A Habitat Tour On a tour focusing on habitat, a student should be able to: ➤ define and identify the components of a habitat ➤ recognize how humans and other animal depend upon habitat ➤ recognize that healthy habitats require a balance of nature; and ➤ interpret the significance of loss or change in habitat in terms of people and wildlife. Every animal needs a place to live. The environment in which an animal lives is called a HABITAT. An animal's habitat must include 5 elements: food, shelter, water, and adequate space, in an arrangement appropriate to that animal's needs. If any of these components of a habitat is missing or is affected significantly there will be an impact. The impact may be minor or catastrophic. Other limiting factors include disease, predation, pollution, accident, and climate changes as well as human intervention. AN INQUIRY What is a habitat? (Habitat is a home. It has food, water, shelter, space in an arrangement suitable to that animal. Different animals have different needs.) What do we mean by arrangement? (Access to the components of habitat must be suitable to the animal's ability to attain them. Ask the children if they could live in a home where the bathroom was 4 miles south, the kitchen 3 miles west and the bedroom 5 miles north.) What different kinds of habitat are found here at lvy Creek? (hayfield, forest, water, meadows, marsh and edge communities of each) Describe the habitat you are standing in. What wildlife might live here? Live elsewhere but need/use this habitat? See wildlife section. How does pollution affect wildlife habitat? (litter, erosion, water pollution, air) How does wildlife contribute to the health of this habitat? (earthworms, etc. build soil; animals as seed dispersers, predator/prey keeping balance) How do plants contribute to this habitat? (food, shelter, clean air, clean water, oxygenate water. A diversity of plant life leads to a diversity of wildlife - BALANCE) What predator/prey relationship might exist in this habitat? See notebook. How do habitats naturally change? (see succession in notebook - gradual process of field to forest; pond to marsh; marsh to field. [n reverse, fire, tree death due to disease open up canopy) How do humans impact habitat? (Pollution, particularly of water, destruction of habitat to development; improper land management that may lead to erosion; “cleaning up” our own yards may impact wildlife that depend on dead trees, leaf litter, etc. Change such as clearing a forest will destroy habitat for some species and create habitat for others - altering species balance. Large road projects often effectively cut off one habitat from another.) .