1. Animal Adaptations
Mrs. Reyes
Science Lab

2. Adaptation
Any body part or behavior that increases an animal's ability to survive in its environment.
Animals come in all shapes and sizes. They live in all kinds of environments, or habitats, from sandy deserts to frozen plains. Animals that have features or behaviors that are well suited to their habitats are more likely to survive in that environment.

3. Animals depend on their physical features to help them obtain food, keep safe, build homes or find shelter, withstand weather, and attract mates. These physical features are called physical adaptations. Physical adaptations do not develop during an animal's life but over many generations. The shape of a bird's beak, the number of fingers, color of the fur, the thickness or thinness of the fur, the shape of the nose or ears are all examples of physical adaptations which help different animals to survive.

4. Webbed Feet
In most aquatic animals, swimming is a must. To aid swimming, many animals
have adapted and evolved with webbed feet. Webbed feet help animals propel
themselves through the water with ease. This can help the animal swim faster to
catch prey or escape a predator. Also, if an animal has to swim long distances,
webbed feet can help it save energy so it can swim farther.

5. Sharp Claws
Many land and sea animals alike have developed sharp claws. Sharp claws can be used for many
different purposes. For instance, many herbivores use their sharp claws for digging for berries, roots,
and herbs or burrowing for shelter. Animals that eat meat may use their claws for killing their prey or
tearing meat from their kills. Also, claws can be used to increase traction to run faster, as in the case of
the cheetah. Other times, sharp claws have evolved for use in defense. For some animals, showing of
claws is enough warning for their predators or competitors to back off.

6. Large Beaks
Just as in the case of sharp teeth, large beaks are often an adaptation used to help
an animal eat. However, large (and often sharp) beaks can be a feature of both
carnivores and herbivores. For instance, the large beak of the macaw has been
adapted to help it crack open large nuts to reach the sweet fruit and pulp inside.
On other birds however, the large beak is used to tear meat, as in the case of the rhinoceros hornbill.
The rhinoceros hornbill uses its large beak to tear meat off of an animal it scavenges -- usually the result of another animal's kill.

7. Camouflage is a type of adaptation that allows animals to blend in with their surroundings. This adaptation helps protect them from their enemies. With camouflage an animal is able to "hide" by blending into its surroundings. On the other hand, camouflage also helps a predator "fit in" to its environment so that it won't be seen very easily as it comes up on its prey.
There are countless ways that animals have adapted to their environment in order to survive. Lets see a few examples…..

8. How do the fox and polar bear adapt to their environment?
During summer months, the Arctic fox has a brown coat. During winter, the coat of the Arctic fox is white, matching its icy, snowy surroundings.
Why are polar bears white? Their white fur helps them blend in with the snow and ice. How does a polar bear keep warm? A polar bear has a layer of fat under its skin which helps it stay warm. It also has a thick layer of fur.
So both the arctic fox and polar bear use camouflage to survive!!!
If a polar bear was adapted to live in a desert:
What color would the polar bear be so it was camouflaged?
Would it still have thick fir?
What would it eat?

9. How do Lions adapt to their environment?
What is the purpose of the mane on a male lion?
A Thick mane helps the male lion look bigger and protects his throat.
Why do they have a rough tongue?
Their rough tongues were designed to peel the skin of their prey away from flesh, and flesh from bone.
Do you notice any other way that the lion has adapted to its environment?

10. Camels
How do camels adapt to their environment? Camels have many adaptations that allow them to live successfully in desert conditions.
Deserts are hot and dry. Winds blow sand all around, so a camel has long eyelashes. It also has nostrils that can open and close.
A camel can go a week or more without water, and they can last for several months without food. They can drink up to 32 gallons of water at one drinking session!

11. INSTINCTS
· Some animals need to move from one place to another escaping from cold temperatures or other climatic conditions.
· The behavior, or action to fly south (in some insects and birds) looking for warmer areas, is not learned, it is an instinct.
· An instinct is a behavior that an animal begins life with.
· Instincts are adaptations that help animals
meet their needs.

12. For example, female Atlantic green turtles go to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean to lay their eggs. They bury the eggs in the sand on the beach. After hatching, the young turtles move toward the ocean, and then they swim to feeding areas along the coast of Brazil, over 1000 kilometers away. When the female turtles become adults they return to Ascension Island to lay their eggs.
Migration

13. HIBERNATION
Not all animals migrate to avoid cold temperatures and lack of food. Instead, some animals adapt to these changes by hibernating.
Hibernation is a period when an animal goes into along, deep "sleep". An animal prepares to hibernate by eating extra food and finding shelter.
During hibernation the animal's body temperature drops and its breathing rate and heartbeat rate fall. As a result, the animal needs little or no food, because the food it needs comes from the stored fat.

14. Now that you know how animals adapt to their environment
Now that you know how animals adapt to their environment.. Can you think of ways that humans have adapted to theirs?