Animals are multicellular, living organisms in the Kingdom Animalia. With the exception of some well-studied ciliates (water birds), all other animals are eukaryotic, i.e., they belong to the Kingdom Protista. With the exception of some well studied amphibians, all other animals are anoplastic, which means that they produce their entire body via a series of different cell procedures. Breathing involves taking in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide, blood is pumped to all parts of the body through blood vessels, and the digestive tract is responsible for processing food.
Many people wonder how it is possible for an animal to think. Animals do not think, because there is no such thing as a thinking animal. To understand what happens when thinking takes place in an animal, we have to first understand how all animal species think. Animals do not have minds; they are too simple in their structure to have any thought processes of their own. However, they do exhibit behavior that can be understood using the animal sciences training curriculum.
Understanding the behavior of animals is a very valuable part of the work done by animal scientists, veterinary technicians, veterinarians, and others within the animal sciences training curriculum. For example, if a research scientist wanted to study the maternal instincts of a goat, he would restrain the goat until he was calm, warmed up enough so that he could be observed, and took some special photographs of the goat with its mother and other goats during its gestational period. Then he would write a report on the observations he had made. Using this report, he would be able to compare his findings with the expectations of the goat’s behaviour. By studying the differences between the report and the actions of the animal, the researcher would be better able to understand the animal and therefore improve his or her understanding of the animal sciences training curriculum.
The same thing can be done for animal behavioural science – by studying animal behaviour, the researcher can further learn about what makes animals tick and tickle, how they behave when disturbed, what causes them stress, their eating habits, their reproductive habits, their territory and so forth. This knowledge is useful not only to the researchers but also to the people who employ animal scientists, veterinary technicians, veterinarians, and others within animal sciences. Knowing what makes an animal tick will allow businesses to take advantage of the special characteristics that make each unique animal unique. In turn, by knowing what makes an animal tick, businesses will be able to provide quality livestock marketing – helping to improve the well-being of farmers, ranchers, and pet owners everywhere.
One interesting fact that came out of animal sciences training programs was the fact that most farmers and ranchers didn’t know much about genetics and the environment that their animals lived in. By learning about the genetics of certain animal species, as well as the environment in which those species grow and thrive, farmers and ranchers could make adjustments to their operations that would increase their profitability while minimizing their ecological impact. The same thing could be said for large-scale and commercial animal products like milk, meat, eggs, and so on – by understanding the factors that affect the way that these products are produced, businesses that use these animal products can help to improve their profitability while reducing their ecological impact.
What’s more, even if you don’t have a lot of time or money to invest in learning about animal biology, you can still benefit from learning more about it through animal sciences training. For example, by going to animal sciences courses, farmers and ranchers will learn how to protect their animals better, how to protect their crops from infestations, how to create animal feeds that are safer for both humans and animals, how to identify and treat common illnesses in animals, how to identify parasites in animals, and how to build healthy partnerships with other industries and institutions. These courses will also teach you how to better manage animal resources, such as space for the animals, water availability, pest control methods, the health of your animals, waste management techniques, and so forth. You’ll also learn more about the types of diseases animals can get, what might cause them to occur, how they’re classified, and the different methods of managing animal disease. By taking these courses, farmers and ranchers will be better able to produce and market safe animal products that consumers can trust. After all, animal diseases are one of the leading causes of food-borne illness in the US, making it crucial that we understand how to prevent and treat them.