Hot and cold
A kangaroo rat’s world is the burning hot desert.
The desert is baked by the sun. The air above the sand is so hot it
wiggles! During the day, a kangaroo rat sleeps in a cool, underground
hole. There it is safe from the terrible heat.
When the sun goes down, the desert cools. Then the rat comes out. It
scampers about, looking for seeds that blow across the desert. The rat
doesn’t look for water. Even if there were water, the kangaroo rat
wouldn’t drink it. The kangaroo rat never drinks! Its body is able to
make the water it needs out of just the dry seeds the rat eats.
Kangaroo rats live in deserts. These rats never drink water. They stay
in their cool, underground homes during the hot day.
Kangaroo Rat
Walruses
Walruses live where it’s always cold and icy. But a walrus is kept
warm by the thick fat under its skin.
A walrus lives in a world of cold water and floating islands of ice.
A walrus swims to the edge of an ice island and sticks his two, long
front teeth, called tusks, into the ice. He pulls himself right out of
the water with his tusks. Then he lies on the ice in the sunshine, just
as you would lie on a sandy beach. Thick, tough skin with lots of thick
fat underneath helps keep the walrus warm.
Differences in each animal’s body help it stay alive in its world. A
kangaroo rat has what it needs to stay alive in a hot desert. A walrus
has what it needs to stay alive in its cold, icy world. A kangaroo rat
and a walrus could never change places with each other.
