Animal Adaptations in Habitats

Design an Animal with Adaptations


Your task is to design an animal with special adaptations perfectly suited for survival in a specific habitat.

Animals gain and adapt their physical features over millions of years, but our task today is going to cut down that time just a little. You need to pick one of the habitats you've been studying and design an animal which is going to survive in that environment.

You need to consider how this animal:
     - is going to stay warm or cool,
     - what it is going to eat,
     - what is its size,
     - how it is going to get its food and water,
     - how will it protect/defend itself from attackers,
     - where will it shelter,
     - and how it is going to care for its young to make sure they survive.

Your animal must fit into the existing food chain - it cannot be the ultimate predator (the one which can eat everything else and nothing can eat it).

To help you, think about animals which have physical features which make them well suited to their environment. This includes animals which are camouflaged to their habitat, features which allow animals to survive in their climate, and features which allow animals to get food and defend themselves. Physical features include:
          Elephant - trunk          
          Shark - sense of smell
          Giraffe - neck          
          Hunting dogs - ears
          Lion - color, claws
          Gecko - fake tail          
          Polar bear - coat, color, claws
          Kangaroo - hind legs          
          Skunk - smell
          Goat - surefootedness   

Use the Designing an Animal Worksheet below to create your adapted animal.

In the rest of the space provided on your sheet (or on a separate piece of paper if you need more space), you need to draw a labelled picture of your creature. Give your animal a name and congratulations! You've created a new animal!