🎵From the mountains, to the prairies, to the hoodoos of white limestone!🎵 Ranging from 6,620 feet (2,018 m) to 9,115 feet (2,778 m), Bryce Canyon National Park protects a variety of habitats supporting a high degree of biodiversity. These high elevations pull around 16 inches of precipitation from the skies above, making the Paunsagunt plateau an island of rich forest and meadow in a vast and colorful sea of desert scrub and scattered woodlands. Very generally, the park's habitats are divided into three ecological life zones based on the dominant plant species. At the park's highest elevations is the "subalpine fir and spruce zone". This slopes down to the mid-altitude and sweet-smelling "ponderosa pine zone" along the rim of the Bryce Amphitheater. Below this (and the hoodoos) lies the "pinyon pine and juniper zone" of the park's lowest elevations. Yet zoom in on any of these zones and you'll discover an abundance of localized habitats: 🐸Springs, seeps, and sedge-filled fens harboring amphibians like the tiger salamander. 🦋Broad and grassy meadows filled with the sounds of Utah prairie dogs and the wavering flight of butterflies. 🌲 Snow-capturing slopes and canyons dense with Douglas-fir, spruce, oak, and rose. 🦇Towering walls of limestone caked with nests of swallows, bats, and pack rats. 🦉Recently burned areas towering with dead standing trees frequented by woodpeckers, nuthatches, and owls. 🌼Vibrant badlands blushed with tones of pink and red dotted with bristlecone pines, twisted ponderosa pines, and incredibly small and beautiful flowers. These refuges are home to over 100 species of birds, dozens of mammals, over a thousand insect species, numerous reptiles, amphibians, and plants all protected by the myriad habitats that together form Bryce Canyon National Park. #WorldHabitatDay NPS Photos/Peter Densmore (pd)