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Animal Adaptations

2. Have you ever wondered how animals are able to survive in the wild?
Animals have certain adaptations that help them to survive and reproduce.

3. We can separate adaptations into three categories:
Structural
Functional
Behavioral

4. Structural adaptations
are body structures that allow an animal to find and consume food, defend itself, and to reproduce its species.
Hey! I’m a walking stick. I look just like a stick you’d find on the ground.
Structural adaptations help an animal survive in its environment.
© A. Weinberg

5. Structural adaptation
Camouflage (blending with surroundings)
The chameleon can change its color to match its surroundings. Can you do that?

6. Structural adaptation
Mimicry
(looking or sounding like another living organism)
The Viceroy butterfly uses mimicry to look like the Monarch butterfly. Can you tell them apart?
I’m the Viceroy!
Not poisonous
Poisonous
I’m the Monarch!

7. Structural adaptations
Body coverings & parts (claws, beaks, feet, armor plates, skulls, teeth)
The elephant’s trunk is a physical adaptation that helps it to clean itself, eat, drink, and to pick things up.

8. Behavioral Adaptations…
Hunting at
night
Hibernation
Moving in
herds
Hunting in
packs
Behavioral Adaptations involve the way an organism acts or behaves.

9. Physiological/Functional Adaptations
Functional Adaptations involve internal body systems that affect biochemistry.
Blood vessels in
ears expand to
cool the body.
Panting to
cool off