From the highest mountain to the depths of the oceans, habitats are the places where animals live. They have everything necessary for their survival (food, shelter, etc.). Let's learn more about them!

Most animals live in one type of environment because they are best suited to it. We say they are "adapted to this environment". For example, animals like frogs and ducks have webbed feet to help them swim in the water. There are many different types of habitats and many different kinds of adaptations to fit into each. Let's see some examples of habitats. 

Grassland

Grassland habitats are places that receive more rain than deserts but less than forests. Most of the plants here are grasses, which don't need as much water as forest vegetation.

Every continent except Antarctica has grasslands, but they have different names in different places: In Africa, they're called savannas and veldts; pampas in South America; steppes in Europe and Asia; prairies or grasslands in North America; and rangelands in Australia. One-fourth of the planet is covered by grasslands.

Grasslands are usually found in the dry interior of continents, between the mountains and deserts. Large numbers of birds, grazing mammals, reptiles, insects and predators live throughout the grasslands of the world.

Desert

Deserts are the driest places on Earth -they get fewer than 25 centimeters of rain a year. Some deserts may get a lot of rain all at once. Then it might not rain again for months -or even years!

It may seem like nothing can live in a desert because it's so dry. But most deserts are full of life, with plants and animals that have adapted to survive without much water. Desert animals have adaptations that help them survive without much water. Kangaroo rats in the Sonoran Desert get water from the seeds they eat. Some carnivores, such as desert foxes, get enough liquid from their prey.

Another trick? Most desert animals stay underground or beneath shady rocks during the day. Many of them come out to hunt for food at night, when it's cool.

Rainforest

A beam of sunlight makes its way through the leaves and lights up the brightly colored wings of a macaw. An enormous butterfly flits from plant to plant. Monkeys shout and chatter as they swing from tree to tree looking for breakfast. The rainforest is waking up. 

Rainforests are lush, warm, wet habitats. Trees in the rainforest grow very tall because they have to compete with other plants for sunlight. Kapok trees, which are found in tropical rainforests around the world, can grow to 60 meters.

There are rainforests in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. The biggest rainforest is the Amazon rainforest. More than half of it is in Brazil, but parts are in several other South American countries, including Ecuador and Bolivia.

Most rainforests are found along or near the Equator, where it tends to be hot. But some rainforests grow in temperate regions where it's cooler. Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park on the Pacific northwest coast of North America is an example of a temperate rainforest. Like tropical rainforests, temperate rainforests get lots of, well, rain. 

Polar

It's frigid and you're surrounded by ice. You wonder how any animal could survive in this extreme cold. Then a polar bear and her cubs lumber by, and in the ocean behind them a whale erupts from the water. 

Polar habitats cover the top and bottom of planet Earth at the North and South Poles. The North Pole is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean. There isn't any land here, just a group of continually shifting ice sheets. Parts of Canada and Greenland are near the North Pole. The South Pole is located on Antarctica. This area has land, but it's completely covered with a layer of ice that's almost four kilometers thick in some places.

Even though it's chilly in polar regions, they do have seasons -well, two seasons: summer and winter. In the summer, the sun shines 24 hours a day, but it never gets high enough above the horizon to warm things up, so even summers are pretty cold. It's dark all winter at the poles, because the sun doesn't rise during those months of the year. 

Although the two polar regions are similar in many ways, the animal life between them differs. In the Arctic many animals live on the land. In the Antarctic the animals live almost entirely where the ice meets the ocean. Fewer animal species live in the Antarctic than in the Arctic.

Mountain

Mountain habitats vary dramatically from the base to the peak of the mountains. On the mountain tops temperatures are colder, oxygen is scarcer, and the sun is harsher. 

Mountains often have extreme climates, and the animals that live there have some amazing adaptations. For instance, the red panda in Asia's Himalaya grows a thick coat. Some animals' fur is more than insulation. Living in the mountains of North America, snowshoe hares have snow-white coats that help them hide from mountain lions and other predators.

Grizzly bears and hoary marmots living in the mountains of North America survive the cold winters by hibernating -hiding out in dens and resting- to conserve energy when food is hard to find. When grizzly bears hibernate, their body temperature drops by about 12 degrees, and they take a breath only once about every 45 seconds. Other animals, like mountain goats and ibexes living in Europe's Alps, migrate to lower, warmer elevations during the winter. These animals have tough but flexible hooves to steady themselves when climbing up and down the rocky terrain looking for food. 

Freshwater

An alligator dozes on a log. A heron soars overhead and lands in the reeds a safe distance away. Sploop! A frog jumps into the water while insects buzz and chirp. This freshwater habitat is a busy place!

Rivers, creeks, lakes, ponds, and streams are all freshwater habitats. So are wetlands like swamps, which have woody plants and trees; and marshes, which have no trees but lots of grasses and reeds. Freshwater accounts for only three percent of the world's water. (The rest is saltwater.) But despite that tiny amount, freshwater habitats are homes for more than 100,000 species of plants and animals.

Fish living in freshwater habitats have plenty of company. Animals of all types, including large numbers of reptiles and birds live in freshwater habitats. Some unusual animals, like the river dolphin and the diving bell spider, are freshwater creatures, too.  

Ocean

Oceans are by far the largest animal habitat on earth. The oceans are so huge it is hard for scientists to explore them. It is known that animal life can be found at all depths of the ocean, from the surface to the deepest trenches that are over eleven kilometers below the surface. That place is called the Mariana Trench, and it's the deepest part of the ocean.

Scientists estimate that about one million species of animals live in the ocean. But most of them -95 percent- are invertebrates. 

Some of the smallest animals on Earth can be found in the ocean. Sea animals like zooplankton are so small you can see them only with a microscope. Big fish swim through these waters too, such as great white sharks, manta rays, and ocean sunfish.

The largest animal ever to live on Earth is an ocean mammal called the blue whale. It's as long as two school buses! Dolphins, porpoises, and sea lions are also ocean-dwelling mammals.