Animal Mouth Germs

Procedure

1. Call the zoo and ask if they can swab 5 different animal’s mouths.

2. I will order the petri dishes plates

3. I will go to the Cape May County Zoo to pick up swabs

4. I will put each swab into its own plastic bag

5. Then, I will swab the petri dishes

6. Wait one week

7. Count all the germs and write down the data

8. With the data, I will make a graph of my findings.

Carnivores, Herbivores, and Omnivores.

As a follow up to my project from last year, where I tested whose mouth was cleaner, a dog’s or a human’s, this year, I wanted to test if a Carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore, has a cleaner mouth. My hypothesis for this experiment is that a carnivore would have a cleaner mouth because they chew on bones which would help keep their mouths clean.

The first phase of getting my data was calling the Cape May County Zoo. After talking to Dr. Ernst of the Cape May County Zoo, I explained my project and ask if they could swab five animal’s mouth.

The second phase of my science fair project was taking the swabs. I picked them up from zoo and took them to lab and put them in a petri dish. Once I picked up the swabs from the zoo and brought them to school, I took each swab and rubbed them on petri dishes, each labeled with the animals that were tested. These animals included the Bat Eared Fox, Alligator, Goat, Cow, and Red Necked Wallaby.

Later, I identified each organism to see which had grown more bacteria. After seven days, I started keeping track of each organism’s growth from each dish by counting and sketching that growth.

My results were interesting. The Bat Eared Fox, an omnivore, had a total number of 100 spots. Also the Red Necked Wallaby, an herbivore had a total of 100 spots, and the goat, another herbivore, had a total of 98. For the carnivore, an alligator, had over 100 spots.

My findings showed that each group, omnivore, herbivore, and carnivore all had over 100 spots. I would have thought a carnivore would have a cleaner mouth than a herbivore because they use their front teeth to kill prey before eating them. Their sharp incisors and pointed canine teeth are perfectly designed for both incapacitating and eating a meal. My results showed that they were all the same.

Conclusions

My conclusion was that all three groups have the same amount of germs in their mouth. Each animal has a diet that differs from one another. Yet all had the same amount of spots on the petri dish. I think if I had done three carnivores and three herbivores my findings would have been different.

Hypothesis

I believe that a carnivore will have a cleaner mouth because they chew on bones. Their sharp incisors and pointed canine teeth are perfectly designed for both incapacitating and eating a meal.

Problem

Which mouth is cleaner? An omnivore, a carnivore, or a herbivore? Each animal has a diet that differs from one another. I wanted to know which animal type had the cleaner mouth.