Animals live in many different climates and
environments. Each animal has special adaptations to help them live
within their home environment. Adaptations help animals eat certain
foods, find water in dry conditions, stay warm in cold conditions, hide
when hunting during the day, and see better when hunting during the
night.
We are going to travel the globe and visit different
places to see different animals in their home environments and how their
individual adaptations help them survive.
You are a zoo
helper and you have received a box in the mail from a National
Geographic explorer. In the box is the body of an animal no one has
ever seen before. Using what you learn in this lesson about how animals
are adapted to their habitats, your job will be to determine from what
habitats this animal comes.
An ecosystem is a community of living things within a particular
physical environment and climate. Each animal, plant, or bacteria in an
ecosystem lives in a particular habitat. A habitat may be any size; it
can be a small puddle under a rock or a fallen tree decaying on the
forest floor. It might contain only a few species or it may have
thousands of organisms living together. Animals, plants, and bacteria
are all adapted to survive in their particular habitats. The organisms
in an ecosystem work together to keep the ecosystem healthy.
