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Living Things and Habitats

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Living Things and Habitats

A storm has damaged part of a New Zealand ngahere (forest). Become a habitat detective: use the clues to work out what living things need and how they depend on one another.

Read the field notes

At the forest edge, a tī kōuka (cabbage tree) has flowers with nectar. A tūī visits the flowers to feed. Pīpīwharauroa (shining cuckoos) eat caterpillars among the leaves. A wētā hides in a crack in a fallen log during the day and comes out at night to eat plants and small insects. A skink shelters under stones and fallen leaves, and eats small insects. Rainwater collects in a shallow pool nearby. The forest floor is damp and shaded by trees.

Investigate the habitat

1.Which statement best describes a habitat?

A place where a living thing gets the resources it needs to survive
A place where only animals sleep
Any place that has trees
A place where living things never change

2.From the field notes, name two things the forest provides that living things need.

3.Match each living thing to a resource described in the field notes. Write the correct letter beside each number.

1. Tūī
2. Wētā
3. Skink
4. Shining cuckoo

B. Nectar from flowers
D. Caterpillars
C. Fallen log for shelter
A. Small insects

4.Choose one living thing from the field notes. Describe one way it is suited to, or uses, its habitat.

5.The tūī visits the tī kōuka flowers for nectar. How might the tree benefit from the tūī visiting?

6.True or false? If the shallow pool dries up, it could affect animals that use the habitat, even if their shelter remains.

TrueFalse

7.A person removes the fallen log and clears away the leaves and stones. Predict one effect on the wētā or skink, and explain why.

8.Complete the sentence: A habitat is more than a home because it also provides and .

9.A storm has knocked down a branch, but the fallen log is still useful to small animals. Give one careful action people could take to help care for this habitat without disturbing its living things.

10.Draw a simple habitat food-and-shelter web using at least three living things from the field notes. Add arrows or labels to show a feeding link and a shelter link.

Show at least three living things, with one feeding link and one shelter link. Label what each arrow or line means.