EVS Class-5 NCERT Solutions, Chapter-1: Super Senses

Ants use their highly sensitive antennas to identify the members of their group. The antennas of an ant possess the sense of both smell and touch. These antennas help them to smell five times better. So, this is how the ant got to know that the other ants were not from its own group by using its antennas.

The guard ant could recognize and identify this ant by its smell.

Yes, the ants move in a line. One ant follows the other and that’s how they form a line.

The ants took around 10-15 minutes to come.

One ant came first. Then it was followed by a group of ants.

The ants took the food and then carried it to their hole.

The ants went to their hole from there.

When I go outside, sometimes I see dogs sniffing here and there. Dogs use the sense of smell to sense the visits of other dogs in their area and they can smell and identify the urine or faeces of other dogs.

 The ants climb up on the pencil. However, we see that they still continue to move in a line.

Ants actually leave a special smell on the ground while they are moving from one place to another. The other ants track this smell in order to find their way. Thus, when their path was blocked, the ants maintained their path by using their sense of smell.

Yes, I have been troubled by mosquitoes quite a few times. They can find us by the smell and heat of our bodies.

This special sense of smell of dogs is crucial for human beings as it helps them in a lot of things. Some examples are—
(i) Used for catching criminals.
(ii) For finding stolen goods and missing people.
(iii) For detecting bombs, weapons, and explosives.

We can recognise certain animals by their smell without actually seeing them. Some of these are—dogs, cats, buffaloes, cows, goats.

Yes, my answers are pretty similar to my friends’ answers.

Our sense of smell helps us to identify and remember many things in our surroundings. Some common things which we identify easily with our sense of smell is—
(i) Smell of perfume
(ii) Smell of incense sticks
(iii) Smell of flowers
(iv) Smell of food being cooked

Yes, I had once visited a fair at my uncle’s village. There, I got a stinking smell from the place where all the garbage collected from the fair was dumped.

Yes, the clothes of my father and brother smell too much because they are sweaty when they come from outside.

Walking near a heap of garbage is a bad experience. I can sense the foul smell coming from there and I feel like covering my nose. It must be difficult for the children who spend their whole day collecting things from such garbage.

Sushila must have felt that Deepak’s nappy was dirty. So, she covered her nose, sensing the bad smell. The same thing didn’t happen when she cleaned her daughter’s nappy. So, she didn’t cover her nose.

Good and bad smells differ from person to person. It depends on the way a person reacts to that smell. But some foul odours are bad for most people like, odour from a heap of garbage or decaying food.

An owl has eyes in front of its head just like humans. Also, similar to human beings, owls can see an object with both eyes at the same time.

Some examples of birds that have eyes on either side of the head are—pigeons, crows, sparrows, eagles, etc.
The eyes of these birds mentioned above are quite small as compared to the size of their head.

Yes, my friend’s actions were visible to me then.

 On keeping both eyes open, I had a better and broader view as compared to keeping one eye open.

It was easier to catch the ball or coin when both my eyes were open.

If there were eyes in place of my ears, I could see on my left and right without moving my neck, which I cannot do now.

An eagle in the sky is able to see a roti on the ground from a distance of approximately 1.5 km to 2 km.

There are many animals whose ears are bigger than our ears. Some of them are—elephant, rabbit, cow, zebra, dog etc.

Cat, cow, deer, buffalo, goat, elephant, lion, zebra, giraffe, and rat.

Yes, there is a connection between the size of animals’ ears and their ability to hear. Animals with big ears can hear the faintest sound from a long distance whereas animals with small ears cannot do so.

Yes, I can hear my own voice.

When the hands were put behind the ears, the sound became sharper.

Yes, when I put my ear on the desk, I was able to hear a sharper sound.

Yes, some pet animals like cats, dogs, parrots start understanding our language after staying with us for a considerable time.

Yes, I can understand and identify the sounds of some animals. Example—Cow, horse, goat, donkey, cat, dog etc.

When the teacher is coming to the classroom, we can use some long sounds like oooooooooooooooo or howwwwwwwwwww that could be thought of as an alarm call.

During winters, a house-lizard goes for a long sleep, also called hibernation. So, the coloured part of the adjacent picture shows the clock for a house-lizard in winters.

Lizards undergo a long sleep during winters. It is called hibernation. They move to a safe and warm place to protect themselves from the cold and save energy. There are also other animals who hibernate, such as bats, ground squirrels etc. During hibernation, the breathing and the heart rate of the animals decrease than the standard rate.

Cow: Sleeps for 4 hours.
Python: Sleeps for 18 hours.
Giraffe: Sleeps for 2 hours.
Cat: Sleeps for12 hours.

Yes, there are many questions which come to my mind when I see different animals, such as—
(i) Do they talk to each other?
(ii) Do they understand what we say?
(iii) Are they able to see colours?
(iv) Can they see anything during the night?
(v) How do they sense any approaching danger?
(vi) For how many years do they survive?
(vii) How do they collect food?
(viii) How do they face bad weather?
(ix) How do they give birth to young ones?
(x) How do they find shelter?

Some of the dangers faced by tigers in the jungle are—
(i) Hunting and poaching for the skin.
(ii) Attack by lions as they are a stronger species than tigers.
(iii) Destruction of their natural habitat due to human activities.

Yes, human beings are a threat to the animals in the following ways—
(i) Hunting and poaching animals for their skin, horns, fur, meat.
(ii) Destruction of forests for the ever-increasing human population, which leads to the loss of the animals’ natural habitat.

Some examples of National Parks in India are as follows—Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha, Kaziranga National Park in Assam, Gorumara National Park in West Bengal, Gir National Park in Gujarat, Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, Mount Harriet National Park in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka, Palamu National Park in Jharkhand.

National Parks have been made all over India to provide protection to different animals and plants in their natural habitats. These national parks are necessary to preserve our environment and maintain the ecological balance. Some animals get special status in these national parks, depending on their habitats. For example, Kaziranga National Park specifically provides special protection to one-horned rhinoceros, a very rare species in the world. Similarly, Gir National Park especially focuses on the protection of Asiatic lions.

Yes, I have noticed singers putting their hand on their ear while singing. They do this to lessen the surrounding noise and listen to their own sound clearly.

Some examples of animals that have powerful sense of sight, hearing, or smell are as follows—
(i) Some kinds of dogs can detect explosives by their smell, which human beings cannot.
(ii) An eagle can locate its prey from a very far distance.
(iii) A dog is able to hear the faintest sound from a long distance.
(iv) A mosquito can locate a human being by the smell and heat of the body.
(v) Animals start to behave in a strange manner when they can sense an approaching natural calamity.