Bears hibernate in the winter. Hibernation is an example of what type of adaptation?

• A. Behavioral adaptation to environmental changes
• B. Structural adaptation to predation
• C. Genetic mutation
• D. Learned behavior

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how animals adjust their behavior to cope with changes in their environment. Hibernation is a strategy where the bear greatly lowers its activity and metabolic rate during winter to conserve energy because food is scarce. This is a behavior the animal engages in to survive tough environmental conditions, so it counts as a behavioral adaptation to environmental changes. It isn’t about a physical change to the body (that would be a structural adaptation), nor about a genetic mutation, nor about something the bear learns from others.