What is the meaning of camouflage?

Camouflage is the disguise used by animals to hide from their enemies. Men also use camouflage, particularly in wars. Most animals use camouflage to hide from predators or other animals that prey on them. Camouflaging is done by adopting matching colour to the surroundings, so that one looks like a part of it.

What is aestivation?

 It is an opposite process of hibernation. Some animals go under the ground during the dry season of summer. In zoology it is a state of inactivity and reduced metabolic activity that occurs during the dry season in species such as lungfish and snails. 

What are parasites?

Parasites are those animals or plants which live on the living plants and in the bodies of living animals. Parasites that live inside the host such as liver flukes and tapeworms are called entroparasites; those that live on exterior, such as fleas and lice are called ectoparasites. They are harmful for the host.

 


What are saprophytes?

The living beings that feed on dead or decayed organic matter are called saprophytes. Most saprophytes are fungi and bacteria which contain no chlorophyll. Many other animals eat dead plants and animal matter. They are useful scavengers and in sewage farms and refuse dumps break down organic matter into nutrients and easily assimilable by green plants. 

What is a food web?

When food chains are interconnected in an ecosystem they are called food webs. Sometimes one type of plant or animal is eaten by more than one kind of animal. In this way, two or more than two food chains get interconnected and form a food web. The more complex food web shows a greater variety of relationships. 

How do we define the term food chain?

 In ecology, a sequence showing feeding relationship between organisms in particular ecosystem is known as food chain. Each organism depends on the next lowest member of the chain for its food. For example, grass is eaten by a deer and deer is eaten by a lion. Other examples of food chains are algae-duck-otter and flower-butterfly-lizard-snake-peacock.

What are omnivores?

 Living beings which eat both plants and animals are called omnivores. Omnivores have digestive adaptions intermediate between those of herbivores and carnivores. They can digest variety of food stuffs. Human beings are omnivorous, because they eat meat, fish, vegetables and fruits. Other omnivorous animals are rats, pigs, bear and certain birds. 

What are carnivores?

The livings being which eat other animals are called carnivores such as lion bear, cat, dog, wolf, weasel etc. Carnivores have special teeth for tearing and chewing flesh. In other words all flesh eating animals are carnivores. They also produce special enzymes for digesting meat. 

What are carnivorous plants?

Apart from animals, there are some plants that capture insects for food. They are called carnivorous plants. Since they cannot prepare their own protein, they get it by eating worms and insects. Venus fly trap, pitcher plant, sundew plant etc. are some examples of carnivorous plants. Similarly a plant called ‘Indian pipe’ is found in the hills of Shimla also eats insects.