Adaptation of Animals – Introduction

Description

Adaptation of Animals – Introduction

Activity 1:  What is adaptation?

All living things, including humans, respond to changes in their environment.  They retain characteristics that are best suited for their environments and develop new ones that enhance their survival.

Essential characteristics include those that enable the animals to move, to protect themselves against physical harm and diseases, and those that increase their access to food.

An animal can respond to the environment in many ways including:

• changing its behavior.
• changing how its body works.
• developing special body shape, parts or skills.

The ability to change and develop physical or behavioral characteristics that help an organism to survive better in the surrounding environment is called adaptation.

Activity 2:  Classification of mammals according to feeding habits.

Based on their feeding habits, mammals can be classified into the following three major groups:

• herbivores (plant eaters)
• carnivores (flesh eaters)
• omnivores (both flesh and plant eaters).

Feeding habits of mammals have some influence on the animals’ body structure, teeth and jaws.

Practical exercise: Watch the video below.