Adaptations | Changing with the World |edZOOcating

Over the course of time, the world has changed greatly and continues to change every day. As the environment around us changes, plants and animals must change along with it or risk disappearing. Living organisms have needed to change their innate behaviors and their physical structures to continue thriving in their ecosystems, but how does that happen? 

Let’s take a giraffe. Giraffes are known for their incredibly long necks that allow them to reach leaves high off the ground that most other animals cannot reach. The more food the giraffes get, the healthier and more successful they are in their population. The more fit giraffes are sought after for breeding, resulting in more offspring from the giraffes with taller necks. As this process continues for several generations, their necks have gotten longer, allowing them to be more successful in their environment. We call this trend natural selection, meaning that nature favors individuals who have physical and behavioral traits that help them survive and reproduce. 

Animals adapt based on environmental stressors in ways that allow them to better withstand the stressor. The ability to collect food is a very important and common reason animals develop both physical and behavioral adaptations. Giraffes not only have tall necks, but they also have a long, prehensile tongue to grab leaves and branches and it is filled with extra melanin preventing sunburn while they eat! Painted dogs have adapted to outrun their fast prey by using teamwork. They live and hunt in large packs and take turns leading the chase to maintain speed. Their cooperative hunting is an incredible behavioral adaptation.

Unfortunately, only part of the struggle is being able to get their food, they also have to compete against other species in the ecosystem. Vultures have quite the method figured out. It is not uncommon to see many different vulture species at one carcass eating together without conflict. Different vulture species are often adapted to eat a specific part of the carcass, leaving the rest for other species. In Africa, the griffon vulture has a small bill and long neck; they prefer to dine on the soft tissue deep inside the carcass. Their weak bill is often not capable of ripping through a tough hide, forcing them to wait for a strong-billed lappet-faced vulture to arrive. Lappet-faced vultures are the first to eat, feasting on the meat, including skin and bones. On a less grotesque note, bats avoid competition with other avian critters by hunting and being active at night time. 

While all of these physical and behavioral adaptations allow animals to become fit and healthy, it doesn’t mean anything if they can’t reproduce. Animals have developed unique and intricate body parts and courtship rituals they are used to attract the fittest members of the opposite sex, especially birds. We are all familiar with a peacock’s long, beautiful tail feathers. Only males possess these long feathers; they will hold them upright in a huge fan and rattle them to entice a female. The bowerbird will collect items of all one color to present to the female as a gift. Birds of paradise are often covered in hidden iridescent feathers which they will flash to females in elaborate courtship dances. But, it’s not just birds. Male alligators will attract a mate by partially submerging their body underwater and letting out a deep, rumbling bellow. Many species of mammals will fight for the right to a mate or a group of females, like lions and baboons. 

This is by no means all of the reasons animals adapt to their environment, it all depends on what the environment throws at them. On many occasions, unrelated animals have developed similar adaptations because of similar demands or threats from their ecosystem. This is called convergent evolution. Dolphins and sharks are a simple example. Dolphins, which are an aquatic mammal, and sharks, which are a fish, have both developed streamline body shapes and powerful tails which allow them to propel themselves rapidly through the water. The wings of mammalian bats have developed the same function as the wings of almost all birds. From defense mechanisms to ecosystem service to locomotion, convergent evolution can be found all across the world. 

Every plant or animal that you see has some special adaptation that allows them to live happy and healthy in their environment. Adaptations have always occurred and most organisms have managed to keep up with the pace, but that might not be the case for long. We, as humans, are increasing the rate at which the world changes at an unnatural rate. Not only are we altering the global climate, but we are also altering ecosystems and converting them to farmland, we are filling the Earth’s waterways with trash and pollution, and we are accelerating change within the environment. Every day, we decide the impact we have on the Earth, whether we acknowledge it or not, through our choices. Sustainable alternatives are everywhere. It is not too late for us to stop the acceleration, we just have to choose to.