How do adaptations help animals survive in their environment?
• An adaptation is a body part or behavior that helps an animal survive in a particular environment.
• Adaptations can help an animal breathe, catch food, or hide.
• All animals are adapted to live in certain habitats.
• Animals that cannot adapt will die out.
•Physical adaptations are body structures that allow an animal to find and consume food, defend itself, and to reproduce its species.
•Physical adaptations help an animal survive in its environment.
Hey! I’m a walking
stick. I look just like a
stick you’d find on the
ground.
© A. Weinberg
Physical adaptation
Camouflage (use of color in a surrounding)
The chameleon can change its color to match its surroundings. Can you do that?
Mimicry (looking or sounding like another living
organism)
The Viceroy butterfly uses mimicry to look like the Monarch butterfly. Can you tell them apart?
Poisonous
Not poisonous
Physical adaptation
I’m the Monarch!
I’m the Viceroy!
Body coverings & parts (claws, beaks, feet, armor plates, skulls, teeth)
Physical adaptations
The elephant’s trunk is a physical adaptation that helps it to clean itself, eat, drink, and to pick
things up.
Info Break1. Which physical adaptation is used to make
an organism “hide in plain sight” using color?
Camouflage2. Which physical adaptation is used to make
an organism look like another?mimicry3. Which physical adaptation does a turtle’s
shell represent?Body coverings and parts
Each organism has unique methods of adapting to its environment by means of
different actions.
Behavioral Adaptations are animals’ actions.
Remember that Physical Adaptations are body
structures.
We can divide Behavioral Adaptations into two groups:
Instinctive Learned
These behaviors happen naturally & don’t have to
be learned.These behaviors must be taught.
Instinctive behaviors
happen naturally &
don’t need to be learned
=
Finding shelter
Methods of gathering & storing food
Defending oneselfRaising
young
Hibernating
Migrating
Learned behaviors
Obtained by interacting with the environment and cannot be
passed on to the next generation
except by teaching.
=
In this lesson, we have learned about animal adaptations.
There are 2 ways to describe adaptations:
Physical andBehavioral
Physical adaptations are body structures.
Some examples of physical adaptations are:
CamouflageMimicry
Body coverings & partsChemical defenses
The next time you read about an
animal in the wild, or when you see one on television, think about its adaptations….
• Copy everything on the next slide into your composition book. The title is “Adaptations” and the entry in your Table of Contents (page 2) is #38.
Adaptations: anything that helps an organism survivePhysical adaptations – body structures that allow an organism to find and consume food, defend itself, and reproduce
1. Camouflage (use of color in a surrounding)
2. Mimicry (looking or sounding like another living organism)
3. Chemical defenses (like venom, ink, sprays)
4. Body coverings and parts (claws, beaks, feet, armor plates, skulls, teeth)
Behavioral adaptations – animal’s actions that allow it to reproduce better than others
Instinctive – happen naturally, are passed on to the next generation.
Learned - Obtained by interacting with the environment and cannot be passed on to the next generation except by teaching.
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