What are various moves of animals?

          One of the key features of an animal is that it moves. It moves parts of its body when it opens its mouth, bends its neck or curls its tentacles. Most creatures also move about in their surroundings. They run, walk, jump, hop, slither, swim or fly. A few animals do not move about, at least as adults. Barnacles and mussels are stuck to seashore rocks. But they were mobile during their young, or larval, stages.

 

 

MOVING IN WATER

          Many animals live in either the sea or in rivers and lakes. Water is much denser than air and so resists movement more. To travel through water quickly, creatures must be smooth and streamlined so the water slips past them easily (submarines are a similar shape for this reason). Fish such as sharks swish their tails from side to side to provide the forward propulsive force for swimming. A fish’s fins and a dolphin’s flippers provide control for steering, slowing and going up or down. Penguins flap their wings and “fly” through the water.

 

 

 

MOVING IN AIR

          Only three groups of living animals truly fly in a sustained, controlled way—birds, bats and insects. Air is so thin it produces little resistance to movement, but it provides very little buoyancy either. Fliers flap their wings down to create a lifting force as well as back to push themselves forwards.

          Birds and bats have very thin, light bones to reduce body weight and so save on the energy needed to stay airborne. Even so, they must take in almost twice the amount of energy as food, compared to their ground-dwelling counterparts. The down flapping wing muscles in the chest are by far the largest muscles in the body of a bird or bat. Insects and bats control their movement by tilting or twisting their wings. Tiny insects like gnats and midges flap their wings nearly 1000 times each second to stay aloft. Birds control their flight by fanning and twisting their feathers. Hummingbirds are the fastest-flapping birds, with up to 80 wing beats each minute.

          All animal movement is made possible by muscles. A gorilla has about 640 muscles, making up about three-fifths of its body weight. A fast fish has 30-40 large muscles along each side of its body. Forming nine tenths of its body weight, they pull on the backbone to swish the tail from side to side.

 

MOVING ON LAND

          Large land animals move in a way suited to their habitat. On open plains, cheetahs, gazelles and antelopes have long legs and run very fast. Forest animals like deer are slower in straight-line speed, but more agile as they zigzag between trees. Other animals, such as squirrels and sloths, are adapted to moving in the trees themselves. They have long, sharp claws to grip the bark. Central and South American monkeys have long tails, called prehensile tails, that curl around branches like a fifth limb. Limbs are not vital for movement. Many snakes are limbless, yet they can slither on the ground, swim in water, and climb trees— and even glide!

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