1. Ecosystems

2. Genetics

3. Competition
Competition: the contest among organisms for the limited resources of an ecosystem
Organisms compete for water, food, shelter, and sunlight
Every animal has adaptations that help it compete for resources
Camouflage (or patterns of body color) and hunting in packs are two examples of adaptations
In some communities, animals live together and share resources. These animals do not directly compete with one another.
Study Jams - Animal Adaptations

4. Symbiosis
Symbiosis: a long term relationship between different kinds of organisms
Different kinds of organisms often live closely together for most or all of their lives.
Symbiosis may benefit both organisms or it may only benefit one and not the other (commensalism)
Parasitism is when one species grows stronger by harming another species
A relationship where both organisms benefit is called mutualism.
Flowers and bees and cleaner fish and sharks are both examples of mutualism.
Symbiosis - Study Jams
Symbiosis - Brain Pop

5. Instincts and Learned Behaviors
Some animal behavior is inherited and some is learned.
Instinct: a behavior that an organism inherits
Shared by an entire population (or some only for males and some only for females)
Examples include building shelters and finding mates
Squirrels instinctively bury acorns and Canadian geese fly south for the winter

6. Learned Behaviors: behaviors animals learn from their parents, not inherit from them.
Young lions must learn hunting skills from adult lions in order to survive
Birds learn what kind of nests to build from adult birds
Brain Pop – Behavior

7. Inherited Traits
A trait is a quality or characteristics of a living thing.
A behavior is a way in which a living thing acts or responds to its surroundings.
You inherit the color of your eyes and hair and the shape of your nose.
If you can roll your tongue you were born with this trait.
These traits are passed from parents to offspring.
Plants inherit ways of responding to their surrounding such as roots grow down and toward water. Stems grow up toward the sun.

8. Acquired Traits Not all traits are inherited.
An acquired trait is a characteristic that a living thing gets during its lifetime.
Acquire=to get
A scar is a physical trait that is acquired.
Many acquired traits are learned behaviors.
Example: young chimpanzees learn to use sticks as tools to get food.
You were not born knowing how to speak or read a book.
Brain Pop – Heredity
Study Jams - Heredity