• Quiz
  • Map
  • Words

What is a habitat?

Play Sound

A - It’s the place where a plant or animal normally lives

B - It’s something you can’t stop doing, like chewing your nails

C - It’s a type of giant flounder

D - It’s a part of the ocean where most plants and animals live

239 Likes 11238 Views
Autoplay on
Play Video
Like
Favourite

What is a habitat?

Play again

Links

Sea Creatures by Habitat (New Zealand Marine Studies Centre)

Click on a habitat to see which creatures live there!

 

New Zealand's Ocean Environment (Ministry for the Environment)

A short description of New Zealand's ocean environment.


Activities

Create: A shoebox habitat

Why not use an old shoebox box to create a place for sea creatures to live?

Start with some rocks or sand (glue it down!) at the bottom, then fill your habitat with a bunch of amazing plants and animals.

Some ideas:

  • A kelp forest filled with starfish, crabs, and jellyfish
  • A reef bustling with colourful fishes and coral
  • Or an offshore area where dolphins, sharks, and whales hang out

Talk with someone you know about what might live there, including any human impact like fishing nets, plastic, pollution, or passing boats.

Habitat

 

A habitat is the place or environment where a plant or animal naturally lives. A habitat provides food, water, shelter, and a place to raise young. For example a coral reef or a sandy beach.

Open ocean

 

The part of the ocean that is out of sight of land. Most of the ocean is open ocean, but it is often referred to as the 'marine desert' because there is a lot less life living there than in shallow seas.

Coast

 

The land near a sea shore (where the land meets the sea).

Coral

 

Sea animals that stay in one place their whole life. Some coral produce a colourful skeleton (which is also called coral) that will remain after they die. Coral are often found grouped in large areas called coral reefs, and they are related to sea anemones and jellyfish.

Reef

 

A long line of jagged rock, coral, or sand just above or below the surface of the ocean. An artificial reef is when a human-made structure creates a reef on the sea floor.

Kelp

 

A large, brown, seaweed that lives in cold water and provides a habitat for many other sea creatures.

Harbour

 

A place on the coast where ships can safely anchor because it is protected from rough water, wind, and sea currents.

Rocky shore

 

A rocky shore is the area where the sea tide moves up and down, exposing solid rock when the tide is out and covering it with water when it is in. Rocky shores are home to many different animals such as shellfish, birds, sea anemones, and crabs.

Click for more words!
Learn to Draw
Interviews with Experts
Hauraki Gulf
YOE adventures
Riley can't find the ocean here!
Sea of Hope
SeaLegacy's Sea of Hope episode
Should we care about sea birds?
What is a habitat?
Goat Island
What sea animal eats like a cow?
Meet the largest dolphin in the sea
How deep can fur seals dive?
What does a shark eat?
Sharks - super fast swimmers
What’s bad about plastic?
How do stingrays swim?
Learn to Draw - Dusky Dolphin
Lots of whales in the gulf?
Whose skull am I holding?
What is an apex predator?
Where do most living things live?
Aihe (dolphin)
How far do Hutton's shearwaters travel for food?
Learn to Draw - Triplefin
What is Citizen Science?
Learn to Draw - Eagle Ray
Meet the humpback whale
Dolphins special sleep trick
How to hide in plain sight
Is anything scared of a dolphin?
What is this creature?
Do you have the mana of an orca?
If you were a turtle, would you rather ...
Most amazing petrel fact?
How can fur seals hold their breaths?
Catch fish not birds
Why do we call this a meatball?
Stop plastic!
Stingray Dad jokes
Riley swims with galapagos sharks
Learn to Draw - Snapper
What eats turtles?
Dr Ingrid Visser answers our questions about Orca
NZ’s first nature reserve?
Hope Stories - Plastic collection
Why is biosecurity important?
How many species of turtles?
What is a habitat?
Which ray is the best swimmer?
What do turtles use their back flippers for?
What is a food chain?