Olympiad Test: Living And Non-living Things -1

Aerial animals are basically any animals that can naturally fly, glide, or soar in the air. Aerial animals include birds, insects, bats, sugar gliders, flying squirrels, and many others.

A chameleon changes its skin colour to brown when it sits on the branch of a tree.

All snakes are carnivores. Their diet depends on the species. Some eat warm-blooded prey (e.g., rodents, rabbits, birds), while others eat insects, amphibians (frogs or toads), eggs, other reptiles, fish, earthworms, or slugs. 

Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them.

Ducks and Frogs use their feet to swim. Their webbed feet are uniquely designed to help them move through the water. A duck's foot has the ability to become wider. Ducks use their webbed feet like paddles to provide more surface to push against the water.

Frogs and toads are amphibians, which means they live their lives both in water and on land.

Arboreal animals are those which spend most of their time on trees. 

The most common adaptations of terrestrial animals is the legs to walk on land and lungs for respirations. 

In aerial animals, the fore­limbs are modified into wings.

This modification is an adaptation of the birds, such that they can fly through the air. 

Tigers and leopards have stripes on their bodies. The adaptation helps them to combine with the atmosphere. The main purpose of those animals having patterns on their body is to assist them in camouflage.

A scale protects the body of the snake, aids it in movement, allows moisture to be retained within, alters the surface characteristics such as roughness to aid in camouflage, and in some cases even aids in prey capture (such as Acrochordus).

Chameleons possess a host of physical adaptations which help them survive. Color-changing skin helps them blend in, stand out to potential mates and intimidate rivals.

The development of characteristics that helps an organism to survive in a particular environment is known as adaptation. 

Animals taken to polar regions may have the following adaptive features:
1.  Low surface area to volume ratio.
2. Small extremities to reduce heat loss - shorter ears and limbs.
3. Thick layer of body fat/blubber - present in seals to reduce body heat loss.
4. Thick camouflaged fur.
5. Thick fur on paws.

Frogs do hibernate. Aquatic frogs, like Ontario's Leopard Frog, go to the bottom of oxygen rich water bodies where they lie on top of the mud all winter. Being on top of the mud lets oxygen from the surrounding water get in through their skin. The rest of their body systems slow right down and they wait out the winter.

Fish breathe underwater using the oxygen that is dissolved in water. But to absorb oxygen from water, fish use special organs called gills. When the water moves through the gills, the dissolved oxygen from the water passes through the thin walls of gills and blood vessels, and enters the blood.

Mice, dogs and tigers have fur and four legs.

Polar bears live in the Arctic where the air and water temperatures are very cold. They have special adaptations, or features that help them live in that habitat, like webbed feet, a layer of fat, fur that helps them blend in and dry off, and black skin to absorb the sun's heat.

Despite less vegetation and water, they keep walking for days without any food and water. They have big humps that store fat and can be converted into energy when there is no food and water.

Penguin wings are paddle-like flippers used for swimming. The motion of the flippers resembles the wing movements of flying birds, giving penguins the appearance of flying through water.

Snakes adapt to the desert by using light brown or grey camouflage to blend in with their surroundings. They've adapted to the temperature by learning to burrow in dens to shelter from hot temperatures.

Most bear species are omnivores, but individual diets can range from almost exclusively herbivorous to almost exclusively carnivorous, depending on what food sources are available locally and seasonally.