Habitats

The cactus lives in the desert, the deodar on snowy mountains, the camels in Rajasthan and Ladakh, the fish in the sea. Each has its own kind of home. The place where a plant or an animal lives is called its habitat.

The book's examples: the habitat of sea turtles is the sea or ocean. The habitat of a camel is the hot or cold desert. The habitat of a rhododendron is the mountains.

A habitat gives plants and animals food, water, air, shelter and everything else they need to survive. Many kinds of plants and animals can share the same habitat.

Habitats can be grouped into two kinds:

• Terrestrial habitats are on land: forests, deserts, grasslands, mountains. A horse, a sheep and a squirrel are terrestrial animals.
• Aquatic habitats are in water: ponds, lakes, rivers, oceans. A whale and a dolphin are aquatic animals.

Some animals, such as frogs, can live in water as well as on land. The book calls animals like frogs amphibians.