CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS IN AN ECOSYSTEM ACCORDING TO THE FOOD THEY EAT
By: Yusuf Basirat Bolanle
Classification of animals in an ecosystem according to their mode of feeding
Generally, Animals, according to the food they eat, can be classified into the following Categories:
1. Herbivorous animals
2. Carnivorous animals and
3. Omnivorous animals
1. Herbivores Animals
These are the type of animals that rely solely on the consumption of plants. Their main source of food in plants. Plants is the only source of their feeding because they fall under the categories of animals that cannot produce or make their won food, thereby rely solely on the eating of plants like grasses and so on.These type of animals can be either vertebrate or inveterate animals. Examples are Guinea pigs, rabbits, snails and butterflies are all good examples of small herbivores
Other types of animals like horse, cow, rabbit, goat, deer, locust, camel, zebras and elephants are big herbivores. Also, animals like mammals, insects, worms, invertebrates like crickets and caterpillars and even some birds all fall under the category of herbivorous animals.
2. Carnivores:
These are the types of animals that survive on the eating of meat.They are animals that eat other animals. The word “carnivore” is from Latin words which means “meat eater”. Carnivorous animals are solely surviving on the eating of another animals. That is their main source of food. They often have sharper teeth to help tear up flesh in their ecosystem.
Some of the examples include: spiders, frogs and bats, eagles, hawks and snakes, wild dogs, wolves, lions, tigers or crocodiles.
3. Omnivores:
Ominivorous animals are the type of animals that are surviving on the eating of both the plants and animals together. These types of animals eat anything eatable among the plants and other animals. Omnivore is a Latin word that means “eat everything’. Ominivorous animals can be vertebrate like human beings, and chicken or invertebrate like cockroach and crayfish.
All animals that can eat both plants and animals is an omnivore. Human beings are omnivores, because they can eat, and digest meat, fruit, and vegetables for food.
The best examples of omnivores are human beings, crow, dog, bears,
raccoons, pigs chickens and others. All these animals can eat both the plants and other animals.
sparrow and ants.
some important terms that must be known about animal feedings:
a- Scavenger: They are the categories of animals that eat the dead animals. They feed solely on it as their main source of feeding e.g crabs, vulture and hyena
b- Decomposer:
Animals that feed on the dead of other animals or other organisms. They
usually break down the dead animals or organisms, but they do not eat
the deads like scavengers because they don't have mouth e.g fungi and
bacteria
c- Herbivores: The feed solely on plants.They are animals that eat plants only. e.g goat and rabbit
d- Carnivores: They rely solely on other animals for their feeding. they are animals that eat other animals. e.g frog
e- Omnivores: These are animals that eat both plants and animals together e.g human beings
f- Producers: They are the plants that produce their own food themselves thorough the help of photosynthesis.
g- Tertiary consumers: They are animals that can eat the secondary consumers. These category of animals can eat other carnivorous animals too
h- Predators: They are the class of animals that kill other animals for their won food. They rely on the meat of thier animals as their main source of food.e,g eagles and polar bears
i- Prey:These are the animals that the predators eat. They serve as the main source of food for their predators e.g fox and rabbit and wolf
j- Primary consumers: These are the types of animals that consumes only plants matter. they are usually herbivorous animals. e.g goat and rabbit
k-Secondary consumers: They are the category of animals that eat consume the primary consumers (herbivores)
Continue Reading from Here:
0 Comments