So Cool! :)

I thought this was the coolest article from a magazine I read on a regular basis. It's amazing to think about all the wonderful creation! The design evident in nature is so incredibly awesome!


"If you have ever watched a sheep, goat, or cow give birth you have probable marveled at how quickly the newborn gets to its feet and finds it way to the udder for milk. All mammals feed their young on milk. But in the case of young ruminants, such as lambs, kids, and calves, there is another, unseen marvel.

Consider: Cows (and goats) have a four-chambered stomach for the multiple processes needed to digest grass and forage but newborns feed on only milk, which does not need all those processes for digestion. So when a newborn suckles, a special bypass tunnel opens to allow the milk to go directly to the last chamber. If milk were to find its way into the first chamber, the rumen, the calf (or goat!) would suffer because the rumen is where hard-to-digest food is broken down by bacterial fermentation. Fermenting milk produces gases that the newborns cannot eliminate. However, when young ruminants drink milk, whether from a teat or a bucket, a reflex action snaps the entryway to the rumen. Remarkably, something different happens when a newborn drinks water. It needs plenty of water in its rumen so that bacteria and microbes there can mulitply, ready for when the youngster begins to live on forage. Although milk goes directly to the stomach's final chamber, plain water enters the rumen. The small ruminants amazing bypass is for milk only!"

~ excerpt from Awake! magazine 10/08 pg. 13