Immunology is a crucial area of study within Biology Topics, exploring the immune system.
What is climate adaptation about? And Adaptation of Animals to Climate
Climate has a great effect on all the living organisms (animals as well as plants). A living organism can survive in a particular habitat only if its body is suited (or adapted) to the climate of that habitat. Animals and plants develop special features in their body or develop certain habits to survive in their habitats (or surroundings). The presence of specific body features (or certain habits) which enable an animal or a plant to live in a particular habitat (or surroundings) is called adaptation. The body features and habits that help animals (and plants) to adapt to their particular habitats or surroundings are a result of the process of evolution. Adaptation is called ‘anukulan’ in Hindi.
Animals (and plants) are adapted to survive in climates in which they live. Adaptation can help animals to survive in their environment by enabling them to withstand climate (such as extreme cold or hot climate), to obtain food, to hide to keep safe or catch prey, or to breathe, etc. For example, polar bears have two thick layers of fur and a thick layer of fat under their skin. Both these body features of polar bears are the adaptations to make them withstand the extremely cold climate of polar region so that they may survive in their habitat. We will now study the adaptations of some animals to the climates in which they live. As examples of adaptations of animals to climatic conditions, we will discuss only the animals living in two types of habitats :
- Polar regions, and
- Tropical rainforests.
Our earth has two poles : north pole and south pole. The areas situated near the poles of the earth are called polar regions. Some of the well known countries that belong to the polar regions of the earth are Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Alaska in USA and Siberian region of Russia. All these countries actually belong to the north polar region (which is also called Arctic region). The south polar region of the earth is called Antarctic region (or just Antarctica). The polar regions of the earth have an extremely cold climate.
Tropical rainforests are thick forests which grow near both the sides of the equator of earth where the climate is very hot and humid, and rainfall is high. Some of the countries where tropical rainforests are found are India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.
The polar regions and the tropical regions are the two regions of the earth which have severe climatic conditions. We will now describe the climatic conditions in both these habitats and how animals are adapted to live in these climates. Let us describe the polar region first.