Adaptations and the Environment

Before Video

• An adaptation is a characteristic of a living thing that helps it survive in its environment.

• If an animal has coloration of its skin or feathers that looks like the environment, it could be difficult for predators to see them. That is called an adaptation and it helps the animal survive. Other adaptions could include claws for climbing trees, good vision for seeing prey, etc.

• Hummingbirds have long, skinny beaks that allow them to drink nectar deep inside flowers. Without a specialized beak like that, they wouldn’t be able to reach inside the flowers.

• Dogs have a powerful sense of smell that helps them find food and identify territories of other dogs. Cats have specialized eyes that help them see in the dark and sharp claws for hunting and climbing.

After Video

• Giraffe’s long tongues help them obtain food in the wild, which are leaves from very tall and thorny plants. Their long tongues help them bend back the thorns to pull the leaves off without getting pricked by the thorns.

• The tip of giraffe’s long tongue is exposed to the sun for many hours a day as they feed. Having a dark colored tongue is thought to be an adaptation to keep the tip of the giraffe’s tongue from getting sunburned.

• A giraffe’s long neck is an adaptation that helps the giraffe reach foods that other animals can’t eat, such as leaves that are very high up in trees.

• The armadillo has tough plates on its back to defend it from predators. The armadillo in the video also has the ability to roll into a ball to further protect its soft underside.

• Sloths have long arms and claws to help them hang from trees. They also have camouflage, which means they are similar in color to the trees around them, which makes it difficult for predators to see them. They also move slowly, which makes them even more difficult to see.

• Echidnas have elongated noses that can sense where food is based on electrical movement of their prey. This is similar to how a shark can sense fish hiding around them.

• Echidnas like to dig underground to stay cool in the hot Australian environments where they live. Their large powerful feet are adaptations for digging burrows underground to escape the heat.

• Spines are an adaptation that help protect echidnas from predators. If a predator where to try to eat them, the predator would get spined!

A characteristic of a living thing that helps it survive in its environment.

The environment includes everything living and nonliving in an area. For example the environment of a giraffe has grass, tress, water, other animals and non-living things like rocks and soil.

A mammal that is covered in armor made of bony plates. They are usually the size of a small dog and some can roll into a ball to protect themselves.

A slow-moving mammal found in tropical forests that hang from trees and eat mostly leaves. Sloths are known for moving extremely slowly.

An animal that eats other animals.

An animal that is eaten by other animals.

A pattern, color or shape that helps a living thing blend into its environment. It is usually used to help prey avoid predators or for predators not to be seen by prey.

A spiny mammal with a long nose and big claws found mostly in Australia. It likes to eat insects using its long tongue and to bury itself underground.

Human thumbs are called opposable thumbs. We can move our thumbs around to touch other fingers and grasp things. Animals like a dog cannot do this.