1. What is an __________? An organism is a living thing.
EX: prairie dog, red-tailed hawk, grass
EX: (List two examples from the cactus garden.)
What is the prairie dog getting from its environment?

2. Could the prairie dog survive on a beach?
What is a _________?
A habitat is part of the environment that provides the things, (food, water, shelter, etc.), an organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce.
EX: (prairie dog town)
EX: (List two examples from the cactus garden.)
Could the prairie dog survive on a beach?

3. Organism Requirements…
Organisms live in different habitats because they have different requirements for survival.
Can an area contain more than one habitat?

4. Coexisting Habitats…
One area may contain many habitats. For example, in a forest, mushrooms grow in damp soil, salamanders live on the forest floor, and wood peckers build nests in tree trunks.
Think of examples from the cactus garden.

5. What is a _________ factor?
An organism interacts with both the living and nonliving parts of its habitat.
The living parts of a habitat are called biotic factors.
EX: (prairie dog town)
EX: (List two examples from the cactus garden.)

6. What is an __________ factor?
Abiotic factors are the nonliving parts of an organism’s habitat (water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, soil).
EX: (prairie dog town)
EX: (List two examples from the cactus garden.)

7. Does this organism live alone?
No, he lives with other prairie dogs.
Ecologists have a category for a group of organisms.

8. What is a _____________?
All the members of one species in a particular area.
List two examples from the cactus garden.
The largest prairie dog colony on record, in Texas, measured nearly 25,000 square miles (65,000 km2) and contained an estimated 400 million prairie dogs.
Other examples: all pigeons in New York, all bees in a hive
A population is NOT all the trees in a forest because there are different kinds of trees
Do the prairie dogs interact with other organisms in this habitat? Who?