LanguagesFreePrintable

Unusual Animals Exploration

A free languages worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Unusual Animals Exploration

Read the animal profiles, then use evidence to solve the questions. Imagine you are writing a short feature for a Canadian youth nature magazine.

Meet Three Unusual Animals

A. Axolotl — This aquatic salamander lives in freshwater canals and lakes near Mexico City. It keeps its feathery external gills into adulthood. If injured, it can regrow some body parts, including limbs. Pollution and habitat loss threaten wild axolotls. B. Aye-aye — This nocturnal lemur lives in Madagascar’s forests. It taps on trees and listens for hollow spaces where insect larvae hide, then uses a long, thin middle finger to pull them out. Forest clearing reduces the places where it can find food and shelter. C. Pangolin — This mammal lives in parts of Africa and Asia. Its body is covered in hard, overlapping scales made of keratin, the same material found in human fingernails. When threatened, it curls into a tight ball. Pangolins eat ants and termites with long, sticky tongues. Illegal wildlife trade puts many pangolin species at risk.

Investigate the Evidence

1.Which animal is described as nocturnal?

2.Choose the best meaning of adaptation as used in these profiles.

A feature or behaviour that helps an organism survive
A place where an animal sleeps
An animal that hunts another animal
A sudden change in the weather

3.Match each animal to the adaptation described.

Axolotl
Aye-aye
Pangolin

Curls into a ball protected by scales
Can regrow some body parts
Uses a long middle finger to retrieve insect larvae

4.Complete the sentence using these words: habitat, predator, larvae. The aye-aye finds insect inside trees.

5.Complete the sentence using these words: habitat, predator, larvae. A forest is part of an animal’s .

6.Complete the sentence using these words: habitat, predator, larvae. An animal that hunts another animal is a .

7.True or false: Pangolin scales are made of bone and help the animal swim quickly.

TrueFalse

8.Compare the axolotl’s and pangolin’s defences. Explain how each one may help the animal.

9.The profiles describe threats to all three animals. Name one threat for the axolotl and one for either the aye-aye or pangolin. Use the profiles.

10.Imagine a new animal that lives in a cold Canadian forest. Describe one unusual adaptation it might have and explain how that feature could help it survive. Make your idea believable.

11.Write a two-sentence magazine caption for one animal. Include its name, habitat, and one adaptation. Use your own words rather than copying a full sentence from the profiles.