Intro koalas
What makes koalas so special? First of all they are related to kangaroos and they have pouches. They are incredibly lazy and they are very smart. They are a herbivore and only feed on leafs from a certain tree. Koalas are amazingly well adapted.
Clever adaptations
Koalas are well adapted because they adapted and evolved intelligent. Koalas are not a bear they are more kangaroo related than being related to a bear.
“Koalas are not bears. They are not placental or 'eutherian' mammals, but MARSUPIALS, which means that their young are born immature & they develop further in the safety of a pouch. It’s incorrect to call them ‘Koala bears' ” ("Australian koala foundation"). This is good because the infant koala can stay warm. "A koala has a pouch meaning its a marsupial (a pouched animal)." This shows how koalas are well adapted by how the female uses herself to hide her baby.
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"They use the eucalyptus tree to wedge themselves in its branches to nap." "The koala bear naps for up to 18 hours during the day."
“Fact, they rarely leave these trees, and their sharp claws and opposable digits easily keep them aloft. During the day they doze, tucked into forks or nooks in the trees, sleeping for up to 18 hours” ("Koala").
"They hardly ever in their life leave the trees." This shows they are well adapted by how they prevent most predators from getting them while dozing off in a tree.
Diet & eating habits
The koala is well adapted by the way they eat. "They eat about 3 pounds of leaves a day." "The koalas even select leaves of certain eucalyptus trees."
“Koala feeds very selectively on the leaves of certain eucalyptus trees.”
Koalas are arboreal mammals, meaning that they live in trees. They live in eucalyptus trees and feed on their leaves, which are poisonous to most animals. A koala’s home is decided by two main factors: the presence of other koalas and eucalyptus trees. They can eat other tree leaves, but that usually occurs only when eucalyptus leaves are absent (Crawford n.d.).
this is due to the habitat they live in and the small number of people living
...and put them in a whole different category from other primates. Unlike other animals there intellect gives them the ability to create, learn and flourish as primates. Even though they are not as intelligent as humans, they have a very significant cognition that puts them closer to humans.
grizzlies will hibernate when there is a seasonal shortage of food, low environmental temperatures, or when there’s snow arrival. Grizzly bears hibernate five to seven months each year. The grizzly will enter into hibernation in October or November. During this time the grizzly bear must prepare a den and consume as much food as possible to last their hibernation period. While searching for a den the grizzly may travel many miles until it finds a suitable area that it likes. The dens are usually at elevations above 1,800 m (5,900 ft) on north-facing slopes. The reason why bears have to eat as much food as possible is because they need the energy from the food to last through the entire winter. They may eat up to 90 lbs of food per day, while trying to put on as much weight as possible. When it’s time for grizzlies to hibernate; will enter their den, and fall into a “deep” sleep. During this time the grizzlies won’t eat or drink; but instead they digest their stored up fat; (the fat used to last them through their entire hibernation.) The bear also will not urinate or defecate, but will reabsorb their urine and feces into proteins. The bear can use 25-40% of their body weight during hibernation; the bear’s heart rate and body temperature may also drop. By March or April, male grizzly bears usually emerge from the den and the females emerge in late April or May. When bears emerge from hibernation they’re
Through specific diction, Gould and Lewontin create a distinction between their views and the adaptationist programme. The adaptationist programme is "truly [a] Panglossian Paradigm” (Gould and Lewontin, 344). This gives a negative connotation to these evolutionary scholars and it places them on an opposing side of evolution; natural selection versus the pluralistic. The authors make them out to be enemies by questioning these modern evolutionary scholars' reliance on adaptations. This negative meaning makes readers see that the problems with adaptation is its idea of perfection, each trait of adaptation is used to explain every action an organism carries out. Gould and Lewontin are able to both attack and defend their views when they say that "each trait plays its part and must be as it is." (Gould and Lewontin, 344). They do this by making fun of the idea that each trait is ma...
...avioral adaptations that helps them in survival. Some physiological adaptations include their sense of hearing, and sight. Their ability to hear high frequencies aids in catching mice as prey, even when they are hidden under leaves or snow. Their large eyes aid in sighting prey, as they can see up to 285 degrees. The retina of the cougar’s eyes has more rods than cones, portraying a sign of night vision. Some morphological adaptations include, sharp canine teeth, used for tearing apart meat. Long back legs, used for jumping and running at speeds of 40 miles per hour, as well as, claws used for climbing tress. Behavioral adaptations include, being quiet will hunting and catching its prey, and burying its unfinished kill for later consumption. These characteristics show that the eastern cougar is not only a physically powerful animal, but an intelligent one as well.
The gorillas live mainly in coastal West Africa in the Congo, Zaire, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Gorillas live in the rain forest. They usually live on the ground but build nest in trees to sleep in. Gorilla troops keep a 15-20 square mile range which often overlaps the range of other troops. There are three different kinds of gorillas. The eastern lowland gorilla the western lowland and the mountain gorilla. They are herbivores and eat only wild celery, roots, tree bark pulp, fruit, stems of many plants and bamboo shoots. They spend nearly half their day eating.
In conclusion the animals which exist in the extreme climates of the world have adapted to be able to live well in these habitats and will probably stay living in these habitats for a long time to come.
Koko has helped us understand that humans and gorillas are really not that different. Like us they have forward facing eyes, ears on the sides of their heads, four fingers and a thumb on each hand. They are just like us inside too. Gorillas are smart. They think and have feelings. Most of the time, they are happy and playful, but sometimes they can feel sad or afraid. Koko laughs when she’s tickled and cries out when she’s sad. Koko even knows when she is being naughty.
The environment determines which traits are most evolutionary desirable to an organism. If a population should move or should the environment change, a different set of traits would be the most advantageous and thus become adaptive. Darwin’s famous finches are a great example of this as it shows natural selection occurring in populations who moved to different environments and then evolved into separate species, each with its own distinguishable beak adaptations. Also, if two populations find themselves in similar environments, it is likely that similar...
It is important to notice that the opening chapter acts essentially as an introduction to a wider discussion throughout his book. In an effort to give his exploration some order and consistency, Bluestone organizes his discussion under five sections. He identifies five main points, which composes the process of adaptation. Despite these efforts to contain each discussion under such headings, Bluestone’s discussion goes off track during his analysis, which only makes the laws that govern adaptation harder to underst...
To make the most of the energy that is taken in in their diet, the koala uses a decreased metabolic strategy that allows it to retain for long periods of time. The highly specialized digestive organs of the koala have adapted in the way that it withdraws the required nutrients from the poorly balanced diet.
Male Black Bears travel over many miles, sometimes living in an area as large as 60 square miles. Females do not roam as much and live in areas around 15 square miles. Male Bears do not live in the same areas as other males, but many females may live in the same areas. Females are more likely to defend their territory than a male is when an intruder is to enter. These animals determine their territory “by urinating, defecating, and by scratching, rubbing, and biting trees.” (State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 2014) Most people think that bears live in caves, but bears lives in different places and make their dens out of different things. The dens may be in “open nest, brush piles, fallen trees, rock piles, excavations, hollow trees, and human structures.” (Ternant, 2006)
Zoo animals are usually kept in very cramped enclosures and do not behave like their wild counterparts. Polar bears, for example, are given about 10 metres of walking space whereas in their Arctic home they roam for many hundreds of kilometres. Similarly, primates, big cats and birds are often confined in cages where they lack exercise and stimulation. Many animals develop unnatural habits such as pacing back and forth or swaying from side to side.