Animal Habitats (1956)

[Music] the world is full of living things they live in many different kinds of places and each is fitted for the place in which it lives some like these zelk live on the land and some like this fish live in the water the place where an animal lives naturally is called its happitat the living things of the water seldom Venture onto the land and those of the land seldom Venture into the water each is fitted for its habitat so this sea turtle is fitted for its water life its feet are paddles Which it uses to move itself about it is not suited for land life the feet of this land tortoise however are fitted for walking it lives in desert areas although it is very closely related to the sea turtle it cannot live in water but land living animals differ also according to the place in which they live regions like a deciduous forest a prairie an evergreen forest arctic tundra and desert all have their own living things so the animals of this hot dry desert differ from those in other regions they are fitted for their habitat this desert rattlesnake is called a side Winder if you watch it move you will see where it gets its name it Loops itself along with a sidewinding motion that keeps it from sinking into the Sandy Des desert soil only rattlesnakes that live on the desert move in this way here is a rattlesnake that lives in a different habitat a forest floor it is called a timber rattlesnake and it differs in many ways from its desert Cousin It is darker in color and it moves with the familiar gliding motion of Mo snakes it would have great difficulty traveling over loose desert sand a deciduous forest is another habitat a deciduous forest is a forest whose trees shed their leaves with the coming of cold weather in the winter time the trees are bare allowing sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor in the springtime the sunlight rain and melting snow encourage a forest undergrowth of low growing plants this white tailed deer lives in the deciduous forest it is a browsing animal one that eats leaves it browses on the low hanging leaves of trees and low growing bushes the white tailed deer is well fitted for its home the beaver is commonly found in the streams of a deciduous forest it spends much of its time in the water and its broad flat tail and webbed feet are of help in swimming although the beaver eats many water plants one of its favorite foods is the bark and outer layers of trees like the Alders Birches Willows and the popler or Aspen since these trees are all deciduous the beaver is seldom found in any other habitat but neither the beaver nor the white tailed deer could live on a Prairie where they could not find the plants that provide their food the Prairie is a Plains region too dry to support trees the low growing grasses the only kind of vegetation that can live here provide excellent food however for animals like the prairie dog an animal related to the squirrel and the Chipmunk the prairie dog is primarily an Eater of grasses it lives in Burrows beneath the ground building up a mound of Earth at the burrow entrance the Pronghorn anvelope is another animal of the Prairie it depends upon its speed to escape its enemies and its hard hooves are well fitted for running on open PLS it is a grazing or grass-eating animal like the American Bison the Bison once inhabited the Plains and prairies of America in vast numbers the Bison is a Plante eating animal a grazer or an Eater of grasses It is Well fitted for its Prairie life but it would starve to death in a snow covered evergreen forest like this one here the trees are close together and they grow higher and higher to reach the sunlight they need because they keep their needle-like leaves all year round very little sunlight reaches the forest floor and plant life here is usually sparse browsing and grazing animals seldom live here but not eating tree climbing animals like this chipmunk are very much at home the Chipmunk is an excellent climber its sharp claws fit it for climbing on rough bark the Martin is related to the weasels and the skunks it is an animal of the evergreen forest although it is an excellent climber it spends much of its time on the forest floor searching for the squirrels and Chipmunks it prefers as food the black bear also lives in the evergreen forest it eats the soft inner layer of the bark of evergreen trees as well as berries fruits nuts and even Chipmunks when it can catch them but neither the black bear the Martin or the chipmunk could live in the extremely cold regions of the Arctic tundra or above the timber line on high mountain slopes in these regions conditions are very similar because of the intense cold and the short growing season the trees here are stunted sometimes only two or 3 in high however grasses can grow here above the Timberline grasses provide forage for the wild mountain or big horn sheep an animal with a heavy hair coat that protects it from the cold weather extremely shooted the big horn sheep is often found on high Rocky Mountain Crags so it is that living things are fitted for the place in which they live the animals of the water do not live on land the animals of the land do not live in water the special conditions of desert deciduous forest Prairie evergreen forest arctic tundra or Mountain Area all demand their own forms of life examine the animals of the region in which you live conditions of Life vary greatly and living things vary with them