All animals survive and respond to the environment in seven different ways. Animals carry out the following essential functions: feeding, respiration, circulation, excretion, response, movement, and reproduction. Feeding: Animals have evolved a variety of ways to feed. Herbivores are animals that eat plants, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits. Carnivores consume other animals. Filter feeders are aquatic animals that strain tiny floating plants and animals from the water around them. Detritivores are animals that …showed first 75 words of 475 total…

…showed last 75 words of 475 total…a skeleton. Muscles also help even sedentary animals feed and pump water and fluids through their bodies. Reproduction: Most animals reproduce sexually by producing haploid gametes. Sexual reproduction helps create and maintain genetic diversity in populations. It therefore helps improve species' abilities to evolve when the environment changes. Many animals, especially invertebrates, can also reproduce asexually. Asexual reproduction produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parent. It allows animals to increase their numbers fast.