20 Examples of Herbivorous Animals - encyclopedia

Video: HERBIVOROUS ANIMALS Names and Sounds | Learn Herbivore Animals

Content

Classification of herbivores
Examples of herbivorous animals

The herbivorous animals are those whose diet is based on the consumption of grass or forage. In food chains they are also designated as primary consumers, while carnivores are called secondary or tertiary consumers, as the case may be.

The herbivorous animals They play a fundamental role in the biological cycle, since they take advantage of the enormous amount of energy and nutrients contained in the different parts of the plants.

These, as we know, obtain mineral salts from the soil and thanks to the photosynthesis process and a whole complex biochemical machinery, they synthesize compounds of high nutritional value for all living beings, such as proteins, lipids and carbohydrates.

The use of this term is generally restricted to higher grazing animals. However, many fungi also feed on plant debris, as well as various groups of bacteria and countless insects. These can do it in a saprophytic way (on plant matter already in decomposition) or as parasites, infecting living plants.

In the latter case they are considered pathogenic organisms. The great pests of agriculture are caused by insects that feed on different parts of vegetables.

See also: What are oviparous animals?

Classification of herbivores

Classically herbivores are classified as:

Folivores: Those that eat leaves.
Frugivores: Those who eat fruit.
Granivores: Those who eat cereals.

In a way herbivorous animals are "vegetarians", but not by choice but by adaptation to natural habitat. In areas of great jungles, with exuberance of tall vegetation, species of herbivorous animals of great size tend to proliferate, such as the elephant or the giraffe.

Some herbivores partly change their diet to adapt to the different seasons and to what the ecosystem can offer as food at each moment of the year.

In the case of domesticated animalsThey, like cows or sheep, can consume fresh grasses during mild weather seasons and silage forage in colder weather, for example.

Some herbivorous animals very important in human nutrition are ruminants, that is, they have a special digestive system thanks to which they make better use of plant food, with various stomachs.

Although there is a tendency to believe that carnivorous animals are more ferocious and aggressive than herbivores, of the animals considered most dangerous in Africa, some are herbivores, such as the rhinoceros.