Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate: 7th

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate 7th Class NCERT CBSE Science Chapter 07

Question: During rainy season, what do we use to protect ourselves from rainwater?

Answer: We use umbrella or raincoat to protect ourselves from rainwater during rainy season.

Question: A fish dies when taken out of water, whereas a wall lizard will die if kept under water. Mention the term used to describe such abilities that allow fish and lizard to survive in their respective habitats.

Answer: Adaptation is the term used to describe such ability. Animals are adapted to survive in the conditions in which they live. So, fish dies when taken out of water while wall lizard dies if kept under water.

Question: Which is the most important factor in determining the climate of a place?

Answer: The major factor which determines the climate of a place is latitude.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: Give one example of an animal that can live both in water and on land.

Answer: Those animals that can live both in water and on land are called amphibian, e.g. frog.

Question: There are several elements of weather. The weather report carries the information about which of the elements of weather?

Answer: Daily weather reports carry information about the temperature, humidity and rainfall during the past 24 hrs.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: Who are meteorologists?

Answer: The scientist who prepares the weather reports are called meteorologist and the science is called meteorology.

Question: Name the primary sources of energy which cause changes in the weather.

Answer: The sun is the primary source of energy that causes change in the weather.

Question: When sun rays fall on the earth, what does it provide?

Answer: Sun provides light as well as heat on the earth.

Question: In North-Eastern regions of India, which type of climate is found?

Answer: In North-Eastern regions, wet climate is found because it receives rain for major part of the year.

Question: Name two countries that show the tropical rainforests.

Answer: Tropical rainforest is found in India and central America.

Question: Give the name of few animals that can live in the polar region.

Answer: Penguin, polar bear, whale, seal and musk oxen live in polar region.

Question: Why is it difficult to predict the weather of a place while it is easy to predict its climate?

Answer: Weather is a complex phenomenon which can vary over a short period of time and thus it is difficult to predict the weather of a place while it is easier to predict climate as it is the average weather pattern taken for a long time.

Question: ‘Beard ape’ is another name for which animal?

Answer: Lion-tailed macaque is also known as beard ape.

Question: How is fog formed?

Answer: During winters when the temperature falls after sunset, it causes condensation of water vapours near the ground. These droplets hanging in the air form fog.

Question: Mention two adaptive features of penguin that help it in swimming.

Answer: Adaptive features of penguin that help it in swimming are as follows

• It has streamlined body.
• It has webbed feet.

Question: Some animals have the ability to match their surrounding. Name the property of such animals.

Answer: This property of animal to blend with its surrounding is called camouflage.

Question: There is a colourful bird that has a long and large beak, and lives in the tropical rainforest. Which bird is this?

Answer: Toucan is a bird which is colorful with long and large beak, and lives in tropical rainforest.

Question: Maximum and minimum temperature is recorded at which time of the day?

Answer: When the temperature due to the sun’s heat reaches to its maximum level it is called maximum temperature and when it goes down to the lowest level it is called minimum temperature.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question: The polar bear are white in colour. Explain why.

Answer: Polar bear have white fur. This is an adaptation of polar bear to blend it with the white background of ice or snow. This helps them to protect from their predators and also to catch their prey.

Question: Name two animals each that live in polar regions and tropical rainforests.

Answer: Polar regions Polar bear / penguin / reindeer / musk oxen. Tropical rainforests Red-eyed frog / elephants lion-tailed macaque / lion and tiger.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: Write the factors which affect the climate of a particular place.

Answer: The factors that affect the climate of a place are

1. Temperature zone or latitude, i.e. amount of sunshine it receives or distance from equator.
2. Distance from sea.
3. Altitude or height above the sea level.
4. Humidity or the presence of moisture in air.
5. Amount of precipitation received or rainfall.

Question: Some birds migrate from one place to another. What are these birds called? Why do the birds migrate?

Answer: Migration is the seasonal journey taken by different animals or birds to escape the extreme climatic condition and the search of food, e.g. Siberian cranes migrates towards warmer region in the autumn by travelling several thousands of kilometres.

Some birds are guided by the sun during daytime and by stars during night. Some birds can use the magnetic field of the earth to find the direction. Besides birds some fishes, insects and mammals also migrate seasonally in search of more hospitable climates.

Question: Write two common adaptive features of a polar bear which help in keeping it warm.

Answer: Adaptive features of a polar bear that help in keeping it warm are as follows:

1. They have two thick layers of white fur.
2. They have layer of fat under their skin.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: Differentiate between

1. weather and climate
2. humidity and rainfall
3. climates of polar region andropical rainforest
4. maximum and minimum temperatures of the day

Answer:

(a)

(b) Humidity indicates the wetness of a place due to the presence of moisture in the atmosphere while rainfall is the drop of water that falls from clouds on the ground.
(c) Polar region remains very cold for most part of the year, whereas tropical rainforest is hot and humid.
(d) Maximum and minimum temperatures of the day indicate highest and lowest recorded temperatures respectively.

Question: There are two animals X and Y. The animal X has yellow brown colour while animal Y has yellow brown colour with black stripes

1. Name the animals X and Y.
2. What is the other name for these animals?
3. Where do these animals live?
4. Whether these animals are carnivore or herbivore?

Answer:

1. Animal X with yellow brown colour skin is lion and animals Y with yellow brown colour with black strips on skin is tiger.
2. These animals are also called as big cats.
3. These animals live in tropical rainforest.
4. These animals are carnivores.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: The sun plays a major role in the change of weather. How can you explain it?

Answer: All the changes in a weather are caused due to the sun. The sun is a huge sphere of hot gases at a very high temperature. The sun provides light and heat on the earth.

The energy from the sun is a absorbed and reflected by the earth’s surface, oceans, etc. It plays an important role in determining the weather of any place.

When the water vapour rises high in the atmosphere, it causes rain to come down on the earth. Also the hot air develops high pressure and low pressure areas cause windy weather.

Question: Observe the given figure and answer the following.

1. Name the birds shown in figure.
2. What are these birds doing and why?
3. These birds live in which region?

Answer:

1. The bird shown in figure is penguin.
2. Penguins are huddling together to keep them warm.
3. These birds are found in polar regions.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: The animals living in rainforest adapt themselves to the climate present there. How are they adapted to there climatic conditions?

Answer: The animals that live in tropical rainforests are herbivorous that are able to eat the vegetation, rich in rainforest.

Most of the tropical rainforest animals walk on the land or are adapted to live on trees. The animals living in rainforest have good eyesight and hearing capacity to catch their prey as well as to protect themselves from predators.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: Name the animals which shows these adaptations.

Answer:

Tiger
(a) Thick skin
(g) Strong sense of smell
(i) Strong feet.

Toucan
(b) Diet of fruits
(d) Long and large beaks
(e) Colorful feathers

Red-eyed frog
(c) Sticky pads on feet
(f) Bulging eyes

Polar bear
(h) White fur
(j) Hibernation during winter

Question: Rohan went to the desert of Rajasthan with his friends. He saw an animal. It had a hump. Its feet had large soles. He wondered about this animal. He found that these were adaptations of that animal which helped it to survive in very hot and dry climate of the desert. Answer the following questions on the basis of the observations seen by Rohan.

1. Name the animal Rohan observed in the desert of Rajasthan?
2. What role does this hump has in this animal?
3. Why do it has large soles?
4. Can you give same more adaptations of this animal which help it to survive in desert?
5. What values do you observe in Rohan?

Answer:

1. Rohan observed a camel in the desert of Rajasthan.
2. The hump stores fat which provides camel with food in times of food shortage.
3. The feet of camel has large soles which help it to walk on soft sand,
4. Camel can drink a very large quantity of water at a time which is stored in its stomach. It sweats very little which helps it to conserve water. Also it excretes very little water in the form of urine.
5. Rohan is observant, curious and adventurer. He asks intelligent questions.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: Write in detail about the adaptations in different animals living in tropical rainforests.

Answer: The tropical region lies near both the sides of equator line on the earth. These regions are hot but get plenty of rainfall. Therefore, this region is humid. Even in coldest month, the temperature is generally higher than about 15°C. During hot summers, the temperature may cross 40°C. Days and nights are almost equal in length throughout the year. Tropical rainforest is the important feature of tropical region. These regions are rich in vegetation and large diversity in animals is also seen in this region.

Adaptations in Red-eyed Frog: The red-eyed frog lives on trees in tropical rainforest. They have sticky pads on their feet that help them to climb trees. It does not live in water and has a green back and a creamy underside. It has big and bulging bright-red eyes and it is a nocturnal. It sleeps during the day and becomes active during night and feeds on the insects present on the tree. The bulging eye of frog protects it from its predator. The sudden opening of big and bright-red eyes frightens the predator for a while and in the meantime the frog gets time to jump to a safe place. The green colour of the frog helps it to hide within the green leaves of the tree and helps it to protect from predators.

Adaptations in Monkey: The monkeys living in tropical rainforests have long tails for grasping branches. Their hands and feet are adapted in such a way that they can easily hold the branches of trees. The eyesight of monkeys is very good which helps them in leaping between the branches to escape from their predators. Monkeys eat fruits, seeds, leaves, root and insects as their food which is present in abundance in tropical rainforest.

Adaptations in Lion-Tailed Macaque: It is also called as beard ape and lives in the rainforest of Western Chats in India. It has silver-white mane which surrounds the head from the cheeks down to its chin which is the specific characteristic of this animal. It is called lion-tailed because its tail is like that of lion having bunch or tuft of hair at the end.

They spend most of their time feeding in the upper canopy of trees (i.e. arboreal animal). It mainly feeds on fruits, seeds, young leaves, stems, flowers and buds. They also can eat insects present under the bark of the tree. Since, it is able to get sufficient food on trees. It rarely comes down on the ground and spends a major part of its life on the tree. It is a good climber with its hand and feet adapted to hold the branches of trees firmly.

Adaptation in Toucan: Toucan is a bird, which is found in tropical rainforest and which possesses a long strong and large beak. This bird is adapted for tropical rainforest in several ways. It is colourful bird which possesses a strange beak. It lives most of the time in the holes of big trees.

The long and large beak helps Toucan to reach the fruits attached to the ends of even thin branches of tree that are weak enough to support its weight. It is an adaptation of this bird to get the unreachable fruits. Its large beak also helps in temporary storage of fruits which is collected by Toucan. These possess feet that are adapted for grasping the branches of trees firmly. Toucan can change the colour of its feather, so as to get mixed up with the surrounding and they are not easily noticed by predators and remain safe.

Adaptations in Lion and Tiger: These are also called as big cats and are carnivore which eat only flesh of other animals. These have following adaptations to survive in tropical rainforest:

• They have thick skin and skin colour helps them to camouflage (ability of the animal to match their surrounding, e.g. chameleon, butterfly). The yellow brown colour of lion and black stripes of tiger helps them to hide in the forest by blending with the surroundings. It helps these carnivores to catch their prey.
• They have strong sense of smell which helps them to locate their prey.
• They also develop sensitive hearing capacity to find its prey.
• They have eyes in front of their head which enable them to have a correct idea of the location of their prey. They also have good eyesight.
• Their strong legs help them to run fast and long, sharp and strong claws in front of their legs help them to catch and tear their prey.

Adaptations in Elephant: Elephant is a well-known animal of Indian tropical rainforest. These are plant eaters and are adapted in many remarkable ways to survive in tropical rainforest. These adaptations can be discussed as follows:

• The elephant has a long trunk which is used as nose and has a strong sense of smell. It also helps elephant to pick up the food. The long trunk is also used for breathing. It can reach up to the branches of trees and help it to eat tree leaves. It is used for sucking water from lakes or rivers (drinking).
• The elephant possesses tusks (long pointed teeth) that are used in tearing the bark of trees which the elephant loves to eat as food. It also helps elephant to fight their enemies and protecting themselves.
• The elephant has large ears that help it to hear even very soft sounds and can sense the danger. It also helps the elephant to keep it cool in the hot and humid climate of the tropical forest.
• The feet of elephant are large and round which help it to provide good stability and also prevent it from sinking into soft ground due to its heavy weight.

Question: In a class, the teacher was explaining a concept from weather and climate chapter. Anand got confused and slowly asked his teacher to repeat again. She smiled and started again. In equatorial belt the climate is hot and wet. It has evergreen rainforest and variety of plants. Similarly the vegetation of tropical region also has variations. The forest located between two tropics is called tropical forest. Desert shows arid region and only xerophytes are observed. These plants show specific modification for their survival in this arid region.

1. Which type of forest is formed in equatorial region?
2. What are the variation in vegetation seen in tropical forest?
3. Give some adaptations of plants that are formed in desert.
4. Some places conifers are seen. What are these places?
5. What values do we observe in the teacher and Anand?

Answer:

1. Evergreen rainforest with the greatest variety of plants are seen in equatorial region.
2. n tropical regions, vegetation varies from broad leaves evergreen trees to tropical deciduous trees to grassland.
3. The plants in the arid of desert regions have modified leaves covered with hair or waxy coating and an extensive root system.
4. Conifers are maintained and adapted to withstand snow fall and shortage of water in colder belt.
5. Anand is observant and sincere boy. He is not afraid to ask question in the class.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: The following graph shows the change in temperature. Answer according to the reading of graph.

1. Draw a table and fill the temperature change of each day.
2. Which day show the highest temperature?
3. Which day shows the minimum temperature?

Graph showing the variation of maximum temperature during 03 to 09 August 2006

Answer:

Table showing the reading of temperature from the graph:

Date	Maximum temperature
03/08/06	26.0°C
04/08/06	23.5°C
05/08/06	25.0°C
06/08/06	22.0°C
07/08/06	25.5°C
08/08/06	23.3°C
09/08/06	24.4°C

(b) The highest temperature is seen on 3rd August, 2006.
(c) The lowest temperature or minimum temperature was seen on 06th August, 2006.

Fill in the Blanks: 

1. Weather of a place Is the day to day condition of the …(a)… with respect to …(b) (c)…, …(d)…, …(e)…, at that place, while climate is the … (f)… weather pattern taken over many years.
2. Siberian crane migrates from Russia to ……………….. (Rajasthan) in India.
3. Polar bears ……………….. during extreme ……………….. seasons.
4. The seasonal journey taken by the animals to escape extreme climatic conditions is called ……………….. .
5. Red-eyed frog lives on ……………….. .
6. Toucan has ……………….. and ……………….. beak.
7. ……………….. shows camouflage.
8. ……………….. animals becomes active during night.
9. Elephant uses its ……………….. as a nose.
10. The ……………….. of polar bear helps it to protect it from predators.
11. ……………….. are good swimmers.

Answers:

1. (a) atmosphere
   (b) temperature
   (c) humidity
   (d) rainfall
   (e) wind speed
   (f) average
2. Bharatpur
3. hibernates, winter
4. migration
5. trees
6. strong, long and large
7. Chameleon
8. Nocturnal
9. trunk
10. white fur
11. Penguins

True / False

1. The scientist which study weather reports are called astronauts.
2. Sun rays fall direct on equator line.
3. The tusk of elephant helps in breathing.
4. Toucan can change the colour of its feather.
5. Lions and tigers are also called big cats.
6. Lion-tailed macaque in found is desert.
7. The climate of south India is hot and dry.
8. Penguins huddles together to keep themselves warm.
9. The weather reports are provided in newspapers.
10. Climate of a place changes at every hour.
11. It is easy to predict weather rather than climate.
12. Since, very few prey are available, polar bear does not need to have strong sense of smell.
13. Penguins stick together to fight the cold polar climate.
14. Tropical rainforests are cool and humid throughout the year because of heavy rains all the time.

Answers:

1. False, The scientist which study the weather reports are called meterologist.
2. True
3. False, The tusk of an elephant helps in tearing the back of trees.
4. True
5. True
6. False, Loin-tailed macaque in found in tropical rainforest.
7. False, The climate of south is very hot and wet.
8. True
9. True
10. False, Weather of a place changes at every hour.
11. False, It is easy to predict the climate rather than the weather.
12. False, Polar bear has strong sense of smell.
13. True
14. False, Tropical rainforests are hot and humid the throughout the year because of heavy rainfall all the time.

Weather, Climate and Adaptations of Animals to Climate – Question: Match the Column I with Column II.

Column I	Column II
(a) Meteorology	(i) Long pointed teeth
(b) Month of June	(ii) Weather reports
(c) Western region	(iii) Very hot summers
(d) Tropical rainforest (iv)	(iv) Longer days, shorter night
(e) Tusk of elephant	(v) High rainfall
(f) Chennai	(vi) Used in summers
(g) Light colored clothes	(vii) Hot and dry

Answer:

1. (a)-(ii)
2. (b)-(iv)
3. (c)-(vii)
4. (d)-(v)
5. (e)-(i)
6. (f)-(iii)
7. (g)-(vi)

Question: Match the animals mentioned in Column I with their characteristic features given in Column II.

Column I	Column II
(a) Red- eyed frog	(i) Very sensitive hearing
(b) Penguin	(ii) Streamlined body
(c) Tiger	(iii) Silver-white mane
(d) Lion-tailed macaque	(iv) Sticky pads on feed

Answers:

1. (a)-(iv)
2. (b)-(ii)
3. (c)-(i)
4. (d)-(iii)