THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF DOMESTIC FOWL (GALLUS GALLUS DOMESTICUS)
Functions of parts
Beak
- picks food
Oesophagus
- swallowing of food from the mouth to the crop
Crop
- stores and softens food
Proventriculus
- secretes digestive enzymes
Gizzard
- grinding or crushing food
Duodenum:
- digestion of fat and protein
Pancreas
- secretion of enzymes
Gall bladder
- stores and releases bile
Liver
- secretes bile
Ileum
- absorption of food
Caeca
- fermentation of food
Large intestine
- absorption of water
Cloaca
- excretion of uric acid and egestion
Adaptive features of the digestive system of fowl
- Short, strong Beak to pick food and for pecking/cracking seeds
- Muscular and inner ridged gizzard to grind grains
- Long coiled intestine for herbivorous digestion
- The crop is large and sac-like, and can also extend to store food
- The proventriculus has glands which secrete digestive enzymes
- Long and coiled small intestines for the absorption of digested food and nutrients
- Numerous Caeca provide a large surface area for the secretion of digestive enzymes
