Name: Jessica Gerard

Name: Jessica Gerard Date: January 6, 2011

HOW ANIMALS ADAPT TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT

If you are cold, you might put on a jacket. This is one way that you adapt to the environment. Animals also adapt to their environments. Adaptations help animals survive weather conditions, predators and other situations that might otherwise cause them harm.

One interesting way that animals adapt is by mimicry. Some animals that are not very harmful by nature can “mimic” or act like animals that are. For example, there is an insect called a syrphid that looks very much like a yellow jacket. Humans know that yellow jackets can give painful stings, so if we see a syrphid, we will probably avoid it even though it is harmless. Similarly, birds avoid eating a type of butterfly known as a viceroy butterfly simply because it looks very much like a monarch butterfly. Monarch butterflies taste awful to birds. There is also a bug called a thorn bug which looks exactly like the scratchy thorn on the branch of a bush. Because it looks so much like a thorn, predators avoid it.

Another way animals adapt to their environment is by blending right in with their surroundings so they will not be noticed. This is called camouflage. Some animals can actually change color to blend into whatever is around them. A lizard called a chameleon can do this. There is also a rabbit called a snowshoe hare that changes from white in the winter to brown in the summer. Can you guess why? Some animals are camouflaged not by color, but by shape. For example, a butterfly called a leaf butterfly looks just like the leaf of a tree. Since the birds that would eat this butterfly are not very interested in eating leaves, they will often pass right by a leaf butterfly that is sitting among leaves on the forest floor.

Animals are born knowing how to do many of the things they need to do to survive. Other things must be learned. The behaviors animals are born with are called inherited behaviors. Those that must be learned are learned behaviors. Birds, for example, have inherited traits like beaks for grabbing food and feet designed for clinging to the sides of trees. They are also born knowing “by nature” how to build nests. It is said that animals know how to do things by “instinct” – that is, they are born certain abilities and do not have to learn them. What an animal looks like is also mostly inherited. However, the environment can affect the physical traits of animals. If food is scare, for instance, an animal might lose weight and be smaller and weaker than it would be if food was more plentiful.

QUESTIONS 1. Putting on a jacket when it is cold is a way of adapting to the environment.

2. Animals use adaptations to a. avoid predators. b. survive harsh weather conditions. c. blend into the environment. d. All of the above

3. A harmless animal that looks like a dangerous animal uses the adaptation of a. camouflage. b. deception. c. mimicry. d. minimalism.

4. A syrphid is an insect that humans avoid because a. it has a dangerous stinger. b. it looks like a yellow jacket. c. it does not taste very good. d. it blends easily into its surroundings.

5. Birds avoid preying on viceroy butterflies because a. they look like monarch butterflies, which taste awful to birds. b. they look like monarch butterflies, which sting birds. c. they look like leaves and can blend into the forest floor. d. None of the above

6. Which type of adaptation does a leaf butterfly use? a. mimicry b. camouflage by color c. camouflage by shape d. an learned trait 7. Why do you think a snowshoe hare is white in the winter and brown in the summer? I think a snowshoe hare is white in the winter because during the winter months it can blend in with the snow. There isn’t a lot of brown in the winter. And that’s the same thing why the hare is brown in the summer.

8. The ability of a snowshoe hare to change color a. is called camouflage. b. is an inherited trait. c. helps it blend into its surroundings. d. All of these

9. What are two inherited behaviors of birds?

They have beaks for grabbing food and feet that help them cling to trees

10. Birds a. learn to build nests by watching their parents. b. are born with the ability to build nests. c. must learn how to blend into their surrounding. d. All of these