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Learn more about animals!

ANIMAL FEET

All mammals have feet. Those feet are very different depending on the animal.
Animals’ feet are different depending on what they are used for and how the animal lives. Some animals, like ducks and otters, spend a lot of time swimming and so their feet have skin between their toes. Some animals live in trees, like squirrels and koalas, and so their feet have toes that can grip branches and sharp claws that help them climb. Other animals live on the ground and so have feet that allow them to move efficiently across the terrain.

This picture is of the bottom of a goat’s foot. Goats’ feet are uniquely adapted for the environment they developed in. Goats (and sheep, cows, and even bison) have what is called “cloven hooves.” Each foot has two separate toes that touch the ground and two more toes in the back that do not touch the ground. It is thought that millions of years ago they used to have all four toes touching the ground but now there are only two. A goat’s feet are called hooves. The outside of the hoof is hard in order to protect the foot. The bottom of the hoof is soft and spongy in order to give better footing on steep surfaces. A goat’s hooves are perfect for climbing on rocky terrain and for running over rough ground.

This picture is the bottom of a horse’s hoof. A horse’s foot has just one toe or hoof. But it wasn’t always that way. The foot of a goat and the foot of a horse have more in common than you might think. Long ago, the ancestors of the modern horse had four toes, just like sheep and goats do today. The evolution of the modern horse has taken place over 50 million years, from the fox-sized four-toed Hyracotherium to the single-toed horse of today. Gradually the other toes got smaller and smaller because they could run faster with just one toe. Running faster is a great advantage to a prey animal. The illustration below shows the evolution of the horse’s leg and foot from four toes to one! Remember this took millions of years.

Trimming

The hooves of goats, sheep, cows, horses, and even bison have an inner bony structure to keep them strong, ligaments and tendons and muscles to make them move, a blood supply to feed the muscles, and a tough outer coating or wall to protect them from injury. The outer coating of their hooves grows longer, just like fingernails. When an animal lives in an area that has lots of rocks, their hooves wear down naturally but when they live on soft sand or soil and grass, their hooves have to be trimmed, just like your fingernails. If the hooves are not kept trimmed, the animal can have difficulty walking and can even get sick. It does not hurt the animal to have its hooves trimmed but they don’t always enjoy it!