What is adaptation in animals and plants?

Living things must find food, stay safe and cope with their surroundings. Features that help them do that are called adaptations. There are three kinds:

• Body features (structural): a camel's wide feet that do not sink in sand, a giraffe's long neck, a bird's beak, a cactus's thick, waxy stem.
• Body processes (physiological): a camel can go for days without drinking, and some snakes make venom.
• Behaviour: birds migrate, bears hibernate, meerkats take turns to watch for danger.

Here are some examples. A polar bear lives in the Arctic. It has thick fur, a layer of fat under its skin, and a coat that looks white and blends into the snow. A cactus in the desert has a thick stem that stores water, and spines instead of leaves to reduce water loss. A penguin has a streamlined body and wings like flippers for swimming. A chameleon changes colour to hide or to communicate.

Adaptations do not happen overnight, and an animal cannot choose to adapt. Over many generations, individuals with helpful features are more likely to survive and have young, who inherit those features. This slow process is called natural selection, a key part of evolution. A giraffe did not grow its neck by stretching. Long-necked giraffes had more food to eat, so more of them survived.

Adaptations match a particular habitat. A desert fox with huge ears would struggle in the Arctic, where a smaller ear loses less heat. When a habitat changes quickly, as with climate change, species may not adapt fast enough. See hibernation and migration for two behaviours that help animals through hard seasons.

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