The feeding relationship between ruminants and the bacteria in their digestive tract is

Step 1: Analyze the question We need the term describing the feeding relationship between ruminants (cattle, goats, sheep) and the bacteria living in their digestive tract (rumen).

Step 2: Explain the concept

• Saprophytic: feeding on dead or decaying organic matter (e.g., mushrooms, moulds).
• Parasitic: one organism benefits and the other is harmed (e.g., tapeworm in humans).
• Symbiotic: two organisms live together and both benefit (mutualism).
• Heterotrophic: a general mode of nutrition where an organism cannot make its own food. It describes how an organism feeds, not a relationship between two organisms.

Step 3: Apply it to the question Ruminants such as cows eat grass, which is rich in cellulose. They cannot produce the enzyme cellulase to digest it. Bacteria in the rumen produce cellulase and break the cellulose down.

• The bacteria get a habitat and a steady food supply.
• The ruminant gets digested nutrients (and some vitamins, such as B vitamins, from the bacteria).

Both organisms benefit, and the host is not harmed. That rules out parasitism. The bacteria are not feeding on dead matter outside the host, so it is not saprophytic. "Heterotrophic" describes the nutrition type of both, but it does not describe the relationship.

Step 4: Answer The relationship is symbiotic (specifically mutualism), which is option C.

Step 5: Exam tip When a question says "relationship between two organisms" and both benefit, think symbiosis/mutualism. Other common JAMB examples include nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legume root nodules, and the bacteria (E. coli) in the human gut that make vitamin K. Remember that "heterotrophic" describes a feeding type, while "symbiotic" describes a relationship.