By interacting with the environment around them, animals tend to adapt both their physiology and their behavior to get the most out of it and adapt as efficiently as possible to that environment. In this context, the type of displacement they carry out is vital to guarantee a better adaptation and better chances of survival.
If you wonder how animals move and want to know in detail what types of movement we can distinguish within the amazing animal kingdom, continue reading this article on our site in which we answer in detail the curious question about: "How do animals move?".
Classification of animals according to their movement
The movement of animals is directly related to and conditioned by the environment in which the animals live. In this way, it is truly surprising to observe how the anatomical and movement characteristics of each and every one of the animal species on the planet have been influenced by biological evolution that allows species to adapt as best as possible to their habitats.
Thus, when classifying animals according to their type of movement, it is useful to group these types of movement according to the type of habitat in which they live, thus distinguishing between:
- Land animals
- Aquatic animals
- Aerial or flying animals
Let's see in the next sections what characteristics these groups of animals present depending on how they move and what examples of species we can find in each of them.
How do land animals move?
As we can imagine, terrestrial animals inhabit those regions of the planet's mainland, where they coexist with all kinds of terrestrial plants to which they have also adapted their movements to better move between them.
In this way, among the main types of displacement that we can distinguish between terrestrial animals we find:
- Animals that move by crawling: Lacking limbs, these animals move by crawling their entire bodies. The most characteristic group of animals for this type of movement is, without a doubt, the reptiles.
- Animals that move by walking: The vast majority of land animals move by walking, mainly on their four extremities commonly called legs. Other animals, such as primates, a group to which we humans belong, move with the lower limbs, while the upper limbs intervene only sometimes.
- Animals that climb to move: When climbing, animals have prehensile hands and feet, as well as structures to way of suckers and even long tails that they can coil to move through the branches of the trees of the habitats in which they live. Mammals such as primates and rodents, as well as reptiles and amphibians, are able to move by climbing.
- Animals that jump when moving: The curious movement by jumping can only be performed by those animals that have strong and agile lower limbs, necessary for jump momentum. In this group the amphibians stand out and, among the mammals, the kangaroos, which also have a large tail that allows them to maintain their balance during the jump. Find out how much a kangaroo can jump in this other article.
How do aquatic animals move?
The movement that allows aquatic animals to move is swimming Understand how fish move using their fins to propel themselves and their tails as rudders that control the lateral movement of the displacement, allows to also attribute this type of displacement to other groups of animals that swim. For example, mammals of the cetacean family, as well as beavers, platypuses and otters, spend most of their lives in aquatic environments, moving with the help of their tails and limb membranes to achieve more efficient swimming. But also amphibians, reptiles and even birds are capable of swimming. You just have to observe the skill with which penguins, seagulls and ducks swim when it comes to obtaining their food in aquatic environments.
How do flying animals move?
When we think of flying animals, the birds come to mind, but what other animals are capable of moving in the air? air environment? So do a wide variety of insects and even some mammals such as bats.
Depending on the animal group to which they belong, flying animals have a different anatomical structure adapted to flight. In the case of birds, they have their front limbs with feathers adapted to flight, as well as an aerodynamic and light anatomy of the rest of the body that allows them to remain suspended in the air and even hunt at high speed when descending from higher heights. In addition, their tails, also with feathers, work as a rudder to facilitate lateral movements. On the other hand, the upper limbs of flying mammals (belonging to the Chiroptera group) have membranes and bones that give them the appearance of wings, designed to fly by flapping them quickly.
