Carnivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous animals

Content

• Carnivorous animals
• Examples of carnivores
• Herbivorous animals
• Examples of herbivores
• Omnivorous animals

One of the most common classifications made of animals is regarding their power supply, and divides them between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.

This behavior does not respond to the preferences of the animals to eat one thing before the other, but is often due to characteristics of their physical build or the environment in which they must live.

Carnivorous animals

The carnivorous animals They are those that feed on other animals, which already indicates some questions related to their characteristics and their behaviors. They are, in general, aggressive animals prepared for attack, so their body must adequately combine agility with strength.

Furthermore, since carnivores' prey must be transformed into the state in which it is edible, carnivores always have a denture with a series of fangs very developed, that allow to kill the prey.

Carnivores are often divided into two large groups:

• Predators: They are those that hunt their prey and then devour it, developing the adaptations that allow them to carry out their hunt through the senses of smell and taste;
• Scavengers: They feed on animals that are already dead. The latter have a substantial contribution to the ecosystem since they eliminate organic remains that do not serve the earth.

Examples of carnivores

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Herbivorous animals

The herbivorous animals they are those that feed exclusively on plants, and do not have the body prepared to eat meat. In this way, if the carnivores were prepared to kill their prey and then eat it, the herbivores do not need either of these two actions: at most they are prepared for the defense of the carnivores.

As for the teeth, it should not be so strong or sharp to transform an animal into food, but on the contrary You need to have incisor and molar teeth with the function of cutting, crushing and grinding the vegetable well.

Like carnivores, herbivores also have an internal classification:

• Ruminants, which have legs adapted for running since they are exposed to different predators, and are characterized by swallowing a lot of food in a short time and then grinding it to digest it.
• Simple stomach herbivores that habitually feed on loose stools;
• Compound stomach herbivores that obtain their nutrients through waste produced by microorganisms when breaking the fibers.

Examples of herbivores

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Omnivorous animals

The omnivorous animals They are those that can eat both vegetables and meat from other animals, that is, they are characterized by being nourished by all kinds of foods. These are the only ones who sometimes have the possibility to choose, although in most cases they feed on what they get when the occasion comes.

The possibility of feeding on both animals and vegetables gives omnivores a great advantage since they can survive in any medium, which does not happen in other animals that have a more specialized diet. Here are some examples of omnivores.

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