Rumination. Grass-eating animals chew the cud and are called Ruminants. Cows, buffaloes, camels, and deer are a few examples. Their stomach is made up of four cells. The first cell is the rumen, which is the largest part of the stomach. The animal first swallows the food and stores it in the rumen. This half-digested food is called cud. Later, the cud returns to the animal’s mouth in the form of small lumps and the animal continues to chew it slowly. This process is called rumination. Such animals are called ruminants.
During rumination, the cellulose in the food breaks down into simple compounds. It is then digested in liquid form in the other three cells. The esophagus of ruminant animals has a sac-like structure between the small intestine and the large intestine called the Caecum, where there are some bacteria that help digest grass straw.
