Herbivorous animals - Examples and curiosities

Do you want to know some examples of herbivorous animals? Know their classification? In this article of Animals and Pets Online we explain to you which are the herbivorous animals with examples and curiosities more frequent, their characteristics and some details about their behavior.

Remember that herbivorous animals or phytophagous animals they are those that feed primarily on plants , not only on grass, and are considered the "primary consumers." Find out all about herbivorous animals below:

How do you define a herbivorous animal?

A herbivorous animal would be one whose diet is exclusively vegetable , with plants and herbs being the main ingredients thereof.The fundamental component of vegetables is cellulose, a carbohydrate or very complex carbohydrate.This carbohydrate or carbohydrate is very difficult to digest , but nature, over millions of years of evolution, has developed different strategies for its use.

How is cellulose digested?

Herbivorous animals can take advantage of cellulose thanks to two actions or digestions: mechanical digestion , due to a special, flat-shaped denticion that allows plants to be crushed; and the other is due to the action of the microorganisms that they have in their digestive system.These microorganisms, through fermentation, are capable of transforming cellulose into simpler products, the main one being glucose.

What types of herbivorous animals exist?

There are two large groups: polygastric and monogastric .As the name implies, the first are those with several stomachs (in reality it is a single stomach with several compartments they communicate with each other).In some of the compartments there is a high concentration of microorganisms capable of fermenting cellulose.The teeth are also quite special, since they have a flat shape and in the upper jaw there are no incisors.An example of these would be those that have two fish, also known as ruminants.They also have the peculiarity of being able to regurgitate part of the gastric content to be able to chew or ruminate again.An example of these are cattle, goats and sheep .

Monogastrics are those that have only one stomach, so fermentations develop elsewhere in the digestive system.It would be the case of the horse and rabbit.In this case, there is a great development the blind person is between the end of the small intestine and the beginning of the large intestine, reaching considerable development.In monogastric herbivorous animals there is no possibility of rumination and, in the case of the equines , they only have one fish and have incisors in the upper jaw.

In the case of rabbits (lagomorphs), the products resulting from the fermentations of the blind are expelled through the feces.These "special" feces are known as cecotrophs and are ingested by the same rabbits to be able to take advantage of all the nutrients they contain.These, in turn, also have a very special dental development, with the presence of continuously growing teeth ( the lower and upper incisors).

What are the most important herbivores? How do they behave?

Although they have already been noted, the most important are the bovidos (cows), the sheep (sheep) and goats (goats).In the case of monogastrics, there are liquids, rodents and lagomorphs (rabbits).

Most of them like to live in a group or herd (they are gregarious) and are considered as prey.That is why the position of their eyes is very lateralized (so they can see who is chasing them without turning their heads) and, also, they tend to have a tendency to escape and scary.

List of herbivorous animals: monogastric

Within the monogastrics would be:

Equids

Horses
Asses
Zebras

Rodents

Hamsteres
Guinea pigs
Chinchilla
Capybaras
Beavers
Maras
Coipus
Bales
Porcupine
Squirrels

Other

Rhinos
Elephants
Tapires
Rabbits

List of herbivorous animals: polyigastric

Within the polyigastric would be:

Bovidos

Cows
Cebus
Yaks
Asian buffaloes
Nus
Brown buffaloes
Gazelles
Bisons

Sheep

Muflones
Sheep

Goats

Domestic goats
Hispanic goats
Mountain goats

Cervidos

Red deer
Gamos
Elk
Reindeer
Caribues

Camelids

Camels
Dromedaries
Llamas
Alpacas
Vicunas

If you want to read more articles similar to Herbivorous animals-Examples and curiosities , we recommend that you enter our Curiosities section of the animal world.

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