An adaptation is any trait that helps an animal or plant survive in its habitat. Adaptations are helpful only in the habitat for which an animal is adapted. A freshwater newt, used to living in or near water, wouldn’t survive long in the desert.

Diet, behavior, physical anatomy, and even physiology (internal mechanisms), are ways animals adapt to their surroundings. Many living things have evolved unique ways of dealing with the problems of survival. An animal’s adaptations develop over a very long time and can pass to their children, such as an eagle’s keen sense of sight or a hummingbird’s long beak

A track is a message. Anyone can learn a lot about an animal by “reading” the track. We can tell which way the animal was headed. If an animal leaves enough tracks, someone might even be able to know if the animal was in a hurry or on the run. We can tell if the animal was injured.

Sometimes tracks are the only clue we have to tell us animals are in the area. We don’t often see the animals that are awake only at night or the ones who try to avoid humans. But if we see their tracks, we know they’re out there, and we can learn a lot about them. We can tell at least a little about how an animal lives in its world or its environment by reading the clues it leaves behind.

Keeping those feet warm in the winter varies by animal, but here’s just a few:

Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life in the world or within a habitat or ecosystem. Biodiversity loss is happening at an alarming rate. The conversion of natural areas for homes, offices, and shopping centers has become one of the most serious threats to America’s native plant and animal species. The pace of land covered by urban and suburban development has been accelerating decade by decade since the 1950s.

Critical to survival, wildlife requires food, water, shelter, and places to raise their young, free from polluted air, soils, water, food, and acoustics. Citizens are best positioned to support biodiversity and combat urbanization by building and maintaining habitat for wildlife, changing consumption habits, participating in environment-related events, such as community clean-ups, and advocating for policies and laws that support healthy wildlife populations and habitat.