Revision Notes
Class -7 Science
Chapter 2 - Nutrition in Animals
Animal nutrition:
This is a term that includes the nutrient requirement of the animal, its mode of
food intake and the utilisation of the food in their bodies.
Classification of animals based on feeding habits:
It is of great importance that all organisms intake food in some way or the other
for their growth and normal functioning of their body. Based on their feeding
habits they can be classified as:
1) Herbivorous: This is the group of animals that feed only on plants or their
products as the name suggests; ‘herbi’ meaning plant and ‘vore’ meaning
eaters. Example: cow, sheep, deer, rabbit, camel, kangaroo, giraffe, etc.
2) Carnivorous: This is the group that feeds on the meat of other animals and
the name suggests the same as, ‘carni’ means meat. Example: tiger, lion,
bear, snake, eagle etc.
3) Omnivorous: This group of animals can feed on plants as well as the meat
of other animals and the name ‘omni’ means all. Example: dog, human
beings, etc.
4) Scavengers: This group of animals feed on dead and decaying meat left by
other animals. Example: vulture, crows, jackal, etc.
Mode of taking food:
Although all organisms require food, the way they take it into their body differs
from each other. All of them have special adaptations that help them for this.
They could be as follows:
1) Chewing: This mode involves the biting and grinding of the food in the
mouth by the teeth. Example - humans, dogs, etc.
2) Scraping: In this mode, the food is scraped off the surface by the jaw or
an organ. Example - snails, ants etc.
3) Siphoning: In this mode, the food is sucked into the mouth. Example -
bees, butterflies etc.
4) Capturing and swallowing: In this mode they usually capture the food
and then swallow them. Example: lizard, etc.
5) Sucking: This mode involves the piercing of the food and then sucking the
liquid out of it. Example: mosquitoes, etc.
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6) Sponging: In this mode, the saliva is secreted over the food to dissolve it
in order to draw it into the mouth. Example: houseflies etc.
Nutrition:
The process of taking in the food and converting it into necessary energy and
nutrients for the growth and development of an organism is termed as nutrition.
The process of nutrition is a complex one and includes some steps which are:
1) Ingestion: The process of intake of food into the body.
2) Digestion: The process of breaking down of the ingested complex food
molecules to simpler molecular form that can be absorbed by the body.
3) Absorption: The process by which the digested food is taken into the blood
vessels.
4) Assimilation: The process of transporting the absorbed food to the various
organs to build substances like proteins, etc.
5) Egestion: The process of eliminating the waste products from the body.
Digestion in humans:
● In humans the food is taken in through the mouth and it passes through a
continuous canal starting at the buccal cavity and ending at the anus.
● All the components of this canal together are termed as the alimentary
canal or digestive tract.
● The digestive tract along with the associated digestive glands are termed
as digestive system.
● The different components of the digestive tract and their role in the
process of digestion is as follows:
1) Buccal cavity:
● The buccal cavity is the mouth which contains the teeth, tongue and
the palate. This is the beginning of the alimentary canal and thus
digestion. The food enters the mouth and is mechanically ground by
the different sets of teeth, like the incisors, canines, premolars and
the molars.
● The salivary glands present here secrete the clear liquid, saliva, that
helps in lubricating the food.
● The saliva is mixed with the food by the tongue, that has the taste
buds for detecting the various tastes.
● This turns the chewed food into a ball called as bolus, which travels
down the alimentary canal for further digestion.
2) Oesophagus or the food pipe:
● The partly digested food moves along the oesophagus.
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● The wall of the oesophagus propels the food forward and downwards
towards the stomach.
● Any food that is not accepted by our body is pushed back through
the mouth and is known as vomiting.
3) Stomach:
● The food from the oesophagus is pushed into the stomach, which is
a J-shaped thick-walled bag, being the widest part of the alimentary
canal.
● The inner wall of the stomach secretes mucous, which protects the
stomach lining, hydrochloric acid, which destroys most of the
bacteria in the food, helping the digestive juices to act upon the food.
● The stomach also secretes digestive juices that break down the
proteins to simple substances.
4) Small intestine:
● Now the partially digested food enters the small intestine, which is
a coiled structure, about 7.5 metres in length.
● It has secretions from liver, bile, that acts on the fats and secretions
from pancreas, pancreatic juice that acts on carbohydrates,
proteins.
● At the end of the small intestine, intestinal juice completes the
process of digestion of food, and carbohydrates are broken into
glucose, fats into fatty acids and proteins into amino acids.
● This digested food is then absorbed by the intestinal walls, by the
finger-like projections called villi, present in them. This absorbed
substances are then transported to the various organs of the body
through blood vessels.
● Once they are in the cell, the glucose is converted to carbon dioxide
and water with the release of energy.
5) Large intestine:
● The undigested food is passed onto the large intestine, which is
shorter and wider in comparison to the small intestine, measuring
around 1.5 metres.
● The water and salts are absorbed here and the remaining solid waste
is passed into the rectum as faeces for egestion from the anus.
Digestion in grass-eating animals:
● Many animals that eat grass like cows, buffaloes etc eat the grass quickly
and store it in a special part of their stomach which is called as rumen.
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● The food is partially digested here and that is known as cud. After some
time this cud comes into the mouth, and this makes the animal chew it
gradually. This process is known as rumination and these animals that
exhibit this are known as ruminants.
● These grass eating animals, like cattle the bacteria present in their rumen
helps digest the cellulose of the grass.
● Some animals like horse, rabbit etc, have a large sac-structure, Caecum,
which is located between the oesophagus and small intestine for digesting
the cellulose.
Feeding and digestion in Amoeba:
● Amoeba is a single celled microscopic organism that keeps changing its
shape constantly with the help of their finger-like projections,
pseudopodia.
● It captures the food with this and engulfs it and the food gets trapped in a
food vacuole.
● Digestive juices are secreted into this that break down the food to simple
substances for absorption to help it grow and maintain itself.
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