Frugivorous animals

Content

• Role in the food chain
• Dentition
• Examples of frugivorous animals

The frugivorous animals They are those animals that feed on fruits, partially or exclusively. They are within the group of herbivores. Some examples are the gorilla, parrot, chipmunk.

As fruit is one of the most nutritious and complete foods, many animals base their diet on fruits. It is the case oftoucan, which has a digestive system that is adapted for this.

A frugivorous animal you don't necessarily eat only fruits. For example, him tapir or the chimpanzee they act like frugivorous animals but nevertheless they do not feed only on fruits. Many also eat leaves, seeds, and insects.

Although you think otherwise, fruits are the food base for a quarter of the mammals that currently exist around the entire planet. That is 1 in 4 mammals bases their diet on fruits.

Role in the food chain

Frugivores fulfill an essential function in ecosystems, and that is that they are seed sowers. They, after eating fruits and defecating on the crops, help to plant new plants favoring the food chain.

On the other hand, it is important to mention that these animals have their digestive system prepared for this purpose. In other words, many of the seeds that they ingest do not digest them since they must defecate them to continue with the sowing chain. This process is known as endozoocoria.

Dentition

These animals do not eat meat, they must have their teeth adapted to the fruits. Thus, frugivorous animals have a tooth shape capable of piercing the skin of the fruit and breaking the seeds or pits thereof.

In general, the teeth of these animals have more developed molars, while they have more atrophied canine teeth and fangs since they do not use them too much.

Examples of frugivorous animals

They can serve you:

• Carnivorous animals
• Herbivorous animals
• Omnivorous animals