What do animals need to live grow and stay healthy?
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What do animals need to live and grow. Find out in this ngscience video!
Suitable for Grades K to 2 and aligns to the NGSS standards. Related resources and worksheets on ngscience.com.
Needs of Animals
Animals live in a great variety of places on Earth. They live on land in forests, deserts and grasslands. They live in the ocean, rivers and streams. Some animals live underground too.
The place where an animal lives is called its environment. An environment provides the animal with the food, water, air and shelter it needs to survive. Unlike plants, which get the energy they need by photosynthesizing, animals feed on other organisms to get the energy they need.
Most animals have body parts that enable them to move from place to place. Animals also have sense organs to take in information about the world around them. Their sense organs allow them to move in response to changes around them. Animals also move about in search of food, to escape from danger or to find a mate.
Animal Needs – Food
Unlike plants, animals are not able to make their own food. They get the energy they need by eating other living things.
Many animals move from place to place to get the food they need. They move in different ways using legs, wings or fins. Different body parts help animals get the food they need in different ways. An eagle uses its large wings, sharp claws and powerful beak to catch and kill its prey. A giraffe has long legs and a long neck to reach leaves in treetops. Its long tongue tears the leaves from the trees.
Animals can be classified by the types of food they eat. Animals that eat plants are called herbivores. Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores. Animals that eat both plants and other animals are called omnivores.
Animal Needs – Water
Animals need fresh water to help their bodies function. Water helps animals to process the food they eat. It also helps them to remove wastes and stay healthy.
Many animals drink fresh water found in puddles, lakes, rivers and streams. Some animals get the water they need from the food they eat.
Different animals can go without drinking water for different periods of time. Desert tortoises can survive for one year without water. The kangaroo rat can go its entire life without drinking any water. It gets any water it needs from the seeds and grasses it eats.
Animal Needs – Air
Animals need a special part of air called oxygen. Mammals, reptiles and birds have lungs to take in oxygen from the air.
Fish do not have lungs and cannot breathe air. They have gills to take in oxygen from water.
Some animals, such as worms and some amphibians, are able to take in oxygen through their skin.
Oxygen is used to release the energy from food through a process called respiration. During this process, carbon dioxide is produced as a waste product and is release back into the air or water.
Did you know?
Plants take in carbon dioxide from the air and give off oxygen. Animals take in oxygen from the air and breathe out carbon dioxide. This movement of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the air is called the oxygen cycle.
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