Temperate grassland. American Bison Black-Footed Ferret Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Coyote Pronghorn Przewalski's Horse Vicuña Wild Boar Main Menu

Today about a quarter of the Earth's surface that supports vegetation is made up of temperate grassland. While a large portion of this land was once forest and has been degraded to grass by human development, many original temperate grasslands still exist.

Perhaps the harshest of all grassland biomes are those of the Eurasian steppes and northwestern North America. Even so, despite the low winter temperatures, a rich summer growth of vegetation supports a variety of mammal species here, including ungulates — such as the saiga antelope and the pronghorn — that share a common ancestry with the antelopes and gazelles of Africa.

Many rodent species on the grasslands survive winter by tunneling into the soft, dry soil, where they hibernate and store food. Susliks and marmots in Eurasia and prairie dogs in North America make up a large percentage of these species and, in turn, support predators, including the coyote, which is widely distributed in North America, and the gray wolf, which is also distributed in Eurasia.

Mammals of the pampas grasslands of South America show some striking similarities to those found in grasslands of the northern hemisphere. The niches of the prairie dogs and coyotes, for instance, are here represented by the viscacha (Lagostomus maximus), another burrowing rodent, and the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus). Only distantly related to true wolves, this South American canid has unusually long legs, permitting it to bound above tall grass in search of prey.

Ready for the first mammal? Check out the American Bison.

>>Map of World Biomes<<