Animal Adaptations

Every habitat is different — hot deserts, freezing arctic, dark caves, and salty oceans all challenge the animals that live there. An adaptation is a trait that helps an animal survive in its habitat. Adaptations build up slowly over many generations as the animals best suited to a place pass on their traits.

Two Kinds of Adaptations

• Physical adaptations — body parts and features the animal is born with, like thick fur, sharp claws, or webbed feet.
• Behavioral adaptations — actions the animal does, like migrating south for winter, hibernating in a den, or hunting at night.

Adaptations Match the Habitat

A camel's hump stores fat that the body can turn into water — perfect for the desert. A polar bear's thick fur and layer of blubber trap heat — perfect for the arctic. A frog's long sticky tongue catches insects — perfect for a pond. The same trait that helps an animal in one habitat would not help it in a different one.

What Adaptations Help With

• Finding food — a giraffe's long neck reaches leaves other animals cannot.
• Staying safe — a chameleon's color change hides it from predators.
• Surviving the climate — penguins huddle together to share warmth.
• Raising young — sea turtles bury their eggs in warm sand to keep them safe.