Mammals With Hoofs

[Music] hoofed mammals don't look very much alike they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes [Music] and they live in a great many different kinds of [Music] places some are animals we may only see in zoos or out in the wild and many are among the most common of our domesticated animals but whatever their differences they all have that one thing in common legs that end in hoofs a hoof forms at the end of a bone that supports the animal's weight in other words at the end of a toe it's made of keratin the same kind of material that forms Claws and fingernails a hippopotamus stands on four toes of each foot so each hippo foot has four hoofs but a rhino's foot doesn't a rhinoceros like some other hooped mammals stands on a different number not four a rhinoceros stands on three toes a pig tip toes on two pigs actually have four toes but the outer ones are too short to touch the ground in a deer's foot the outer toes are even smaller a deer has what's called a cloven hoof but it really isn't a single hoof that's been split in half those are two separate hoofs at the ends of two separate toes horses go them one better all the toes except for one are undeveloped which means that a horse stands on a single hoof that surrounds the end end of its enlarged middle toe scientists group all these hoofed animals into two basic types those that have an odd number of toes like horses do and those that have an even number of toes like [Music] deer the Latin word for hoof angula gives us a name for both these groups of mammals they're called ulet ulet probably got their start around 60 million years ago with creatures that looked something like the modern day mouse deer those ancient five toad mammals evolved into the odd Toad and the even toad ones of today of course there are many variations on these two themes sheep and goats that live in mountains don't usually slip off the Steep and rugged surfaces their hoofs are adapted for Mountain walking and jumping they have sharp edges the undersides are also curved they almost act like suction cups that hold the feet firmly on the hard surfaces without slipping the camel has cloven hoofs that are adapted for travel over Desert Sands because they're very broad they keep the camel from sinking into the [Music] sand the thick pads that cushion each hoof do the same job the two groups of hoofed animals have something else in common besides hoofs all of them are plant eaters herbivores although they don't all eat the same plants or the same parts of plants horses are adapted to eat grass giraffes are able to eat tree leaves deer live on leaves of shrubs twigs and tree bark certain adaptations of the young gulets help them get at Their Food Specialties some use their front teeth and lips to cut the food free from the rest of the [Music] plant giraffes can do it with lips alone so can some of the other hoofed mammals now most plant food is difficult to digest so the hoofed mammals have to prepare it for digestion they chew like do but their teeth are specially adapted for tough plant food the upper and lower teeth of the cow have flat rough surfaces that fit together with very little space between the cow moves its Jaw from side to side in a grinding motion something like a mortar in pestle these teeth are a very different adaptation from say the sharp cutting MERS of the meat eating wolf or the broad front teeth of the porcupine which are used for gnawing but even with their special adaptations all hoofed animals have to eat a lot more food than meat eaters to get enough total energy to survive plants are less nourishing than meat and ulet have to chew a lot more too they chew and swallow and bring up the swallowed food the cut and chew some more these plant eaters spend many more hours eating and chewing than meat eaters do in fact the bigger illet spend most of their waking hours eating or looking for food most ulet are grazing or browsing animals as they finish with the food they prefer in one area they move to another and the more of them there are the faster the food food supply disappears and the farther they have to range in the wild many hoofed animals are nomadic they have no fixed home but move over the land in groups in a constant search for plant food the group is usually very closely [Music] related often among the hoofed mammals the male compete for choice of the [Music] females their horns come in a remarkable variety of shapes and sizes and most but not all are formed from pretty much the same kind of material that forms the hoofs a hard Cara and sheath over a bony core the elaborate antlers of deer however are made only of bone and the short horns of giraffes are bone with a skin covering in rhinos the horn is actually like compacted hair the animals can use their horns and antlers for defense against enemies but the best defense is just being part of the herd getting separated from the herd can mean serious trouble [Music] they highly developed senses of sight smell and hearing can warn them of danger and their speed can help them Escape [Music] it so these are the mammals with hoofs they work for us they provide [Music] food they even Supply raw materials for our clothing throughout history we have domesticated hoofed mammals and have come to appreciate them not only for their usefulness but for their beauty there is probably no group of animals more important to us today day than the mammals with [Music] hoops