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PebbleGo's first Spanish language module! Translated by a team of Spanish language professionals, each article features both Spanish text and read-aloud audio recorded by professional voice over artists.

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How can animals live
in such different places in the world?

Animals and plants are adapted to the conditions of the habitats in which they live.

Animals live everywhere on Earth. Some places on Earth are very hot and some are very cold. Some places on Earth have a lot of water and plants, and other places have very little water and few plants. More than 99 percent of Antarctica is covered with ice but a few plants still grow there, mostly lichens, mosses, and algae. Antarctica is very cold.

Guess what?
Animals even live in Antarctica! The animals in Antarctica are dependent on the sea for feeding or are migratory and leave the continent when the winter arrives.

Animals can live in many different places in the world because they have special adaptations to the area they live in.

What is an adaptation?
An adaptation is a way an animal's body helps it survive, or live, in its environment. Camels have learned to adapt (or change) so that they can survive.

Animals depend on their physical features to help them obtain food, keep safe, build homes, withstand weather, and attract mates. These physical features are called called physical adaptations. They makes it possible for the animal to live in a particular place and in a particular way.

Each adaptation has been produced by evolution. This means that the adaptations have developed over many generations.
Examples of the basic adaptations that help creatures survive:

shape of a bird's beak,

the number of fingers,

colour of the fur,

the thickness or thinness of the fur,

the shape of the nose or ears

What is a mimicry adaptation?
Mimicry is adapting to look like something else. An example would be the hawkmoth as it looks just like a dead leaf, tattered and veined.

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How Animals have adapted to their Environment

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Animals live everywhere on Earth. Some places on Earth are very hot and some are very cold. Some places on Earth have a lot of water and plants, and other places have very little water and few plants. More than 99 percent of Antarctica is covered with ice but a few plants still grow there, mostly lichens, mosses, and algae.

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Interactive Learning Sites for Education

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Interactive Learning Sites for Education

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2. Watch a caterpillar become a Chrysalis (cocoon)

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2. Watch a caterpillar become a Chrysalis (cocoon)

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Watch a Caterpillar Become a Chrysalis - NWF | Ranger Rick

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https://www.pebblego.com/modules/1/categories/3

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https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/

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Discover cool info and videos about your favorite animals in the Wild Kratts database.

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10. Explore Different Animals and Animal Habitats

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10. Explore Different Animals and Animal Habitats

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Switch Zoo features six free online games and an app to make new animals offline.

Switch Zoo music is 'performed' by animals! After listening, learn how the music was created.

The resources page provides an overview of the activities and information at Switch Zoo.

Switch the animals' heads, legs, and tails to make your own switcheroos! Play Switch Zoo Online for free. Check out the Switch Zoo App for morphing animations, bigger pictures, and more features.

Switch Zoo Online Switch Zoo App

Build six of world's biomes by choosing the right plants, animal, temperature range, and precipitation for each. Get a postcard for each biome you build, and build them all to become a Biome Master.
Play Build a Biome

A feather match game. See if you can identify each feather's bird from three choices with the help of a clue. Read interesting and sometimes surprising facts while you play.
Play Words of a Feather

Move animals to their home continent or ocean in these geographic animal games. Seven games feature mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mollusks.
Play Where Do I Live?

It's always feeding time at Switch Zoo! We need your help sorting the animals by diet type to make sure they get the right food.
Play Please DO Feed the Animals

Can you spot a scavenger in a crowd? Find out by choosing scavengers and non-scavengers from groups of animals.
Play Scavengers Hunt

Learn about the characteristics and behavior of the 142 animal species in Switch Zoo.

Reviews of Switch Zoo Online from magazines and web sites, as well as players' comments about the Switch Zoo App.

Switch Zoo visitors share funny and creative animal names, drawings, stories and poems about the animals, and comments about the zoo. Don't miss the fantastic drawings of combination animals created by 5th grade students.

Copyright © 2023 Tubehead. All rights reserved.

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At Switch Zoo you can make new animals, play animal games, build a biome, learn about animals, and hear animal music.

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No, animal classes are not like the classes people have at school!

An animal class is made up of animals that are all alike in important ways. Scientists have grouped animals into classes to make it easier to study them.

There are many different animal classes and every animal in the world belongs to one of them. The five most well known classes of vertebrates (animals with backbones) are mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians. They are all part of the phylum chordata -- I remember "chordata" by thinking of spinal chord.

There are also a lot of animals without backbones. These are called invertebrates and are part of the phylum arthropoda (arthropods). Two of the most commonly known classes in this phylum are arachnids (spiders) and insects.

Mammals

People are mammals. So are dogs, cats, horses, duckbill platypuses, kangaroos, dolphins and whales. What do all these animals have in common, you ask?

The answer is - MILK! If an animal drinks milk when it is a baby and has hair on its body, it belongs to the mammal class.

Birds

Birds are animals that have feathers and that are born out of hard-shelled eggs.

Some people think that what makes an animal a bird is its wings. Bats have wings. Flies have wings. Bats and flies are not birds. So what makes an animal a bird?

The answer is feathers!

All birds have feathers and birds are the only animals that do. The feathers on a bird's wings and tail overlap. Because they overlap, the feathers catch and hold the air. This helps the bird to fly, steer itself and land.

Fish

Fish are vertebrates that live in water and have gills, scales and fins on their body. There are a lot of different fish and many of them look very odd indeed. There are blind fish, fish with noses like elphants, fish that shoot down passing bugs with a stream of water and even fish that crawl onto land and hop about!

Reptiles

Reptiles are a class of animal with scaly skin. They are cold blooded and are born on land.

Snakes, lizards, crocodiles, alligators and turtles all belong to the reptile class.

Amphibians

Amphibians are born in the water. When they are born, they breath with gills like a fish. But when they grow up, they develop lungs and can live on land.

Arthropods

Arthropods is a huge phylum of animals -- it includes eleven animal classes: Merostomata, Pycnogonida, Arachnida, Remipedia, Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda, Maxillopoda, Malacostraca, Chilopoda, Diplopoda, and Insecta.

Any animals that have more than four, jointed legs are arthropods. Insects, spiders and crustaceans all belong to this class of animals.

Take a Break!
On-Line Activity: Ants
This is a bit old for most grade school children, but I've included it for older viewers.
Scientific information is split into a number of levels: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. (one silly way to remember this is King Phillip, Come Out For Goodness Sake!)

All of the scientific information about a living thing is called it's "Taxonomy"

So, for example, if you're talking about a Trumpeter Swan, it's taxonomy is:

Want to know a little more about the scientific side of things? Click here!

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No, animal classes are not like the classes people have at school! An animal class is made up of animals that are all alike in important ways. Scientists have grouped animals into classes to make it easier to study them. There are many different animal classes and every animal in the world belongs to one of them.

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The Mission of ARKive

ARKive was a unique global initiative with the mission of

"promoting the conservation of the world's threatened species, through the power of wildlife imagery".

It served as a centralized digital archive for films, photographs, and audio recordings of the world's species. The primary goal of ARKive was to complete audio-visual profiles for the approximately 17,000 species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. By gathering and organizing these valuable resources, ARKive aimed to raise awareness and promote conservation efforts for these endangered species.

Creation and Launch

ARKive was an initiative of Wildscreen, a UK-registered educational charity, and was technically created by Hewlett-Packard as part of the HP Labs' Digital Media Systems research program. The project was officially launched on May 20, 2003. ARKive received backing from leading conservation organizations, including BirdLife International, Conservation International, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the United Nations' World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It also had the support of leading academic and research institutions, such as the Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Smithsonian Institution. ARKive had a significant global reach, with over half a million people every month from over 200 countries using the platform to learn about and discover the wonders of the natural world. It became the world's biggest encyclopedia of life on Earth, featuring multi-media fact-files for more than 16,000 endangered species.

Closure of ARKive

Despite its success and impact, ARKive was closed on February 15, 2019, due to funding issues. The website was replaced with a short statement, and the complete collection of over 100,000 images and videos is now being stored securely offline for future generations. The legacy of ARKive continues to live on, even after its closure. The vast collection of wildlife imagery serves as a valuable resource for future generations, and the project's mission continues to inspire and inform conservation efforts worldwide. ARKive's content was rich and diverse, featuring multimedia fact-files for more than 16,000 endangered species. These fact-files were freely accessible to everyone, providing a comprehensive look at the world's threatened biodiversity. The content included high-quality photographs, videos, and audio recordings, offering an immersive experience for users.

Contributors to ARKive

Over 7,000 of the world's best wildlife filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, and scientists contributed to ARKive. Their collective efforts resulted in a vast and unparalleled archive of wildlife imagery. These contributors played a crucial role in bringing the wonders of the natural world to the fingertips of people around the globe.

Challenges

Despite its success, ARKive faced significant challenges. The primary issue was funding. Wildscreen was unable to raise sufficient funds to support the year-round costs of keeping ARKive online. As a result, the charity had to use its reserves to keep the project online, and it was unable to fund any dedicated staff to maintain ARKive, let alone future-proof it, for over half a decade.

End of ARKive

Despite appeals for support, just 85 of ARKive's 5.6 million users in 2018 made a donation. As a small conservation charity, Wildscreen eventually reached the point where it could no longer financially sustain the ongoing costs of keeping ARKive free and online or invest in its much-needed development. Therefore, a very hard decision was made to take the ARKive website offline in February 2019. The complete ARKive collection of over 100,000 images and videos is now being stored securely offline in perpetuity for future generations. While the website is no longer accessible, the valuable resources it gathered continue to exist and can potentially be used in future conservation efforts. The story of ARKive serves as a reminder of the importance of preserving our natural world and the challenges that conservation initiatives face.

Educational Role

Beyond its conservation mission, ARKive also played a significant educational role. It provided a wealth of free and engaging, curriculum-linked educational resources. These resources were used by teachers and students alike to learn about the world's biodiversity, fostering a sense of wonder and respect for the natural world in the younger generation. ARKive's legacy is a testament to the power of collective effort in the face of global environmental challenges. It stands as a beacon of what can be achieved when scientists, conservationists, photographers, filmmakers, and the public come together with a shared vision. Despite its closure, the spirit of ARKive lives on in every individual it inspired and every conversation it sparked about the importance of biodiversity and conservation.

The Lasting Impact of ARKive

In conclusion, ARKive was more than just a digital archive; it was a global initiative that brought the plight of endangered species to the forefront of public consciousness. Its closure marked the end of an era, but its impact continues to resonate. The story of ARKive is a poignant reminder of our responsibility to the natural world and the urgency of conservation efforts. As we move forward, let us carry the lessons learned from ARKive and continue to strive for a world where biodiversity is valued and protected.

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The world's largest encyclopaedia of life on Earth "Arkive". Over 16,000 endangered species with multi-media fact-files, now stored offline for future generations. Stay tuned for the news in 2023.