HABITATS / ENVIRONMENT

City Habitats
When you think about habitats,
you probably think of rainforests,
deserts, or oceans. Did you know

© iStockphoto.com/claireview
that a city is a habitat, too?

In a city, much of the soil is covered

with buildings, roads, sidewalks, and
parking lots, leaving less room for
plants and animals to live. But cities
have wildlife, too. Pigeons find plenty of trash and food scraps
in the city.
Plants grow in parks,
Smaller animals, such as mice, rats,
gardens, or even
pigeons, insects, squirrels, and raccoons,
medians in the middle
all do well in a city habitat. When food
of the street. They are
© iStockphoto.com/dblight

is scarce, sometimes larger animals that

usually planted and
will eat almost any kind of food come
cared for by people.
into cities to eat small wild animals as
Sometimes seeds are
well as pets. Animals that live in cities
carried into the city by
are often willing to eat more kinds of
birds and other Plants grow in cracks
in the sidewalk. food than animals in rural areas.
animals. Those seeds
take root and grow into wild plants. Plants and animals live in city
habitats and thrive just as they do in
People’s gardens and trash
the country. So, even though when you
attract animals.
hear the word city you may not think
of the plants and animals that live there,
city habitats are full of all kinds of life.
Feeding wild animals that live in cities
can cause problems. Feeding wild birds
brings larger animals such as
rats, snakes, and hawks that o What makes a city a habitat?
eat the birds or are attracted o Name five animals that live in a city.
to the birdseed. Rats can o Explain why you might find a bear
carry diseases. in a city habitat.
© iStockphoto.com/Oleg Kozlov

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