Animal adaptions Arabian oryx in the desert • A desert is a place that gets very little rainfall each year. Some deserts are cold, and others are hot. • Deserts in Arabia are hot deserts. • The Arabian oryx is adapted to live there. They are adapted to survive with very little water. • Arabian oryx will drink if they can, and herds travel long distances to follow any rainfall. • However, they can go for months without drinking, getting all the water that they need from the plants that they eat. • Oryx feed mostly at night, when it is cooler, so they do not lose too much water from their bodies by evaporation. • During the day, they usually rest in the shade. They make a small depression (dent) in the sand to lie in, so that their body heat is conducted into the cooler ground. • They have hooves with a large area, which helps to stop them from sinking into soft sand. • Their light coloured coats reflect much of the radiation from the Sun, helping to keep them cool. Sealions in the sea • Sealions are mammals that are adapted to hunt their prey in sea water, but they also spend time on land. • Sealions have smooth, streamlined bodies that help them to move easily through water by reducing friction. • Their front and hind legs have become flippers, which have a large surface area to push against the water to propel them forward. • They can turn their hind flippers to face forwards, which helps them to push off the ground and shuffle around when they are on land. On land, a sea lion can rotate its hind flippers underneath the pelvic girdle, enabling it to support its weight and walk on all fours. • In the water, a sea lion extends its hind flippers and uses them to help steer. • When a sealion dives, its nostrils close to stop water getting into its lungs. • Sealions can hold their breath for over an hour. • They are carnivores, and have sharp teeth to help them to capture and kill their prey. Earthworms in the soil • Earthworms belongs to the group of invertebrates called annelids. • They spend most of their time underground, in burrows that they make by eating soil. • Earthworms have long, slim, smooth bodies that slide easily through their burrows. • They have tiny bristles on their undersides, called chaetae, which can grip the sides of the burrow. • This is particularly useful if a predator tries to pull them out. Activity 2.2 Behavioral adaptions of woodlice • Most kind of woodlice live in dark, moist places. This helps them to avoid predators, and to make sure that they do not lose too much water by evaporation. • You are going to plan and carry out an experiment to investigate how the behavior of woodlice helps them to survive. • You will need a piece of apparatus called a choice chamber. • The diagram shows a choice chamber. If you do not have one, you can make a simple one out of a Petri dish and a lid. • You can set up the choice chamber so that the conditions are different on each side of it – for example damp on one side and dry on the other, or light and dark. • Then put the animals into it and count how many end up on each side. • Once you have decided what to investigate you will need to think carefully about which variables you are changing, and how you will keep all the other variables constant. • Record your results carefully and write your conclusion. • Compare your results with others in your class. Do they all agree with each other? If not, can you suggest why not?
