- helps animals blend in with their surroundings, making it difficult for predators or prey to spot them.
- provides an advantage in hunting and avoiding predators.
- Ex: Chameleons, Stick Insects
Mimicry:
- helps animals resemble other species or objects, often to deceive predators or prey.
- provides a defensive mechanism or an advantage in hunting.
- Ex: Viceroy butterfly resembles the poisonous Monarch butterfly, coral snakes mimic harmless milk snakes
Structural Adaptations:
- involve changes in the physical structure of an organism.
- help them survive in specific environments and perform specialized functions.
- Ex: Long necks of giraffes for reaching leaves, tusks of elephants for digging and defense
Physiological Adaptations:
- involve internal or chemical changes in an organism.
- help them regulate body temperature, digest certain foods, or produce specific substances.
- Ex: camels' ability to store water, venom in snakes, echolocation in bats
Behavioral Adaptations:
- involve learned or instinctive behaviors that help organisms survive and reproduce.
- include communication, migration, hibernation, and social behaviors.
- Ex: Migration of birds to warmer climates, cooperative hunting in lions
These adaptations are crucial for survival as they provide advantages in obtaining resources, avoiding predators, finding food, and successfully reproducing in their respective habitats.