Every ecosystem is made up of three broad components: producers, consumers and decomposers. Producers are organisms that create food from inorganic matter. The best examples of producers are plants, lichens and algae, which convert water, sunlight and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates.

Biotic and abiotic factors Biotic factors include animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and protists. Some examples of abiotic factors are water, soil, air, sunlight, temperature, and minerals.

As producers are the first level in a food system, they provide energy for the entire system. They do not rely on other organisms for food, but instead get energy from the sun, which they convert into useful chemical energy. This conversion supports other organisms in the system and allows them to use the sun’s energy.

Organisms interact with each other and their environment in ecosystems. The role of consumers in an ecosystem is to obtain energy by feeding on other organisms and sometimes transfer energy to other consumers. Changes that affect consumers can impact other organisms within the ecosystem.

A producer is the organism that creates the primary energy used within an ecosystem. Eventually other animals will eat them and the producers pass on their energy as chemical energy. Over time, energy leaves the ecosystem as heat and goes back into the rest of the biosphere.

Producers are extremely important living things within an ecosystem because they make food for other organisms.

Producers are the autotrophs which act as a source of food and energy for the consumers. If there where no produces, the consumers would die due to hunger and thus the other dependent trophic level will not survive and a time will come when they will be no life on earth.

Domesticated animals, such as livestock, provide us food, fiber and leather. Wild animals, including birds, fish, insects and pollinators, are important to support the web of activity in a functioning ecosystem. Healthy populations of plants and animals are critical for life.

Animals are our companions, our workers, our eyes and ears, and our food. They appear in ancient cave paintings, and on modern commercial farms. We have domesticated some of them, while others remain wild and are sometimes endangered by our activities.

It contributes to land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, acid rain, coral reef degeneration and deforestation. Nowhere is this impact more apparent than climate change – livestock farming contributes 18% of human produced greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Animals have made human life much easier by providing us with food, medicine, clothing etc. Animal hair can be used to make blankets, jackets helping us to keep ourselves warm in winters. They are also used for economic purposes. Animals like dogs help us in warding off our loneliness.

Contents

• Context.
• Practical uses. 2.1 As food. 2.2 For clothing and textiles. 2.3 For work and transport. 2.4 In science. 2.5 In medicine. 2.6 In hunting. 2.7 As pets. 2.8 For sport.
• Symbolic uses.

Animals help humans in so many ways, from professional support (as guide dogs for the blind or as therapy dogs) or offering us love and companionship in our daily lives. Animals reduce the fear of their owner in threatening situations; they guide the blind; they warn those in danger of diabetic or epileptic fits.

Uses of animals

• wool and hair for clothing, ropes and tents.
• hides and skin for leather.
• meat, milk, eggs.
• bones, hooves and horn for a variety of uses.

They use them to test weedkillers and pesticides as well as new ingredients for cleaning fluids, paints, food, drinks and even pet food. Animals are also used in medical research, in an attempt to find the causes of, and treatments for, human disease.

They can increase opportunities to exercise, get outside, and socialize. Regular walking or playing with pets can decrease blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and triglyceride levels. Pets can help manage loneliness and depression by giving us companionship. Most households in the United States have at least one pet.

World milk production is almost entirely derived from cattle, buffaloes, goats, sheep and camels. Other less common milk animals are yaks, horses, reindeers and donkeys.

9 of the best alternatives to cow’s milk

• Goat’s milk. Calories 124. Fat 7.8g.
• Coconut milk. Calories 450. Fat 35g.
• Camel milk. Calories 120. Fat 5.8g.
• Soya milk. Calories 65. Fat 4.8g.
• Almond milk. Calories 60. Fat 2.2g.
• Sheep’s milk. Calories 198. Fat 13.4g.
• Oat milk. Calories 70. Fat 1.4 g.
• Buffalo milk. Calories 220. Fat 16g.

donkey’s milk

Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) This dilute milk may have something to do with the animals’ slow reproductive cycle. Black rhinoceroses become capable of reproducing only once they reach four to five years old.

Fortunately, the scientific literature is awash in milk research.

• Hooded seal milk has 61% fat – making it one of the most energy rich milks in nature (Credit: Getty Images)
• Zebra milk has a similar consistency to that of humans’

The platypus is one of the only mammals to lay eggs (see the link to an article about monotremes, below), and it is poisonous. Monotremes (like the platypus) do not have nipples, but do have mammary glands (they “sweat” milk). Answer has 2 votes. Answer has 4 votes.

These animals have the fattiest, sweetest, and most potent milk in the world. Hooded seal milk contains more fat than gourmet ice cream, which helps pups double their body weight in less than a week.

The ocellated icefish, for instance, may brush fins with the Antarctic octopus in the same chilly habitat, but its blood is quite different. It runs completely clear. The polar dweller lacks both hemoglobin and hemocyanin, leaving its blood without any color at all.

Some people drink horse milk instead of cow’s milk for its health benefits. It’s said to be similar to human milk; it’s a translucent white color and sweeter than cow’s milk. Some have said the milk can help with skin problems. Some people in Russia and Asia have been drinking mare’s milk for more than 2,500 years.