LIFE PROCESSES

SOL 3.4

Physical adaptations help animals survive in their environment. These adaptations are usually part of their physical body. Examples include camouflage and mimicry.

Physical adaptations

* help animals survive in their environment * are usually part of their physical body * Examples: - camouflage and - mimicry

Behavioral adaptations allow animals to respond to life needs. These adaptations are behaviors. An animal acts differently in order to survive. Examples include * hibernation,* migration, * instinct, * and learned behavior.

migrationhibernation

Instinct

Learned behavior

Behavioral adaptations are behaviors allow animals to respond to life needs allow animals to act differently in order to survive Examples: * hibernation, * migration, * instinct and, * learned behavior.

Now you try

In order to survive, animals act in different ways to * gather and store food, * find shelter, * defend themselves, * and rear their young.

Some animals go into a deep winter sleep where their body activities slow down (breathing and heart rate), and they live off stored food (hibernation).

Torpor Some animals do not

sleep the whole winter. These animals sleep most of the time, but from time to time when the weather is warmer, they wake and hunt for food. Then they return to their naps. Chipmunks and squirrels are “nappers.”

Some animals go on a long-distance journey from one place to another as seasons change (migration).

Various animals blend into their environments to protect themselves from enemies (camouflage).

Some animals look like other animals to avoid being eaten (mimicry). This adaptation helps protect them from their predators.

(For example, the viceroy butterfly tastes good to birds, but the monarch butterfly tastes bad. Because the viceroy looks like the monarch butterfly, it is safer from predators.)

Some animals are born with natural behaviors that they need in order to survive in their environments. These behaviors are not learned but are instinctive, such as a beaver building a dam or a spider spinning a web.

Some behaviors need to be taught in order for the animal to survive, such as a bear cub learning to hunt. This is called learned behavior.

Are you ready to show what you’ve learned?

Test questions

A) weather B) physical adaptations C) predator

1. What helps animals to survive in their environment?

B) physical adaptations

2. There are adaptations that allow animals to respond to life needs. They hibernate, learn behavior from their parents, migrate or use their instincts to survive. What adaptations are those?

A) food adaptations B) clothes adaptations C) behavioral adaptations

C) behavioral adaptations

3. When animals go into a deep winter sleep where their body activities slow down (breathing and heart rate) and they live off stored food, this is called…

A) hibernation B) camouflage C) mimicry

A) hibernation

4. When animals go on a long-distance journey from one place to another as seasons change this is called…

A) population B) migration C) culture

B) migration

5. When animals blend into their environments to protect themselves from enemies this is called…

A) migration B) behaviors C) camouflage

C) camouflage

6. When animals look like other animals to avoid being eaten, this is called…

A) camouflage B) mimicry C) migration

B) mimicry

7. When a beaver builds a dam or a spider spins a web they do that because of their…

A) behavior B) instinct C) learning

B) instinct

8. If a bear cub learns to hunt this is called a…

A) learned behavior B) instinct C) migration

A) learned behavior

Did you get all them right?

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