Animal Adaptations: Behaviors

Instincts: a behavior that an animal begins life with

• behavior - action

• instinct - a behavior that an animals begins life with– adaptations that help animals meet their

needs

Migration• Monarch butterfly travels long distances

to meet their needs

• female Atlantic green turtles travel to an island in the Atlantic Ocean to lay eggs– eggs buried in sand– young turtles move toward ocean– swim toward feeding areas– when females become adults they return to

the island to lay eggs

• turtles do not learn where to go from other turtles– they know by instinct

• Migration: the movement of a group of one type of animal from one region to another and back again– this is a behavioral adaptation

• birds migrate where there is food and a good climate– pectoral sandpiper goes from Northern

Canada to southern South America each fall and return to Canada in the spring

• some animals migrate to where their young can survive– gray whales spend summers where they

can find food easily (near the North Pole) and winters in the warm waters of Mexico where they can give birth

– Salmon hatch from eggs in rivers and streams and then swim to the ocean until it is time to reproduce when the return to rivers and streams

Hibernation

• Hibernation: a period when an animal goes into a long, deep “sleep”– prepare by eating extra food and finding

shelter– during hibernation body temp

drops/breathing/heart rate fall• as a result animal needs little/no food and any

energy needed comes from stored fat from extra food eaten

• Ground Squirrel– during winter in underground nest– body temp drops to 15 degrees C– heartbeat/breathing rate fall– takes only four breaths per minute

Learned Behaviors

• some behaviors are not instinct but learned– tigers learn to hunt– chimps learn communication sounds by

watching adults

Summary

• animals behave in ways that enable them to meet their needs– behaviors are adaptations to their

environments• some are learned and others are instincts