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One day a young Prairie Dog named PJ was 

wandering through his new home, the 

Temperate Grassland. PJ’s new home was 

located in the Great Plains of the Midwestern 

United States.

He was new to the Temperate Grassland, and 

was amazed by the uniqueness. 

The weather was new to PJ, the Grassland’s have 

hot summers and cold winters.

It can get up to 100 F in the summer, hot enough 

to frazzle PJ’s fur!

PJ arrived to his new home in the late spring, just 

in time for the rain which comes in at a yearly 

average of 20-35 inches. With cold winters, this 

turns into snow. The weather has PJ in a tizzy.

PJ soon realized he was surrounded by grass! 

Grasses dominate the Temperate Grasslands

just read their name! Some type of grasses 

are, needle grass, wild oats, and foxtail grass. 

PJ was super happy, because this meant lots of 

food for him and other small animals that eat 

the

grass.

While admiring his new home, PJ began to 

meet his new friends. Other animals within the 

Temperate Grasslands include Ungulates, 

bison, antelope, birds, gophers, fellow prairie 

dogs, coyotes, and little insects. 

The Temperate Grassland was home to many biotic and abiotic 

factors. Biotic means alive, abiotic is not living. The living 

factors included his animal friends and the many types of 

grasses. The abiotic factors included the mean fires, the 

refreshing rain, and the bright sunlight that comes during the 

summer. Both of these factors can affect PJ and the 

environment. The biotic or the living can eat the food, take up 

the shelter, and live within the environment. The abiotic 

affects the living, the sunlight makes it hot, the rainfall gives 

more water, and the fires can harm

everyone

PJ soon became best friends with Billy the Bison 

and the two enjoyed running around through the 

grasses small waters that make up the grasslands 

and Billy introducing him to everything he knew 

about the Grassland.

It was all fun, but soon Billy had to share with PJ 

the dangers of the grasslands

Billy told PJ to beware of his predators, as the Prairie dog can 

be the prey to some animals within the Temperate Grasslands. 

The crazy coyotes are predators to the Prairie dogs and eat 

them for food. Prairie dogs, and PJ, have a special power that 

keep them hiding from these crazy Coyotes. PJ can dig 

underground and hide when he senses trouble from his 

predators.

Billy told him to beware. He told him about his friend Sam the 

Sparrow, who is a bird that feasts on the little insects such as 

grasshoppers and beetles within the grassland. Sam and his 

bird bros swoop down and snatch these insects when their 

stomach gets a growling for food.

Billy then began to share with PJ what a food web was. When 

PJ first heard this he thought of a giant spider web made of 

food. Billy and PJ had a good laugh, but Billy then told him 

what this food web really meant. A food web is a sort of map 

that shows what eats what within the environment. At the top 

of the Temperate Grassland food web is the coyote and the 

eagle, these can eat almost anything in the environment and 

don’t have predators. 

The next level of consumers include PJ and the Prairie dogs, 

gophers, Billy and his Bisons, and the Ungulates.

The second level consumers include Sam and his Sparrows, 

with the smaller insects under the birds in the food web. The 

grasses and decomposers are at the bottom of the food web 

within the Temperate Grasslands. PJ now had a better 

understanding of what a food web was and

aware of how the food web in the Grasslands developed 

thanks to Billy.

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