Adaptations

Adaptations Lesson 1

Objective

We can Relate the characteristics of a plant or animal to how well it can survive.

Vocabulary

Adaptation- A trait that helps a living thing survive when its environment changes.

Survive- Continue to live.

Animal Adaptations

Animals come in almost every color you can think of—neon green frogs, bright red fish, and sunny yellow goldfinches. Animals also have many different patterns, such as spots, stripes, or patches. These patterns can help animals blend into their environments. Animals can hide from predators or from the prey they hunt.

Engineers Jobs at the Zoo

When engineers make zoo habitats, they try to mimic the natural habitats of animals that live there. This helps the animal meet its needs, just as the animal’s wild habitat does.

Open Ended

Write About It:

Study the frog and its habitat in the photo. If you were the engineer, what would you include in a zoo habitat for that frog?

Multiple Choice

Analyze the picture:

How many cactus plants will the cactus with 3 branches produce?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

Survival in Different Habitats

Each kind of living thing is adapted to live in a certain kind of place. For example, some kinds of plants that grow in cold parts of Earth are covered with hairs. The hairs help keep them warm. A sandfish lizard, a desert animal, digs holes in the sand to avoid predators. The lizard would not survive in the Arctic because there is no sand there.

On the next 3 slides

Look at the pictures of the three animals. Select what kind of environment each animal lives in.

Multiple Choice

What type of environment does the polar bear live in?

• Arctic

• Desert

• Rain Forest

Multiple Choice

What type of environment does the tree frog live in?

• Arctic

• Desert

• Rain Forest

Multiple Choice

What type of environment does the camel live in?

• Arctic

• Desert

• Rain Forest

Differences can help living thtings

A species is a group of living things of the same kind. Each kind of animal and plant is a separate species. Individuals of the same species may have different traits, or adaptations, that help them survive and reproduce.

Differences can help living thtings (continued)

An individual is more likely to have offspring when it has traits that make it better able to attract mates. Finding mates is one way a species can survive. For example, male widowbirds with longer tails attract more females for mating than male widowbirds with shorter tails.

Open Ended

If you were a female widowbird which male bird would you like. The weird one on the left or the pretty one on the right. Why?