Question

Ruminants such as cows and buffaloes swallow their food
hurriedly and then sit restfully and chew their food. Can you
reason why?

NCERT Class VIII
Science - Exemplar Problems

Chapter 2. Nutrition in Animals

Answer 1

Cattle are ruminant animals, this mean their stomach contains four compartments:

1.     Rumen

2.     Reticulum

3.    Omasum

4.    Abomasum

When a cow first takes food, it chews hurridly just enough to moisten the food. Once swallowed, the food goes the rumen, where it mixes with other acidic digestive liquids and is softened. The softened food is called cud, small balls of food.

Then the rumen muscles send the cud back up to the cow’s mouth, where it is re-chewed and swallowed again, and rechewed cud goes to the Omasum of stomach in order to take out all of the moisture.

Finally, the food enters the Abomasum of the stomach where it mixes with digestive juices and makes its way to the intestine to be completely digested.

Methanogenic bacteria are also present in digestive system of ruminants. They help in digestion of cellulose.

Answer 2

Cows and buffaloes swallow their food hurriedly and then sit restfully and chew their food. This is because they regurgitate the previously consumed food and masticate it a second time which is known as rumination. Rumination is a special type of a digestion process. The stomach of many hoofed mammals has four compartments, they are rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. Each part plays a role in digestion. When they swallow their food, a large part of it goes to the rumen which is the largest chamber. It is stored there and partly digested before being regurgitated and chewed a second time. Regurgitation enables the herbivores to eat quickly when they are vulnerable to predation and later digest the food when they are in safer surroundings.