NUTRITION IN ANIMALS

SASWAT PATRA
Class- 7-C
Roll no.-27
School no.- 12390
 INTRODUCTION :
Plants make their food by the process of photosynthesis, but animals cannot
make their food themselves. Animals get their food from plants. Some
animals eat plants directly while some animals eat plant eating animals.
Thus, animals get their food from plants either directly or indirectly.
All organisms require food for survival and growth. Requirement of nutrients,
mode of intake of food and its utilization in body are collectively known as
nutrition.
 WHAT IS NUTRITION?

 Nutrition is the process of obtaining, and utilizing food by an organism.

 All organisms have their own unique way of nutrition.
 Plants are capable of preparing their own food and storing it inside their
body as starch.
 Unlike plants, animals depend on plants directly or indirectly for nutrition.
 Due to this plants are rightly called autotrophs (‘auto’ means self and
‘trophe’ means nutrition) and animals are called heterotrophs (‘hetero’
means other and ‘trophe’ means nutrition).
 MODES OF INTAKE OF FOOD

The mode of taking in food is different in many organisms.

Some animals suck, bite, lick, swallow, pick and grind their food
according to the way their body is modified. For example- A humming
bird sucks nectar from the flowers as it has a long tubular beak.
Moreover, humans can perform all these tasks easily as their body is
modified into so. They can digest their food and derive nutrients from it.
 FOOD HABITS OF ANIMALS

 The animals who eat only plants and plant materials are called
Herbivores. Deer, cow, sheep etc. are herbivores.
 The animals who eat other animals and indirectly eat plants
are called carnivores. Lion, Tiger etc. are carnivores.
 The animals who can eat plant materials and other animals
are called omnivores. Humans are one of them.
 MODES OF NUTRITION

 SAPROTROPHIC NUTRITION

 PARASITIC NUTRITION

 HOLOZOIC NUTRITION
 Saprotrophic Nutrition- There are organisms which feed on dead and decaying
organic matter for obtaining their food. These organisms feed on rotting wood of
dead and decaying trees, rotten leaves, dead animals, rotten bread etc. Such
organisms are called saprophytes. Fungi and many bacteria are saprophytes.

 Parasitic Nutrition- The mode of nutrition, in which an organism (known as

parasite) obtains food from some other living organism (known as host), of a
different group, is known as parasitic nutrition. Parasites may live on, or in, the body
of another organism. In this mode of nutrition the parasite is benefitted while the
host get harm. For example: round worms, head louse, body louse & tapeworm are
parasites.

 Holozoic Nutrition- Holozoic is a mode of nutrition in which organisms eat solid

food. In this process, an organism ingests the complex organic food material into its
body and then digests the food which is then absorbed into the body cells. The
unabsorbed food is thrown out of the body of the organisms by the process of
egestion.
 NUITRITION IN HUMANS

Nutrition in humans consists of five steps. They are-

Ingestion: The process of taking food into the body is called ingestion.
Digestion: the process in which the food containing large, insoluble molecules is
broken down into small, water soluble molecules is called digestion.
Absorption: The process in which the digested food passes through the intestinal
wall into blood stream is called absorption.
Assimilation: The process in which the absorbed food is taken in by the body cells
and used for energy, growth and repair is called assimilation.
Egestion: The process in which the undigested food is removed from the body is
called egestion.
 THE PATH OF FOOD IN HUMANS
The food that we eat passes through a long muscular tube called the
elementary canal. The elementary canal is made up of the following body parts.
They are ;
 Buccal cavity
 Oesophagus
 Stomach
 Small intestine
 Large intestine
 Rectum
 Anus
 Along with these organs the food also has to be digested by the help of a few
glands. They are- Salivary Glands, Pancreas and liver. These organs produce
or secrete some enzymes that help to digest complex food materials.
 MOUTH & BUCCAL CAVITY

The mouth leads the food into the buccal cavity or oral cavity. The buccal cavity contains
teeth, tongue and salivary glands. The teeth cut the food into small pieces, chews and grind it.
The salivary glands secrete a watery juice called saliva. The tongue helps in mixing the saliva
with the food. Saliva is a digestive juice, which helps to digest the starch present in the food
part.
The tongue pushes the chewed food into a short muscular tube called the pharynx. From the
pharynx, the food goes into a long and narrow muscular tube called the Oesophagus.
Oesophagus carries the slightly digested food from the mouth to the stomach through
the peristalsis movement of the muscles of the Oesophagus. Digestion of food doesn’t take
place in the Oesophagus.
 STOMACH

The stomach is a thick-walled bag. Its shape is like a flattened J and it is

the widest part of the alimentary canal. It receives food from the food
pipe at one end and opens into the small intestine at the other.
The inner lining of the stomach secretes mucous, hydrochloric acid
and digestive juices. The mucous protects the lining of the stomach. The
acid kills many bacteria that enter along with the food and makes the
medium in the stomach acidic and helps the digestive juices to act. The
digestive juices break down the proteins into simpler substances.
 LIVER

The liver is a reddish brown gland situated in the upper part of

the abdomen on the right side. It is the largest gland in the body. It
secretes bile juice that is stored in a sac called the gall bladder.
The bile juice plays an important role in the digestion of fats.
 PANCREAS

The pancreas is a large cream colored

gland located just below the stomach. The
pancreatic juice acts on carbohydrates, fats
and proteins and changes them into
simpler forms.
 SMALL INTESTINE

The small intestine is highly coiled and is about 7.5 meters long. It receives secretions from the liver and the
pancreas. Besides, its wall also secretes juices. The partly digested food now reaches the lower part of the small
intestine where the intestinal juice completes the digestion of all components of the food. The carbohydrates get
broken into simple sugars such as glucose, fats into fatty acids and glycerol, and proteins into amino acids. he
digested food can now pass into the blood vessels in the wall of the intestine. This process is called absorption.
The inner walls of the small intestine have thousands of finger -like outgrowths. These are called villi (singular
villus).The villi increase the surface area for absorption of the digested food.
Each villus has a network of thin and small blood vessels close to its surface. The surface of the villi absorbs the
digested food materials. The absorbed substances are transported via the blood vessels to different organs of the
body where they are used to build complex substances such as the proteins required by the body. This is called
assimilation. In the cells, glucose breaks down with the help of oxygen into carbon dioxide and water, and energy
is released. The food that remains undigested and unabsorbed enters into the large intestine.
 LARGE INTESTINE, RECTUM AND ANUS

The large intestine is wider and shorter than small

intestine. It is about 1.5 meter in length. Its function is
to absorb water and some salts from the undigested
food material. The remaining waste passes into the
rectum and remains there as semi-solid faeces. The
faecal matter is removed through the anus from time-
to-time. This is called egestion.
 RUMINANTS

The grazing animals (especially herbivores) eat grass that rich

in cellulose and it is hard to digest. Most humans can only
partially raw grass. This is also the reason that humans don’t
eat leafy vegetables at night. These grazing animals are called
ruminants as they have their stomach divided into 4 parts-
Rumen, Abomasum, Omasum and Reticulum. Their mode of
digestion is entirely different than that humans.
 DIGESTION IN RUMINANTS
The digestion process in Ruminants begins by chewing and swallowing its food. Ruminants do not
completely chew the food they eat, but just consume or gulp as much they can and then swallow the food.
This is actually an adaptation by which these animals have evolved to spend as little time as possible
feeding so that they are not hunted down by any predators while they are eating.
As mentioned earlier, the stomach of these Ruminants is divided into 4 chambers – rumen, reticulum,
omasum, and the abomasum.
The process of digestion begins with the first two chambers of the stomach, the rumen and reticulum by
softening the ingested matter. Later the microbes present in the rumen produces the
cellulase enzymes required to digest the cellulose.
Once the plant fibers have been broken down to provide vitamins, proteins, and other organic acids, the
nutrients are absorbed into the animal’s bloodstream. Coarse plants are sent further into the next
chamber for further digestion. Here is where the further bacterial action takes place and the food is
formed into soft chunks called the cud. This cud produced is regurgitated back into the animal’s mouth
where they can be chewed again. The saliva of the cow greatly aids in digesting the cud. After chewing, the
food bypasses the two chambers of the stomach and directly enters the third chamber. The walls of the
third chamber mash and compact the food molecules further, and then pass it to the fourth chamber – the
abomasum. The final digestion in the stomach is carried by the abomasum and then passed to the
intestine.
 DIGESTION IN AMOEBA

o Amoeba is a microscopic organism which consists of only a single cell.

o Amoeba is mostly found in pond water.
o Amoeba eats tiny plants and animals as food which floats in water in which it
lives.
o The mode of nutrition in Amoeba is holozoic.
o The process of obtaining food by Amoeba is called phagocytosis.