EnchantedLearning.com Biomes - Habitats

Biomes Calendar A calendar to print, color, and read.

What is a Prairie? A prairie is a temperate grassland, plains of grass that get hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Most of the interior of North America was a prairie before European settlement radically altered the environment with agriculure. Even now, the prairie is a large area.

• Tall Grass Prairie - areas with rich soil, moderate precipitation and tall grasses (over 5 feet = 1.5 m tall)
• Short Grass Prairie - areas with little precipitation and short grass (less than 2 feet = 61 cm tall). These areas are usually unsuitable for agriculture.

Animal Adaptations: The animals that live in prairies have adapted to a semi-arid, windy environment with few trees or shrubs. They can also withstand a great range in temperature, from well below freezing in the winter to sweltering heat in the summer.

Where are Prairies? Prairies are located in the interior of North America.

Animals that Live in Prairies: Many animals live in prairies, from invertebrates (like grasshoppers and beetles) to large mammals (like antelopes and bison).

• North America - American toad, badger, black-footed ferret, bison, black-tailed jack rabbit, bumble bee, burrowing owl, California condor, carrion beetle, common snipe, coyote, deer, dragonfly, eagles, eastern cottontail, elk, ferruginous hawk, fox snake, golden owl, gopher snake, grasshopper, gray wolf, ground squirrels, killdeer, lady beetle, larks, long-billled curlew, meadow vole, monarch butterfly, northern grasshopper mouse, prairie chicken, prairie dog, prairie rattlesnake, prairie skink, pronghorn antelope, red fox, red-tailed hawk, shrew, skunk, stink bug, tiger beetle, western meadowlark, western tiger swallowtail, white-tailed jack rabbit, and many other animals.

Printouts of Prairie Animals:

Antelope Antelopes are graceful mammals with beautiful horns.

Ant Ants are social insects.

Badger The badger is a nocturnal mammal with a black-and-white striped face.

Bison The American Buffalo (which is actually a Bison) is the heaviest land animal in North America.

Black-Footed Ferret The Black-Footed Ferret is an endangered type of ferret from North America.

Black-Tailed Prairie Dog The prairie dog is not a dog; it is a ground squirrel.

Bobcat A fierce, short-tailed wild cat from North America.

Bull Snake Also known as the gopher snake and the pine snake, this hissing constrictor lives in North America.

Coyote Coyotes are meat-eaters related to wolves.

Donkey Donkeys are hoofed mammals adapted to environments with little water.

Dragonfly The dragonfly is a flying insect with a long abdomen.

Earthworm An earthworm is a little animal with a long, soft body and no legs. They are found worldwide

Fox The fox is a meat-eating mammal with a long, bushy tail.

Gopher Snake Also known as the bull snake and the pine snake, this hissing constrictor lives in North America.

Grasshopper Grasshoppers are insects that can hop, walk, and fly. There are about 10,000 different species of grasshoppers worldwide.

Gray Wolf Gray wolves are carnivores that live in packs and howl.

Jack Rabbit Jack rabbits are hares; they have very long legs and long ears.

Mole Moles are almost-blind, burrowing mammals.

Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle See how a Monarch Butterfly starts out as an egg, hatches into a caterpillar, becomes a pupa, then emerges as a fully-grown adult.

Mongoose Mongooses are sleek, meat-eating mammals.

Mouse Mice are small rodents with long, scaly tails.

Mountain Lion or Cougar A long-tailed American wild cat with no spots. It is also known as the catamount, panther, or puma.

Opossum The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial in North America.

Prairie Chicken Prairie Chickens are a type of grouse that live in North American grasslands.

Prairie Dog The prairie dog is not a dog; it is a ground squirrel.

Pronghorn Pronghorns are the fastest moving mammals in North America.

Rabbit A fast-moving mammal with long ears.

Raccoon The raccoon is a mammal with mask-like markings on its face and a ringed tail.

Red Fox The Red Fox is a meat-eating mammal with a long, bushy tail.

Red-Tailed Hawk The Red-Tailed Hawk is a bird of prey, a raptor from North America.

Scorpion A venomous arachnid with a large stinger on its tail.

Shrew Shrews are tiny, ferocious mammals that are found worldwide.

Skunk Skunks are black and white mammals that can produce a terrible odor.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly The Tiger Swallowtail butterfly is a strong flier with distinctive yellow and black markings (females are sometimes brown and black).

Western Meadowlark A brightly-colored songbird from western and central North America.

An Enchanted Learning Web Page Biomes - Habitats

Arctic	Desert	Chaparral or Scrub		Taiga = Coniferous Forests	Grassland		Tropical Rainforest	Pond	Ocean
Antarctic	Tundra	Cave	City	Temperate Deciduous Forest	Savanna	Prairie	Freshwater Marsh	Swamp	Intertidal Zone	Coral Reef	Sunlit (Euphotic) Zone	Twilight (Disphotic) Zone

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