Animal Homes
Explore the great habitats of the world The Desert · The Frozen Poles · The Grasslands · The Mountains · Rivers and Wetlands · A Perfect Fit · The Tropical Rainforest · The Temperate Forest · The Taiga · The Tundra · The Savanna · The Prairie · The Steppe · The Scrubland.
Ages 7–10
What's inside
The Desert — hot, dry and full of survivors
A desert is one of the toughest places on Earth to live: burning hot by day, surprisingly cold by night, and with hardly a drop of water for weeks or months. Yet plenty of animals call it home — because they've become brilliant at surviving where almost nothing else can.
The Frozen Poles — the coldest homes on Earth
Right at the very top and bottom of the Earth are the coldest places of all — the frozen poles. Here the wind howls, the sea freezes solid, and snow and ice stretch as far as you can see. It seems impossible that anything could live here, yet some of the toughest animals on the planet do.
The Grasslands — wide open plains of grass
Picture a flat, golden plain of grass stretching all the way to the horizon under a huge sky. This is the grassland, or savanna, one of the most spectacular animal homes on Earth — because it's out here in the open that the greatest herds gather and the most famous hunters roam.
The Mountains — high, cold and steep
Mountains rise so high that near the top the air gets thin, the wind bites, and snow can fall even in summer. The ground is steep, rocky and dangerous. To live up here you have to be an expert climber with a warm coat — and a few remarkable animals are exactly that.
Rivers and Wetlands — where land meets water
Where land and water mix, you get wetlands — rivers, lakes, marshes and swamps, all soft mud and shallow water. They might look messy, but wetlands are some of the richest homes on Earth, crowded with creatures that split their lives between the water and the shore.
A Perfect Fit — how every animal suits its home
By now you've seen a big secret hiding in every habitat: the animals always fit their home astonishingly well. The camel is built for the desert, the penguin for the ice, the goat for the cliffs. This isn't luck — it's one of the most beautiful ideas in all of nature.
The Tropical Rainforest — hot, wet and bursting with life
Warm and dripping with rain almost every day, the tropical rainforest is the busiest animal home on Earth. So many creatures live here that scientists are still finding new ones all the time.
The Temperate Forest — leafy woods of four seasons
Temperate forests are the leafy woods of cooler lands, and they put on a show that changes all year. In spring and summer they are thick and green, and in autumn they blaze gold and red before the leaves fall.
The Taiga — the great cold forest of pines
Below the frozen tundra lies the taiga, a vast, dark forest of pines and firs that stays green even under deep snow. It is the largest forest on the whole planet.
The Tundra — a treeless frozen plain
The tundra is a wide, treeless plain near the top of the world, frozen and windswept for most of the year. For a few short summer weeks it bursts into low flowers and buzzing insects before the cold returns.
The Savanna — grassland dotted with lone trees
The savanna is a sunny grassland scattered with lonely, flat-topped acacia trees, most famous in Africa. Its year swings between a green wet season and a dusty dry season, and every animal lives by that rhythm.
The Prairie — wide grasslands of North America
The prairie is a sea of grass rolling to the horizon across the middle of North America. It has almost no trees, so its animals are built for open, windy country.
The Steppe — the dry cold grasslands of Asia
The steppe is a huge, dry ocean of grass stretching across the middle of Asia, with baking summers and bitter winters. Its animals must handle both fierce heat and deep cold in the same home.
The Scrubland — dry land of tough low bushes
Scrubland is warm, dry country where the plants are low, spiky bushes rather than tall trees or soft grass. You find it around places like the Mediterranean, where summers are long, hot and dry.
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