BACKGROUND:
Animals
have external characteristics, such as body covering, color, body shape, or
size, that are related to where they live. The cheetah, an African grassland
wild cat, has a sleek body and long. muscular legs that allow it to run quickly
to catch prey. The cheetah’s spotted fur helps it hide while hunting. The
Antarctic penguin is covered in very dense feathers to keep warm. The penguin’s
slender body helps it walk upright on webbed feet, swim underwater, or slide on
the ice. The penguin’s black and white color protects it on both sides from
ocean predators. The desert rattlesnake is the same color as the sand and has a
long body to wiggle quickly across the hot surface. Each animal on Earth has
special physical structures that help it survive in that region.
Animals have external
characteristics, such as wings, flippers, hooves, or paws, that are related to
how they move. Different limbs allow animals to move through water, land, or
air. Eagles and flamingos have wings for flying. However, the large, strong wings
of an eagle allow it to fly long distances to hunt food and swoop quickly to
catch it. The wings of the flamingo, a wading bird, are intended mainly for
migration flights. The penguin has flippers instead of wings and has webbed
feet to swim. The snapping turtle also has webbed feet for swimming. In the
north, reindeer have hooves to protect their feet from the hard arctic
surfaces. Cheetahs have padded paws on strong muscular legs that allow it to be
the fastest land animal.
Animals have external
characteristics, such as teeth, claws, beaks, or eyes, that are related to what
they eat. Although the cheetah, shark, and snake all have specialized teeth for
eating meat, their teeth are quite different. The cheetah has a set of teeth
typical of a large cat with strong, sharp, front fangs for ripping meat. The
shark is unique in having multiple rows of razor sharp teeth used for biting
other fish and sea creatures. The rattlesnake has two large fangs that inject
poison to paralyze the prey, usually small rodents, which helps the predator to
swallow its prey whole. The penguin also swallows its food whole (krill and
small fish), which it catches at sea with its strong beak. The flamingo has a
beak, but turns its head upside down in the shallow water to catch small fish
in the hooked beak. The cheetah uses claws for catching and ripping meat. The
eagle also has claws, called talons, which are long, razor sharp, strong enough
to carry prey, and can be used to kill. The eagle also uses its incredible
eyesight for spotting prey, which it can see up to a mile away.
