Class VII Chapter-4

Animal Fibres
Q.1- Definitions -

(a)Rearing - Raising of domestic animals like sheep, goat, yak, cow and buffaloes for
commercial purposes such as for milk and fur is known as rearing.
(b) Shearing - Shearing is a process of removal of animal hair by using large razor or shearing
machines.
(c) Sericulture – The breeding and management of silkworms to get silk is known as Sericulture.
(d) Fibres – Fine, long, filaments or continuous threads are acquired from the animals and plants.

Q.2- Differentiate between –

a) Natural and Artificial fibres

NATURAL FIBRES ARTIFICIAL FIBRES

These fibres are found in nature. These fibres are manmade fibres or prepared
in laboratories.

They have pores so act as good absorbents. They do not have pores as they are made up
of chemicals so do not act as good
absorbents.

Comfortable in use. Not as comfortable as natural fibres.

Chances of containing dust or impurities. No chance of any dust or impurities.

Less durable than synthetic. More durable than natural.

Examples: Silk, Cotton, Wool etc. Examples: Nylon, Polyester etc.

Q.3 Very Short Answers Type –
a) Name some wool yielding animals.
Ans. Wool yielding animals are sheep, yak, llama, alpaca, angora goat, angora rabbit and camel.

b) In which part of India, yak wool is common?

Ans. Yak wool is common in the hilly regions of Ladakh.

c) Which complex compounds are animal fibres made up of?

Ans. Proteins

d) Name the goats which are found in Tibet and Ladakh.

Ans. In Tibet and Ladakh, angora goats are found.

e) How does the hair of certain animals help in keeping their bodies warm?
Ans. Hair traps a lot of air which is a poor conductor of heat resulting in keeping their body
warm.

Q.3 Short Answers Type (I) –

a) Write the different types of fibres that form the hair of sheep.
Ans. There are following two types of fibres that form the hair to sheep

• The coarse beard hair.

• Fine soft under hair close to the skin

b) Explain the process of making yarn from fiber?

Ans: The process of making yarn from fiber is called spinning. In this process, fibers from a
mass of cotton wool are drawn out and twisted. This brings the fibers together to form Yarn.

c) What are the main hazards of wool industry?

Ans: Workers in wool industry get infected by a bacterium, anthrax, which causes a fatal blood
disease called sorter's disease.

d) What factors decide the quality of wool?

Ans. The quality of wool is decided on the basis of thickness, length, shine, strength and colour
of the fibre.
Q.4 Short Answers Type (II) –

a) Which animal fibre will you prefer to wear during winters and why?
Ans. Wool fibres obtained from the fleece of sheep and goat are preferred clothing during
winters. Animals like sheep and goat have a very thick coat of hair (fleece) to trap air. Woollen
clothes keep us warm because the air trapped in the hair prevents the loss of heat from our body.

b) Write the process of obtaining silk thread from cocoon.

Ans. The cocoons are gathered and are kept under the sun, boiled water or exposed to steam.
This is done to dissolve the gummy substance and the silk fibres separate out. The process of
taking out threads from the cocoon for use as silk is called reeling or filature. The filaments from
four to eight cocoons are joined with other filaments and are twisted together to make thread that
is wound on a reel. This resulting thread is called Raw silk.

c) Name different types of silk. Which variety of silk is most common and how it is obtained?
Ans. Different types of silk are mulberry silk, tassar silk, mooga silk and kosa silk. The most
common variety of silk is mulberry silk. It is obtained from the cocoons of mulberry silkworm
and is made up of protein. It is a natural silk and is an animal fibre.

d) What is selective breeding?

Ans: Certain breeds of sheep have thick coat of hair on their body which yields good quality
wool in large quantities. As these sheep are "selectively bred" with one parent being a sheep of
good breed. The process of selecting parents for obtaining special characters in their offspring is
known as selective breeding.

e) Why a cotton garment cannot keep us as warm in winter as a woollen sweater does?
Ans: Cotton clothes are thin and do not have spaces in their fabrics through which air can be
trapped, to keep us warm thus cotton clothes do not prevents heat coming out of our body.

Q-5 Long Answers Type-

a) Give reasons:

i) Shearing does not hurt sheep.

Ans. Shearing does not hurt sheep because hair is removed from a point above the deep root of
hair. Also, hair is considered to be a dead part of the animal's body.

ii) Animal activities are against the present process of getting silk from the silkworms.
Ans. Animal activists do not support the process of obtaining silk from silkworms because it
involves the killing of silkworms. In the processing of silk, cocoons are boiled in water so that
the pupae inside the cocoons get killed.

iii) Sheep shearing is always done after the winter.

Ans. Sheep shearing is done after winters because if sheep have nothing to protect themselves,
then they have to take up a lot of energy from the environment to keep themselves warm to
survive. Because air is a poor conductor of heat, the trapped air in the thick coat of hair on
sheep's body prevents the flow of heat from their body to the surroundings in winters. This
protects sheep from cold weather by keeping them warm.

iv) Wool on burning gives smell similar to burning hair.

Ans. Wool is a protein fibre (keratin) obtained from animals' fleece (hair). Therefore, wool on
burning gives a smell similar to that of burnt hair.

b) Write various steps for processing fibres into wool.

Soln:
Step I: The fleece of the sheep along with a thin layer of skin is removed from its body. This
process is called shearing. Usually, hair are removed during the hot weather. This enables sheep
to survive without their protective coat of hair.
Step II: The sheared skin with hair is thoroughly washed in tanks to remove grease, dust and
dirt. This is called scouring.
Step III: After scouring, sorting is done. The hairy skin is sent to a factory where hair of
different textures are separated or sorted.
Step IV: The small fluffy fibres, called burrs, are picked out from the hair. The fibres are
scoured again and dried. This is the wool ready to be drawn into fibres.
Step V: The fibres can be dyed in various colours, as the natural fleece of sheep and goats is
black, brown or white.
Step VI: The fibres are straightened, combed and rolled into yarn. The longer fibres are made
into wool for sweaters and the shorter fibres are spun and woven into woollen cloth.

c) Describe the life history of silk moth with the help of figures of various stages.
Ans.