Animal Adaptations

Read a nonfiction book about an animal of your choice and write a book report summarizing what you learned about the animal and its adaptations.

Choose 5 animals and explain how their feet are uniquely adapted to their environment.

When animals cannot adapt to changes in their environment, they become extinct. What are 5 extinct animals that were not successful in their adaptions? (Of course, many animals became extinct because they could not adapt to HUMANS and to humans causing the loss of their habitat.)

Hibernation Activity
During cold winter months, it is difficult for some animals to endure cold temperatures, and it is also difficult for them to find food. Hibernation is an adaptation for many mammals and reptiles that allows them to survive much of the winter season.  During the coldest winter months, many animals find a place such as a cave or deep burrow where they will hibernate.  This keeps them protected from cold temperatures and also from predators.  During the months before hibernation, animals eat large amounts of food to build up a thick layer of fat on their bodies.  While they are sleeping, their bodies use the layer of fat to keep warm, and the fat provides them with the nutrients that they need.

Hibernating animals fall into deep sleep, their heart rate slows down, and their body temperature lowers all of which enable their bodies to use very little energy. They sleep until the weather warms and they can emerge, find food, and resume their regular activities.  A few animals are only partial hibernators; they occasionally wake up during the winter, come out from hiding place, and look for food or water. This partial hibernation is called torpor.

Become an internet researcher!  Find one interesting fact about how the following animals hibernate:

Here are some resources you might use:

• Utah's Online Library - Or use any research databases or online encyclopedias that your school library may have.  These are most often your very best resource!
• Top Ten Coolest Hibernating Animals

Migration Activity
An effective way that animals adapt to their environment is through migration.  Many animals travel from one habitat to another in order to avoid cold or warm temperatures, find food, and find a suitable place to raise their young.  Many birds, butterflies, whales, and fish migrate to warmer climates every year.
 

Camouflage Activity
To protect themselves from predators, some animals have developed physical adaptations that allow them to blend in with their surroundings so that predators cannot see them.  This adaptation is called camouflage.

Some animals have developed camouflage physical adaptations that help them escape from predators.  And some animals are camouflaged so that they can be better predators!

Mimicry/Imitation Activity
Some animals have an interesting adaptation that allows them to hide from predators or even to scare predators.  They pretend to be something else!  This is called mimicry or imitation and is a type of camouflage.   A sea horse’s body mimics the shape, size, color, and texture of many of the coral reefs where they live.

Locate some pictures of the animals below that successfully mimic something else.  Describe what you think these animals are mimicking or imitating.

• Owl butterfly
• King snake
• Katydid

Changing Seasons Activity
Animals adapt to changing seasons and changing temperatures in a variety of ways.
 

Explain how each of these animals adapts to changing seasons and temperatures:

Exploring Animal Adaptations Activity
Explore the following websites and use the questions below each website to guide your exploration.