Animals And Their Foods (Rev, 1978)

feeding time it might mean some insects that your mother brings to you it might mean fresh fish that you have to catch for yourself what you eat all depends on who you are for instance let's say you live on a farm you know what you'd eat if you were a farmer but what if you were a cow what would you eat corn and grass if you're a cow you're a Plante eating animal but suppose you were a pig well pigs aren't choosy they eat milk and meat and corn and other grains pigs are both meat and plant eaters pigs aren't usually pets but you might be a pet on a farm suppose you were the farm cat cats are had many things that people eat milk meat and fish but if you hunted for food on your own you'd hunt for mice cats are meat eaters but maybe you'd rather be this kind of cat a bobcat then you'd be a wild animal not a tame one and you could catch animals a lot bigger than mice rabbits for instance and probably no one would want you for a pet but don't think that all wild animals are meat eaters if you were a beaver having lunch what do you think you might be eating well plant roots and Stems probably and maybe some bark for dessert that would be a good meal for you because a beaver is a Plante eating animal and so is a moose but if you were a moose you'd have to eat tender leaves and grass because your teeth aren't as sharp as beaver's teeth you'd have the same problem if you were a deer except it isn't really a problem even for a baby deer there's plenty of tender grass for you to eat of course when winter comes then it's harder for you and other plant eaters to find food then maybe you'd wish you had teeth as sharp as beavers how would you like to be this baby when you grew up you'd be one of the tallest animals on Earth that's what giraffes are but to be the heaviest plant eater in the world this is what you have to be an elephant the biggest land animal there is you know how much the food you'd eat in one day would weigh more than 100 kg and just plants too but only a tiny bit of that could feed you if you were a chipmunk of course then you'd be a lot smaller than the elephant Chipmunks like to eat flowers and fruits and other parts of plants of course one tiny bite at a time if you a little bird like this Goldfinch then you'd eat parts of plants too the seeds your beak would be just right for cracking the shells a bee ever thought of being one know what you'd eat not nectar from the flowers you just use your long tongue to get the nectar out of a flower later you'd make the nectar into honey and that's what bees eat honey they make themselves but most animals don't make their own food like bees do if you were a grasshopper living out in a meadow you'd have to find plants to eat just like the cows do even though your m is Tiny you grasshoppers have strong Jaws see what I mean and you can do that without teeth but a grasshopper is an [Music] insect mammals that eat plants need teeth for chewing their food remember when you were a cow these are the kinds of teeth you had cows have front teeth that are used for cutting off parts of plants like grass a cow's back teeth teeth are flat they grind up the food plant eaters like cows have to do a lot of chewing meat eaters like these little swallows don't if you were a swallow you could swallow a whole insect in one big gulp birds don't have teeth not even birds that eat fish but some have sharp beaks if you were a waterb bird you'd probably have a long strong beak that would help you catch fish unless you were a pelican and your beak was also built with a scoop that help you scoop fish out of the water Pelicans are pretty good at fishing they have to be of course if they want to eat now here we have a different kind of meat eating but if you were a vulture like these birds then you'd only eat animals after they were dead you'd do the same if you were a coyote of course a coyote isn't a bird it's a mammal now this mammal likes its meat fresh Lions of course are meat eaters if you were a lion do you know what your favorite Meats would be and open zebra meat eating mammals usually have strong jaws and sharp teeth if you were a dog you'd notice how good your teeth and Jaws were for gnawing and chewing bones even though you didn't always eat meat your teeth would be like the teeth of most meat eating mammals you'd have long pointed front teeth that tear the meat and sharp back teeth that let you chew the meat in Bones so there are some animals that mainly eat meat and some that mainly eat plants and some that aren't too particular like ducks that eat insects and frogs and fish they're in the meat department and seeds too which are from plants and do you know what helps you ducks eat your beaks a Duck's beak is wide and sort of flat it's built to help you dive and catch food underwater now raccoons don't have beaks but if you were a raccoon you wouldn't mind you'd catch food with your paws and you'd eat almost anything that came your way frogs and turtles or fruits and insects but you'd probably wash your food first if you were near water but you know that if you're a raccoon well you haven't been a cardinal but you've been lots of other birds and you've seen the sorts of foods they eat there are meat eating birds and Plante eating birds and birds that eat both kinds of food like robins and like all animals Birds need food for the same reasons as you do you can't grow without food you can't live without food neither can birds the beaks of birds help them eat and the teeth of mammals help them eat and mammals eat all kinds of food some are just plant eaters some some are just meat eaters and some eat both all kinds of animals that eat all kinds of food plant eaters with flat grinding teas meat eaters with pointed tearing teas and animals that eat both plants and animals say what kind of teeth do they have for