Adapting to survive

Emperor penguins can dive as deep as a 100-storey building

Adaptation is not just how animals are built; it is also what they do.

Polar bears hibernate in a den under the snow during the hardest part of winter. They also drift long distances on floating ice in order to reach their feeding quarters. 

Amazing birds

Birds have adapted amazingly to almost every environment. In the air, young swifts can fly for four years without landing once, and emperor penguins can dive 500 metres down underwater to catch fish. On land, in south-east Asia, bowerbirds build a garden of flowers just to attract a mate.

Take a closer look at the birds around you. You may wonder why a robin has a thin beak, while a sparrow’s is thick. Or why the robin is alone, while the sparrows are in a flock. Adaptation gives a good reason for what every bird looks like, and why it behaves the way it does.