GRASSLANDS

1. GRASSLANDS

2. ANIMALS OF THE GRASSLANDS • There are many different types of animals that are found in the grasslands. The grasslands or prairies contained more than 80 species of animals and 300 species of birds, and hundreds of species of plants. • Some common animals in the grasslands are Coyotes, Eagles, Bobcats, the Gray Wolf, Wild Turkey, lion, Canadian Geese, Crickets, Dung Beetle, Bison, and Prairie Chicken.

3. Bald Eagle • The Bald Eagle is the national bird of the United States of America. It is considered to be a sea eagle that has a white head. It is large and strong and weighs eight to twelve pounds. Their wingspan can be two to about seven feet. • The Bald Eagle has a curved beak which is large and very strong. It's toes have talons which are very strong claws. They have excellent vision which helps them to hunt.

4. Eagle continued • The bald eagles’ diet consists of eat dead animals but will also eat live chickens or fish. If they eat dead animals they are known as a ………? • Adaptations that the eagle has to survive is it’s vision. Why? • Also it’s large, sharp, strong talons. Why?

5. Swift Fox • It is about the size of a cat, standing 12 inches in height, and 31 inches in length from head to tail. It weighs approximately 5 lbs .The male, or dog fox, is larger than the female, known as a vixen. They are a dark buff gray in color with a yellow-tan color across their sides and legs. • The swift fox’s diet consists of rabbits, mice, birds, reptiles, insects, berries, and seeds. Its main source of food consists of prairie dogs and ground squirrels. Is it an omnivore, herbivore, or carnivore?

6. Adaptations of the Swift fox • Their ears are noticeably large. Why is this an adaptation? • The swift fox gets its name because it can reach speeds of 25 miles. This will help it catch it’s prey.

7. Badger • The badger is an animal with a stocky, powerful build, having four short, strong legs and large, sharp claws. It has a long, pointy nose, with a white streak from the tip of it all the way down its back. It also has two white and black patches on its cheeks. It has strong teeth with four longer canine teeth.

8. Badger Continued • The badger is a carnivore, eating mostly meat like small mammals, lizards, snakes, insects and carrion. Badgers are one of the only animals which can kill and eat rattle snakes. Badgers are fearless hunters. • Adaptations for the Badger: The badger has sharp powerful claws for digging and a strong jaw with sharp teeth for tearing apart meat. The badger has poor eyesight but a keen sense of smell.

9. Plants • The grasslands are mainly made up of grasses and flowers. • The most common types of plant life on the North American prairie are Buffalo Grass, Sunflower, Crazy Weed, Asters, Blazing Stars, Coneflowers, Goldenrods, Clover, and Wild Indigos.

10. Adaptations for plants: They provide food and shelters for many of the animals of the grasslands. • The growing point of the grass is located at ground level. This is an adaptation that has developed in order to protect the grasses and flowers from grazing animals and fires.

11. Purple Coneflower • The purple cone flower has a reddish center and purple, red or white petals that hang down. It can grow to be 2-3 feet tall. The center can grow to the size of a child's fist, and the petals are about as long as the diameter of the center. It is part of the daisy and dandelion family. • Many of the plants and grasses are pollinated by the wind, so they do not need insects to pollinate them.

12. Stinging Nettle • This plant is a very interesting plant. When you look at it, it looks like an ordinary, hairy weed with attractive little flowers. • The stinging nettle grows to a height of 2 to 4 feet. The slender stems are four-sided. It has a creeping, stretching root from which new shoots emerge. The dull, dark green leaves grow opposite each other on the stem. They are thin and sort of egg-shaped with a toothed and tapered end and covered with stinging hairs. They are 2 to 6 inches long and 1 to 2 inches wide.

13. BEWARE!!!! • This plant may look normal to you but watch out!!!! • It can be a very dangerous plant, however, because when you touch it with your bare skin, you will get a terrible sting, which is very painful. When you get this sting it can be so bad that you might need treatment for it.

14. Climate • There are two different types of grasslands; tall-grass, which are humid and very wet, and short-grass, which are dry, with hotter summers and colder winters than the tall-grass prairie. • A grassland is a region where the average annual precipitation is great enough to support grasses, and in some areas a few trees. • The precipitation is so erratic that drought and fire prevent large forests from growing.

15. In the winter, grassland temperatures can be as low as -40° F, and in the summer it can be as high 70° F. There are two real seasons: a growing season and a dormant season. The growing season is when there is no frost and plants can grow (which lasts from 100 to 175 days). During the dormant (not growing) season nothing can grow because its too cold.

16. In the grasslands the average rainfall per year ranges from 10-30 inches. • In some areas there may even receive up to 25-60 inches per year! • West of the Mississippi River the temperature is moist and humid. This allows for some very tall grasses of up to 10 feet.

17. Landforms/Physical Features • The grasslands once covered about 25% of all the land on Earth. Why do you think there are less grasslands now? • Grassland biomes are large, rolling terrains of grasses, flowers and herbs. • Grasslands are mostly made up of, yes you guessed it, grass!

18. Physical features continued • In this biome, there are over 10,000 different species of grasses. • Other than grasses there are a variety of wild flowers and plants, with deep root systems. • Why do you think the grasses and flowers have deep root systems? • The soil of most grasslands is also too thin and dry for trees to survive.

19. Adaptations to the physical features • Most animals have adapted to the open, treeless prairie by digging burrows. • Even owls, like the Burrowing Owl, use the holes dug by prairie dogs as nesting sites.