http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations

Adaptations help organisms survive in their ecological niche or habitat; adaptations can be anatomical, behavioural or physiological.

Anatomical adaptations are physical features such as an animals shape. Behavioural adaptations can be inherited or learnt and include tool use, language and swarming behaviour. Physiological adaptations include the ability to make venom; but also more general functions such as temperature regulation.

Animal intelligence

Animal intelligence covers behaviour that’s considered above the norm for an animal. Some species may be unusally adept at learning new skills or using tools. Others have highly developed social and even emotional skills and may even have developed a distinct culture, in a similar way to human beings.

Culture

Culture is a social system or set of behaviours that is passed down through the generations, and which differs from that seen in other populations of the same species. So for instance, all killer whales are carnivorous, so that is not cultural. But only certain pods of killer whales beach themselves to catch seals, and the necessary skills are taught to young whales by their mother, so that is cultural. Distinct cultures have been observed in many primates and some birds as well as in whales and dolphins.

Language

Language is a way of communicating through sound, where specific meanings are used in certain circumstances. Many animals have a generic alarm call used for all dangers – this is not language. However, vervet monkeys have different calls for warning each other about snakes, eagles and leopards, and this is sophisticated enough to be considered a proto-language. Other animals with these ‘proto-language’ abilities are dolphins, apes and parrots.

Learning

Learning is the process of picking up new skills. An animal may learn from its own experiences or be taught by another animal, often a parent. Most animal learning is done by observation, followed by trial and error. Play is an important way of learning for many species particularly for honing physical skills such as hunting. Human beings have language, so can speed the whole process up by explaining what the learner is doing wrong and how to correct it.

Tool use

Tool use was once thought to be a strictly human behaviour, but it is now known that many kinds of animals use tools. These include crows, dolphins and – of course – primates such as chimpanzees. Some animals, sea otters for one, have a favourite tool that they carry about with them. Others find nearby articles such as stones, twigs or thorns, which they use and then discard. Advanced use comes about when tools are used in combination, as when chimps use both a hammer and an anvil to crack kernels.

Reproductive strategy

Reproduction covers all the tactics and behaviours involved in obtaining a mate, conceiving the next generation and successfully raising them. It includes everything from plants being pollinated, to stags fighting over hinds, to lionesses babysitting their sisters’ cubs.

Active at birth

Active at birth, or precocial, describes species that are physically mobile and able from the moment of birth or hatching. Wildebeest calves, and many other grazing animals, need to be up and running from the word go, to avoid becoming dinner for nearby predators. Newborn dolphins have to be able to swim immediately. Precocial birds, like ducks and chickens, can often feed themselves as soon as mum shows them what is edible. Offspring that are helpless at birth – humans and mice, for example – are the opposite, altricial.

Asexual reproduction

Asexual reproduction is the production of offspring by only one parent. No fertilization of an egg cell or mixing up of the genes takes place, so all the offspring are genetically identical copies of the parent. Greenfly, hydras and strawberry plants can all reproduce asexually as well as sexually.

Co-operative breeding

Co-operative breeding is when parents recruit the previous year’s grown up offspring or other adult helpers to help raise the latest brood or litter. The minders may look after the young in creches, or individually. Examples include bee-eaters, wolves and of course, humans. If grandma or a child minder helps look after the kids, then that’s co-operative breeding!

Egg layer

Oviparous animals lay eggs, inside which the young then develop before hatching occurs. Birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates and even some mammals (the monotremes) all lay eggs but they’re of very different size and construction. The patterns on bird eggs are produced by glands right at the last moment as the egg is laid. For terrestrial species that lay their eggs on land, a waterproof shell prevents the contents from drying out.

Helpless young

Helpless, or altricial, young describes babies that are not very well developed and are utterly incapable of taking care of themselves. Humans, rats and blue tits are prime examples. The young are often hair, or furless, can’t yet walk or fly, and are often blind. They rely entirely on their parents for warmth, transport and food. Usually, altricial babies are a feature of big litters, though humans are an obvious exception here. The opposite of altricial is precocial . active, mobile offspring.

Hermaphroditic

Hermaphrodites have both male and female sex organs, either throughout their lives (homgamy) or that develop and mature at different points in their life cycle (dichogamy). Most dichogamous species, including many flowers and fish, change sex only once in their development. These organism still need another individual at the opposite stage for fertilisation. Homgamous species may be capable of self-fertilisation, but generally two individuals exchange sex cells and both are fertilised.

Monogamous

Monogamous animals partner up with a single mate, sometimes for the duration of a breeding season and less commonly over multiple seasons and years. Monogamy has particular advantages, and is often the chosen strategy where young are more vulnerable and require both parents for protection and feeding. In serial monogamy, having different partners each season helps maintain genetic diversity.

Ovoviviparous

Ovoviviparous animals produce eggs inside their body, but then give birth to live young. The eggs hatch out inside the mother and the offspring stay within her for a time. She later gives birth to the them. While they are within her, the young are fed on the yolk of the egg, and not directly from the mother’s body. Ovoviviparity is a special type of viviparity. Some fish, amphibians and reptiles reproduce this way, for instance the sand tiger shark.

Parthenogenetic

Parthenogenetic species – for example water fleas – reproduce asexually, without need of a male, mating or pollination. In parthenogentic animals, the offspring are usually all female, and in certain types of whiptail lizards, the entire species is female. Parthenogenesis often happens where there are no males of a species in the vicinity. In some cases, should males make a reappearance, the species can switch back to sexual reproduction. Recently in zoos, komodo dragons were discovered to be capable of this reproductive trick.

Polygynandrous

Polygynandrous describes a multi-male, multi-female polygamous mating system, such as that seen in lions and bonobos. Females are usually more numerous than the males and mating occurs only within the group. The advantage of this form of polygamy is greater genetic diversity, less need for males to compete with each other and greater protection for the young.

Polygynous

Polygynous sexual behaviour is the system in which a single male mates with multiple females, but each female mates with only one male. This usually entails fierce competition between the males during the breeding season. Females invest more heavily in their offspring and all the parental duties fall to the mother. They become much more choosy about their mate as a result, while the males attempt to have as many mates as possible in order to leave a maximum number of offspring. However many males fail to win or impress a female and remain unmated their entire lives.

Semelparous

Semelparous organisms reproduce only once in their lives and then die. The most well known ones are Pacific salmon that perish after spawning. Other examples are squid, mayflies and plants which die after setting seed (annuals). The adult diverts resources into producing huge amounts of offspring to ensure sufficient numbers reach maturity without any parental care. This is why bears largely ignore dead salmon after they’ve spawned – all the salmon’s fat has gone into producing sperm and eggs and little nutrional value is left.

Spawning

Spawning animals deposit a mass of eggs and sperm in water, where they meet and are fertilised. Even when the male and female animals are in close proximity, such as a male frog grasping the female, the eggs are fertilised outside the female’s body. Some animals, such as coral and many fish, synchronise their spawning so that millions of eggs are released at once in often quite impressive events.

Viviparous

Viviparous animals bear live young that have developed inside the mother’s body. Most familiar to us in mammals, there are a few unexpected ocurrences in animal groups usually associated with egg-laying such as reptiles, amphibians, fish and scorpions. The term can also be applied to some plants, such as certain kinds of succulents and waterlilies, where the seeds germinate while still attached to the parent.