What a behavioral adaptation is?

Answer 1

Behaviour adaptation is the response an animal gives to environmental stimulus and a change in that behaviour. This change is often for the health of the animal. An example of this is found in sheep. If sheep are put in a paddock near a road, and a car drives past they will immediately run in the opposite direction. This obviously wastes a lot of energy and takes up precious eating time, gradually over time they realise there is no danger from the car passing on the road and no longer run away. Their behaviour has adapted. This is obviously a simple example but can be applied to any animal in nature.

Behavioral adaptations are the things animals do to survive. Like bird calls or migrating are forms of adapting. When certain species are born they have to watch their parents or others surrounding them to understand what they have to do to survive. They have to learn to cope with the weather, enemies, and environment in a "suvival of the fittest" way.

Here are some examples of Behavioral and Structural Adaptations:

Behavioral Adaptations:

1. Birds---migrate/fly south in the winter
2. Bears---hibernate in the winter
3. Possums---play "dead" to avoid predators
4. Desert animals---(1) nocturnal/inactive during the daytime and (2) below-ground dwellings to avoid harsh rays

Structural Adaptations:

1. Duck---webbed feet
2. Fish---gills
3. Giraffe---long neck
4. Beaver---large, pointed teeth
5. Whale---blubber
6. Cactus---shallow roots
7. Snake---flexible jaw

An adaptation is any trait that changes to better suit the organism for its environment. Adaptations are genetically-based and can be passed on from generation to generation. Behavioral adaptations are those adaptations that have a behavioral component to them.

Behavioral adaptapations are adaptations like a sea turtle going into the ocean. Insticts and learned behaviors are behavioral adaptations.
basically what an animal does to survive in the habitat
Behavioral adaptations are different to physical adaptations because behavioral adaptations are (like the name suggests) changes in behavior that increase an organisms fitness/survival, whereas physical adaptations are changes to an organisms body structures. The two are not exclusive, you can have behavioral AND physical solutions to the same problem.

Best illustrated with some examples: heat and heat regulation; if an organism gets too hot it can move out of the sun and into shade, that is a behavioral adaptation. Or, over millions of years it can evolve mechanisms of cooling, humans do it by sweating, dogs pant, birds fluttering their throat muscles (called "gular fluttering" but it is essentially panting!)

Another example: deer respond to the presence of a predator by running away, or joining together in groups (herds) - these are changes to its behaviour that decrease its chances of getting eaten. Physical adaptations to not getting eaten would be having highly developed leg muscles for quick acceleration and running away, or maybe camouflage colouration, or confusing colouration (such as the stripes on zebras, which make it hard to see one individual from another when they are in a group)

Answer 2

It is an adaptation that changes an animals behavior.

Example - All of an animals main energy sources (such as grass for food) have run out, the animal adapts by changing its grazing grounds and it eats tree leaves until the grass grows back.