
• With nightfall, the desert comes alive.
• Large spiders, centipedes and scorpions crawl out from holes or from under stones.
Figure 4: Spider and Scorpion
• Some, like kangaroo rats and lizards, live in burrows during the hot days and come out at night to feed.
Figure 5: Kangaroo rat and lizard
• Other animals have bodies designed to save water.
• Scorpions and wolf spiders have a thick outer covering which reduces moisture loss.
Figure 6: Wolf spider
• The camel has adaptations to desert life like -
• Its body has thick skin to avoid water loss through sweating.
• It can live without water for a long time.
Figure 7: Camel
Forest
• A forest is a large area that is covered by trees and plants.
• Forests provide shelter to a large variety of animals.
• Animals such as lion, tiger, bear, bat, etc. live in caves.
• Many forest animals live on trees (e.g., monkeys and birds).
• Several types of insects live on the forest floor. Rabbits, snakes, earthworms, rats, etc. live inside burrows.
• A few birds are permanent residents of the evergreen forest.
• They include woodpeckers, tits, owls, hawks and grouse.
Freshwater
• Rivers, lakes, ponds, etc., are examples of freshwater habitat.
• Creatures that live in running water have found different ways of adapting to the strong currents.
• For instance, leeches move along the bottom of a river in a series of loops.
• Fish are usually strong swimmers, like the rainbow trout.
• Other fish cling or creep over the surface of stones.
• Some kinds of river fish, such as the salmon family, spend much of their lives in the sea but migrate-up rivers to breed.
• Some animals can live both on land and in water (e.g. frog and salamander).
• Such animals are called amphibians.
Ocean
• Oceans cover 71% of the Earth's surface.
• The different oceans merge into one another, forming the largest habitat on earth.
• The 3 major oceans of the world are:
I. The Pacific Ocean
II. The Atlantic Ocean
III. The Indian Ocean
• The Arctic Ocean surrounds the North Pole while the Southern Ocean surrounds the continent of Antarctica.
• A large variety of fish are found in the oceans.
• Other creatures are:- small animals like crabs, jellyfish, corals and worms ,tiny shrimps, krill, etc.
• Whale and octopus are also found here.