01 June 2004 - Adaptations

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 84

Adaptations

Even though we won’t see a lot of wildlife around Zhigansk, I’ve thought about this question a lot. Today, when we were walking back from our water sampling site, Max saw a bird and pointed it out. After the entire research group was looking for a while, we realized that there was more than one bird, but that they were well camouflaged. How many birds can you find?

Camouflage—looking like or blending in with one’s surroundings, is one way that arctic animals survive. This is an adaptation that animals all over the world use as it help to keep them protected from getting eaten by their predators. Camouflage is one type of physical adaptation. A physical adaptation is a structure of the body of an organism that helps it survive. Reindeer also live around Zhigansk. A physical adaptation that they have is that they develop a thing called “guard” hairs in the winter that are thick-tipped and hollow. These guard hairs trap the warm air that comes off the reindeer’s body to help to keep it warm. Many arctic animals have smaller appendages (or parts that come off of the main part of the body, like ears or hands) so that they don’t loose too much body heat.

Another type of adaptation is behavioral adaptation. These types of adaptations are actions that an animal does to help it survive. One of the most common adaptations of arctic animals is to migrate or move to different places in the Arctic. The birds that we saw today probably migrated to a more southern location for the winter to avoid the harsh climate and are beginning to move north again as the summer is coming to the Arctic.

So….how many birds did you find? We found six.

What types of adaptations do the animals that live near you have to help them be successful in the environment that they live in? Let us know!