image courtesy - www2.nau.edu
Many animals feed on grass, but without microbes most of them would soon starve to death.
This is because grass contains much cellulose- an extremely tough, but nutrient-rich substance that very few animals can digest. To get around this problem, grass-eating animals Barbour microbes in their digestive systems which help them to break down food.
In hoofed mammals, microbes are stored in a large stomach called a rumen. Here, billions of microbes live in a sea of chewed-up grass mixed with warm saliva. It is a perfect habitat for these tiny organisms and they multiply rapidly, using special chemicals to crack open the cellulose in the grass.
Hoofed mammals often 'chew the cud' (they regurgitate their food, and then chew it a second time), which turns the grass into even smallerpieces for the microbes to work on. By the time the microbes have finished, nearly allthecellulose is converted into useful substances that their host can digest.
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