Already a subscriber? Log in. So animals are herbivores if they eat plants, carnivores if they eat meat and omnivores if they eat both plants and meat. Home Modules Living things Animal kingdom What do animals eat? What do animals eat? Join Tigtag Junior today to view this video Explore thousands of award-winning elementary resources. Start free trial or subscribe Already a subscriber? Time: Share. Explore more resources. Ruminants, including sheep, goats, cattle, giraffes, llamas and yaks are an example of this.
They are mammals which have a specialised digestive system. They then regurgitate the semi-digested mass known as the cud this is then chewed again, which is known as 'ruminating', and swallowed. Herbivores and Omnivores. Animals eating lots of plant materials have evolved mechanisms for digesting large amounts of fibrous material. This includes rumen stomachs. Ruminants have a much larger stomach than non-ruminants. An example of a ruminant is a cow and of a non -ruminant is a pig.
The ruminant stomach is divided into four compartments and feed travels slowly through them so that a tough feed can be thoroughly digested. By contrast, the non-ruminant has a single mono-gastric or simple stomach. Examples of monogastric animals are dogs, pigs, humans, horses etc. Monogastric animals can include carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. In very simple terms, the digestive system is a muscular tube extending from the mouth to the anus. Its function is to digest food reducing feeds to compounds which are simple small enough to be absorbed via the lining of the intestinal tract and utilised by the animal for energy and all cellular process.
The digestive system eliminates waste products which cannot be digested. The mouth is a cavity that has several functions. Some of the functions of the mouth are to:. Tongue: The tongue helps in the grinding of food, the formation of the bolus, and in the swallowing of the bolus. The surface of the tongue contains glands and taste buds which play an important part in the selection of food. In grazing animals, the tongue is also covered with a layer of small, stalk-like structures called papillae, which help the animal to grip the blades of grass.
Teeth : An animal's teeth play an important part in the biting, tearing, and grinding of food. There are three types of teeth:. Farmers and veterinary surgeons look at an animal's teeth to estimate its age. The oesophagus is a thick, muscular tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
Once the bolus has been forced into the oesophagus it is automatically squeezed along the tube by an action known as peristalsis. The animal has no control over this process. The Simple Stomach. Food enters the stomach via the oesophagus. Once food has been processed it passes out of the stomach into the small intestine. Both the entrance to the stomach from the oesophagus , and the exit into the small intestine , are controlled by narrow rings of muscle called sphincters.
Few animals feed on insects, blood, fruits, dead and decayed organisms. Nutrition is a process of intake of nutrients like carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and water by an organism as well as the utilization of these nutrients by the organism is called nutrition. As per the above table, there are only a few animals that feed on plant products, while others feed on the flesh of other creatures, and there are even fewer that feed on both. As a result of their eating habits, the animals are divided into different categories.
Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores are the three main categories. Herbivores: The animals which depend on plants and plant products for their food or survival are called herbivores. They are also called plant-eaters. The herbivores may eat grass, leaves, grains, fruits, or the bark of trees.
Some of the examples of herbivores are goat, cow, buffalo, sheep, horse, deer, camel, ass, ox, elephant, giraffe, monkey, squirrel, rabbit, grasshopper, butterfly, parrot, hippopotamus, etc. Carnivores: The animals which depend only on another animal for their food or survival are called carnivores. They do not eat plant food at all. Carnivores eat only the meat or flesh of other animals; hence, they are called meat-eaters. Some of the examples of carnivores are lions, tigers, frogs, vultures, kingfishers, lizards, wolves, snakes, etc.
Omnivores: The animals which depend on both plants plant products and animals for their food or survival are called omnivores. Some of the examples of omnivores are the man Human beings , crow, sparrow, bear, mynah, ant, etc.
Man is called an omnivore because he eats plant food such as grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables as well as the meat of animals such as goat, chicken, and fish. Thus, omnivores are plant eaters as well as meat-eaters. Frugivores: A frugivore is an animal that mainly feeds on raw fruits or on juicy, tender, and tasty plant parts such as shoots, nuts, roots, and seeds.
Frugivores are extremely dependent on the abundance and nutritional composition of fruits. Most of the frugivore animals help in seed dispersal for the plants. For example, when a monkey consumes fruit and throws its seed, there is a chance of the seed germinating under proper environmental conditions.
This way, the plant and the animals interact and remain connected. Sanguivorous: The animals which feed on the blood of other living organisms are called sanguivorous. Example: Mosquitoes, bloodsucking spiders, vampire moths, leech, ticks, etc. Scavengers: There are certain animals that feed on the dead and decayed plants and animals.
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