Little Oung Naturalists Habitats Prairies

Habitats naturalistsYoungLittleon thePrairiesBy Kathleen WeflenIllustrationsbyVera Ming WongMinnesota has a wild place called tallgrass prairie. Millions of28PHOTO BY GARY ALAN NELSONbison once grazed on this native grassland. Prairie Indians hunted bison forfood, clothing, shelter, and tools. When French explorers arrived, they lookedout on miles of tall grass stretching all the way to the horizon. They called itprairie, meaning meadow. On an 1838 expedition, Joseph Nicollet wrote, “Theplateau . is high, grand, and beautiful prairie. The view to the south seemslimitless. The spectacle is full of grandeur.”Today, you can explore much smaller prairies at state parks such as BlueMounds, Glacial Lakes, and Buffalo River. Most of the original prairie is gone,but the little habitats that remain still hold a surprising variety of wildlife. Liedown in a tallgrass prairie and listen to millions of blades of grass swaying inthe wind. A hawk swoops to catch a ground squirrel. Frogs and ducks callfrom ponds. Thousands of dragonflies, bees, and other insects travel amonghundreds of kinds of wildflowers. Under the ground, gophers, snakes, andvoles scurry through tunnels or curl up in dens.From spring until fall, about a dozen species of prairie plants come intobloom each week. Any day is a fine time to explore a prairie.Prairie to Farm. After traveling for several months from the mountainsof Norway, Ann Pederson and her family stepped off a train in Taopi,Minn., in July 1879. They saw bright blue sky over a sea of tall grass. Bigbluestem, Indian grass, and gray-headed coneflowers were blooming.With their boxes and trunks loaded on a wooden cart pulled by an ox, thefamily headed onto the prairie to make a new home. Perched atop the oxcart,

PHOTO BY GARY ALAN NELSONAnn watched her Minnesotacousin Adolf jumping throughtall grass, trying to catch aglimpse of the new immigrants.Many years later, Ann’s fathertold his grandchildren the family settled on the best farmlandin southwestern Minnesota.Most of the state’s best farmland was once prairie. Whileprairie Indians planted corn,beans, squash, and sunflowersin riverside woodlands, pioneersplowed the prairie’s rich, dark soilto plant field crops.Before settlers arrived, native grasses and wildflowersstretched across one-third ofthe state, from the southeast tothe northwestern corner. Prairie covered 18 million acres—astretch of land almost as big asLake Superior (20 million acres).Little bluestemBig bluestemIndian grass(Schizachyrium scoparium)(Andropogon gerardii)(Sorghastrum nutans)Up on the hills, where thesoil is drier, little bluestemrules. It is not so tall. Itsfeathery seed heads reachno more than 3 feet high.You can easily recognize itin the fall when its leavesturn deep maroon.This grass grows on lowland. Its stems can reach6 feet. Some people call itturkey foot because the seedheads look like three longtoes. The mighty turkeyfoot grass can stand tall because it has long roots thatstretch 9 feet deep or more.Big bluestem is a sign oftrue prairie.Indian grass stands up to6 feet tall, making a fineplace to play hide-andseek. It does not spreadand grow as thick as bigbluestem, but you can seeit high and low on hillsand in valleys. Sometimescalled goldstem, it turns arich yellow in the fall.Big Sky and Tall Grass. TodayMinnesota has about 235,000acres of native prairie. Nativewildflowers and grasses grow onbluffs, rolling hills, low wetlands,and old railroad beds—placesnever plowed. All kinds of animals live on these prairie patches.Big sky and tall grasses aresigns of prairie. Here are threeexamples of native grass species.By mid-July, some have grownas tall as a basketball player.31

In theShadowAbout 40 million to 70 million years ago, the RockyMountains rose up. Windsfrom the west cooled as theyflowed over the mountains,wringing moisture out of theair. That’s why flatter, rollinghills east of the mountains didnot get much rain. Trees hada hard time growing on thesedry plains. But grasses andwildflowers adapted by sending roots deep undergroundto tap water and minerals.From the west, grasslandsspread thousands of milesacross North America. Likethe Serengeti Plains of Tanzania and Kenya in Africa,the Great Plains became thehome of vast herds of grasseating mammals, such as elkand bison.MAP BASED ON MAP BY J. SLAATS, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY, MINNEAPOLIS, MNof MountainsNative PlantsMost prairie plants are perennial,growing every year. The tall compass plant turns its lower leavesnorth-south, so that the flat sidesface east-west. Some pioneerschewed gummy stuff from its broken stems. Purple coneflower hasa spiny center cone—a landing padfor insects and small birds.Tallgrass prairieMixed-grass prairieShort-grass prairieMountain range33

Wind. Without mountains or forests tostop the wind, prairies are some of theworld’s windiest places. Sometimes theprairie wind is a breeze. Sometimes itturns into a tornado. Whether the windis gentle or strong, the tall grasses do notbreak like trees sometimes do. They bendand bow, held fast by deep roots.prairies. In spring and fall, when thunderclouds rolled across the plains, a bolt of lightning could strike dried plants and start a fire.In a strong wind, flames might leap 30 feethigh and blaze across miles and miles. As awall of flames roared across dry prairie, fastrunning bison stampeded ahead of it. Theplant roots stayed safe underground. So didgophers, voles, snakes, and other animalsthat use burrows.When rain fell or the fire reached a wideriver or lake, the fire stopped. After the fire,bison came back to graze on fresh greenplants, which sprouted in soil nourished bythe ashes of burned plants.Fire. Dry places like prairies burn eas-Rain. Prairies get less rain each year thanNatural Elements and ForcesIf you’ve read Little House on the Prairieby Laura Ingalls Wilder, you know something about life on a prairie. Laura did notlive in town. She lived in the country witha wild community of large and small creatures, plants, rocks, earth, sky, and water.She explored all of these natural elementsof the prairie.Sun, wind, rain, fire, and ice shaped theoriginal prairie. These forces of nature arestill shaping prairies today.Sun. Far from the oceans, in the middleof the continent, a summer prairie can beas hot and dry as a desert. Prairie plantshave many adaptations for living underblazing hot sun in temperatures of 100 degrees or more. For example, narrow leavesof grass curl to hold moisture. Many prairie animals live underground.ily. Lightning was the original fire starter onforests do. In 1932 and for the next sevenyears, almost no rain fell on Minnesotafarms or prairies. Wind whipped up dustfrom farm fields and blew it across thecountry. Plants began to shrivel. Hordes ofhungry grasshoppers chomped on waterstarved plants. The dry land of the GreatPlains became known as the Dust Bowl.During this long drought, a botanistnamed John Weaver and his students studied how prairie plants were surviving. Theyfound that grasshoppers were helping prairie grasses by cutting the leaves, so the planthad a shorter distance to send water fromroots to leaves. The shortened leaves alsoneeded less water than long leaves did. Theresearchers found that grasshoppers didnot chew all the way down to the pointswhere new growth sprouts.35

Prairie State Parks21536Note to Teachers4Many HabitatsEach prairie animal is adapted to live in aparticular kind of habitat. Some flock towater, some go underground, and someroam the grassland.Underground Town. To plant cropson the prairie, pioneers first had to breakapart sod—a tangle of roots, shoots, andsoil. Long before people arrived, wild animals also dug prairie soil. Many adaptedto using resources under as well as aboveground. Look for the entrances to a subterranean labyrinth of roots and tunnels.Imagine burrowing animals traveling intunnels and sleeping in dens.1 Badger. With long claws, this powerful digger sniffs out and captures pocketgophers and ground squirrels.2 Bull snake. Also called the gophersnake, it uses burrows to find and eat rodents and to escape heat and cold.3 Burrowing owl. As small as an ice- Blue Mounds has a herd of about75 bison. Visit in early June to seenewborn calves. Buffalo River prairie has redfoxes, badgers, coyotes, and jackrabbits. Go in spring to look forprairie chickens. Glacial Lakes has old oxcart trailsto hike. Pitch a tent and sit by acampfire and listen for the song ofthe coyote.Find other parks at www.mndnr.gov/state parks. Also find thestory “Explore Minnesota’s Prairies” in the MCV archives at www.mndnr.gov/magazine.Find links to teachers guides forthis and other stories at www.mndnr.gov/young naturalists.cream cone, this rare owl nests underground. In daytime on the prairie, itoften stands on one leg, bobbing its head.4 Franklin’s ground squirrel. This secretive rodent reveals itself with a birdlikewhistle. In winter it hibernates in a burrow.5 Plains pocket gopher. This ambitiousdigger seldom appears above ground. Itpushes soil out of its tunnel, creating afan-shaped mound above ground.6 Prairie vole. The female prairievole has babies every 21 days. Withup to 250 voles living on one acre,foxes and coyotes can have a feast.Pothole Haven. About 12,000 years ago,the last glaciers on the plains shrank. Theyleft behind boulders, mounds of groundup rocks, and blocks of ice. When someof the heavy ice blocks melted, they became small ponds or lakes called kettlelakes or potholes.Ducks, swans, and shorebirds stop byprairie potholes for food and shelter as theymigrate in spring and fall. Some birds stayall summer to breed and raise their young.37

514523Millions of bison roamed across the GreatPlains. Today, you can see a herd of bisongrazing on grass at Blue Mounds StatePark. Watch for tinier grazers too.1 Bison. A bull bison can weigh a ton.A female bison can be 1,000 pounds. Anewborn calf weighs about 50 pounds.Bison eat mostly grass. By chewing old,dry grass and stirring up soil with theirhooves, bison help new grass grow.2 Coyotes. Sometimes called the songdog, the coyote digs a den for its pupsand hunts in its home range. Whenvoles, rabbits, and other food are hardto find, it travels farther. It can cruise at30 miles per hour.3 Bottle gentian. In the fall, burlybumblebees buzz to force open bottleshaped gentian flowers. As the beegathers protein-rich flower pollen, itsfur picks up pollen that will rub off atthe next flower stop. Plants need to bepollinated to start new plants.4 Dragonflies, flies, butterflies, moths.Some insects visit flowers for nectar.Like bees, these wild pollinators carrypollen as they fly among flowers.5 Meadowlarks and bobolinks. Perchedon a fence post, a meadowlark sends itsmelody across the prairie. The bubblingsong of the bobolink floats over thegrasses. Prairie birds also sing on the wing.Most of them nest on the ground.Prairie Daydreams. The best way tolearn about prairies: Visit one. Walk intall grass. Scoop butterflies in a net. Finda hiding place to watch birds on a pothole.Most important, just lie down in the grass,close your eyes, and listen. Breathe in thefragrance of wildflowers and sun-warmedearth. This is your prairie heritage. nVPURPLE PRAIRIE CLOVER BY RICHARD HAMILTON SMITHHome on the RangeTo make a prairie, it takes a clover andone bee,—One clover, and a bee,And revery.The revery alone will doIf bees are few.—Emily Dickinson39

If you’ve read Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, you know some-thing about life on a prairie. Laura did not live in town. She lived in the country with a wild community of large and small crea - tures, plants, rocks, earth, sky, and water. She explored all of these natural elements of the prairie.