herbivorous animals

Animals

2022

We explain what are herbivorous animals, their characteristics, types and examples. Also, carnivorous and omnivorous animals.

Herbivores feed on leaves, stems, fruits, flowers, and roots.

What are herbivorous animals?

Herbivorous animals are those whose feeding depends almost exclusively on the plants and vegetables, that is, they do not usually feed regularly on anything else except leaves, stems, fruits, flowers or other derivatives of the vegetal kingdom.

For this reason, herbivores are primary consumers, that is, they are part of the first rung of consuming organisms in almost all Trophic chains or food. Thus, they provide sustenance to carnivores Y omnivores that they prey on them.

In addition, they are an important vector in the dispersal of vegetable seeds. Herbivores ingest them along with the fruits and then excrete them elsewhere, giving rise to the birth of a new tree or shrub far from the shade of their progenitor.

Herbivore organisms are adapted to your diet. In other words, they have structures that allow them to better crush the tough vegetable fibers, and extract the greatest amount of nutrients from them, throughout a generally slow and long digestive process.

There are herbivorous animals of all kinds and species. However, the most significant for their impact on ecosystems are insects, particularly numerous and diverse in almost all ecosystems. There are also abundant mammals ruminants, that the human being It has been known to domesticate since the dawn of civilization.

Characteristics of herbivorous animals

The teeth of herbivores are adapted to cut and grind plants.

Herbivores generally have structures adapted to their feeding pattern, be it to cut the leaves, shred the stems or pierce the wood to sip the sap.

Said structures can be forceps, beaks or simply thick molars, as in the case of ruminants, animals that spend all day chewing and re-chewing the consumed vegetable fibers, to guarantee their full use.

Similarly, large herbivores, such as ruminant mammals, possess a digestive system slow and complex, often made up of several stomachs, ideal for the total use of vegetable matter, much harder and more resistant than meat. Therefore, it is necessary to dedicate a large amount of time to food.

Something similar occurs with termites, whose digestive system allows the cellulose in wood to be broken down, or with aphids, equipped with a mouth apparatus that allows them to sip the sap directly from the stem, thus facilitating digestive work.

Types of herbivorous animals

Termites are xylophagous because they eat wood.

Herbivores are classified based on their diet, that is, what type of plant matter they consume the most. Many species They may combine categories, while others may have more exclusive diets.

  • Frugivores. Those that feed primarily on fruits, either constantly (generally in the tropics) or seasonally (in the latitudes temperate).
  • Folivores. Those that feed on the leaves and stems of plants, often with the help of bacteria symbiotic that allow them to absorb nutrients and break down the abundant cellulose.
  • Xylophages. Those that eat wood, the vast majority arthropods.
  • Granivores. Those that eat seeds or grains.
  • Rhizophagus. Those that feed on roots.

Examples of herbivorous animals

Orangutans, like 20% of mammals, eat fruits.

Examples of herbivorous animals are not difficult to come by. 20% of existing mammals are frugivores, for example, including apes such as orangutans, and a high percentage of birds as well, such as the macaw or the toucan.

Among the folivores we find the cow, the buffalo, the bison, the giraffe and a huge variety of ruminant mammals. Caterpillars and aphids are also folivorous, considered pests in many plantations.

For their part, termites are a perfect example of xylophagi, and squirrels, field rats and vizcachas are examples of rhizophagous animals. And of granivores we can take as an example an abundant selection of seed-eating birds, such as parakeet finches, parrots, geese, ducks, etc.

Carnivorous animals

Carnivorous animals are often predators like the cheetah.

Unlike herbivores, carnivorous animals have diets almost exclusively based on meat, which makes them tenacious predators me scavengers.

The organic material animal is much more nutritious and easy to digest than vegetable. For this reason, carnivores tend to feed less and digest more simply than their herbivorous counterpart.

They have organs adapted for hunting (claws, powerful jaws, poisons to immobilize prey, etc.), and dentures adapted to tear muscle fibers and other organic tissues. The best example of carnivorous animals are the big cats of the bed sheet and the jungle, as they are lions, tigers, panthers, pumas or cheetahs.

Omnivorous animals

Many bears are hunters but they also eat fruit, which is why they are omnivores.

When an animal does not have a specialized diet, but feeds opportunistically (that is, with whatever is on hand), we can call it an omnivorous animal (from the Latin omnis, "everything").

Omnivores have little specialized digestive systems, being able to feed on organic material both vegetable and animal, coming from a very varied range of possible food sources. Examples of omnivorous animals are dogs, jackals, foxes, bears, ostriches, turtles, and also humans.

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