Animals Unit Vocabulary Study Guide
Standard 3.4 Behavioral and Physical Adaptations
Behavioral
adaptations
Doing something or
acting a certain way to
survive
Camouflage
Hiding by blending in
to the surroundings
(environment)
Example: an animal’s skin is
the same color and pattern as
the ground where it lives
Predator
An animal that hunts
and eats another
animal, causing that
animal’s death
Example: a lion, who chases
and attacks a zebra and then
eats it
Hibernation
When animals rest for a
long time, usually during
the winter when food is
scarce - during
hibernation, an animal’s
heart rate and breathing
slows down
Example: a black bear or a
chipmunk
Adaptation
A change or special
trait about a living
thing that helps it
survive
Examples: a giraffe has a long
neck to reach the leaves of tall
trees, and a goose flies south
for the winter
Learned
behavior
Something (an action)
an animal learns how
to do after it is born
or hatched
Example: A mother animal
teaches a baby how to find
food or hunt
Habitat
A home for an animal
Example: a den for a bear, a
tree with a nest for a bird
Prey
The animal that is
hunted and killed by
a predator
The special body
changes or traits a
living thing has which
help it to survive.
Example: A frog is the prey for
a snake.
Physical
adaptations
Example: birds flying south for
the winter when there is little
food for them to eat where
they were
Example: A zebra has stripes to
make it hard for a lion to pick
just one zebra out of a group
(herd).
Mimicry
When a living thing
looks like another
living thing to trick its
predators or prey
Example: Some moths have
spots which look like big eyes
so they can trick their
predators.
Migration
When an animal
moves from one
location (place) to
another so it will be
easier to survive.
Example: Many animals, like
caribou migrate to get more
food as the weather changes.
Dormancy
An amount (a period)
of time when a living
thing rests, and does
not grow or change.
Example: Deciduous trees are
dormant in the winter. They do
not grow new leaves or
flowers, or make food.
Instinct
Something an animal
is able to do, or
understands, without
having to be taught
Example: a fish knows to swim
and a bird knows to peck by
instinct. A dog knows how to
bark.
Standard 3.5 Life Systems
Producer
A living thing that makes its
own food from nonliving
things (sun, water, air).
Example: plants and
algae (lots of algae
together make kelp
forests)
Consumer
A living thing which gets the
energy it needs to live
eating other living things
Decomposer
A living thing which gets the
energy it needs to live by
breaking down a dead
animal and plant into the
smallest pieces (turns it into
the nutrients in soil). This is
Example: a bird who
eats a worm is a
consumer, as is a bird
who eats a berry
Examples: Fungi (like a
mushroom) and bacteria
(which are too small to
see without a
microscope)
different from a consumer like a
scavenger, (who eats dead
animals), because a scavenger’s
body will create waste (scat) which
is NOT in the smallest pieces.
Decomposers will then have to eat
the scat to turn it into soil
nutrients.
Herbivore
A living thing which eats
producers (plants and algae)
to get the energy it needs to
survive (remember that an
herbivore can eat ANY PART of the
plant – seed, nut, flower, leaf,
root, stem, fruit)
Carnivore
A living thing that gets the
energy it needs to live by
eating other animals (this
includes eating bugs,
because bugs are animals)
Example: cows, deer,
sea urchins (they eat
kelp, which is algae),
rabbits, ducks,
honeybees, stinkbugs
Example: birds who eat
only bugs, lions, foxes,
sharks, penguins, owls,
spiders
Ladybug eating aphid
Omnivore
A living thing which gets the
energy it needs to survive by
eating plants or algae AND
other animals
Example: most humans
(people), many birds,
monkeys, black bears
Organisms
A living thing that can grow and
change, reproduce (make more of
itself), get energy by making it or
eating something, and can react to
things around it (like plants can
learn toward the sunlight, mold
moves toward food and water, a
sea anemone can sting animals
that try to eat it, and lots of
animals can use their senses and
also move)
Food
relationship
Energy transfer
“Who eats what”
Living things (organisms) are
connected to each other by how
they get the energy they need to
survive. That connection can be
called a relationship.
Energy gets
passed from
one organism to
another as each
organism is
“eaten” by
another. Plants
and algae make sugars
inside themselves
(from the air, sun and
water). Producers use
their own sugar
energy to live. Some
of their sugar energy
gets passed to the
herbivore which eats
the plant. A lot of the
energy gets used by
the herbivore to keep
it alive. A little bit of
the energy is left and
gets passed to the
omnivore or carnivore
that eats the
herbivore. The
omnivore or carnivore
uses most of this
energy to live. Some
of this energy is left,
and is passed to the
decomposer which
breaks down the
waste or dead body of
the omnivore or
carnivore. The energy
is finally used up.
Example: a plant, a bug,
a human, a shrimp,
algae, bacteria, a
mushroom, mold, cat,
bird
Example: food chains
and webs
See below
See below
Example: An
apple tree uses
sunlight, air and
water to make
sugars inside its
leaves. The apple
tree uses a lot of this
sugar energy to stay
alive, grow, and
make apples. A deer
eats an apple, which
has sugar energy in
it. The deer’s body
uses the energy, but
some is left and is
passed on to the
mountain lion who
eats the deer. The
mountain lion grows
old and dies, and
decomposers use the
rest of the energy to
feed themselves. The
waste of the
decomposer puts
little nutrients back
into the soil – but
these nutrients are
not sugar energy.
The plants use these
little nutrients
(minerals) to change
the sun’s energy into
sugar energy. They
also use these little
minerals to grow,
change, and even
“eat” their own
sugar energy.
Energy transfer can be shown as an energy
pyramid
Food chain
A picture, or
diagram
which shows
“who eats
what” The
arrows show
which way
the nutrients
and energy
go.
Example: see
right
Food web
A picture or
diagram
which shows
“who eats
what” when
more than
one organism
eats more
than one
food
Follow the
arrows to see
the multiple
animals
which eat
each
organism.
Example: see
right
See that the
Grasses are
eaten by the
Artic Hare,
the
Lemming,
the Musk Ox,
AND the
Caribou. See
that the Artic
Hare is eaten
by the Hawk,
the Polar
Bear, AND
the Wolf.
Food Chain
Food Web
Standard 3.8b Earth Patterns, Cycles, and Change
Cycle
A series (or more
than one thing in
order) that
repeats It happens in the
same order each
time, and the end
starts the
beginning!
Life cycle
A cycle that shows
how an organism
begins its life,
then grows and
changes, then
reproduces to
start the cycle
again. It must be
in order.
Example: The
school year
occurs in a cycle.
You begin
school, you get a
1st quarter
report card, then
a 2nd quarter
report card, then
a 3rd quarter
report card, then
a 4th quarter
report card, then
you have a
summer break,
then you start all
over again!
Examples: A
plant life cycle, a
butterfly life
cycle, a frog life
cycle, and a bird
life cycle
Cycles are often shown with a diagram or
picture
Butterfly Life Cycle
Frog Life Cycle
Pattern
An observed
repeating order
of the way
something
looks, or the
way something
behaves
Examples:
anything that
happens in the
same order over
and over again,
like the seasons
Relationship
A connection
between two or
more things –
one affects the
other in some
way
Examples: an
owl and a mouse
have a
predator/prey
relationship
There is a
relationship
between the
number of trees
and plants and
the amount of
pollution which
reaches the
Chesapeake Bay.
Example: There
is a sequence of
events to brush
your teeth.
Can you describe
it?
Sequence
Order of events
Patterns can be observed as connections
between two or more events (things that
happen) by looking at data such as tables,
graphs, and charts. What patterns can you see
in this line graph?
There is a relationship between the landscape
and water pollution.
Standard 3.10 a,b,c Earth Resources and Human Influence
Interdependency
Two or more things
relying on each
other, or affecting
each other in some
way
Conservation
Saving something
Extinct
When there are no
more of a certain
type of organism
living on the earth
Species
A certain type of
organism
When a species is
IN DANGER of going
extinct very soon –
there are not very
many left
Example: red panda,
clown fish
Example: Bengal
Tiger
When the
population of a
species is declining
(going down, or
getting smaller) and
that species might
become
endangered soon
Example: Polar Bear
Endangered
Threatened
Example: The clown
fish and the sea
anemone are
interdependent. The
clown fish scares
away small fish, and
leaves little bits of
food for the sea
anemone after it
eats. The sea
anemone provides
(gives) the clown fish
a place to hide from
predators.
Example: If you
practice (do) water
conservation, you
turn off the water
while brushing your
teeth.
Example: dinosaurs
are now extinct
The Thylacine,
or Tasmanian
Tiger is now
extinct.