Natural and Artificial Habitat Slide Show Main topics: Bobwhite quail need multiple habitats Humans need multiple artificial habitats Also along the way: Bunch and sod grasses, weeds, edge habitat, civilization, deserts

Part I: Natural Habitats

Today we will talk about habitat. An animal's habitat is where it lives. Did you ever wonder why a particular animal lives where it does? To find out, let's look at bobwhite quail.

Bobwhite quail are chunky little brown birds. People love bobwhites because they are cute, fun to hunt, and they say "bob...WHITE!"

Bobwhites are walkers. They might fly 50 yards or so, but mostly they live on the ground. The question is, what kind of ground?

For eating, bobwhites like partly bare ground. Why? 1. Pushing through grass is tiring for adults and impossible for chicks. (So bunch grasses with gaps are better than sod grasses with no gaps.) 2. Crops and weeds, great bobwhite foods, grow on bare soil. (Weeds are plants people dislike, usually because they compete with their crops.) 3. Seeds, the best part of the plant to eat, are easy to eat off bare ground, but hard to find in sod.

But bobwhites only eat around sunrise and sunset. For most of the daytime they lie low. Bobwhites run about 10°F hotter than humans, so they are always close to overheating. To stay cool on hot days, bobwhites sit under shady trees and bushes, with leaves off the ground.

Bobwhites also try not to get eaten themselves! For escaping a predator (like a hawk, skunk, or human), they will run or fly to thick, low brush, which closely covers the ground.

So where should bobwhites live, if they need bare ground, AND low brush, AND high shade? They live where these habitats are mixed together, so they can walk to each habitat every day. This is called edge habitat. Many bobwhites live on the edges of crop fields, where bushes grow along the fence, and weeds grow in the ditch.

Scientists believe that bobwhites are declining, mostly from their habitat getting "cleaned up" by mowing, spraying, grazing, or suburban sprawl. Habitat loss cuts animal populations more than hunting, pollution, and car accidents do. "Cleaning up" spurge, a quail food, with pesticides.

Part II: Artificial Habitats

Bobwhites and humans both build shelters-- bobwhite nests, and human houses or apartment buildings. But how are bobwhite and human habitats different? Humans also reshape the whole land around them, into much more artificial habitats. Let's look at three artificial habitats.

The most important habitat for us is farms. Even if you do not live on a farm, this is the habitat you need most of all, because your food comes from agriculture. This includes fields (or buildings) of growing animals, and fields of planted crops.

Almost as important is roads. This is a habitat? Yes! You live part of your life on roads, don't you? But more importantly, your food comes to you on roads. This is how you use farm "habitat," even if you don't live there.

Finally, cities! This is where most people live. But remember-- Cities need farms to make food for them. Cities need roads to bring food to them. A city with no food coming in would not last very long.

Now, to make these artificial habitats, the main thing people do is clear away plants. We plow fields, we seal roads, and we roof houses to make them plant-free.

In other words, people make little deserts-- places where plants don't cover the ground. Civilization, which means a society of cities and farms, is based on these little artificial deserts. When the plants take over again, you know that a civilization has fallen.

Finally, did you notice something? People like partly bare ground. Does this remind you of any other animal? Credits >>

NOAA NPS NRCS USGS DOI USDA FSA LOC USDOT USFWS NASA Bonneville Power Admin. House of Representatives Photo Credits