Question: How do animals get used to their surroundings/environment?

Lauren Burt answered on 14 Nov 2016:

Hey!

Good question!

One reason that animals get used to their environment is built in to them, for example they are born with features that mean that they will survive in their surroundings.
This is because of evolution, it means that only those animals who are suited to their environment survive. This may happen by accident, due to a mutation- where an animal is born with something different to its parents and that feature helps them to live better. If it has babies then the babies will have this new feature too, and slowly they become the best at getting used to their surroundings!

I always use hedgehogs to explain this. I heard that hedgehogs have got longer legs since the car was invented and roads were built. Hedgehogs were around before cars and roads, but the ones with shorter legs couldn’t cross the road fast enough, and died as they got hit by a car 🙁 but the ones with long legs were quicker! More long legged hedgehogs lived, and had children with longer legs.
It wasn’t that they grew longer legs to get used to the cars, it was that the ones that had longer legs survived more!
Hope I explained it a little bit!

Lauren
😀