Temperate Grasslands are characterized by warm to hot season (usually with a cold to freezing season in winter), fertile soil with rich nutrients and minerals, grass and large, grazing mammals and birds. Temperate grasslands are areas of open grassland with very few trees.
Rain usually falls in temperate grasslands in the late spring and early summer. There is an average of 20 – 35 inches of rainfall a year. The amount of rainfall however determines the height of grasses in the grassland.
Image of the Altyn Emeil National Park, Kazakhstan, by Walton Lloyd Burns, This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.5: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/
Even-toed ungulates
Argali
Bighorn sheep
Chiru
Goa
Cuvier's gazelle
Dzeren
Goitered gazelle
Bharal
Elk
Saiga antelope
Himalayan tahr
Guanaco
Carnivores
Bush dog
American jackal
Arctic wolf
African caracal
Racoon dog
Asiatic wild dog
Pallas's cat
Argentine gray fox
Leopard
Azara's fox
Andean fox
California channel island fox
Corsac fox
Swift fox
Chinese desert cat
Sand fox
Cross fox
Cheetah
Wolverine
Bats
Kuhl's pipistrelle
Canary big-eared bat
Hares, pikas, and rabbits
Arctic hare
Hainan hare
Muli pika
Steppe pika
Elephants
African elephant
Rodents
Nelson's antelope squirrel
Southern birch mouse
Barbary ground squirrel
European ground squirrel
Long-tailed marmot
Menzbier's marmot
Vancouver island marmot
Bobak marmot
Beach vole
Caucasian snow vole
Townsend's vole
European snow vole
Algerian mouse
Robert's snow vole
White-tailed mouse
Idaho ground squirrel
Utah prairie dog
Washington ground squirrel
Arizona black-tailed prairie dog
Townsend's ground squirrel
Angoni vlei rat
African marsh rat
Russet ground squirrel
Speckled ground squirrel
Stephens' kangaroo rat
Highveld gerbil
Idaho pocket gopher
Mazama pocket gopher
Alai mole vole
Florida mouse
Pacific jumping mouse
Bushy-tailed hairy-footed gerbil
Pouched mouse
Greater short-tailed gerbil
Franklin's ground squirrel
Namaqua rock rat
Bushy-talied woodrat
Thick-tailed pygmy jerboa
Gobi jerboa
Armenian birch mouse
Plateau vole
Iranian jerboa
Long-tailed birch mouse
Edentates
Screaming hairy armadillo
Large hairy armadillo
Lesser fairy armadillo
Common long-nosed armadillo
Six-banded armadillo
Read more at the list of biomes of the world...