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Life Processes in Animals

Ruminants and birds

A cow keeps chewing even when it is not eating. Why?

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The idea

A cow chews food again after swallowing it.

Cows, buffaloes and goats eat grass. They are ruminants. A ruminant swallows its grass fast. Later the partly digested food comes back to the mouth. The animal chews it again. This is rumination.

A bird has no teeth. It swallows its food whole. Food goes to the stomach, then to the gizzard. The gizzard has strong walls that squeeze the food. Small stones called grit help grind the food.

A cow chews its food again. A bird uses a gizzard.

A cow chews its food again. This is rumination. A bird has no teeth. Its gizzard breaks up the food.

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This track

  1. 0 Start here
  2. 1 Digestion, absorption and egestion
  3. 2 One path, and a job at every stop
  4. 3 Saliva and starch
  5. 4 Ruminants and birds
  6. 5 Checkpoint: what a body does with food
  7. 6 Breathing is not respiration
  8. 7 Lungs, gills and moist skin
  9. 8 Getting food and oxygen around
  10. 9 What a body cannot use has to leave
  11. 10 The path of air
  12. 11 How the chest moves
  13. 12 Gases swap at the alveoli
  14. 13 Villi give food a way in
  15. 14 Checkpoint: the breathing path, the chest and villi
  16. 15 The big picture
  17. 16 Track quiz

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