3 Feeding Habits of Animals

NCF Competencies Covered:

Expected Learning Outcomes C-1.3 and C-4.1

Knowledge to be gained : • Feeding habits of animals • Structure of teeth of different

animals • Special organs of animals that help them with
feeding • Food chain
Skill to be developed : • Ability to categorise different animals into different groups
based on their feeding habits.
Attitude to be inculcated : • Live and let live! Every organism is important.
Food is the basic need of all living beings. Food helps them grow. It gives them energy
to work. It keeps them fit and healthy.
Green plants can prepare their own food but animals cannot. They depend on plants
or other animals for food.

FEEDING HABITS OF ANIMALS

Different kinds of animals eat different kinds of food. Depending on the type of food
they eat, animals are divided into three main groups:
1. Herbivores: Herbivores are plant-eating animals. Some animals, like sheep,
buffaloes, goats, horses, cows, deer, rabbits, etc., are herbivores.

Cow Goat Sheep

Plant-eating animals (Herbivores)
2. Carnivores: Carnivores are flesh-eating animals. Some animals, like tigers, lions,
crocodiles, etc., eat flesh of other animals. These animals are also called hunters.
Some carnivores like hyenas and vultures do not like to hunt. They eat the leftover
food from other animals’ hunts. Such animals are called scavengers.
Science-3 26
 Tiger Lion Vulture
Flesh-eating animals (Carnivores)

3. Omnivores: Omnivores are

both plant and flesh eaters. Some
animals, like dogs, cats, bears,
jackals, etc., eat both plants and
animals. Human beings are also
Jackal Humans omnivores as they eat both plant
and meat products.
Plants and flesh eaters (Omnivores)

HOW ANIMALS EAT

1. Animals that Eat Grass and Chew the Cud
Plant-eating animals have flat grinding
teeth to chew their food. Their front teeth
are sharp, but not pointed.
C o w s a n d b u f f a l o e s h av e a v e r y
interesting way of eating. They first
swallow their food without chewing it.
When they relax, they bring the food back
into their mouth and chew it properly.
This process is called chewing the cud. Jaw structure of herbivores

2. Animals that Gnaw

Animals like squirrels, rats and
rabbits eat hard parts of a plant such
as nuts, grains and fruits. They have
very sharp front teeth for cutting
the nuts, grains and fruits. Such
Squirrel Rat Rabbit teeth are called gnawing teeth.
Animals that gnaw
27 Science-3
 3. Animals that Tear the Flesh and Chew It
The carnivores or flesh-eating animals, such as tigers, lions, cats, etc., have sharp,
long, pointed and curved front teeth for piercing and tearing flesh. They have strong,
grinding back teeth for cutting and chewing the flesh and bones.

Lion Dog Cat

4. Animals that Swallow their Food as a Whole

Some animals, like lizards, frogs and snakes, swallow their food as a whole. They do
not have chewing teeth, so they cannot chew their food at all. Lizards and frogs have
long and sticky tongues to catch insects.
Chameleons can extend
Do
You ? their tongues up to 1.5
mes their body length to
catch their prey.
Know

Frog Lizard Snake

5. Animals that Suck their Food

Insects such as butterflies and moths suck the nectar from flowers through a long,
hollow tube present in their mouth. Mosquitoes and leeches have sharp, hollow,
needle-like tubes, which they pierce into the body to suck the blood.
An earthworm has a hole-like mouth. It eats mud as it crawls through the ground.
Mud contains bits of dead animals and plants, which are the food of the earthworm.

Butterfly Mosquito Earthworm

Science-3 28
CHECK YOURSELF
Tick (3) the correct option:
1. Plant-eating animals are called:
(a) herbivores (b) carnivores (c) omnivores
2. Which among these are omnivores?
(a) Sheep and goat (b) Lion and tiger (c) Crow and bear
3. Snakes and frogs swallow their food:
(a) partly (b) whole (c) none

ORGANS OF ANIMALS THAT HELP THEM IN FEEDING

Special body parts of some animals which help them in eating their food:
Ÿ Babies of animals like
cows, cats, dogs and
goats suck milk from
the teats of their
mothers.
Cow Cat Dog

Ÿ Animals like dogs and cats lap up milk

and water with the help of their tongue.
Ÿ Lizards and frogs have long and sticky
tongues. They shoot out their tongue to
catch insects.
Long sticky Dogs take in milk with
tongue of a frog their tongue The p of an
Do
Ÿ Giraffes and camels have long necks that
enable them to reach the high branches
You ? elephant’s
tongue is so
Know sensi ve and
of the trees. flexible that
it can pick up
Ÿ An elephant uses its long trunk to pluck even a pin.
leaves and push them into its mouth. It also
uses its trunk to suck water and shoot it into
its mouth.
Ÿ Birds have no teeth but they have beaks.
Birds do not grind or chew their food. They
simply swallow it.
Ÿ A spider catches its prey by trapping them in
the web spun by it.
29 Science-3
 FOOD CHAINS NCF C-1.3, C-4.1

Grass is eaten by the grasshopper, the grasshopper is eaten by the frog and then the
frog is eaten by the snake. This is like a chain that the plants and animals form. It is
called a food chain.

Grass Grasshopper Frog Snake

A simple food chain

Similarly, an eagle eats small animals like mice, and these mice eat grains that they get
from the plants. Thus, they also form a food chain.
A food chain shows how a living thing gets its food. Every living thing has its place in
one or many food chains. All the food chains begin with green plants. Green plants
make their own food from water, minerals, air and sunlight. Animals cannot make
their own food, so they depend on plants and other animals for their food.

CHECK YOURSELF
Tick (3) the correct option:
1. Pick the animal which has a long and sticky tongue:
(a) snake (b) frog (c) mosquito
2. All the food chains begins from:
(a) green plants (b) herbivores (c) carnivores
3. Which animal uses its long neck to get food?
(a) Elephant (b) Dog (c) Giraffe

NEW WORDS
Plant-ea ng animals : Animals that eat plants, fruits and vegetables
Flesh-ea ng animals : Animals that eat flesh of other animals
Swallow : To move food from the mouth to the stomach
Gnawing : Bi ng as though we are scraping the food
Science-3 30
 SUMMARY
v Food is the basic need of all living beings.
v Herbivores are plant-eating animals.
v Carnivores are flesh-eating animals.
v Plant-eating animals have flat grinding teeth to chew their food.
v Carnivores have sharp, pointed and curved front teeth for piercing and
tearing the flesh of their prey.
v An earthworm has a hole-like mouth.
v Lizards and frogs have long, sticky tongues.
v Birds have no teeth but they have beaks.

Exercise
A. Who am I:
1. I suck the nectar of flowers through a tube present in my mouth. __________
2. I swallow my food as a whole. I have a sticky tongue. __________
3. I am a bird with sharp claws. I eat dead animals. __________
4. I have a long trunk which I use to pluck leaves and suck water. __________
B. Name two animals that:
1. eat plants _______________ _______________
2. eat flesh _______________ _______________
3. eat both plants and animals _______________ _______________
4. gnaw food _______________ _______________
5. have long, sticky tongues _______________ _______________
C. Take (3) the correct option:
1. Which of the following animals have sharp and pointed teeth?
(a) Goat (b) Lion
(c) Cow (d) Snake
2. Like us, animals also need:
(a) ice-creams (b) milk
(c) cold drink (d) food
31 Science-3
 D. Fill in the blanks:
1. _______________ is the basic need of all living beings.
2. Human being is also an _______________.
3. A cow is a _______________ eating animal.
4. A _______________ sucks the blood.
5. A frog has a sticky _______________ to catch the insects.
E. Answer the following questions in brief:
1. Why are the feeding habits of animals different?
2. How does an elephant use its trunk?
3. Why do you think all the food chains begin from green plants?
F. Define the following terms:
1. herbivores 2. carnivores 3. omnivores
G. Answer the following questions in detail:
1. Why do animals need food?
2. How are the teeth of plant-eating animals different from those of the
flesh-eating animals?
3. How does an earthworm get its food?
4. What is meant by chewing the cud?
5. What is a food chain? Explain with the help of an diagram.

Activity Time
A. Observe the eating habits of different animals you see around you. Find out the
following information and ll the table given below.

Animal Food it eats How it eats Animal group

(Herbivorous/Carnivorous/Omnivorous)

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B. Match the animals with their food:

Be a Young Information, Media & Technology Literacy

Researcher
In this chapter, we have learnt that according to their feeding habits, different types
of animals have different types of teeth. We have also learnt that we are omnivores.
Look at your teeth in a mirror. How many different shapes of teeth can you find? With
the help of your parents, surf the internet to find out how many types of teeth are
housed inside our mouths. Also, eat different types of food in front of the mirror and
identify which teeth are used to cut, bite and chew.
Prepare a report by listing all your observations in your notebook.

33 Science-3
 Collaboration
Let Us Visit
Visit a zoo along with your
classmates and note down the names
of the animals you see there. Now,
work in pair to collect as many
pictures of those animals as you can.
Classify them into herbivores,
carnivores and omnivores and paste
them on a chart paper.
Display your team’s work in the
classroom.

Subject Link : English

Hunt for ten animals in the word maze given below. Use the picture clues given
below.

H I P A R R O T A M U S

D N O I S Q U I R R E L

I O P Y U Y T G T K P I

H L G H E N E E R J I O

N C L T F Q R R W Y G N

J A B E A R E O W U E Z

K T E G L S R O H P O X

R B I N Q C E H O S N A

FOOTNOTE
® Talk to children about the eating habits of various animals, and how each of them have mouth parts suited to the kind of
food they eat.
® Explain how cows and buffaloes chew the cud.
® Talk about the food chains that exist in nature. If possible, let students give their views.
Science-3 34