Prairie Animals

A prairie is a temperate grassland, plains of grass

that get hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Most of the
interior of North America was a prairie before European
settlement radically altered the environment with agriculure.
Even now, the prairie is a large area.
What is a Prairie?

Tall Grass Prairie - areas with rich soil, moderate

precipitation and tall grasses (over 5 feet = 1.5 m tall)
Short Grass Prairie - areas with little precipitation and short
grass (less than 2 feet = 61 cm tall). These areas are usually
unsuitable for agriculture.
The animals that live in prairies have adapted
to a semi-arid, windy environment with few trees or shrubs.
They can also withstand a great range in temperature, from well
below freezing in the winter to sweltering heat in the summer.
Animal Adaptations:

Where are Prairies?

Prairies are located in the interior of North

America.
Many animals live in prairies, from
invertebrates (like grasshoppers and beetles) to large mammals
(like antelopes and bison).
Animals that Live in Prairies:

 North America - American toad, badger, black-footed

ferret, bison, black-tailed jack rabbit, bumble bee,
burrowing owl, California condor, carrion beetle, common
snipe, coyote, deer, dragonfly, eagles, eastern cottontail,
elk, ferruginous hawk, snake, golden owl, gopher
snake, grasshopper, gray wolf, ground squirrels, killdeer,
lady beetle, larks, long-billled curlew, meadow
vole, monarch
butterfly,
northern
grasshopper
mouse, prairie chicken, prairie dog, prairie rattlesnake,
antelope, red fox, red-tailed hawk, shrew, skunk, stink
bug, tiger beetle, western meadowlark, western tiger
swallowtail, white-tailed jack rabbit, and many other
animals.

Prairie Animals:

Ant

Antelope
Antelopes are
graceful mammals
with beautiful
horns.

Black-Footed
Ferret

Badger

Bison
Ants are
The badger is a
The American Buffalo
social nocturnal mammal with
(which
is actually a Bison) is
insects.
a black-and-white
the heaviest land animal in
striped face.
North America.

BlackTailed
The Black-Footed
Ferret is an endangered Prairie Dog
type of ferret from
North America.

Coyote
Coyotes are
meat-eaters
related to
wolves.

Bobcat

Bull Snake

Also known as the gopher

A fierce, short- snake and the pine snake,
tailed wild cat this hissing constrictor lives
The prairie dog from North
in North America.
is not a dog; it
America.
is a ground
squirrel.

Donkey

Earthworm

Donkeys are hoofed

Dragonfly An earthworm is a little
mammals adapted to
environments with The dragonfly is a animal with a long, soft
flying insect with a body and no legs. They
little water.
are found worldwide
long abdomen.

Fox

Gopher Snake

Grasshopper

Also known as the bull

Grasshoppers are
Gray Wolf
snake
and
the
pine
insects
that
can
hop,
The fox is a
Gray wolves are
snake, this hissing
walk, and fly. There are carnivores that
meat-eating
mammal with a constrictor lives in North about 10,000 different live in packs and
America.
species of grasshoppers
long, bushy tail.
howl.
worldwide.

Jack
Rabbit
Jack rabbits
are hares;
they have
very long
legs and long
ears.

Mouse

Mole
Moles are
almost-blind,
burrowing
mammals.

Mongoose
Monarch Butterfly Life
Cycle

Mongooses are
sleek, meateating mammals.

See how a Monarch Butterfly starts

out as an egg, hatches into a
caterpillar, becomes a pupa, then
emerges as a fully-grown adult.

Mountain Lion or
Cougar

Opossum

Mice are small

The Virginia opossum is
rodents with long, A long-tailed American the only marsupial in
scaly tails.
North America.
wild cat with no spots.
It is also

Prairie
Chicken

Rabbit

Raccoon

A fastThe raccoon is a mammal

Prairie Dog
moving
Pronghorn
mammal with with mask-like markings
The prairie dog is
on its face and a ringed
Pronghorns are the
long ears.
not a dog; it is a
tail.
ground squirrel. fastest moving mammals
in North America.

Red Fox
The Red Fox is a meateating mammal with a
long, bushy tail.

Shrew

Red-Tailed Hawk

Scorpion

A venomous arachnid
with
a large stinger on
The Red-Tailed Hawk is a bird of
its tail.
prey, a raptor from North
America.

Skunk

Skunks are black Tiger Swallowtail

Western
Shrews are tiny,
and white
ferocious
Meadowlark
Butterfly
mammals that can
mammals that are
A brightly-colored
produce a terrible The Tiger Swallowtail
found worldwide.
songbird from
butterfly is a strong flier
odor.
with distinctive yellow western and central
North America.
and black markings