Understanding Animal Adaptations
Step 1: Interact with Data
Below are descriptions of four different animals. Examine the data and record your thinking about which animal has the most
beneficial adaptations. Be prepared to explain your thinking about which is the best adapted.
Animal
Natural Environment
Type of Adaptation
Benefits of Specific
Adaptations
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Write down your thinking here:
Shark
Fox
Raccoon
Bear
Oceans
Wooded Areas
Forests
Forests
Structural
Behavioral/ Functional
Behavioral/ Function
Hibernation
Fins and
streamline body to
swim
Gills to breathe
Sharp teeth that
grow back if
broken
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Blend into their
surroundings
Hide from
predators
Sneak up on prey
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Can make nests
many places
Not picky eaters
Nocturnal
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Body functions
slow down
Live off stored
body fat
Hide in dens
Step 2: Talking Sticks
Use the Talking Sticks Protocol to have a group conversation about which animal has the most beneficial adaptation.
1. Each person places his or her pencil/pen in the center of the group.
2. Take turns making a comment about the reading by picking up your “talking stick” and making your comment while you hold
it.
3. Once you are finished with your comment, set your “talking stick” in front of you and you are not allowed to comment again
until all the other group members have had a turn (group members may pass their turn with the “talking stick”).
4. After everyone in the group has had a chance to comment, repeat the process.
Step 3: Summary Protocol
Reading and processing information about the concept of adaptations
1. In each group, one person is chosen to keep the group on-task and all participating.
2. Read one paragraph silently (leader makes sure all group members know where paragraphs start and end). Each person reads
silently to themselves and only when all in the group are finished with the paragraph does the group progress to the next step.
3. Group discussed the content of the paragraph. All group members should contribute.
4. Group comes to an agreement about the main idea(s).
5. Talk about how to write the main idea(s). Each group member writes down the main idea(s).
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for each paragraph of the reading.
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What are Adaptations and How Do They Occur? (From Davis School District iScience, McGraw-Hill, 2011,
p.696)
In all species that reproduce sexually, offspring are different from their parents. Giraffes are members of the same
species, yet each one has a slightly different pattern of spots on its coat. Slight differences in inherited traits among
individual members of a species are variations.
Variations occur through mutations. A mutation might harm an organism’s chances of survival. However, many
mutations, such as those that cause the unique pattern of spots on a giraffe, cause no harm. If a variation helps an organism
survive or compete better in its environment, the organism with that variation lives longer. Because it lives longer, it has
more offspring that also can have the variation.
The spots on giraffes help them blend in with their environment- the grasslands of Africa. As a result, predators of
giraffes, such as lions and hyenas, cannot see them as easily. Giraffe spots were probably the result of a mutation that
occurred in an individual giraffe many generations ago. The mutation produced a variation that helped the giraffe survive.
Over many generations, more and more offspring inherit the variation. Eventually, most of the population has the variation,
and it becomes an adaptation. The spotted coats of giraffes is an adaptation. An adaptation is an inherited trait that helps a
species survive in its environment.
Adaptations can occur over long periods of time. There are many types of adaptations. Structural adaptations are
adaptations that involve the body of the organism. Other adaptations are characterized as behavioral, or functional
(hibernation), and some provide protection like camouflage (chameleon) and warning coloration (poisonous frogs).
Because mutations are random and occur continually, so do new variations. The variations that become adaptations
depend on the environment. Over time, all environments change. When this change happens, a population either adapts or
dies off. The repeated elimination of populations can lead to extinction of a species. Natural selection is the process by
which organisms with variations that help them survive in their environment live longer, compete better, and reproduce
more than those that do not have the variation.
ANIMAL ADAPTATIONS (adapted from Scholastic.com)
Sharks: Body Parts
If you look at a shark, you will see it has a number of special adaptations that allow it to fit into
an ocean environment. A shark has fins and a streamlined body that help it swim through
water. It has gills, which take in oxygen directly out of the water. Because of its gills, sharks
can stay underwater and not have to come to the surface to breathe.
Sharks also have a tremendous number of sharp teeth, which make them fierce predators. In
fact, if a shark accidentally breaks a tooth while chomping down on something, the tooth is
almost immediately replaced by another tooth growing in the jaw
Foxes: Camouflage
Camouflage is a type of adaptation that allows animals to blend in with their surroundings. This
adaptation helps protect them from their enemies. An animal is much better able to "hide" by
blending into its surroundings. On the other hand, camouflage also helps a predator "fit in" to its
environment so that it won't be seen very easily as it comes up on its prey.
Take the Arctic fox. During summer months, the Arctic fox has a brown coat. During winter, the
coat of the Arctic fox is white, matching its icy, snowy surroundings.
Raccoons: Behavior
Raccoons are a great example of behavioral adaptation in action! In their natural forest environment, they nest in trees and eat
everything from berries to fish. They are mostly nocturnal, which means they come out at
night.
As night creatures, they are not seen by humans very often.
For some people living in suburban areas, however, raccoons can seem like one of the biggest
pests — and it's all our fault! As humans destroyed the raccoon's natural habitat, these animals
have learned to change their habits — to adapt. Instead of nesting in trees, suburban raccoons
have made very comfortable homes in people's attics, basements, garages, and storage sheds.
Since they are not picky eaters, they have traded forest food for the delicious leftovers found
in our trash. Using their grasping hands, they have learned to open garbage cans and gates,
creating quite a problem for their human hosts!
Bears: Hibernation
How would you survive the long, cold winter without food? Bears do it in a very cool way —
hibernation. Hibernation helps animals survive the changing seasons. Foods that bears eat,
such as berries and flowers, are much less available during cold winter months.
When they hibernate, bears enter a deep sleep. They remain safe by hiding in dens. The bears'
body functions, such as heartbeats and breathing, slow down. While they sleep, the bears can
survive because their bodies live off of their stored fat or food. It's like nature's built-in battery
cell. That's why bears eat plenty during autumn, in order to store up fat.
Many other animals hibernate, from various birds and reptiles to mammals such as woodchucks and rodents.
Writing Prompt:
You are an environmental scientist having to relocate some animals to a desert environment. Write a letter to your co-worker
explaining which animal will adapt most easily to the new environment. In your letter make sure you support your position with
evidence from the data, the text source, and from your own thinking.
The Communication Triangle
Text/Format:
essay, news
article, letter
Writer/Perspective:
Who is speaking?
Reader/Audience:
Who are you
speaking to?
Students will use data regarding animal adaptations. They will be asked to answer a question based on
their current understanding, examine data, engage with text and draw information from it, and be asked to
change, explain or defend their thinking.
Summary Protocol:
Text from iScience
and McGraw Hill
Talking Sticks: To
have a dialogue
about which
adaptation is the
best
Writing Prompt:
Using all of the
information and
data gathered, write
a letter supporting
their position.