subject: Where Animals Live [print this page] There is no part of the earth on which there is not some animal life. Some animals live at the north and south poles, where it is always frozen; some at the equator, where it is always hot. Some live in the depths of the ocean, and some on the peaks of the highest mountains. The surroundings in which an animal lives are called its environment. When an animal has special qualities that help it to stay alive in some particular environment, and that other animals do not have, it is said to be specialized.
Fishes and other forms of animal life that live deep down in the sea have bodies that will stand the weight of thousands of feet of water pressing down on them; this depth would kill any land animal. Some of them are made so that they do not need light to find their food or protect themselves against danger; others create their own light, having the power to glow in the dark. In the same way, polar bears are specialized; their thick fur protects them against the cold of the climate in which they live. Human beings can be specialized, too.
The dark skin of the African native helps him to endure the great heat and burning sunlight of the hot country in which he lives. Some South American Indians living high in the Andes mountains, where there is very little oxygen in the air, have lungs that arc bigger than the lungs of other men, and this lets them take in more oxygen when tlicy breathe.
