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Junior School: Life Cycles of Animals

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LIFE CYCLES OF ANIMALS

The Life Cycle of Animals - Learning concepts

WHAT IS AN ANIMAL LIFE CYCLE?

dog with a litter of puppies drinking milk

All animals, including humans, are born, they get older and bigger and some will go on to have children. In the end, all animals die. We call this a life cycle.

Animals are small when they start life. Over time they grow bigger and their bodies change.

When they are grown up, they might reproduce and have young animals of their own. These children will get older and may eventually also have children too, and so the life cycle keeps going!

LIFE CYCLE OF A LADYBIRD BETTLE

Ladybird Life Cycle - Metamorphosis Of Ladybug

Lady beetles develop through 4 life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The adult female lays about 200 to 300 eggs during her growing-season lifespan of about two months. After hatching, larvae develop through four increasingly larger instars. Reproduction stops when day length shortens.

LIFE CYCLE OF GRASSHOPPERS

Grasshopper Life Cycle - Introduction, Locusts and Grasshoppers

The grasshopper life cycle only has three stages: egg, nymph, and adult. The process of going from egg to full adult grasshopper is called metamorphosis. A grasshopper's metamorphosis is incomplete, because it doesn't turn into a caterpillar.

LIFE CYCLE OF A MAGPIE

Australian Magpie Facts, Habitat, Diet, Life Cycle, Baby, Pictures

 

Australian magpies generally live to around 25 years of age, though ages of up to 30 years have been recorded. The reported age of first breeding has varied according to area, but the average is between the ages of three and five years.

SUMMARY OF LIFE CYCLES

Most animals including fish, mammals, reptiles and birds have very simple life cycles:

  • they are born (either alive from their mother or hatched from eggs)
  • they grow up

These animals have three stages -- before birth, young and adult.  The young are typically similar to the parent, just smaller.  The young slowly "grow" to become adults.

Amphibians

Amphibians, like frogs and newts, have a slightly more complicated life cycle.  They undergo a metamorphosis (a big change):

  • they are born (either alive from their mother or hatched from eggs)
  • they spend their childhood under water, breathing with gills
  • they grow into adults and move to the land, breathing with lungs

Animals that Undergo a Complete Metamorphosis:

Insects

These insects have four stages in their life cycle:

  • egg:   unborn stage.
  • larva:   young stage -- this is when most of the feeding is done.
            (they usually look like worms)
  • pupa:  inactive (no feeding) stage between larva and adult stages.
            (usually well camouflaged)
  • adult:   final, breeding stage.
             (they usually grow wings)

Animals that go through a complete metamorphosis are what my daughter Kaitlyn calls "Wow!" animals -- they go to bed looking one way and wake up a completely different creature.  Wow!

Animals that Undergo an incomplete Metamorphosis:

About 10% of insects go through an incomplete metamorphosis.  They do not have a pupal form -- these include dragonflies, grasshoppers and cockroaches.

These insects have three stages in their life cycle:

  • egg:   unborn stage.
  • nymph:   young stage -- this is when most of the feeding is done.
  • adult:   final, breeding stage - including wings.

 

LIFE CYCLE OF POSSUMS

Baby possum reunited with mum - Wildlife Rescue Queensland

Brush-tailed possums are marsupials, and their young are usually born in May and June after a gestation period of 17 days (humans have a gestation period of 9 months). The newborn possum finds its way to the mother's pouch and attaches itself to a teat.

After feeding and growing for about 5 months in the pouch, the young possum spends another 2 months clinging to its mother's back as she moves about. Usually only one young possum is born at a time, and males do not take part in looking after the young.

By the time they are 7 months old, the young possums are independent of their mothers. They are fully grown by about 10 months, and the females will usually start to breed for the first time when they reach 12 months of age

LIFE CYCLE OF A TURTLE

Turtle life cycle set

 

Turtles' life cycles progress from being an egg, hatchling or baby turtle, into being a juvenile, then to being an adult. Mothers bury their eggs in holes in the ground to protect them. Then the hatchlings learn how to survive alone, entering the juvenile phase.

LIFE CYCLE OF A MOSQUITO

Mosquito.Buzz - Mosquito Life Cycle

 

Mosquitoes go through FOUR stages of life. This process is called metamorphosis. (changes and grows at each stage). Many other insects, such as butterflies, moths, and beetles, undergo metamorphosis.

The four stages in mosquito metamorphosis are:

  1. THE EGG
  2. THE LARVA
  3. THE PUPA
  4. THE ADULT

LIFE CYCLE OF A CROW

Torresian crow.jpg

The Torresian crow (Corvus orru), also called the Australian crow or Papuan crow, it is a bird in the crow family native to the north and west of Australia and nearby islands in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The species has a black plumage, beak and mouth with white irises. The base of the feathers on the head and neck are white. The Torresian crow is slightly larger with a more robust bill than the morphologically similar little crow.

 The Australian raven is distinguished from the Australian crow species by its throat hackles, which are prominent in adult birds. Older adult individuals have white irises, younger adults have white irises with an inner blue rim, while younger birds have dark brown irises until fifteen months of age, and hazel irises with an inner blue rim around each pupil until age two years and ten months.