Animal Adaptations
By Priyanka B
Adaptations
There are many types of adaptations, but all adaptations can be divided into three categories- behavioral, physiological, and physical adaptations
Behavioral
Animals have specific behavior adaptations
Physiological
Animals react to different stimuli in different ways
Physical
Animals have different physical characteristics to help them survive.
Behavioral Adaptations
Examples and Information
Behavioral adaptations are things that animals do to survive. For example, swarming to prevent predators is an example of a behavioral adaptation. Fish, bees and other insects swarm. Although fish swarm to prevent predators, bees only swarm under specific circumstances.
Behavioral adaptations can also be shown by:
- Tool use- chimpanzees, dolphins, and humans use tools to help eat and survive.
- Mimicry- pebble plants and praying mantises resemble other things to help camouflage and survive.
- Language-parrots, apes, dolphins, and humans use language to warn other living things of their species about predators and use language to communicate.
Physiological Adaptations
Examples and Information
Physiological adaptations is when an organism has a systemic response to a stimulus in order to maintain homeostasis.
Examples of physiological adaptations are:
- Altitude tolerant is when animals, such as the snow leopard and the red panda, are tolerant to extreme altitudes.
- Venomous adaptations are when snakes, or wasps use venom to attack prey or warn predators.
- Bioluminescence is when animals, such as the glow worm, create light under specific circumstances.
- Heat tolerant is when animals such as the camel are adapted to extreme hot weather circumstances.
Physical Adaptations (anatomical)
Examples and information
Physical adaptations are adaptations where the animals has specific physical characteristics to help them survive.
Some examples of physical adaptations are:
- Camouflage-Camouflage is the art of not being seen, practised by predators, prey and plants. Sometime camouflage is when animals are noticeable, but their outline is hard to detect because of disruptive coloration. Tigers, anglerfish and vipers use different types of camouflage.
- Adapted to flying- most bird and insects have wings on their bodies to help them survive by flying.
- Sexual dimorphism-Sexual dimorphism describes animals where there is a physical differences between males and females of the same species (other than in the sex organs). Male peacocks have colorful feather, whereas female peacocks have plain brown feathers. Peacocks, and deer have sexual dimorphism.
- Molting-When animals renew their outer layer to help grow or replace damage that could have come. Most birds, penguins and snakes molt.