What is a habitat, and what is an adaptation?

Different places, different living things

On a nature walk you may notice that different animals live in different surroundings. In Activity 2.10, the class lists living things from different regions: a camel in the desert, a deodar tree on the mountains, fish in the ocean and a lion in the forest. The plants and animals of one kind of region are different from those of another. Why?

Each region has its own conditions: how much water there is, how hot or cold it gets, whether it snows. Living things that survive there have features that suit those conditions. That is why biodiversity varies from region to region.

Adaptations

The special features that enable plants and animals to survive in a particular region are called adaptations.

• Cactus (desert): a hot desert has very little water and is very hot by day and very cold at night. The thick, fleshy stem of a cactus stores water and helps it tolerate the heat.
• Deodar (snowy mountains): mountains in very cold regions get frequent snowfall. The cone shape and sloping branches of a deodar let the snow slide off easily.
• Fish (water): fish have streamlined bodies and fins, which make swimming in water easier. A goat on land moves with its legs instead.
• Rhododendron (mountains): in the Shola forests of the Nilgiris, rhododendrons are short with small leaves, which helps them survive heavy winds on mountain tops; in Sikkim they grow taller. The same plant shows different features in different regions.

Camels of two deserts

Feature	Camel of the hot desert (Rajasthan)	Camel of the cold desert (Ladakh)
Legs and height	Long legs, taller	Shorter legs and height
Why it helps	Long legs and wide hooves keep it from sinking into sand	Short legs help it walk in mountainous regions
Humps	One hump, storing food	Two humps, which shrink in late winter as stored food is used

The cold-desert camel also grows long hair from its head to its neck, which helps it survive the cold winters of Ladakh. Camels also lose very little water: they pass small amounts of urine, their dung is dry and they do not sweat, so they can survive many days without drinking.

Habitat

The place where plants and animals live is their habitat. The habitat of sea turtles is the sea or the ocean; of a camel, the hot or cold desert; of a rhododendron, the mountains. A habitat provides food, water, air, shelter and other needs. Many kinds of plants and animals can share the same habitat, so habitats shape the biodiversity of a region.

Terrestrial and aquatic habitats

One simple way to group plants and animals by habitat is land or water:

• Terrestrial habitats (on land): forests, deserts, grasslands and mountains.
• Aquatic habitats (in water): ponds, lakes, rivers and oceans.
• Amphibians, such as frogs, can live in water as well as on land.

When a habitat is damaged

What would happen if a goat got no grass to eat, or a fish had no water? Living things depend on their habitat. When habitats are damaged, plants and animals lose their homes, food and other resources, and the region loses biodiversity. Read how biodiversity is protected in what is biodiversity, and see the Chapter 2 notes for the whole chapter.