Animals have five characteristics:

• Animals cannot make their own food. Some eat plants, some eat animals, and some eat both.
• Animals digest their food.
• Many animals move from place to place to find food, mates, a better place to live or to escape enemies. If they can't move or they move slowly, they will have adaptations that let them take care of these needs.
• Animals have many cells.
• Animal cells are eukaryotic. They each have a nucleus and organelles surrounded by membranes.