Animal Adaptations Study Guide
Concepts:
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An animal needs air, water, food, and shelter to live.
Animals use physical or behavioral adaptations to survive in their
environment. Ex) A wolf grows thicker fur in the winter to keep
warm.
Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals.
Animals are part of a food chain. The sun is the source for the
entire food chain. Ex) sun
algae
fish
seal
whale
Animals need shelter in order to protect them from other animals
and from the weather.
Animal behavior includes hibernation, migration, instinct, and
learned behavior.
o Hibernation – When an animal falls into a deep sleep and
does not awaken until spring, in order to save its energy.
The animals’ body temperature falls, the heart rate drops,
and breathing slows down. It survives by using its stored
body fat.
o Migration – When animals travel southward to warmer
climates.
o Instinct – a behavior an animal knows how to do without
being taught. Ex) Migration and hibernation
o Learned Behavior – a behavior that an animal has to be
taught and does not know how to do by itself.
Animals protect themselves in these ways.
o Camouflage – when an animal uses colors and patterns to
blend in with their surroundings.
o Mimicry – when an animal looks just like another animal.
Continued on back…
Vocabulary Terms to Know and Apply:
o Carnivore: An animal that eats only other animals. Its teeth are very
sharp.
o Herbivore: An animal that eats only plants. Its teeth are dull and flat.
o Omnivore: An animal that eats both plants and animals.
o Producers: A living thing that makes its own food. Ex) plants/trees
o Consumers: A living thing that eats other living things as food.
Ex) animals
o Decomposers: A living thing that breaks down dead organisms for food.
Ex) fungi and mushrooms
o Predators: The animals that hunt and eat another animal. Ex) The tiger
hunts the zebra – the tiger is the predator.
o Prey: The animal that is being hunted by another animal. Ex) The tiger
hunts the zebra – the zebra is the prey.