Adaptations of animals and plants

An adaptation helps a living thing survive and reproduce, which means to have young. There are two main kinds. A structural adaptation is a part of the body: thick fur, a strong beak, long legs, big ears. A behavioural adaptation is something the animal does: hiding in a burrow at noon, hunting at night, or flying to warmer lands for the winter. Each year white storks fly over Egypt on their way south, and that is a behavioural adaptation. Adaptations are not wishes or choices. A lizard cannot grow thicker skin because it wants to. Over many generations, animals with features that suit their habitat survive better and have more young, so those features become common in the species. One animal does not adapt in its own lifetime.