Animal Shelters
Animal Shelters
Animals also need shelter — from weather, from enemies and for their young. EVS teaches animal homes alongside human houses so that children see the same purpose met in many ways, and so that a familiar bird's nest becomes an object of careful observation.
Animal homes
| Animal | Home | Made of |
|---|---|---|
| Bird | Nest | Twigs, grass, leaves, feathers, mud |
| Bee | Hive | Wax made by the bees |
| Ant and termite | Anthill or mound | Soil grains carried up |
| Spider | Web | Silk thread from its body |
| Rat, rabbit, snake | Burrow | A hole dug in the ground |
| Lion and tiger | Den | A cave or hollow among rocks |
| Horse | Stable | Built by people |
| Cow and buffalo | Shed or byre | Built by people |
| Hen | Coop | Built by people |
Nests that appear in questions
- The weaver bird builds a hanging nest of woven grass, the best known nest in Indian textbooks.
- The tailor bird stitches leaves together with plant fibre to make a cradle.
- The cuckoo (koel) builds no nest and lays its eggs in a crow's nest, which raises the chick.
- The woodpecker makes a hole in a tree trunk.
- The dove builds a very rough nest of a few twigs.
Why the shelter takes that shape
Each home answers a need. A hanging nest with a narrow entrance below keeps snakes out. A burrow keeps a rabbit cool in summer and hidden from a hawk. A hive's six-sided cells store the most honey with the least wax. Asking children why a shelter is shaped as it is turns a memory list into a reasoning exercise, which is what the syllabus intends.
Homes made by people for animals
Stable, shed, kennel, coop, pen and apiary are built by humans. This distinction — homes animals build themselves and homes people build for them — is the point of the chapter and the basis of most questions on it.
Observation as method
The chapter is designed for observation, not memorisation. Children watch an ant line, look for a nest in the school tree without touching it, and record what they see. The teacher's rule is that no nest is disturbed and no animal is caught — the chapter carries the beginnings of environmental ethics along with the facts.
✗ The cuckoo builds a nest high in a tree. | ✓ The cuckoo builds no nest and lays its eggs in a crow's nest.
संकेत: मधुमक्खी का छत्ता, चींटी की बाँबी, मकड़ी का जाला, बाघ की माँद; बयां पक्षी बुनकर घोंसला बनाता है।
Animal homes give one question in most cycles and it is direct matching, which makes it a certain mark if the table is memorised. The two repeated traps are the cuckoo, which builds no nest, and the tailor bird, which stitches leaves rather than weaving them — the weaver bird is the one that weaves. Learn the human-built shelter names too, since a question sometimes asks which of four homes is made by people.
Frequently asked questions
Which bird does not build its own nest?
The cuckoo, or koel. It lays its eggs in the nest of a crow, which then hatches them and raises the chicks along with its own, a habit that appears regularly in primary textbooks.
What is the difference between the weaver bird and the tailor bird?
The weaver bird weaves long grass strands into a hanging nest with a narrow entrance below. The tailor bird stitches the edges of one or two large leaves together with plant fibre to form a cup.
Which animal homes are made by people?
Stables for horses, sheds or byres for cattle, kennels for dogs, coops for hens, pens for sheep and goats, and apiaries for kept bees. Nests, hives, webs, burrows and dens are made by the animals themselves.
60-second recap
- Animals need shelter from weather, enemies and for their young.
- Nest, hive, anthill, web, burrow, den are made by animals themselves.
- Stable, shed, kennel, coop and pen are built by people.
- Weaver bird weaves, tailor bird stitches leaves, cuckoo builds nothing.
- Teach by observation; never disturb a nest or catch an animal.