Science High School Reviewer | Grade 4 Science | Life Science | Kingdoms of Life | Lesson 4: How Do Animals Adapt?

Animals inherit characteristics from their parents. These special
physical features and behaviors help them survive.

The same way human children often have the same hair color as their parents, young animals inherit traits from
their parents. A trait is a physical feature. Animals have
characteristics like their parents. Young animals are born
knowing some behaviors that will help them survive. They
learn other behaviors.

An adaptation is a physical feature or behavior that
helps an animal get food, protect itself, move, or reproduce.
Every animal needs food, water, oxygen, and shelter
to survive. Sometimes there are not enough resources
to go around. Animals with excellent adaptations
have a better chance of getting the resources they
need. The better an animal is at getting what it
needs, the better its chances of reproducing. The
adaptations are passed to the next generation.

Birds’ adaptations

Birds have many adaptations that help them get what they
need. Feathers are an important adaptation for birds. Without
feathers, birds could not fly, no matter how light their bodies.
The shape of its beak helps a bird get food. For example,
finches eat mostly seeds. Their beaks are made for cracking
the shells of seeds. Herons’ long, sharp beaks are perfect for
spearing fish. Hummingbirds poke their long, narrow beaks
into flowers to gather nectar. Webbed feet help ducks and
other waterfowl move around in the water. Cactus wrens live
in a desert climate where there is not much water. They
get all the water they need from the things they eat.

Other Adaptations
Mammals have many adaptations to help them.
Polar bears have thick coats of fur that keep them
warm in their frozen climate. The fat they store also
helps them stay warm. Their sharp claws and teeth
help them catch and eat food. The long neck of the
giraffe helps it reach the tree leaves that it eats.
A flounder is different from most other fish. Both of
its eyes are on the same side of its flat body, the top side.
A flounder lives on the ocean floor, so an eye on the
other side of its body would be covered with sand. Fish
and other animals with an eye on each side can see in
two directions. Humans and other animals that have
both eyes in front can tell how far away things are.
The crab-eating seal of the Antarctic does not
actually eat crabs. Instead, it eats krill, which are small
shrimplike arthropods. The teeth of this species of seal
are adapted so they can sift krill from the water. This
feeding adaptation enables the seal to get enough food.

Adaptations That Protect Animals
Some animals have adaptations that help
them avoid being eaten by predators. The color
of animals can help them blend in with their
environment. Bright colors may warn predators that
the animal is poisonous. Box turtles, hedgehogs,
and other animals have hard shells or spiny skins.
Some animals are protected by stingers, quills,
bitter-tasting flesh, or smelly sprays.
Blending In
Some animals have adaptations that make it
difficult for their enemies, or predators, to see them.
Colors, shapes, and patterns of animals can keep
them hidden in their surroundings.
Some birds inherit adaptations that help them
hide from predators in the winter. Against the
snow, the rock ptarmigan’s dark, summertime
feathers would be easy for its enemies to see. But, in
cold weather, the rock ptarmigan sheds its darker
feathers. Its winter “outfit” is made of white feathers
that blend in with the snow.
Insects also use colors to trick their enemies. For
example, the markings on the wings of the fulgorid
bug look like the eyes of a cat. When the fulgorid
bug senses an approaching predator, it shows its
eyespots. A predator, such as a bird, may mistake
these markings for the eyes of a cat. The fulgorid
bug then has time to escape.

Protected by Poison
Some frogs and toads have interesting
adaptations that protect them from predators.
The European green toad has a poison gland
behind each eye. When this gland is pressed—
such as when a predator tries to bite the toad’s
head—it squirts poison.
Another poison-packing amphibian is the
poison-dart frog, which lives in South American
rain forests. The bright colors of this frog warn
predators, “Look out! I’m dangerous.” Although
each frog is just a few centimeters long, it
produces enough poison to kill a human being.

Escaping Predators
Animals have different ways of moving.
The faster they are, the more easily they
can escape from their predators. Birds’
wings allow them to fly away from
predators that cannot fly. Fins
enable fish to swim away from their
enemies. Other animals can run at top
speed longer than their enemies can.

Animal Instincts
Instincts help animals meet their needs.
Instincts are behaviors that are inherited.
Ducklings, for example, are born with the
instinct to follow their mother. By staying
close to her, they get the protection
and food they need.
Migration
In places where winters are cold, many animals face a
shortage of food for part of the year. Plants stop growing.
Some insects and other invertebrates die. Others bury
themselves until winter ends. Some animals deal with this
food shortage by migrating. Migration is traveling in search
of food or a place to reproduce.
During the spring and summer, Canada geese live in
Canada and the upper United States, including Alaska. Flocks
of these geese migrate as far south as Mexico to escape cold
winter weather and find food. Canada geese are adapted to
fly as fast as 60 miles per hour and as high as 8,000 feet.
Sometimes migrating animals face barriers. Some barriers
are made by people. Migrating amphibians often must cross
busy roads as they travel to and from their breeding ponds.
Other barriers are natural. White storks must cross
the Mediterranean Sea to get to their winter
homes in Africa.
Hibernation and Inactivity
Migration is a natural behavior for an organism. It does
not need to be learned. Another type of natural behavior
that helps an animal survive is hibernation. Hibernation is a
state of inactivity that occurs in some animals when outside
temperatures are cold. Some mammals and many reptiles
and amphibians hibernate. Some hibernating animals
conserve energy by slowing down their body functions. They
spend most of the time sleeping. They move only occasionally
to raise their body temperature or to eat. Other hibernating
animals remain totally inactive. They get their energy from
stored body fat.

How Animals Learn
Not all behaviors come by instinct.
Some behaviors develop as a result of
training or changes in experience. Young
animals learn many things by observing
their parents and other adult animals. Trial
and error plays a major role in how animals
behave. The behaviors they learn develop
slowly. Over long periods of time, the animal
interacts with its environment and learns
which behaviors work and which do not.
Parents Teach Offspring
Many animals learn to get food by watching
their parents. Lion cubs learn to hunt by
watching their parents. A pride, or group of
lions, often hunts together. Zebras are common
prey for lions. A herd of zebras keeps safe from
attack by staying together. When a zebra is
separated from the herd, the lions will chase
it toward a group of lions that is hiding. The
lions will then pounce on their prey. A lion
cub learns to pounce on its prey by pouncing
on its mother’s twitching tail.

Offspring Teach Parents
Scientists found that when monkeys
learn new things, they teach other monkeys
what they’ve learned. Scientists dropped
sweet potatoes near the monkeys’ home.
The potatoes landed in sand. The monkeys
liked the potatoes, but they did not like
the sand that stuck to the potatoes. One of
the younger monkeys found that she could
wash the sand off in a nearby stream. She taught
her mother how to wash the sand off too.
Learned and Inherited
Some behaviors are partly inherited and partly
learned. The white-crowned sparrow inherited
the ability to recognize the song its species sings.
But, learning to sing the song is not inherited.
Scientists found that young sparrows that were
separated from their parents never learned to sing
the complete song.
Humans inherit the ability to learn much more
than animals. For example, we inherit the ability
to learn language. But we are not born speaking
Spanish, English, or Chinese. We must learn the
words used in our language.