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Animal Adaptions Project

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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Allee Johnson
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275 views3 pages

Animal Adaptions Project

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.

Uploaded by

Allee Johnson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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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