National Science Week Competition Rules and Help for designing animals:
Imagine that Charles Darwin had discovered an alien planet where new life forms exist. There are four islands on the planet. Each is completely different and far away from the others – one is a desert, another very cold, another hot and tropical and the last one covered in mountains and caves.
You are going to design a plant or animal for one of these habitats. Here are some rules to help you!
• An animal that lives in one habitat will die if that habitat is destroyed. The more habitats your animal can live in, the better its chance of survival.
• Animals in cold climates need insulation to keep warm. Fat, or fur, or both, are ideal for this.
• Animals in hot climates will need to store or find water.
• Animals that only eat one food are in danger if that food runs out. Animals that eat a variety of foods are more likely to survive.
• The bigger an animal is, the safer it is from predators.
• Many types of animal started out in water and have moved to the land.
Now choose your island!
• Is it:
The desert?
The very cold place?
The tropical habitat?
Or the place covered in mountains and caves?
• Next think of your plant or animal. Answer these questions in your mind:
How can it possibly live there?
How does it breathe?
Through gills? With lungs? Through its thin skin? Through tubes into its body?
How does i get around?
Does it crawl, walk or run? On how many legs? Does it jump? Does it swim? Does it fly?
How does it find its way – and its food?
Can it see? Or hear? Does it use its sense of smell or taste? Does it have special senses?
What does it eat?
Is it a plant-eater – or does it eat meat?
How does it reach or trap its food?
What eats it?
Is it a top predator? Or does it have enemies?
What are its enemies?
What is its defence? Is it hard to find – or can it fight?
How does it reproduce – have babies?
Does it have a nest? Does it lay eggs? Does it give birth to its young alive?
How helpless are they? How does it care for its young?
And finally:
What are you going to call it?
What does its name tell you about it?
Here is some information about our planet – Earth – to help you:
It could help you to research the animals in italics.
Life in cold climates
Fur (and feathers) help keep body heat in. Mammals living in cold places grow thick, insulating fur. They often grow thicker fur in the autumn, and moult to a thinner coat in then spring. Animals like the musk ox grow a thick outer coat of waterproof fur over the softer, insulating fur underneath.
Many animals put on extra fat ready for the cold times. The fat is a source of energy to keep them warm; and it insulates them, too.
Polar bears give birth in a warm den inside the ice. The mother bear stays with them, living off her store of fat and feeding them on her milk, until they are big enough to venture outside.
Some insects – and some plants – contain a kind of ‘antifreeze’ to stop them freezing up. It’s in their blood – or in their cells. Polar fish can swim in freezing water because their blood contains ‘antifreeze’.
Many Arctic birds live with very cold feet! The penguin has special blood vessels in its legs that keep its feet just above freezing point.
You lose a lot of heat from your ears. Polar bears and arctic foxes both have very small ears.
The only plants to grow in cold climates are small and slow-growing. They hug the ground, out of the worst of the wind.
Life in deserts
Not all deserts are sandy. Some are rocky. And while they are very hot in the day, they may be freezing cold at night.
But all deserts have very little water. And many creatures avoid dryness by hibernating. The African lungfish can live for four years buried in dried mud and breathing through a narrow tunnel. The desert tortoise sleeps underground, storing water inside itself.
Many desert plants are dormant most of their lives as seeds or underground roots and stems, waiting to flower when the rain falls.
And when the rain comes, there is teeming life in the pools that form. You may see shrimps, water fleas, tadpoles and fish that have rested as eggs or as pupae in the soil. They have a very short life cycle. The African bullfrog tadpole hatches the day after rain falls and is an adult frog in just four weeks.
Fairy shrimps can survive a hundred years without water. Two fifths of the weight of a desert toad can be water
Life in tropical forests
Tropical forests are hot, wet and full of plants. These are perfect conditions for plants to grow fast and strong. There are no seasons. It’s hot all the year round.
Most tropical forests have been unchanged for hundreds of year. They contain a huge variety of plants and animals. Decay is very fast in these conditions. A dead leaf will disappear in a few weeks.
High up in the tree canopy, there are tree-living animals like sloths and monkeys. Sloths hang upside down from branches, feeding and even sleeping, upside down. Their fur even grows the other way so that the rain will run off.
There are many nocturnal animals, like the poto, bush babies and lorises, with huge eyes to make the most of the light. Bats flap through the leaves, looking for fruit to eat.
Living on mountains and in caves
Creatures living on mountains have to survive on less oxygen and in very bright light. Some of them travel by flying – and not just birds. Animals that can fly – or at least glide - include the bats, flying squirrels, geckos, lizards and frogs.
Mountain birds can soar and glide. The Andean condor can travel as far as 100km without flapping its huge wings.
Cave animals are prisoners of darkness. They cannot leave because they cannot live in the light.
The deeper you go into a cave, the less food there is. Green plants need light of course. But streams may wash in food from outside.
Colours don’t have any use in darkness, so cave creatures – bugs, spiders, crickets, crayfish and some fish – have no colour. No use for eyes either! They often have long feelers to find their way by touch.
Bats find their way by sound – the way their squeak is reflected. Bats might be surprised to find that we can see almost as well as they hear!
