Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre

Experience Engage Enable

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Emailfieldofmar-e.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Rock and log habitats

Rock and log habitats

Rocks as habitat

Rocks retain heat from the sun and are used by reptiles to warm themselves. Crevices in or between rocks provide shelter and nesting sites for reptiles and some mammals. They also provide shelter for invertebrates and a growing platform for lichens and other plant-like organisms. 

Blue tongue lizard lying on top of a rock
Image: Blue tongue lizards sunbake on top of rocks and logs
Two gecko heads poking out of a horizontal crevice in a rock
Image: Crevices and cracks in rocks create great hiding spaces for many small animals such as these two southern leaf-tailed geckos.
Pyton in sandstone cave
Image: In the Pilliga, pythons will escape the heat of summer by resting in a large sandstone crevices.

Logs as habitat

Many ground feeding birds, frogs, lizards and Australian mammals use rotting or hollow logs on the ground. They can provide homes and shelter and the invertebrates that eat the logs can in turn become a food source to insectivores such as echidnas. As they decompose the logs provide nutrients to the soil. They also can act as a form of erosion control slowing water running down hillsides.

Log with hollow centre on the ground
Image: Once trees die and fall to the ground they still provide essential habitat such as shelter.
Skink lizard on a log
Image: Skinks will hunt invertebrates hidden on or under logs. Hollow logs can protect the skinks from predators.

Southern leaf tailed gecko

This gecko is known for its leaf-shaped tail. Its skin is rough and scaly with mottled patterns which make for perfect camouflage in a sandstone rock crevice habitat. 

Leaf tailed gecko with a triangle shaped head and tail, flattened body wth four legs and five star-shaped toes on each foot
Image: Leaf tailed geckos are nocturnal. In the evening they emerge from crevices to hunt small invertebrates.

habitat book
Image: Habitat digital book

Find out more

Habitat is a special digital book that investigates the needs of living things through detailed text, interactive activities, videos and stunning images.

Explore the value of habitats such as trees, shrubs and ground cover plants and non-living habitats such as leaf litter, rocks, logs and water.

Find out how to create and restore habitats that will help animals survive and thrive.

This book supports Australian Curriculum biological sciences and living world.

Download free from Apple Books.

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