3rd Class Science Community Eating Notes - Animals : Their Food and Home

Animals (Their Food and Home)

1. Animals are living things. They need food to grow and to build their bodies.

2. Plants make their own food but animals cannot make their own food. Some animals like cows, horses, goats and sheep eat grass and other plants. They are called herbivores.

3. Some animals like frogs, dogs, cats, lions and tigers eat the flesh of those animals which eat plants. Such animals are called carnivores.

4. Some animals like bear and human beings eat both plants and other animals. Such animals are called omnivores.

5. Food chains are diagrams showing the eating habits of various animals. Food chains always start with plants since they are the producers of food.

In the above food chain grass produces food. It can prepare food on its own. So, it is the producer. Deer cannot make its own food. It eats grass. It is a herbivore. Lion also cannot make its own food. Lion eats the deer. It is a carnivore.

1. Some animals are useful to us. We keep such animals in our houses and farms. These animals are called domestic animals. Animals like cows, buffaloes and goats give us milk. Animals like camels, donkeys, oxen, horses and elephants carry loads and perform various works. Birds like hens and ducks give us eggs which have lots of energy.

2. Some animals such as dogs, lions, foxes and tigers have long, sharp and pointed teeth called canines in front and sharp edged teeth at the back to carve flesh from the bones and to crack bones. They act like scissors (shears).

3. Animals like frog, lizard, snake and crocodile do not bite or chew the food. They swallow their food as a whole.

4. Animals like rats, rabbits and squirrels have very sharp front teeth which help them in cutting the seeds, fruits and other materials. Such teeth are called gnawing teeth and they gnaw their food.

5. Some animals like babies of cats, dogs, cows, horses and buffaloes suck liquid food. The suck milk from their mothers.

6. Grass-eating animals like cows, buffaloes, horses and goats have strong flat front teeth to cut the grass and leaves of the plants. They also have strong and broad back teeth to grind the food.

These animals swallow the food without chewing it. After sometime they bring the food from their stomach back into the mouth and then they chew the food. This is called chewing the cud and such animals are called cud-chewing animals.

7. The leech sucks the blood of animals like cows and buffaloes. It sticks to the animals with the help of suckers and sucks the blood.

8. The butterfly has a long mouth part with which it sucks nectar from various flowers.

9. Spiders make webs and traps small insects like flies and mosquitoes and then eats them.

10. Earthworms suck the soil which has parts of dead plants and animals in it.

11. Frogs have long and sticky tongue with which it traps small insects.

12. Elephants have a long trunk to collect food and put it in their mouth. They bite and chew their food.

13. The shelters of animals have different names. Lions live in dens. Rabbits live m burrow under the ground. Horses are kept in a stable. Cows and buffaloes are kept m sheds. Dog are kept in a kennel. Pet birds like parrots and lovebirds are kept in cages. Fish are kept in an aquarium. Hens are kept in a coop.