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A habitat is the kind of countryside or surrounding in which a plant or animal naturally lives. The home of the plant or animal is within its habitat. A racoon may live in a hollow log which is its home and in a forest which is its habitat. Habitat can also be thought of as the food, water, shelter and space that all species need in order to survive.

Sample some of the following activities to learn more about habitats.

Places To Go

The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out about habitats.

Make like Batman and visit a bat cave! This virtual tour gives you an idea of what a cave habitat is like. Find out more about cave habitats from the National Caves Association.

Haven't you always wanted to go on a safari to Africa and see amazing African animals in the wild? Wouldn't it be thrilling to see a real lion in its natural habitat? You CAN do this--you can watch real African animals any time of the day or night. AfriCam has10-12 web cams set up at different watering holes in Africa.

Situated on the borders of Nepal and Tibet, Mt. Everest is the highest elevation on earth - 29,028 feet. Take a virtual tour of the habitat at the top of the world.

Native Americans called it Tomesha which means "ground afire." Visit one of the most inhospitable habitats in North America, Death Valley, where average summer temperatures are 120 degrees and can peak to 135.

Visit Neptune's Web and get the facts about the ocean habitat in this underwater classroom. Then dive into more ocean facts at the PBS site, Secrets of the Ocean Realm.

Take a walk in the Fantastic Forest. This virtual forest is brought to you courtesy of National Geographic. Follow the forest path and encounter a variety of habitats. Click on the different parts of the forest to find your way.

Travel to the Arctic Circle and learn about chilly habitat.

You'll find beautiful photographs and information about Utah wetland habitats at this virtual tour of Wetlands and Riparian Zones.

Take a trip to the Sonoran Desert. Find out about the different habitats that exist in this huge desert, about desert tortoises and other animals that live there, and about survival in this harsh environment.

Visit rainforest, tundra, tiaga, desert, temperate, and grassland habitats.

Check out habitats around the country.

Ask an Ecologist answers questions and provides information referrals regarding habitats, marine life, geology, oceans and landmasses.

Ask Shamu your questions about the ocean habitat.

Read an interview with Sir Edmund Hillary. See what he has to say about cold, mountainous habitats.

Jake the Sea Dog answers kids' questions about ocean habitat and animal life.

The rainforest has the greatest variety of plants and animals in the world. Mammals, birds, and insects live at different levels of the rainforest, just like in a multi-story building.

Follow along with an elementary school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as they explore the ocean habitat. Find out why the ocean is salty, why it is blue, learn about ocean animals, ocean geography, and read about and possibly duplicate some of their experiments and observations.

At the Wild Habitat you can learn about various regions around the world, as well as the animals that live there. Be sure to click on the Fun & Games link at the top of the page.

Provide habitat for bats. Build a specially designed house for them.

Interact with virtual animals and their environments in the Interactive Swamp.

In Toothwalkers : Giants of the Arctic Ice, find out how the walruses and their human neighbors, the native Inuit peoples, survive in their frozen habitat.

Check out Treasures at Sea : Exploring the Ocean Through Literature. You'll find book activities, writing and art activities, web resources, and more.

Make your own habitat for plants and insects. Make a terrarium.

Trees provide habitat for vast numbers of animals--most of them invertebrates. Learn more about trees and their importance to our world. While you're at it find out what the tallest, oldest, fastest growing trees are. And then play this Save the Trees game hosted by Dr. Seuss's Lorax.

Deserts may be dry, but they are not barren. They are filled with plants and animals that are well adapted to the harsh environment. Learn fascinating facts about desert plants, animals, minerals, climate, and more.

Visit the Vancouver Aquarium in British Columbia and virtually visit ocean habitat.

Gardens provide habitat for insects and other invertebrates. This site has instructions for planning, developing, and maintaining a school or classroom garden and ideas to integrate gardens in educational curriculum.

Oceans are the earth's largest habitat. Oceans Alive celebrates marine biodiversity.

Find out about spider habitat. They live in many different places.

You often hear about old growth forests. Find out exactly what they are, how they develop, and why they are so important.

According to this site, 31% of the earth's landmass is covered by forests or woodlands. What percentage of that 31% is in North America? What percentage is in Europe? What percentage is in Africa? Which continent has the highest percentage of the world's forests?

People need habitat, too. Find out about the Trust for Public Land.

Play the games at the kids page of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to learn how children can protect the environment.

Learn and play games about animals and also communicate with other animal lovers at the Wild Habitat.

Biome Basics
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/biomes/biomes.html
Explore deserts and discover that they are second only to tropical rain forests in the variety of plants and animals that live there.

Online activities are a listing of internet sites with fun, interesting, and educational tasks attached to each one. (You can learn how to use this WWW Activities tool created by UEN for Utah educators).

• Animal Habitats
• Tundra
• Tundra Hotlist
• Biome Project
• Coral Reef Hotlist
• Rainforest Hotlist
• Wetland Hotlist
• Animal Homes

Virtual Field Trips are teacher and student-created tours of curricular topics. (You can learn how to use this UEN Virtual Field Trip tool created by UEN for Utah educators).

• Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge
• Biomes of North America

Lesson Plans/Webquests/Activities

• Ecoquest - Desert Edition - A webquest for grades 6-9.
• Ocean Olympics - Teacher guide for grades 4-8
• Summer Safari
• Wetlands Under Attack
• The Deciduous Forest
• Dr. Green’s Rainforest Mystery
• Rainforest Vacations
• Coral Reef Rescue

• Buller, Laura. Habitats and Environment. New York : M. Cavendish Corp., 1990.
• Curtis, Patricia. Animals and the New Zoos. New York : Lodestar Books, c1991.
• Feltwell, John. Animals and Where They Live. New York : Dorling Kindersley ; Boston, Mass. : Distributred by Houghton Mifflin, c1992.
• Green, Jen. Under a Stone. New York : Crabtree Pub. Co., c1999.
• Hacker, Randi and Kaufman, Jackie. Habitats : Where the Wild Things Live. Santa Fe, N.M. : J. Muir Publications ; New York : Distributed to the book trade by W.W. Norton, c1992. .
• Hickman, Pamela M. Habitats : Making Homes for Animals and Plants. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., c1993.
• Kerrod, Robin. Animal Life. New York : Marshall Cavendish, 1994.
• Lauber, Patricia. Fur, Feathers, and Flippers : How Animals Live Where They Do. New York : Scholastic, c1994.
• Perham, Molly. Wildlife. London ; New York : Watts, 1997.
• Relf, Patricia and Cole, Joanna. Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Hops Home : A Book About Animal Habitats. New York : Scholastic, c1995.
• Taylor, Barbara. Animal Hide and Seek. New York : DK Pub., c1998.

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