Adaptations
By: Brinda Bobbala
Behavioral
Swarming
Swarming is when a huge group is traveling somewhere. It is also defense against predators. Green Finches do this when they are traveling and also in the spring when the males do a dance and sing a song.
Burrowing
Animals burrow for different reasons which include safety from predators and weather. For example burrowing owls use their burrow during the winter and also after that for safety.
Nocturnal
Nocturnal animals are animals that sleep during the day and are awake in the night, For example the common vampire bat. They need to stay awake in the night because that is when they can see and find food, which is... you guessed it, blood. Of course they don't kill you or anything. Once they eat the blood, it is just a blood clot were it took the blood from.
Courtship Display
When an animal wants to find a mate they do a certain behaviour that tells the other animal that they are ready and sometimes they do it to drive off other males (or females) so that the animal they like is theirs. One of the animals that do this is the tawny owl. The tawny owls have a special duet for mating and that is what they do to tell their mate they want to mate with them and other tawny owls that the mate is theirs.
Physiological
Dry Tolerant
Camels can survive in the desert because of their humps. Their humps are made up of fatty deposits which help hold the water, which helps the camel survive in the desert. Camels can go for a long time without water. Without their humps camels would die of thirst in the desert.
Fire Tolerant
Some animals or plants need to be fire tolerant to adapt to their environment. A good example is the venus flytrap. Over the years venus flytraps developed to be fire tolerant. The reason for this is because with fire the plants surrounding the venus flytrap will die. That way it will be able to get more sunshine, and more prey too.
Poisonous
Some animals are poisonous so predators don't eat them. It helps them survive in their habitat. For example the monarch butterfly. Monarch butterflies eat milkweed plants which gives them chemicals which make the butterfly poisonous. The predators stay away seeing the bright color of the butterfly.
Venomous
Some animals are venomous which is poison but venom always comes from the animal's mouth. An animal that has venom is the slow loris. They get their venom from Toxic bugs they eat. The they lick themselves and their babies to spread the poison on their skin.
Physical
Camouflage
Normally when you think of camouflage you think of chameleons, but did you know that a giraffe can camouflage too? The spots of a giraffe help it blend into the leaves and branches of trees. Look at the picture on the left. Can you see the giraffe. It is there on the right of the picture. Camouflaging helps the giraffe hide from predators.
Gliding
Malayan colugo live in asian rainforest and can glide from tree to tree like a flying squirrel. This allows them to look for food faster and it is also safer for them.
Neoteny
Neoteny is when an animal stays with the same features they were born with. Imagine a tadpole never turning into a frog. An example is the texas blind salamander. They live in caves and have eyes but the eyes are covered with skin since they do not use them anyway.
Sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is when there is a physical difference between the male and female. For example, Peacocks. The males are very beautiful while the female are plain brown and ugly. The point of this is so that predators get attracted to the males instead of the females. Peacocks also use their feathers to attract peahens.
Warning Colors
Sometimes an organism will have bright colors or/and patterns to indicate that they are poisonous. Sometimes they will have bright colors and/or patterns but they will be completely harmless. The poison dart frog is bright and has a pattern and is very poisonous. They use the poison in these frogs to go hunting. So this is a way to be safe from predators.