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    Animal Adaptions Project

    Uploaded by

    Allee Johnson
    The four-toed hedgehog lives in grassy and open woodland environments, eating insects and small animals. It is well-adapted to its habitat with its ability to roll into a spiny ball for protection and tolerance for toxins. However, climate change and human activities are negatively impacting hedgehogs. Warmer winters disrupt hibernation patterns and reduce food sources, while garden chemicals and habitat loss kill many hedgehogs directly. One adaptation that could help hedgehogs is an increased tolerance for warmer temperatures to avoid wasting energy during brief winter warm spells.

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    Animal Adaptions Project

    Uploaded by

    Allee Johnson
    126 views3 pages
    The four-toed hedgehog lives in grassy and open woodland environments, eating insects and small animals. It is well-adapted to its habitat with its ability to roll into a spiny ball for protection and tolerance for toxins. However, climate change and human activities are negatively impacting hedgehogs. Warmer winters disrupt hibernation patterns and reduce food sources, while garden chemicals and habitat loss kill many hedgehogs directly. One adaptation that could help hedgehogs is an increased tolerance for warmer temperatures to avoid wasting energy during brief winter warm spells.

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    Animal Adaptions project

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    The four-toed hedgehog lives in grassy and open woodland environments, eating insects and small animals. It is well-adapted to its habitat with its ability to roll into a spiny ball for protection and tolerance for toxins. However, climate change and human activities are negatively impacting hedgehogs. Warmer winters disrupt hibernation patterns and reduce food sources, while garden chemicals and habitat loss kill many hedgehogs directly. One adaptation that could help hedgehogs is an increased tolerance for warmer temperatures to avoid wasting energy during brief winter warm spells.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    126 views3 pages

    Animal Adaptions Project

    Uploaded by

    Allee Johnson
    The four-toed hedgehog lives in grassy and open woodland environments, eating insects and small animals. It is well-adapted to its habitat with its ability to roll into a spiny ball for protection and tolerance for toxins. However, climate change and human activities are negatively impacting hedgehogs. Warmer winters disrupt hibernation patterns and reduce food sources, while garden chemicals and habitat loss kill many hedgehogs directly. One adaptation that could help hedgehogs is an increased tolerance for warmer temperatures to avoid wasting energy during brief winter warm spells.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Animal Adaptations

    Animals have always adapted ways to better survive in the environment they live in. For this
    activity, I’ll explore ways that an organism is adapted to its environment and how a change in the
    environment may affect the organism.

    1. Select a living wild animal of your choosing. Write it below.


    Four-toed hedgehog

    2. Describe its environment. What is the weather like? Habitat? Food? Predators?
    - Grassy environments and open woodland - prefers temperatures between 24
    and 30 °C - avoids dense forests and swampland.
    - Omnivores, mainly insectivores. They feed on insects, grubs, snails, spiders,
    some plant matter, and even small vertebrates.
    - Eaten by Verreaux's eagle-owls, jackals, hyenas, and honey badgers.
    3. What are some specific adaptations your chosen animal has that makes it better
    suited to its environment?
    -When attacked or threatened, they can scream loudly and tense up all the
    muscles on their back to cause the spines to stand erect, and then roll into a ball
    protecting their limbs and head. If they are harassed further, they will twitch in an
    attempt to jab spines into the predator.
    -They have a high tolerance for toxins.
    - Solitary and nocturnal -They sleep during the day and are very active at night.

    4. Human activities and climate change is affecting environments across the world in
    a multitude of ways.
    How will human activities and/or climate change affect your animal’s
    environment?

    Human Activities and Climate Change are rapidly affecting Hedgehogs and their
    environment in two main ways.
    1. Climate change is affecting the hibernation patterns of hedgehogs. The
    appearance of warmer and wetter winters are impacting invertebrate food
    sources for hedgehogs, which could have a detrimental effect on their
    ability to survive.
    2. More and more hedgehogs are killed due to the use of garden chemicals,
    such as insecticides and slug pellets, and habitat loss caused by the
    progression of new roads, housing, and other developments.

    5. How will those changes affect your animal’s adaptations? Will they still be helpful
    or hurtful?
    - Periodically waking from hibernation to forage for short periods during
    warm winter spells have become a harmful adaptation because the
    energy lost during waking is not replaced due to the lack of food sources
    available in the winter.
    - The use of chemicals reduces the natural food available for hedgehogs
    and the fragmentation of their habitat can lead to a drop in hedgehog
    populations.
    6. What are some adaptations YOU can think of that would help your animal be
    better adapted to the changing environment?
    - If hedgehogs could survive in warmer temperatures, they would be able to avoid
    waking up during warm winter periods.

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