Science

Adapted for life

Animals can live in all sorts of different areas, from deserts to rainforests.

Most animals have a particular set of conditions which they like to live in.

Adapted for life

A place with this set of conditions is called their habitat. You can think of it as an animal’s home.

© Zig Koch / WWF

Adapted for life

After a species of animal has lived in a habitat with a specific set of conditions for millions of years, it’s body can begin to change, making it easier to survive there.

These changes are called adaptations.

Adapted for lifeAnimals can adapt in different ways.

Sometimes an adaptation will help them to find food.

On other occasions it will allow them to live in extremely hot or cold conditions.

Adapted for life

Look at the pictures of these animals from the Amazon rainforest and try to identify what their adaptation is and how it helps them…

Adapted for life

Tapir

Adapted for lifeToucan

Adapted for lifeGiant anteater

Adapted for lifeJaguar

Adapted for lifeSpider monkey

Adapted for life

Tapir

The tapir has developed a long flexible nose which it uses to rummage on the ground for food.

Adapted for life

ToucanMany of the nuts and fruits in the Amazon have developed a tough outer layer to help protect them from being eaten.This doesn’t work with a toucan though as they have developed a huge tough beak which they can use for cracking most nuts.

Adapted for life

Giant anteater

The giant anteater has developed a long sticky tongue which it uses for extracting ants from their nests.

Adapted for life

Jaguar

The jaguar has developed the perfect disguise for the dappled light which falls on the forest floor – it’s beautiful spotted coat!

Adapted for life

Spider monkey

The spider monkey lives at the top of tall trees in the Amazon, almost never coming to the ground.It has developed an incredibly strong and flexible tail which it can use as an extra arm to hang from when collecting fruit.

Nature trail

Compare the animals you met on your nature trail to these animals which can be found in the Amazon rainforest!

Nature trailThe titan beetle can grow up to 16.5 centimetres long!

Nature trailThis blue-fanged tarantula likes to eat birds.

©Keegan Rowlinson / WWF UK

The praying mantis uses its long pincers to catch its dinner.

Nature trail

© Zig Koch / WWF

Nature trailMany of the Amazon’s frogs choose to live in trees instead of ponds!

© Zig Koch / WWF

Nature trailThe harpy eagle is the king of the skies in the Amazon.

© Zig Koch / WWF

Nature trailThe black caiman can grow to a massive five metres.

© André / Bärtschi / WWF-Canon

Food chainsAll living things (plants and animals) need energy to survive.

Plants normally get their energy through capturing the sun’s energy (photosynthesis).

Animals either need to eat plants (e.g. leaves or fruit) or other animals in order to create energy.

Food chainsFood chains can be used to show what eats what.For example….

Leaves Ants

A food chain must always start with a plant as they catch their energy from the sun.

Food chainsA food chain can only travel in one direction. This direction is shown using an arrow.

E.g. the monkey eats the fruit, the ocelot eats the monkey.

Fruit Spider monkey Ocelot

The water cycle

The water cycle is the name for the journey which water takes from the sky to the earth and back again.

The water cycleIt relies on three really important processes:

Evaporation: This is when water heats up and turns from a liquid to a gas.

Condensation: The opposite of evaporation, when water turns from a gas to a liquid.

Precipitation: This is water that falls from the sky. It could be in the form of rain, snow, sleet or hail.

The water cycleThe water cycle is really important because it keeps bringing fresh water to the land.

Look at the diagram on your worksheet and see if you can attach the correct label to each part of the water cycle to show how it works.

The carbon cycle

All living things are made from carbon. This includes animals, trees and flowers!

Carbon is even part of the air we breathe. When it is attached to oxygen it is called carbon dioxide.

Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to grow. They absorb the carbon dioxide and turn it into carbon which they store.

The carbon cycle

When plants die and decompose the carbon they had stored inside them goes back into the earth.

This can then be absorbed by other plants who use it to grow.

It can also turn into fossil fuels although this can take millions of years.

The carbon cycle

When we burn fossil fuels or trees the carbon that they had stored inside them goes back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

This can all be shown as the carbon cycle.

The carbon cycle

The carbon cycle

Why do you think the Amazon is so important in the carbon cycle?

© Zig Koch / WWF

The carbon cycle

If we burn down lots of trees and fossil fuels then more carbon dioxide will go into the atmosphere.

If we have destroyed lots of trees then there will also be fewer available to absorb the carbon dioxide so some will stay in the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is one of the main contributors to climate change.