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breaking down animal and plant wastes into useful nutri- ents that enrich the soil. To the animals that live

Educational Video

For an overview of grasslands and the ani- mals that live there, scan here:

among the stems, grasslands are a forest, a pasture and hunting ground as rich as the tropical rainforests. Mice and voles are the plant-eaters. Weasels and stoats are the top predators, but there are also carnivorous bee- tles and centipedes, hunting insects and small mollusks . Just above the ground, birds chase insects and gather seeds. The large-scale action on the open African savannah is well known, from countless TV wildlife shows. The savannah can be dangerous for prey animals, but it is an easy place to make exciting films. Predators hunt there, and huge herds of grazers wander in search of water and fresh grazing. Crocodiles lurk in the rivers, snatching the migrants as they pass. The herds of wildebeest can be a million strong. It is difficult to imagine today, but herds as vast as the wildebeest herds in Africa once wandered the North American prairies. At their peak, the prairies were home to 60–70 million bison and 50 million pronghorn antelope. They were preyed on by wolves, bears, mountain lions—and by people. Why Grasses Are Special The most important feature of grasses is that unlike most plants they grow from the base, not from an apical shoot . When

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Grasslands