Adapting to New Zealand culture. Animal Adaptations incl. teacher info. Purpose To expand students’ knowledge of animal features and behaviors that can help or hinder their survival in a particular habitat.
Context. Adaptations: Watch the video then test yourself. How Animals Adapt (20 mins) Shapeshifting Octopus, amazing camouflage. BBC Nature - Adaptations and behaviours. BBC Nature - Mimicry videos, news and facts. Adaptation - HowStuffWorks. Adaptation, in biology, the process by which a living thing becomes better suited to its environment.
The term is also applied to the results of the process. In many organisms there are structural, functional, and color adaptations, and in animals there are also adaptations in instinctive (unlearned) behavior. Structural Adaptations. Natures best Camouflages (The "Where's Wally" of nature) Animals. Native bird adaptations. New Zealand separated from Gondwana around 65 million years ago.
Due to the geographical isolation and a lack of ground-dwelling predators, our birds evolved unique characteristics. Flight was not required to escape predators, so birds such as the kiwi, takahē and (now extinct) moa adapted to these conditions by developing a large body size and loss of flight. Adaptation is an evolutionary process Adaptation is an evolutionary process whereby an organism becomes increasingly well suited to living in a particular habitat. These are changes that occur over many, many generations.