Animals look and act differently from each other. Their physical characteristics (the way they look) and behaviors (the ways they act in their environment) are called adaptations. Adaptations help animals survive, or stay alive, where they live. When conditions change—for example, when seasons change—animals sense this change in conditions and respond with changes of their own.
It's important to know that adaptations appear gradually, and that not every animal species evolves adaptations needed to survive changing conditions. The ones that don't evolve eventually disappear, or go extinct.
In the box below, write down two or three examples of changes in environmental conditions that might cause animals to change the way they look or act in order to survive.