A visitor asks a prairie dog why nobody in town owns a cup. Write the answer.Fact: black-tailed prairie dogs get all the moisture they need from the plants they eat.
A blizzard hits the plains and one bison turns to face it. Write the storm as its shaggy head.Fact: a bison's shaggy head is the most heavily insulated part of its body, and it stands facing the wind.
A kangaroo rat comes home with full cheeks. Write the unpacking.Fact: kangaroo rats have fur-lined cheek pouches, which they use for storing food.
A bison finds grass under deep snow without a shovel. Write the search as its head.Fact: to find grass in winter, bison sweep their heads from side to side to clear the snow.
A blizzard hits the plains and one bison turns to face it. Write the storm as its shaggy head.Fact: a bison's shaggy head is the most heavily insulated part of its body, and it stands facing the wind.
A gray seal hauls out on the ice for a nap. Write the ice's surprise that it did not melt.Fact: blubber insulates a gray seal so well that it can haul out on ice without melting it.
A gray seal is shaped like a barrel on purpose. Write the barrel's defense of itself.Fact: a gray seal's small surface area for its volume cuts the heat it loses to its surroundings.
A harbor seal's blubber is two things at once, a coat and a lunch box. Let the blubber explain.Fact: a harbor seal's blubber is insulation and a food reserve, up to 30 percent of its body mass in winter.
A person packs for the Arctic by copying animals. Write the list, with the animal each item came from.Angle: snowshoes from a hare, a long coat from a muskox, a way of sleeping from a fox.
A red panda sleeps out a cold night in a fir tree. Tell the night as its tail.Fact: a red panda's long, bushy tail helps it balance and protects it from harsh cold and wind.
A red panda walks a frozen branch on feet that are furred all over. Write the walk.Fact: dense fur completely covers a red panda's feet.
A snowshoe hare crosses deep, soft snow while a fox sinks behind it. Write the crossing as the hare's hind feet.Fact: the snowshoe hare is named for its large hind feet, which stop it sinking into soft snow.
An arctic fox curls up to sleep in the wind. Write the night as its tail.Fact: an arctic fox curls up tight, tucking its legs and head under its body and behind its furry tail.
An emperor penguin's feathers do most of the work of keeping it warm. Write the feathers' side of the winter.Fact: dense feathers provide 80 to 90 percent of an emperor penguin's insulation.
The arctic fox is the only member of the dog family that changes its coat for the snow. Write the fitting.Fact: the arctic fox turns from brown or gray in summer to white in winter, the only dog-family species that does.
Move one animal built for cold to a beach in July. Write its day, body part by body part.Angle: the thick coat, the small ears, the layer of fat. Each one now gets in the way.
On the coldest morning of the year, a muskox thanks its coat. Write the note.Fact: a muskox's long guard hairs almost reach the ground. Its wool, called qiviut, is prized for its warmth.
One of an arctic fox's short, thick ears applies for a job. The job is winter. Write the interview.Fact: an arctic fox has a compact body, a short muzzle, short legs and short, thick ears, to lose less heat.
Built for dry 15
A camel's hump is tired of being asked if it is full of water. Write its answer.Fact: a camel's hump is a store of fat, a reserve of energy, and not a tank of water.
A fennec fox's two ears argue over which of their two jobs matters more. Write the argument.Fact: a fennec fox uses its huge ears to shed heat and to track down prey under the sand.
A Gila monster's tail is its pantry. Write the tail's report after one big meal.Fact: a Gila monster stores fat in its tail and body, so it does not need to search for food often.
A kangaroo rat comes home with full cheeks. Write the unpacking.Fact: kangaroo rats have fur-lined cheek pouches, which they use for storing food.
A naked mole-rat digs with its teeth and never comes above ground. Write its opinion of rain.Fact: naked mole-rats dig tunnels with very large front teeth and get all their water from their food.
A sand cat has not had a drink in weeks. Write what it says to a house cat's water bowl.Fact: a sand cat can go weeks without drinking. It gets the moisture it needs from its prey.
A sandstorm arrives. Write the next few minutes as a camel's eyelashes.Fact: a camel's long eyelashes and ear hairs, with nostrils that can close, form a barrier against sand.
A thorny devil stands in damp sand and the water climbs. Write the trip from its feet to its mouth.Fact: channels between a thorny devil's scales carry water to its mouth by capillary action.
A thorny devil's false head has one job. Write its morning in the desert.Fact: a thorny devil has a spiny false head on its neck and shows it to a predator by dipping its real one.
A visitor asks a prairie dog why nobody in town owns a cup. Write the answer.Fact: black-tailed prairie dogs get all the moisture they need from the plants they eat.
Cross hot sand at noon as a fennec fox's furry paws, and write the walk.Fact: a fennec fox's heavily furred paws grip the sand and protect it from the heat of the ground.
Meerkats stand guard in bright sun. Write a letter from the dark patches around one meerkat's eyes.Fact: the dark patches around a meerkat's eyes help protect them from the glare of the sun.
Move one desert animal to a rainy forest for a week. Write which body parts are suddenly out of work.Angle: the big ears, the fat store, the sand-proof eyelashes. What do they do all day now?
Write the diary of a kangaroo rat that has never had a drink of water and does not want one.Fact: Merriam's kangaroo rats get enough water from the seeds they eat and do not need to drink at all.
Write the hottest hour of a desert day from inside a burrow, as the paws that dug it.Fact: fennec foxes and sand cats both hide in burrows through the heat of the day.
Hide or warn 15
A caddisfly larva builds its own case out of what is lying around. Write the building inspector's visit.Fact: a caddisfly larva builds a decorated case and lives almost entirely inside it.
A decorator crab gets dressed for the day from what is lying on the sea floor. Write the choosing.Fact: a decorator crab covers its back with seaweed, sponges and stones.
A gazelle is darker on its back than on its belly. Write what the noon sun and the shading do to each other.Fact: countershading is darkest on top and lightest below, which evens out the shadow an animal casts on itself.
A hornet moth looks like a wasp and has no sting. Write its confession.Fact: the hornet moth resembles a yellowjacket wasp but has no sting.
A jellyfish is nearly invisible and knows it. Write its thoughts.Fact: many sea animals that float near the surface are highly transparent, almost perfect camouflage.
A poison frog sits in plain sight on a leaf. Write what its colors say to a hungry bird.Fact: amphibians with toxic skin tend to have bright warning colors, usually red, orange or yellow.
A sardine goes to work dressed as a mirror. Let it explain.Fact: most fish of the upper ocean, such as sardines and herring, are camouflaged by silvering.
A skunk gives three warnings before it sprays. Write them as stage directions.Fact: before spraying, a striped skunk stomps its feet, arches its back and raises its tail.
A young bird tries a ladybug once. Write the lesson it gives its own chicks years later.Fact: ladybugs contain bitter-tasting chemicals, and warning colors advertise that they are not worth eating.
An octopus crosses a reef, a patch of sand and a rock. Write each change of skin.Fact: octopuses can actively change their skin pattern and colors to resemble their background.
In a game of hide-and-seek the seeker is a bird and the hider is a caterpillar shaped like a twig. Write the game.Fact: a peppered moth caterpillar mimics a twig, and a grasshopper can mimic a dry leaf.
One animal, two possible coats: one that hides and one that warns. Write the argument between the coats.Angle: hiding asks you to keep still. Warning asks you to be worth avoiding.
The palest fox in the world lives on sand. Write a hawk's long afternoon of not finding it.Fact: fennec foxes are the palest of all foxes, which gives them excellent camouflage.
Write a red panda's guide to disappearing in a fir tree.Fact: a red panda's ruddy coat hides it among fir branches covered in reddish-brown moss and white lichens.
Write the rule book for warning colors, as agreed by a ladybug, a wasp and a skunk.Fact: the most common and effective warning colors are red, yellow, black and white.
Design an animal 15
A frozen lake has an opening for one animal. Write the list of body parts it asks for, and the interview.Angle: the lake is strict about feet and fat. It does not care about speed.
An inventor borrows one animal body part to solve a human problem. Write the afternoon the idea arrives.Angle: a foot that grips ice, an ear that sheds heat, a skin that drinks.
Design a hider and a warner for the same forest. Write the day they meet.Angle: one cannot be seen. One cannot be missed. Which sleeps better?
Design an animal for a place where it rains once a year. Write its water plan.Angle: where does the water come from, where is it kept, and how is none of it wasted?
Design an animal for the dark bottom of a cave. Write which body parts it has stopped needing.Fact: many living things have vestigial organs, the remnants of parts that worked fully in their ancestors.
Design an animal for the open ocean, where there is nothing to hide behind. Write how it hides anyway.Fact: in the open ocean the main kinds of camouflage are transparency, silvering and countershading.
Design an animal for the top of a snowy mountain. Write a label for each body part and the job it does there.Fact: a structural adaptation is a physical feature, such as shape, body covering or armament.
Design an animal for your own street. Write what its feet, ears and coat are built for.Angle: pavement, car noise, streetlights, trash day. What does a body need here?
Design an animal that must cross sand that burns by day and freezes by night. Write its feet.Fact: where sand cats live, the ground can reach 124 degrees Fahrenheit by day and fall to 31 at night.
Design an animal that would do well almost anywhere. Write why no real animal is built that way.Fact: an adaptation is a compromise. Pressures pull in different directions, and the result is not perfection.
Design the same animal twice, once for a cold place and once for a hot one. Write what changed and what stayed.Fact: an arctic fox has short, thick ears. A fennec fox has the largest ears for its body size of any canid.
Every adaptation has a downside. Design an animal with one wonderful body part and write the trouble it causes.Fact: a horse's legs are great for running on grass, but a horse cannot scratch its own back.
Give an animal a habit in place of a body part. Write how the habit does the job a thick coat would.Fact: an adaptation can be a behavior as well as a body part or a way the body works.
Invent an animal with one part from a fennec fox, one from a seal and one from a skunk. Write where on Earth it could live.Angle: big ears let heat out and blubber keeps it in. Can one body want both?
Write a field guide page for an animal you invented: the place it lives, and the three body parts that prove it.Angle: a reader should be able to guess the place from the body alone.
How it works
An adaptation writing prompt here is about animals: most match a body part to the place it works in. A short ear suits the Arctic and a huge one the Sahara. Facts come from Smithsonian's National Zoo and Wikipedia.
Read the full guide
Body parts built for cold and for dry
Most of the cold and dry prompts give the page to one part of one animal: a bison's shaggy head in a blizzard, a gray seal's blubber on the ice, a camel's eyelashes in a sandstorm, a thorny devil's skin drinking from damp sand. The line under each of these is the fact that explains the part.
Hide, warn, or design an animal
Fifteen prompts are camouflage and warning colors: a decorator crab dressing for the day, a skunk's three warnings, a moth that only looks like a wasp. The last fifteen ask for a new animal, built part by part for a mountain top, a cave or your own street.
Start from the place. Cold, dry, dark or crowded: the body follows.
Let the body part speak. An ear knows what it is for.
Questions and answers
What is an adaptation writing prompt?
A prompt that starts from a trait that helps a living thing survive where it lives. On this page the trait is an animal's, most often a body part such as a hare's large hind feet, and the writing shows it doing its job.
What are some examples of animal adaptations?
A fennec fox's large ears shed heat. A snowshoe hare's hind feet keep it on top of soft snow. A Merriam's kangaroo rat gets enough water from the seeds it eats. A poison frog's bright skin warns predators off.
Is an adaptation always a body part?
No. Wikipedia's article on adaptation gives three kinds: structural, the body's physical features; behavioral, inherited ways of acting; and physiological, how the body works inside. One prompt swaps a body part for a habit.
What is the difference between camouflage and warning colors?
Camouflage hides an animal against its background. Warning colors do the opposite: red, yellow, black and white tell a predator the animal is not worth eating. One prompt gives an animal both coats and lets them argue.