Category Sea/Ocean

Many animals are able to send messages to each other. This is called communication. They may use their body to communicate. Monkeys, like this mandrill, can scream a warning, while many birds have their own special song. Some animals, such as beetles, use chemicals scents to send a message. Many animals communicate by smell: they release pheromones (airborne chemicals) to send messages to others. Pheromones play an important part in reproduction and other social behavior. They are used by many animals, including insects, wolves, deer, and even humans!

Bees dance when they have found nectar. The scout bee will dance in the hive, and the dance directs other bees to the location of the nectar. Chimpanzees greet each other by touching hands. Male fiddler crabs wave their giant claw to attract female fiddler crabs. White-tailed deer show alarm by flicking up their tails. Dogs stretch their front legs out in front of them and lower their bodies when they want to play. Elephants show affection by entwining their trunks. Giraffes press their necks together when they are attracted to each other. Gorillas stick out their tongues to show anger. Horses rub noses as a sign of affection.

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Animals move around in a variety of ways, including hopping, jumping, running, crawling, slithering, flying, or swimming. Many animals use their legs to move, but others may use wings or fins. There are also many animal species that depend on their environment for transportation, a type of mobility called passive locomotion, e.g., sailing (some jellyfish), kiting (spiders), rolling (some beetles and spiders) or riding other animals (phoresis).

Animals move for a variety of reasons, such as to find food, a mate, a suitable microhabitat, or to escape predators. For many animals, the ability to move is essential for survival and, as a result, natural selection has shaped the locomotion methods and mechanisms used by moving organisms. For example, migratory animals that travel vast distances (such as the Arctic tern) typically have a locomotion mechanism that costs very little energy per unit distance, whereas non-migratory animals that must frequently move quickly to escape predators are likely to have energetically costly, but very fast, locomotion.

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Animals get their energy from food. Many are carnivores, which means they eat meat. Others are herbivores, called omnivores, eat both animals and plants. Some animals, including some worms, insects, lampreys and the vampire bat, feed on blood. A few animals eat a wide range of both plant and animal food: they are omnivores. Finally, detrivores, such as dung beetles and crabs, eat dead or rotting food and wastes. Animals don’t only need protein and energy, they also need vitamins and minerals. Farmers can buy vitamin and mineral mixes that can be supplemented into an animal’s daily ration. Vitamins and minerals can also be feed as a solid block that the animals will lick while out grazing.

Two very important minerals are calcium and phosphorous. These minerals are important for proper bone and teeth development, metabolism, and more. It is normally suggested that the ratio of calcium to phosphorous is about 2:1 for normal functions. One easy way to keep this balance is to feed dicalcium phosphate. Like other nutrients, the levels of these minerals also depends on the age of the animal.

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All animals need oxygen to survive. They get it either by breathing air or by absorbing oxygen from water into their body. Dolphins live in water and breathe air through the blowhole on top of their head. All vertebrate animals that live on land have lungs. When we breathe in, the muscle below the rib cage (called the diaphragm) is pulled down, and air gets sucked into the rib cage, filling the lungs. Blood cells circulating through tiny blood vessels near the lungs pick up oxygen and carry it around the body to the sites of respiration. Air is then forced out of the lungs as the diaphragm bows upwards. Birds are different from humans in many ways. As you probably know, they fly, and their bodies are well adapted for flight. Their lungs are very efficient: they take in much more oxygen per breath than other animals do. Because they get this extra oxygen they have lots of energy to direct to the flight muscles in their wings – they can flap away for hours! Frogs and toads have lungs, but when they are in water they can also breathe through their skin.

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Millions of different types of animal live on Earth. Each kind of animals is known as a species. Whether they are as tiny as an ant or as big as an elephant, all animals have a few things in common. For example, animals must eat other living things to survive, unlike plants, which get their energy from sunlight. Animals can also move from pace to place, whereas plants cannot. There are characteristics by which we recognize animals — they are multicellular, get the energy necessary for life by eating other organisms, and can move and sense their environment. Animals are a group of organisms in the family Animalia.  Animals can be insects, mammals, reptiles, fish, and other organisms that are not plants.  In agriculture, animals are raised for food, fiber, and fuel.  These animals are known as livestock.  Companion animals are what we call dogs, cats and other animals that provide companionship to humans.

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