Extreme Animals

Extreme Animals

By Joseph Manso

​Planet Earth has many kinds of landscapes from burning-hot deserts to frozen ice fields, and from oceans, rivers, and lakes to grassy plains, rain forests, and high mountains. Animals can live in all of these environments because they have special adaptations to help them survive. Many animals have adaptations that help them find food, live in different climates, and stay safe from predators that hunt them for food.

​Some animal adaptations are physical

adaptations. They may have thick fur to keep them warm or long legs to run away from predators. Others may have large ears to listen for prey, the animals they hunt for food. They also use their ears to hear a predator before it pounces. Adaptations can be so extraordinary you wouldn’t think of them in a million years!

Multiple Choice

What can kinds of ears that help the animals to hear the predators coming near by?

Multiple Choice

Pick up the animals that can run faster if the predators chase them.

Multiple Choice

Which Bears live the hot zones?

Multiple Choice

What do the lizards do to make the predators confused of their size?

• spray its bloods from its eyes

• spray its bloods to its eyes

Multiple Choice

The spine of the lizards are

• soft

• hard

​

The Texas

horned lizard

blends into

the desert

background.

​

If you’re a javelina with a hairy, smelly family

around you, there’s a good chance you can make

a predator change its mind!

Multiple Choice

Why do the javelinas raise their hair when the predators approach them?

• To make them look more attractive

• To make them look bigger.

​

You might think a rain forest would be easier

to live in than a desert. After all, there’s plenty

of food and water in a rain forest. But that also

means a lot of animals live there.

Being able to climb trees is a useful skill in the

rain forest. It allows an animal to keep away from

predators. The sloth spends most of its life in the

treetops. Its strong, curved claws help it climb and

hang upside down from branches.

The sloth also moves very slowly. It does this

so it’s not noticed. Green algae grows in its fur.

This camouflages the sloth in the treetops.

​

The aye-aye lives only in the rain forests of Madagascar, near Africa. It hunts beetle larvae, which live inside rotting wood. The aye-aye gnaws a narrow hole in the wood with its sharp teeth. Then it hooks out the larvae with a long, skinny finger. The aye-aye is nocturnal. This helps it to stay safe from daytime predators. However, the aye-aye is endangered and may soon become extinct. People have hunted it because they think it brings bad luck. Also, much of the rain forest in Madagascar has been cut down, destroying the aye-aye’s habitat. Today there are laws to keep people from hunting it.

Multiple Choice

How can the sloths hang their selves for almost the whole day on the treetops? Pick up the feature that helps them to do so.

Multiple Choice

Where do the beetle larvae live?

• In the tree

• In the rotting wood

Fill in the Blanks

Multiple Choice

What made the platypuses different to other mammals?

• They lay eggs

• They drink milk from their mothers.

• They give birth to the offspring.

Multiple Choice

How do the Australian platypuses make their homes?

• in a tree

• making nests like birds

• digging tunnels underground.

Multiple Choice

It swims with

its nostrils, ears, and

eyes opened.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Where do the male platypuses store the poison to attack the predators?

• On their backs

• on their legs

• on their hands

​

There are many different habitats and many

interesting ways that animals survive. But will all

of these animals continue to survive?

To help it survive, an animal needs a healthy

habitat. Many habitats are destroyed when people

pollute the water or cut down trees to build

towns. People also hunt animals. This has caused

many animals to become endangered or extinct.

Conservationists and scientists work hard to

protect wild animals and their environments.

We can all help to protect our planet and its

amazing animals.