
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
Name: Michell
Status: student
Age: 16
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2002

Hello. I was just wondering why certain animals have crops while other don't? Birds, especially like seed-consuming birds have crops, as well as grasshoppers, worms. Is it because crops can help them store as much food as possible while exposing them to the predator for the shortest time possible? then why do snails have it too? aren't they really slow anyway?..thank you!

Some birds have well developed crops, others do not, and yes it seems to be an adaptation for storing food that is eaten very quickly and then digested over a period of time, perhaps more of an adaptation to the type of food and how it is found rather than as predator avoidance. Also the crop in birds like doves is used to produce "milk" for the young. See a very good discussion in the Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds" edited by John Terres. I do not know much about crops in other types of animals, but might guess the adaptation to be similar?

J. Elliott

Click here to return to the Zoology Archives



Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: June 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory