Explain the process of digestion in grass eating animals?
Answers
Answer: The animals feeding on grass are known as ruminants. These animals cannot digest the plant material directly because they do not have enzymes for the breakdown of cell wall of plant cell.
They have a four chambered stomach and the process of digestion is as follows.
The food is ingested, chewed and swallowed quickly and is then passed on to the first chamber of the stomach known as Rumen. The microorganisms present there helps in digestion.
The partially digested food is called as cud. After sometime when cud is stored in the rumen it is sent back to mouth for further chewing called as rumination.
When the food is chewed completely it directly reaches to the third chamber where the water from the food is absorbed.
Rest of the food is pushed into the fourth chamber where the rest of the digestion is completed in small intestine and the undigested food is passed on to to large intestine for egestion.
ANS.
The ruminants quickly swallow the grass and store it in a separate part of the stomach called rumen. The rumen is a large sac-like structure between the oesophagus and the small intestine. Here, the food gets partially digested and is called cud.