Free
Do you know why you’ll never meet a polar bear in a desert? Polar bears are made for cold places.
They have thick fat and heavy fur that helps keep them warm. Polar bears are really good at staying warm. Even when it’s cold, they sometimes get too hot!
Animals and plants adapt to the climates where they live. That means they have ways of doing things that help them survive. Here’s how some living things deal with extreme climate conditions.
◀ Emperor penguins are the best at surviving cold weather. They can stand temperatures as low as –80°F with winds up to 120 miles per hour. They have thick layers of fat and feathers to hold in heat. That helps a lot. But they also help each other. Penguins stay warm by huddling together. Snuggling in big groups can cut their loss of body heat by half.
The creosote bush has a way to keep other plants away from it. Its roots put out certain chemicals. These keep other plants from growing nearby. So the creosote gets more food and water. ▶
◀ Some bats sleep in winter, but others fly away. The red bat gobbles insects all through the fall, storing body fat. Then it hibernates (sleeps) through the winter. Animals hibernate to save energy. That’s important when food is hard to find in winter. The greater long-nosed bat (left) has a different way to survive winter. It flies off to sunny Mexico. In spring, it heads back north to Texas or New Mexico.
▲ In dry months, a spadefoot toad hides deep under the ground. It comes out when it hears a thunderstorm. It finds a pool of rainwater and lays eggs right away. Just 48 hours later, the eggs hatch into tadpoles. Over the next 10 days, the tadpoles become toads. They hop away before the rainwater dries up!
▲ What’s a great place to beat the desert heat? A burrow. It also keeps animals warm on cold desert nights. Some desert species only leave their burrows around sunrise and sunset. For example, you might see these spotted hyena pups come out at those times.
▲ The ptarmigan is a very feathery bird. There are even feathers on its feet – and in its nostrils! Like fur, feathers are great for staying warm. They’re like a thick coat that keeps heat in and cold out. When it gets really cold, the ptarmigan flies right into a snowbank. It makes a tiny snow cave to hide from icy winds.
▲ This painted turtle warms up in the sunlight. If it gets too hot, it dives into the cool water. It can handle freezing temperatures, too. It has a secret weapon. Its body makes an antifreeze that keeps its organs from freezing.
▲ Large root systems help a cactus grab water. When a rare desert rain falls, the roots quickly soak it up. A cactus has thick, waxy skin. The skin helps keep the plant’s water from evaporating.
▲ A spruce tree has cones and thin needles that are good at shedding snow. The spruce is like all evergreens: it keeps its needles all year. That way, it can make its own food in spring. It turns the sun’s energy into food. That process is called photosynthesis.
Microbes are very tiny organisms. Organisms are living things. Some live in places where nothing else could survive. Scientists call them extremophiles. That name means they live in extreme conditions. Some like extreme cold. Others like extreme heat – even as hot as boiling water! This is a colony (group) of extremophile microbes. They live in hot springs in Yellowstone National Park.
Learn More!
